Tamura Lomax
lomaxtam@msu.edu
517-353-2721
FacultyReligious Studies
Associate Professor
Histories and Critical Theories in the Study of Black Religion; Black Religious History and Black Diaspora Studies; Black Religion and Social Movements; Black Religion, Gender, and Sexualities; Black Religion and Black Cultural Studies
Biography
Tamura Lomax is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. She received her Ph.D. in 2011 from Vanderbilt University in Religion, where she specialized in Black Religious History and Black Diaspora Studies. She also developed expertise in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Black British and U.S. Black Cultural Studies. In 2018, Dr. Lomax published Jezebel Unhinged: Loosing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture with Duke University Press. In addition, she organized and guest edited “Black Bodies in Ecstasy: Black Women, the Black Church, and the Politics of Pleasure,” a special issue published with Black Theology: An International Journal. In 2014, she published Womanist and Black Feminist Responses to Tyler Perry’s Cultural Productions with Palgrave Macmillan, a co-authored edited volume with Rhon S. Manigault-Bryant and Carol B. Duncan. And she is currently at work on a new book, Parenting Against the Patriarchy: Raising Non-Toxic Sons in White Supremacist America with Duke University Press. However, Dr. Lomax isn’t solely a writer and researcher. She’s a scholar-activist. In 2017, she co-organized “Our History, Our Future: A Multigenerational Human Rights Conference” at Boston University, which brought together 1960s Civil Rights and Black Panther Party activists with Black Lives Matter activists. And in 2011, Dr. Lomax co-founded The Feminist Wire (TFW), an online publication committed to feminist, anti-racist, and anti-imperialist socio-political critique. Her vision is to create space for justice work through critical conversation, exchange, mass-mediation, and dynamic accessible education. Her hope is to bring academic expertise to the streets and vice versa. Since its founding, TFW has published close to 3,000 intersectional and justice centered scholarly essays, including the original Black Lives Matter herstory by Alicia Garza in 2014; organized the very first university conference on Black Lives Matter at the University of Arizona; and coordinated various forums on topics such as Black (Academic) Women’s Health; Assata Shakur; Trayvon Martin; Disabilities; Race, Racism, and Anti-Racism within Feminism; and Mumia Abu-Jamal, Race, Gender, and the Carceral State. In addition to online publishing, TFW has a book series with the University of Arizona Press: The Feminist Wire Books: Connecting Feminisms, Race, and Social Justice.
Dr. Lomax is represented by CCMNT Speakers. For booking, please contact CCMNT.
Projects
Public Facing Scholarship
DEI Dreaming: Confusing Inclusion and Tokenism
Looking for Justice for Black Women and Girls: The Black Church, Jezebel, and Aspirational Black Capitalist Patriarchy
Black Feminism and Black Moses, Part I
Black Feminism and Black Moses, Part II
On #survivingrkelly: deconstruction, accountability, and a #networkofpredation
#eulogizingaretha: For the Colored Girl Who Gave Us a Rainbow When the Black Church Wasn’t Enuff (Benediction)
#BlackSkinWhiteSin: From Pernicious Editing to Audacious Rescripting (Benediction)
Podcasts
Here and Now: Unpacking What It Means To Call Kamala Harris A ‘Jezebel’
Black Agenda Radio: Black Church Complicit in Marking Black Females as Hypersexual
Media Mentions
From Gorilla Glue mishap to ‘The Bachelor’: Why is it so hard to give Black women grace?
Yahoo!
February 18, 2021
Kamala Harris a ‘Jezebel’? Southern Baptist leaders’ insult is dangerous, experts say
The Seattle Times
February 10, 2021
Southern Baptist leaders called Kamala Harris a ‘Jezebel.’ That’s not just insulting, it’s dangerous, experts say
Washington Post
February 9, 2021
Black Feminist in Public: Tamura Lomax on Discourse, Power and the Misreading of Jezebel
Ms. Magazine
November 20, 2018
‘Jezebel Unhinged’: A New Book on the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture
AAIHS
September 17, 2018
Publications
Tamura Lomax (2018) Black Bodies in Ecstasy: Black Women, the Black Church, and the Politics of Pleasure: An Introduction, Black Theology, 16:3, 189-194, DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2018.1492298
Tamura Lomax(2018) Theorizing the Distance Between Erotophobia, Hyper-moralism, and Eroticism: Toward a Black Feminist Theology of Pleasure, Black Theology, 16:3,263-279, DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2018.1492305
“‘Technology of Living’: Toward a Black Feminist Religious Thought,” The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research: Special Edition: New Directions and Possibilities for Black feminist Theory and Practice, Spring 2016. DOI: 10.1080/00064246.2016.1147993
Videos
Bookshelf
Jezebel Unhinged: Loosing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture
Tamura A. Lomax, (2018).
Womanist and Black Feminist Responses to Tyler Perry’s Productions
Manigault-Bryant, LeRhonda S., Tamura A. Lomax, and Carol B. Duncan, (2014).
Black Bodies in Ecstasy: Black Women, the Black Church, and the Politics of Pleasure
Tamura Lomax, ed (2018).