Alton B. Pollard III is dean of the Howard University School of Divinity. Prior to coming to Howard, he served as director of the Program of Black Church Studies at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He also has held faculty appointments at St. Olaf College and Wake Forest University. |
Dr. Pollard specializes in the areas of African-American religion and culture, sociology of the Black church, southern African studies, Pan-Africanist religious thought, American religious cultures, and sociology of religion. And, he has widely published. He is the author of “Mysticism and Social Change,” and a new introduction to W.E.B. DuBois’, “The Negro Church”; editor of Black Church Studies: An Interdisciplinary Anthology (forthcoming) and How Long This Road: Race, Religion and the Legacy of C. Eric Lincoln with L. Henry Whelchel; consulting editor of the multi-volume Howard Thurman Papers Project, The Sound of the Genuine; co-author of The Balm in Gilead’s Helpers for a Healing Community: A Pastoral Care Manual for HIV/AIDS (on-line); and former associate editor of the Black Sacred Music journal. |
He also has written recent articles on the election of President Barack Obama, the African American Family, the African American Church, Hip-Hop Culture, African American Mysticism, and Black Theological Education, among others. |
An ordained Baptist minister, Dr. Pollard is the former pastor of John Street Baptist Church (Mass.), New Red Mountain Baptist Church (N.C.), and Bell Buckle and Hopewell A.M.E. churches (Tenn.). He is a former associate minister of Trinity Tabernacle Baptist Church in Mableton, Ga., and a board member and consultant to numerous organizations. Dr. Pollard earned the B.A. degree with honors in religion & philosophy and business management from Fisk University; the M.Div. degree from Harvard University Divinity School; and the Ph.D. from Duke University’s Department of Religion. |
He is married to Jessica Bryant Pollard, a school counselor, and they have two adult children: a son, Brooks and a daughter, Asha. |
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