Katharine Gerbner

Thanks Pippa!

I'm thrilled that my book is coming out this month, and even more thrilled to be on this fall lineup from @dukepress.bsky.social - so many amazing authors and titles! Check out the whole fall lineup here: dukeupress.wordpress.com/2025/10/01/n...

@dukepress.bsky.social is running a new book promotion, and Archival Irruptions is 30% off!

thank you!!

Thanks so much! I'm a fan of your work :)

Thank you!! Me toooo

Katharine Gerbner, Historian of Religion Katharine Gerbner is a historian who examines how religion shapes – and is shaped by – race, politics, and technology.

With a new book coming out, I finally got around to updating my website. I'm thrilled with the new design - plus, my bio now includes the accurate number of children! (Last edit to my previous website was 7 years ago...)

Check it out! www.katharinegerbner.com

Yours arrived before mine!!

Photo of the book Archival Irruptions by Katharine Gerbner

Nothing quite like opening an unexpected package and finding your own book inside!

The official pub date isn't until mid-Oct, but Archival Irruptions @dukepress.bsky.social is now real and in 3D!

Cover of Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica by Katharine Gerbner. Features an image of an old handwritten ledger or registry page with rows and columns filled with cursive names and annotations and what appears to be an ink smudge at the bottom. The title is overlaid in large black serif font with the subtitle below in smaller black text and the author's name is at the bottom. A vertical red stripe runs along the left edge of the cover.

In "Archival Irruptions," @ktgerbs.bsky.social traces how British colonial authorities in Jamaica criminalized Obeah, a religious practice held by enslaved Africans. Read the introduction for free now. buff.ly/3JlgBEt

Job posting for Buddhist Studies position at the University of Minnesota

Come be my colleague at the University of Minnesota -- we are hiring! @umn-rels.bsky.social

The Religious Studies program at UMN is searching for a new TT position in Buddhist Studies. Please circulate widely!

Thanks Jenny!!!

Thanks so much!

Thanks Sarah!!

Duke UP just posted the Intro here for those who want a sneak peak: bit.ly/4mryPMy

Book cover of Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica

I'm excited to share that my new book ARCHIVAL IRRUPTIONS: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica is coming out with
@dukepress.bsky.social in October!

Cover of Katharine Gerbner’s Christian Slavery

@ktgerbs.bsky.social provides an essential link in understanding the creation of racialized slavery. She demonstrates how Christians—intentionally & not—tied bondage to status as a Christian and, ultimately, how this tied assumptions about the heathen to enslaved Black people.

2/

My thoughts on @tomtweed.bsky.social's fascinating new book that retells American religious history through the lens of ecologies and technologies.

Now with explosion of AI:
LLMs draw upon existing cultural texts. They do not generate original ideas, but rather recycle old ones. How do inherent biases of these systems interact with the dynamics above?
What might that mean for individuals and society?

From the fednews community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the fednews community

This comments section is the first time I've felt even a shred of hope in eight days.

We are excited to announce our 2025 Roetzel Family Lecture! See the following poster for more details

Though I hear people say they may be over them, might be a good day to share 2 Starter Packs for #VastEarlyAmerica #VastEarlyAmericas! 1/ go.bsky.app/RDvzxbj

The image is the cover of the book, Slavery and Freedom in Black Thought in the Early Spanish Atlantic by Cambridge University Press.

✍️Slavery and Freedom in Black Thought in the Early Spanish Atlantic
💭 An intellectual history exploring how free & enslaved Black people in the early Atlantic conceptualized & contested ideas about slavery & freedom
🕰️Out on Dec 5th '24
🤫 already available online: www.cambridge.org/core/books/s...

I just made an end-of-year donation to Free Press, a leading media reform organization at the forefront of critically important policy battles, from revitalizing public service journalism to defending a democratic internet. Their invaluable advocacy will be even more essential in the years ahead.

Thanks! I am actually focusing primarily on the pre-1760 period -- it's a microhistory of the years 1755-1761, looking at the changing meaning of Obeah during that time period - using Moravian+legal archives. It ends with the criminalization process. And agreed re: parallels with the Iberian world

Ooh that sounds great, thanks for the rec!

There will be more on the religion-rebellion connection in my next book, “Archival Irruptions,” which focuses on the Construction of Religion and the Criminalization of Obeah in Jamaica after Tacky's Rebellion (1760). Out in Sept 2025 with Duke UP @dukepress.bsky.social

It is so consistent once you start looking for it. This article was my chance to focus on the connection I saw between the construction of Religion & Rebellion. I was thrilled it became part of this amazing volume - thanks again to @tisawenger.bsky.social and Sylvester Johnson for including me!

Thanks for highlighting this! The backstory: during my research for Christian Slavery (2018), I noticed that every time there was an enslaved uprising in early America or the Caribbean, there was an immediate backlash against Black religious gatherings-whether Christian, Muslim, or African religions

just sent!