Columbia College Today published the remarks of Columbia College Dean Josef Sorett, who spoke at Class Day May 20.
Sorett is the Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor, vice president for Undergraduate Education, as well as a professor of both Religion and African American & African Diaspora Studies.
His first book, "Spirit in the Dark: A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics" (Oxford, 2016), illuminates how religion has figured in debates about Black art and culture across the 20th century. His second book, an edited volume, "The Sexual Politics of Black Churches," was published in 2022 by Columbia University Press. Dean Sorett's third book, "Black is a Church: Christianity and the Contours of African American Life" (Oxford), was published in 2023. He is currently working on a fourth, "There’s a God on the Mic: Hip Hop’s (Surprising) Religious History."
