D. Jamil Grimes

Departments / Programs

Areas of Expertise

Black Church Studies and new black religious movements, particularly Hebraic and/or Judaic movements such as the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem

History of Christianities

Biblical languages (Hebrew and Greek)

Methods of biblical criticism and interpretation

Ancient Israelite religion

Biography

D. Jamil Grimes is a PhD student and Russell G. Hamilton Scholar at Vanderbilt University, where he primarily works as a religious historian of early America via an Atlantic-World approach. He minors in literary studies and is enrolled in the Jewish Studies Graduate Certificate program. Jamil holds a Master of Divinity from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where he earned both the Burton Z. Cooper Prize and Fielding Lewis Walker Fellowship for his work in theology, as well ...

D. Jamil Grimes is a PhD student and Russell G. Hamilton Scholar at Vanderbilt University, where he primarily works as a religious historian of early America via an Atlantic-World approach. He minors in literary studies and is enrolled in the Jewish Studies Graduate Certificate program. Jamil holds a Master of Divinity from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where he earned both the Burton Z. Cooper Prize and Fielding Lewis Walker Fellowship for his work in theology, as well as a Master of Arts in Liberal Arts from Middle Tennessee State University. At the latter, he served as an adjunct professor, teaching a variety of religious studies courses.

While Jamil has diverse research interests, much of his current work grapples with the reception of post-revolutionary Haiti within the Atlantic World. He is especially interested in where that reception involves judgments about Haiti’s religious identity. As a historian, Jamil explores this topic using traditional archival materials, but his passion for literature leads him to also engage with the novel as a distinct literary genre that provides valuable evidence regarding past attitudes, aspirations, and anxieties. He has presented his research at several conferences, including the North American Association for the Study of Religion and the Association for Jewish Studies.

Jamil is a native Charleston (SC) but a longtime resident of Nashville, a home he shares with his wide and supportive family.

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Publications

"The Vocation of a Scientist of Religion." In On the Subject of Religion: Charting the Fault Lines of a Field of Study, edited by James Dennis LoRusso, 94–106. Equinox Publishing, 2022, https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=41077.

Presentations

Why Jewish American Literature Matters, 2024.

"'The greatest one of magic … the fountain of mystic powers': Afro-Caribbean Engagement with Kabbalistic traditions in Early to Mid-20th c. Haiti." Association for Jewish Studies, December 2023.

"What's 'in a Beginning'?: Genesis 1 as an Ancient Near East Myth." Religious Studies Association, Middle Tennessee State University, September 2021.

"Unmasking the 'Witch of Endor': Divination and Necromancy in the Hebrew Bible." Religious Studies Association, Middle Tennessee State University, October 2021.

Awards

2022 — Russell G. Hamilton Scholarship — Vanderbilt University

2018 — Fielding Lewis Walker Fellowship — Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

2017 — Burton Z. Cooper Prize in Theology — Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Research / Scholarly Activity

Research topics include but are not limited to the following:

emergence of alternate, especially non-Christian, religious movements among African Americans during the early 20th century
historiographic use of the Bible in public secondary education, particularly where that use involves construcing a history of ancient Israel
theory and method of religious studies and its presentation as a scientific discipline
race and religion as co-constituting categories, with a special focus on how religion has functioned to both impose and resist racial meanings

Courses

RS 2030 — Religion and Society

RS 3500 — Race and Religion

Adjunct