Dr. Roy Whitaker is an Associate Professor of Religion in the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. He is affiliated faculty in Africana Studies, Weber Honors College, and the Master in Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences graduate program, as well as Director of the Metropolitan Area Pluralism Study. He earned his first Master’s degree at Princeton Theological Seminary and second at Harvard University. He obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religion and Theology at Claremont Graduate University. His research interests include Africana philosophy of religion, African American religious pluralism, and religious diversity in hip hop culture.
Dr. Whitaker writes on Black religions, aesthetics, and humanist philosophies through various scholarly lens, including anti-colonial studies, liberationist epistemologies, and critical race theories. His most recent publications include, “‘Our Loyalties Must Become Ecumenical’: Martin Luther King Jr. as a Pluralist Theologian” (Journal of Ecumenical Studies), “Martin Luther King Jr. and Mormonism: Dialogue, Race, and Pluralism” (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought), and “Black Utopian and Dystopian Technological Simulation: Tupac Shakur’s Holographic Persona at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival” (Świat i Słowo).
His forthcoming articles on Greydon Square and Afrika Bambaataa will be appearing respectively in the Journal of Hip Hop Studies and the Journal of Contemporary Religion. Dr. Whitaker is currently completing research on Martin Luther King Jr. and the age of religious pluralism and hip hop religious pluralism.