Ennis B. Edmonds came to Kenyon College in the fall of 2003. Formerly, he taught in Sociology and Pan African Studies and directed the Pan African Studies Program at Barnard College, Columbia University. His areas of expertise are African Diaspora Religions, Religion in America, and Sociology of Religion. His research and publication have focused primarily on Rastafari, but also on other religious traditions in the Caribbean. Current research interests include the conversion of Rastas to Evangelical Christianity, the Jamaican religious group called Revival Zion, and religion in Afro-Caribbean and African American popular culture and literature.

Areas of Expertise

African diaspora religions, religion in America, sociology of religion, and Caribbean society and culture.

Education

B.A., Jamaica Theological Seminary
M.A., Western Evangelical [now George Fox Theological] Seminary
Ph.D., Drew University

Selected Publications

Rastafari: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, Forthcoming.

Caribbean Religious History: An Introduction (Michelle Gonzalez). New York University Press, 2010.

Rastafari: From Outcasts to Culture Bearers, Oxford University Press, 2003.

"Rastafari." In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Macmillan, 2007

"Rastafari: A Marginalized People." In African Folklore: An Encyclopedia, edited by Philip M. Peek and Kwesi Yankah. New York: Routledge, 2004.

"Dread 'I' In-a-Babylon: Ideological Resistance and Cultural Revitalization," and "The Structure and Ethos of Rastafari," Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader, edited by Nathaniel S. Murrell, et al., Temple University Press, 1998.