Education

Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies (May 2024)

Area of Study: Christian Theological Perspectives

Graduate Certificate: Gender and Sexuality Studies

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

Master of Arts in Religious Studies, 2022

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

Master of Theology, 2013

Concentration in Theology and Ethics

Emory University, Atlanta, GA

Master of Divinity, 2012

Certificate in Baptist Studies

Duke University, Durham, NC

Bachelor of Science in Speech Communication, 2008

Concentration in Broadcasting

Millersville University of Pennsylvania, Millersville, PA

Research and Teaching Interests

Christology; Soteriology (Atonement); Trinitarian Theology; Pneumatology; Creation and Theological Anthropology; Black and Womanist Theologies; Queer Theologies; Liberation, Postcolonial, and Decolonial Theologies; Theology of Karl Barth; Theological and Social Ethics; Theological Hermeneutics; Theological Method; Theories and Methods in the Study of African American Religion; Africana Studies; Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies; Thought of Martin Luther King Jr.

Academic Experience

Graduate Teaching Assistant (2019 - present)

• Business, Ethics, and Society course (Spring 2022)
• Introduction to American Studies course (Fall 2021)
• Introduction to African-American and African Studies II course (Spring 2021)
• Introduction to African-American and African Studies I course (Fall 2020)
• Spiritual, But Not Religious: Spirituality in America course (Spring 2020)
• Elements of Christian Thought course (Fall 2019)

Funded Research Contributor, Race, Religion, and Democracy Lab, University of Virginia (2019 - present)

• Assisted with conferences and contributed funded research for two special projects sponsored by the UVA Religion, Race, and Democracy Lab.

Grants, Fellowships, and Awards

• Recipient, Jefferson GSAS Fellowship, Jefferson Scholars Foundation, 2023-2025
• Recipient, Dissertation Fellowship, Louisville Institute, 2022-2023
• Member, The Raven Society, University of Virginia, 2021-
• Summer Research Grant, Religion, Race, & Democracy Lab, University of Virginia, 2020 - 2020
• Summer Research Grant, Religion, Race, & Democracy Lab, University of Virginia, 2019 - 2019
• Graduate Fellowship, Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, Duke University, 2011 - 2012
• Carlyle Marney Scholarship, Baptist House of Studies, The Divinity School, Duke University, 2011 - 2012
• Divinity Annual Award, The Divinity School, Duke University, 2009 - 2012
• African-American/Latino Alumni Scholarship, Millersville University of Pennsylvania, 2006 - 2007

Peer-Reviewed Academic Publications

• Review of Douglas F. Ottati, “A Theology for the Twenty-First Century.” Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion. Date of Review: March 8, 2023.
• Review of Amy L. Chilton and Steven R. Harmon, eds., “Sources of Light: Resources for Baptist Churches Practicing Theology.” Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion. Date of Review: April 17, 2022.
• Review of Kathleen T. Talvacchia, “Embracing Disruptive Coherence: Coming Out as Erotic Ethical Practice,” Theology & Sexuality, 25:3 (2019): 229-231. 

Special Projects

• Funded research contributor, “Repairing the Breach: Pandemic, Protests, and the Polls,” Religion, Race, & Democracy Lab, University of Virginia. Published November 10, 2020. 
• Funded research contributor, "#BlackLivesMatter: Black Women’s Perspectives on Faith, Feminism, and Freedom,” Religion, Race, & Democracy Lab, University of Virginia. Published February 20, 2020. 

Selected Panels, Guest Lectures, and Presentations

• Presenter. “Toward a Black Queer Ecclesiology: A Constructive Theological Sketch in Conversation with Karl Barth.” Paper presented at the 2023 Barth Graduate Student Colloquium. Center for Barth Studies. Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, June 15, 2023.
• Discussant. “Genealogies of Gender, Power, and Religions” Panel. “Myth, Modernity, and the Sacred: Questions of Power and Authority.” Page-Barbour Workshops. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, April 28, 2023.
• Panelist. “Wonderfully Made: LGBTQ + R(eligion).” Film Screening and Conversation with Filmmakers Yuval David and Mark McDermott. Co-Sponsored by the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center and the Virginia Center for the Study of Religion. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, February 8, 2023.
• Guest Lecturer. “On Atonement and Black Queer Theology.” Virtual lecture given for N.O.W. Black Scholars Series at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA. November 2, 2022.
• Guest Lecturer. “On Becoming a Black Queer Evangelical Theologian.” Virtual lecture given at Wake Forest University Divinity School, Winston-Salem, NC, October 11, 2022.
• Panelist. “Being and Belonging: Queer Christians in Conversation.” Co-Sponsored by Theological Horizons and UKirk UVA, A Presbyterian Student Fellowship. Charlottesville, VA, April 8, 2022.
• Graduate Student Respondent. “Ways of Hearing, Ways of Knowing: Listening for the Sounds of Religion” Virtual Workshop, Department of Theology. Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO, October 22, 2021.
• Panelist, SymPOSEium: Black Queer Theology. Upperman African American Cultural Center. University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC (anticipated: October 13, 2021).
• Guest Lecturer. “James H. Cone and the Black Theology Movement.” Given at Eugene Lang College, The New School, New York, NY, September 15, 2021.
• Moderator. “Boundless Love: Black Queerness and Spirituality.” One Book, One Philadelphia. The Free Library of Philadelphia. Presented Online by Joseph E. Coleman Regional Library, Philadelphia, PA, May 25, 2021.

Public Writing

• “A brief history of the Black church’s diversity, and its vital role in American political history.” The Conversation, February 3, 2023.
• “Christians hold many views on Jesus’ resurrection—a theologian explains the differing views among Baptists." The Conversation, April 14, 2022.
• "How Baptists hold differing views on the resurrection of Christ and why this matters.” The Conversation, April 15, 2021. 
• "How the Ebenezer Baptist Church has been a seat of Black power for generations in Atlanta.” The Conversation, January 15, 2021.
• "Whose Christian Flesh Is This?” Response to Christian Flesh by Paul J. Griffiths. Syndicate Network, July 7, 2020.
• "Jesus in the Black Christian Imagination, Pt. 2." Urban Faith Magazine, October 22, 2014. 
• "Jesus Christ in the Black Christian Imagination, Pt. 1." Urban Faith Magazine, October 20, 2014. 
• "The Faith of Our Fathers: Reclaiming the (North African) Church Fathers.” Urban Faith Magazine, February 13, 2014.

Media

• “Are Black Churches, Once a Civil Rights Vanguard, Losing Importance?” by Mike Mather. UVA Today, February 27, 2023.
• "Episode 42: Who the Son Sets Free ft. Jason Oliver Evans,” interview, Brewin’ Black, hosted by Scholar P and T-Shaw, April 2, 2021.
• Interview, Moment of Truth with David Moses, 106.5 ELMNT FM, Toronto, Ontario, March 2, 2021
• "Black, Queer, and Saved with Rev. Jason Oliver Evans,” interview, Fruits of the Spirit, hosted by Enrique Cintron, December 18, 2020.