Timothy Landry graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013 with a Ph.D. in anthropology specializing in West African and Afro-Caribbean religions. Professor Landry’s research examines the ways in which religious secrecy and material culture encourage the globalization of autochthonous West African religious practices as new African diasporas are formed around the world.

In the classroom, Professor Landry directs students’ attention to the importance of human and religious diversity. In so doing, students are able to challenge the ways they have come to see African and Afro-Caribbean religious practice. Through classroom engagement, Professor Landry shows students that one can no longer study African society only in Africa. As such, in many of his courses, Professor Landry helps students to engage with established African and Afro-Caribbean communities in nearby urban centers such as Hartford, New York City, and Boston. Through community engagement, theoretical and ethnographic rigor, and dynamic classroom discussion Professor Landry instills in his students an appreciation for embodied learning and critical thinking.

Books:

• Vodún: Secrecy and the Search for Divine Power. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:

• Vodún, Spirited Forests, and the African Atlantic Forest Complex. Journal of Africana Religion 8, no. 2 (2020): 173-201.
• Incarnating Spirits, Composing Shrines, and Cooking Divine Power in Vodún. Material Religion 12, no. 1 (2016): 50-73. 
• Vodún, Globalization, and the Creative Layering of Belief in Southern Bénin. Journal of Religion in Africa 45, no. 2 (2015): 170-99. 
• 'Never Wholly Respectable:' Divination, Death, and Humanism in Contemporary Anthropology. Anthropology and Humanism 40, no. 2 (2015): 177-181. 
• “Moving to Learn: Performance and Learning in Haitian Vodou.” Anthropology and Humanism 33, no. 1/2 (2008): 53-65.

Book Chapters:

• “Touring the Slave Route: Inaccurate Authenticities in Bénin, West Africa.” In Contested Cultural Heritage: Religion and Nationalism in a Globalized World, edited by Helaine Silverman, 205-231. New York: Springer, 2011.
  

Presentations:

• “Incarnating Spirits, Composing Shrines, and Cooking Divine Power in Vodún.” 113th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC, December 4, 2014.
• “Never Wholly Respectable’: Divination and Humanism in Contemporary Anthropology.” 112th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Chicago, IL, November 22, 2013.
• “Trans-Atlantic Borders: Expanding Identities through Tourism and Vodún in Bénin, West Africa.” 111th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. San Francisco, CA, November 14, 2012.
• “Touring the Forbidden: The Occult Politics of Travel of Bénin, West Africa.” 110th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Montréal, QC, November 19, 2011.
• “Local Production and Global Imaginings of Vodún in Bénin.” 85th Annual Meeting of the Central States Anthropological Society, Indianapolis, IL, March 29, 2008.
• “Spirit Possession, Haitian Vodou, and the Sacred Asson: It Is that Which Is King, It Is that Which Commands.” 84th Annual Meeting of the Central States Anthropological Society. Minneapolis, MN, April 2007.
  

• Fulbright Institute of International Education, Bénin, $23,250, 2010-2011.
• Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Bénin, $14,979, 2010-2011.
• Nelle M. Singor Graduate Scholarship in International Relations, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Bénin, $2,000, 2010-2011.
• Fulbright-Hays, Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad, Bénin, $23,306, 2010-2011 [Declined due to alternative funding].
• West African Research Association, Bénin, $6,500, 2008.