The Violence of Disavowal: James Baldwin and the Persistence of US Imperial Piety

Dr. Joseph Winters is a Professor of Religion and Africana Studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. His interests lie at the intersection of Black religious thought, Black studies, and critical theory. Professor Winters’ research examines the ways Black literature and aesthetics develop alternative configurations of the sacred, profanation, and secularity in response to the religious underpinnings of anti-black violence and coloniality.

His first book, Hope Draped in Black: Race, Melancholy, and the Agony of Progress was published by Duke University Press in 2016. His second book, The Disturbing Profanity: Hip Hop, Blackness, and the Sacred was published in August 2025 also by Duke University Press. His presentation at Middlebury will draw from his second book.