Office of Black Church Studies receives $5 million award for new senior faculty position

Duke’s Office of Black Church Studies was recently awarded $5 million by the Duke Endowment to recruit and support a senior faculty member in the Divinity School.

The gift will establish the Bishop Joseph B. Bethea Professorship and support the faculty member in “foster[ing] research and field-defining work in an academic, theological context,” according to an Oct. 3 Giving to Duke announcement.

Quinton Dixie, associate research professor of the history of Christianity in the United States and Black church studies, described the award as a “wonderful opportunity” for students, the OBCS and the greater Duke Divinity School. 

“Whenever Duke has an opportunity to attract someone at a senior level who has established themselves, I think it has a tremendous impact on the student population because now it's another person of a high caliber to whom the students are exposed,” he said. “Having someone of note also helps attract top graduate students who come to work with these individuals.”

Duke’s Divinity School is the first theological school at a major research university to require its master of divinity students to take courses in Black Church Studies.

“Black theology is something that should be studied and should be celebrated,” said Justice Hill, a third-year master in divinity student. “… And this grant, I think, is just kind of a growing seed from that momentum that we had coming out of the 50th-year celebration of the Office of Black Church Studies” during the 2022-23 academic year.

Hill also noted that the divinity program offers a unique balance for students, noting that regardless of what students hope to pursue, they “essentially get the best of both worlds” since “[students] are molded as a pastor and a preacher, but … also formed as a scholar and theologian.”

Madison Daniel II, a fourth-year student in the dual master of divinity and master of public policy program, further noted that he is glad to hear that “Duke Endowment sees the need to reimagine and invest in a revamping and recommitment to the Black Church.”