Josef (pronounced Yo-sef) Sorett was born and raised in the Greater Boston area and graduated from Lexington Christian Academy in 1991. Following high school Josef matriculated at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK and graduated with honors in 1996. After graduating from Oral Roberts University, Josef returned home and enrolled in Boston University’s School of Theology to pursue the Master of Divinity degree, with a specialization in Religion and Literature in the African Diaspora. While at B.U., Josef received the prestigious university-wide Whitney M. Young, Jr. Fellowship, and graduated (cum laude) in 2000.  He received the Ph.D. in 2008 from Harvard University, where he began in 2001  as a member of the first cohort of Ph.D. students in the Department of African and African American Studies. At Harvard, he concentrated his studies on African American religion, and his research interests include religion and the arts, popular culture, the religious experiences of youth and young adults, and the role of religion and spirituality in community-based work and public life.  Following graduation he remained affiliated with Harvard as a non-resident fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

Josef’s dissertation, Spirit Soundings: Religion, Race and the Arts in Twentieth Century America, engaged the lives of black artists as a lens into the American religious landscape. In support of his research, Josef has received fellowships from a number of institutions, including the Louisville Institute for the Study of American Religion, The Fund for Theological Education (www.thefund.org), Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for American History and Princeton University’s Program in African American Studies. As part of his research on the significance of religion and spirituality in popular music and culture, Josef is affiliated with the Hiphop Archive at Stanford University and serves as an advisor to the African Hip Hop Research Project at Harvard University. His writing has been published in The African American Pulpit, the Journal of the Scientific Study of Religion, PNEUMA: Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, and Religious Studies Review. Balancing research with a passion for the classroom, while pursuing the Ph.D. Josef taught at such schools as Harvard, Tufts and Princeton universities and Medgar Evers College, City University of New York.   He is currently an assistant professor at Columbia University, with an appointment in the Department of Religion and the Institute for Research in African-American Studies.

In addition to academic pursuits, Josef maintains an active commitment to public service. While at Boston University, Josef served as the Director of Youth Ministries at the Historic Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church. Upon receiving the M.Div., Josef continued his work with youth in Boston, both as a researcher for the United Way’s Faith-in-Action program and as Associate Director of Programs at WEATOC, Inc., a peer-education public health program in Roxbury, MA. While pursuing the Ph.D. Josef continued to serve as a Program Associate at WEATOC and worked with the Summer Leadership Institute for Church-based Community and Economic Development at Harvard Divinity School. In 2006 he completed a year-long study of New York Theological Seminary’s graduate education program in Sing Sing Correctional Facility. He has also worked as a consultant for such organizations as the Boston Capacity Tank, the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Public/Private Ventures. Josef is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He lives with his wife and son in New York City.

Josef can be reached via email at: js3119@columbia.edu

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