Dorcas Dennis

Dr. Dorcas Dennis is a scholar of Caribbean and African religions. Her research focuses on the history of sub-Saharan African Indigenous Religions, their interactions with Christianity and Islam, their manifestations in the old and new diasporas (the Caribbean, the USA, and Australia), and their intersections with migration, health, resilience, identity, and the media. As an anthropologist of Religion, Dennis employs both traditional and digital ethnographic methods in her research, which spans Ghana, Australia, New Zealand, and South Florida.

She earned her PhD in Religion from the Victoria University of Wellington—Te Haranga Waka. She holds two Master's degrees: one in Philosophy of Religion and the other in Anthropology of Religion, as well as a graduate certificate in African Diaspora Studies, and her work appears in leading journals including the Journal of Africana Religions, PNEUMA, and Journal of Religion in Africa.

At UNCW, she teaches courses including African and Caribbean religions and Ritual Therapy and Health, and co-leads interdisciplinary projects on AI ethics and inclusive pedagogy.

Education

PhD in Religious Studies, VUW.
MA in Religion and Anthropology (minor), FIU.
MPhil in Religious Studies, UG-Legon

Specialization in Teaching

• Caribbean Religions
• Global South Christianity
• African Traditional Religions
• Fieldwork: Religious Ethnography
• Religion, Migration, and Mental Health
• Analysis and Interpretation: Research Methods
• Ritual Therapy and Health in Afro-Caribbean Religions
• Religions on the Move: Embodied Memories, Migration, and Identity

Research Interests

Her research interests span material religion, religious media, and the politics of representation—particularly how religious identities are constructed and contested through ritual, narrative, and visual culture. She explores how religious agents and ritual specialists navigate displacement, reintegration, and trans-spatial belonging through embodied practices and symbolic systems. She is also actively engaged in interdisciplinary projects on AI ethics and the role of technology in shaping religious practices and pedagogy. Below are some specific research themes:
i. Global Circuits of Africana Spiritualities
ii. African Religions, Festivals, and Material Culture
iii. Religion, Migration, and Trans-Spatial Belonging
iv. African Diaspora Religions, Health, and Healing Sensibilities
v. Transcontinental Religious and Cultural Tourism of the Black Atlantic

Professional Service

Books and articles reviewer

Community Engagement

i. CHSSA Faculty Liaison for Student Success-Starfish Program at UNCW.
ii. Policy, Budget, Research, and Strategic Planning Committee, Faculty member of the College of Humanities, Social Science, and the Arts (CHSSA).
iii. Curriculum Committee CHSSA

Honors & Awards

• 2025 Summer Faculty Success Program-NCFDD, $4950.00
• Wabash 2025 Early Career Religion Faculty Teaching Undergraduates Workshop.
• WABASH 2024 AAR/SBL Preconference Session Roundtable, entitled “Cultivating Agency as Full-time Contingent Faculty.” $1000.00 (Travel fund).
• UNCW CHSSA Grant ($3991.00)-“Enhancing Humanities Research Development through AI-Powered Literature Review: A Study on the Effectiveness of Research Rabbit, Elicit AI, and Litmaps.” Project (Co-PI), 2025.
• QEP/SAIL Individual Grant ($5000.00) Interdisciplinary Learning Fellowship Award, Spring 2023.
• Sacred Writes Public Scholarship Training Fellowship Award: Race, Justice, and Religion Cohort ($1000), Spring--02/08/2023. Henry Luce Foundation.
• Information Literacy Faculty Fellows (ILFF) Program Award ($1000.00), Spring 2023 (UNCW), 01/27/2023.
• CTE Faculty Cohort Grant ($1000.00): Engaging in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): Spring 2023 at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington (UNCW), 02/04/2023.
• Henry Luce Foundation’s Crossroads Fellowship Project ($5000.00), with Princeton University, 2023/2024 Fellow. https://crossroads.princeton.edu/people/dorcas-dennis.
• Andrew W. Mellon Wide-Angle Course Development Award (Health in the Humanities Award $2000) at Saint Lawrence University, Canton-New York- Spring 2020.
• Victoria University of Wellington’s Doctoral Completion Award, 2016.
• William Wallace Gibson Memorial Research Scholarship Award ($2000.00), 2013, at VUW, New Zealand.
• Victoria Doctoral Award, 2012.