Deirdre “Jonese” Austin is a scholar, writer, womanist minister, and Black feminist anthropologist and ethnographer born and raised in the South and in the Church. Her work, ministry, and research develop out of her own experience and explore topics at the intersections of faith, race, gender and sexuality, and justice. She has spoken on panels and led sessions on topics such as liberation theology, racial reconciliation, combatting hatred and xenophobia, and addressing racism and sexism in faith spaces as Black Christian women. She has also written articles and blog posts, notably in Sojourners Magazine and Facing South, on topics such as women’s equality in the Church, voting rights for formerly incarcerated folk, and racial justice. Currently, Jonese’s work centers how Black women in the U.S. South come to understand their bodies and sexuality through dance in the religious space of the Black Church and the non-religious spiritual space of the pole dance studio. She is conducting this research as a PhD candidate in Duke University’s Cultural Anthropology program, pursuing certificates in African and African American Studies and Feminist Studies. Jonese is also the part-time writer and content developer for Our Bodies Ourselves, an intersectional feminist and reproductive justice organization that provides credible and reliable resources, vetted by a team of experts, for girls, women, and gender-expansive people around health and sexuality.
Jonese’s time at Duke University is a continuation of the work she began as a student at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology where she completed a thesis project that explored how liturgical dance as a pastoral care practice can promote healing from personal, racial, and pandemic-related trauma in Black Christian women. She graduated with her Master of Divinity with certificates in Black Church Studies and Baptist Studies from Emory in 2022. In 2019, Jonese graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service. She graduated with honors in her major of Culture and Politics with a focus in religion and social justice, a minor in African American Studies, and a certificate in Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs. Her undergraduate thesis was an ethnographic project exploring how the Black Church responds to questions of justice as it relates to class, race, gender, and other factors. Also that year, Jonese was licensed for ministry at the historic Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, DC under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Darryl Roberts.
Jonese’s favorite scripture is Micah 6:8: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly[a] with your God,” and she lives by the philosophy and Emily Dickinson quote, “If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.” Her professional goal is to enter a career at the intersections of ministry, nonprofit work, academia, and politics that will allow her to bring healing, liberation, and wholeness for all people, but especially Black women, through theology, direct action, and policy.
Deirdre Jonese Austin 