Nixon Cleophat

Biography

Dr. Nixon S. Cleophat is an Associate Professor of Religion & Society at Bloomfield College of Montclair State University, where he also serves as Coordinator of the Africana Studies Program. His teaching, research, and institutional leadership reflect a sustained commitment to examining the intersections of religion, race, culture, gender, sexuality, ecology, and social justice within Africana and global contexts.

Dr. Cleophat was trained as a systematic and constructive theologian and social ethicist at Union Theological Seminary, an affiliate of Columbia University. He earned his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology and secondary concentrations in constructive liberation theologies and religious social ethics. His doctoral work developed a Haitian Vodounist theological framework for understanding social evil and human liberation, bringing Afro-diasporic religious epistemologies into critical conversation with major figures such as Reinhold Niebuhr and James Cone. He also holds a Master of Philosophy from Union Theological Seminary as well as a Master of Divinity from Harvard University.

Dr. Cleophat’s scholarship centers on Afro-diasporic and Indigenous religious traditions as sources of ethical knowledge, cultural memory, ecological wisdom, and political resistance. His research interests include Haitian Vodou, African and Afro-Caribbean religions, Africana religious and cultural studies, liberation theologies, womanist/feminist and queer theo-ethics, religion and sexuality, political theology, and environmental justice. His work explores how marginalized spiritual traditions offer alternative epistemologies for rethinking identity, embodiment, community, and liberation in contemporary society.

He is the co-editor of several scholarly volumes, including Critical Approaches to Religion: Race, Class, Sexuality, and Gender and two edited collections on Haitian Vodou. His scholarship examines Vodou as an inclusive epistemology, a framework for ecological and queer liberation, and a marker of Haitian socio-historical identity. His current research projects extend Vodounist, ecological, and postcolonial approaches to liberation theology and Africana thought.

At Montclair State University, Dr. Cleophat teaches a broad range of undergraduate courses, including Critical Approaches to Religion, Understanding Religion, Religion in America, African American Religion and Critical Thought, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion, Politics and Religion, and African Religions, Cultures, and Civilizations. His pedagogy emphasizes critical analysis, interdisciplinary inquiry, and the application of religious studies to contemporary social and ethical challenges.

In addition to his teaching and research, Dr. Cleophat is an active academic leader. He has chaired faculty search committees, served on university governance bodies such as the Sabbatical Leaves and Career Development committees, and contributed to strategic planning, faculty development, and curricular innovation. Beyond the institution, he serves on the steering committees for the Black Theology, Liberation Theologies, and Religion and Ecology units of the American Academy of Religion, reflecting his national engagement in shaping the field.

Dr. Cleophat’s work bridges scholarship, teaching, and public engagement. He regularly presents at national and international conferences, including the American Academy of Religion and academic forums at institutions such as the University of Oxford. Across his scholarship and service, he is committed to advancing critical, justice-oriented approaches to the study of religion and to mentoring students to think deeply about the social, cultural, and ethical significance of religious traditions in a global and diverse society.

Prof. Cleophat's Publications:

“Vodou, An Inclusive Epistemology: Toward a Queer Eco-Theology of Liberation,” in Spirit Service: Vodún and Vodou in the African Atlantic World, Indiana University Press (2022)

“Vodou as the Embryo and Marker of Haitian Socio-historical Identity,” in Shackled Sentiments: Slaves, Spirits, and Memories in the African Diaspora, Lexington Books (2019)

Critical Approaches to Religion: Race, Class, Sexuality, and Gender, Cognella Academic Publishing (2019)

Vodou in the Haitian Experience: A Black Atlantic Perspective, Lexington Books (2016)

Vodou in Haitian Memory: The Idea and Representation of Vodou in Haitian Imagination, Lexington Books (2016)     

Resume/CV

Download CV

Research

Dr. Cleophat’s scholarship is interdisciplinary and critically engaged, bringing together Religion, Africana Studies, and social ethics to examine the intersections of race, culture, gender, sexuality, ecology, and political life.

His primary areas of research interests include:

Africana and African-Derived Religious Traditions and Social Cultures

Religious Histories and Cultures of the Caribbean and Latin America

Constructive Liberation Theologies

African American Religious Thought and Critical Theory

Political Theology and the Intersections of Race, Religion, and Politics

Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in Religion

Gender, Sexuality, and Religious Ethics (including Womanist, Feminist, and Queer Approaches)

Indigenous Spirituality and Ethics

Ecology, Environment, and Justice in Religious Thought

Comparative and Interreligious Studies

Religion and Literature

Revising the First Edition of Critical Approaches to Religion: Race, Class, Sexuality, and Gender

The second revised edition of Critical Approaches to Religion expands the scope of the original work by engaging the most urgent intellectual, ethical, and socio-political questions shaping the study of religion today. Over the past five years, scholarship on religion has increasingly emphasized its intersections with ecological crisis, racial justice, political conflict, and global inequality. This new edition incorporates recent research and emerging conversations that reflect these critical developments. A central focus of the revision is the relationship between religion and ecological justice. The text explores how religious traditions, particularly Indigenous and Africana spiritual worldviews, offer ethical frameworks that challenge exploitative relationships with land, water, and the natural world. Special attention is given to theological ethics within Indigenous Africana religious traditions, highlighting their relational understandings of humanity, community, ancestry, and the environment as resources for rethinking sustainability and environmental responsibility. This new edition also deepens its analysis of the intersections of race, politics, and religion. It examines how religious ideas and institutions shape and are shaped by structures of power, nationalism, racial hierarchy, and social inequality. By foregrounding these dynamics, the book emphasizes that religion cannot be studied as an abstract or purely theological phenomenon or personal spiritual endeavor. Rather, religion must be understood as a lived, social force embedded within historical and contemporary struggles over identity, justice, and belonging. Another major goal of the revised edition is to strengthen the connection between the academic study of religion and contemporary socio-political realities. The text will, hopefully, encourage students to analyze religion in relation to the pressing issues of our time, including climate change, racial violence, political polarization, migration, and economic disparity. I will aim to argue that failing to connect religion to these socio-human realities risks producing scholarship that is detached from the very contexts in which religion operates and matters most. This new edition advances a critical framework that positions the study of religion as a tool for understanding power, ethics, and social transformation. By integrating ecological concerns, Africana and Indigenous perspectives, and sustained attention to race and politics, this new edition of Critical Approaches to Religion will invite readers to engage religion not only as a subject of study, but as a field deeply intertwined with the challenges and possibilities of contemporary society.