Originally broadcast at 1 p.m. ET Tuesday, July 6, 2021.

Margarita Simon Guillory is well engaged in envisioning the future of religion in America. Associate Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Boston University, where she teaches American religious history, digital religion, and Africana religions. Having earned a BA in Chemistry from Emory University (1995), her life’s passion took her into the world of religion, leading to a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Rice University (2011). Her research interests include identity construction in Africana esoteric religions, religion and technology, and social scientific approaches to religion. She is the author of Social and Spiritual Transformation in African American Spiritual Churches (Routledge 2017). Drawing on archival material and ethnographic fieldwork with African American Spiritual Churches in New Orleans, this book examines their spiritual and social justice work to shed light on the interplay between social activism and individual spiritual needs. Additionally, she is the co-editor of Esotericism in African American Religious Experience (Brill 2014). In addition to these works, she has published articles in the Journal of Gnostic Studies, Culture and Religion, and Pastoral Psychology. Her current book project, Africana Religion in the Digital Age, considers how African Americans utilize the Internet, social media, mobile applications, and gaming to forge new ways to express their religious identities.

This program is made possible by The Robert S. and Sara M. Lucas Religious Lectureship and the Gertrude Elser Schroeder Fund.

About Chautauqua Institution: Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue. CHQ Assembly is the online expression of Chautauqua Institution's mission.