![Meredith Coleman-Tobias](/sites/default/files/styles/690x460/public/profile-images/Meredith-Coleman-Tobias-2018-HL.png?h=9396f34a&itok=JWr18NvG)
Coleman-Tobias' research interests consider Caribbean and North American iterations of African Atlantic religious migrations. She brings to her research a background in community theater, and interrogations of performance, place-making and knowledge reproduction significantly inform her understanding of religious communities.
Her current research project focuses on Sobonfu Somé, a recently-deceased Burkinabé spiritual teacher and leader based in Sacramento, California. Investigating Somé’s ritual work and ‘mission’ in Western countries over the last two decades, she examines African and non-African descendants’ intentional practice of Dagara spirituality in North America as a lens through which to understand historical and contemporary Africana religious formations. She is writing a comprehensive, spirituo-biographic manuscript documenting Somé’s life and work.
Education
- Ph.D., Emory University
- M.Div., Yale Divinity School
- B.A., Spelman College