Dr. Torin Alexander is an Associate Professor of Religion and the Interdisciplinary Studies Program Coordinator at Winston-Salem State University, where he will serve as the incoming Department Chair. His work sits at the intersection of African-American religious history, critical theory, and interdisciplinary scholarship — making him a fitting steward for a program built on the idea that the most compelling questions don’t fit neatly into a single discipline.
Dr. Alexander’s path to religious studies is itself a story of intellectual range. He holds a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley, before turning toward theology and the humanities — earning an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Rice University. Prior to joining WSSU, he was a faculty member at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.
His teaching and research are grounded in the study of African-American and African-Diasporic peoples, with extensive expertise in the history, traditions, and practices of these communities. His disciplinary perspective draws on phenomenology, contemporary critical theories of race and gender, and post-colonial and post-structuralist frameworks, while also engaging analytic and pragmatist methodologies. His publications include contributions to the Encyclopedia of Religion in America, “Beginning a Career in Academia: A Guide for Graduate Students of Color,” and “Faith in America.” He is currently at work on a manuscript titled “Of Our Spiritual Strivings: Africana Subjectivity and its Relationship to African American Religious Experience”.
For students pursuing a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Dr. Alexander models what the degree makes possible: a scholarly life built across boundaries, driven by questions that matter.