“The writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are it’s necessity.” – Toni Morrison
Blog: Check out my blog posts on faith and social justice on the Blog page!
Podcast Episodes:
- The Classical Ideas Podcast: Deirdre Jonese Austin on Dance and Sacredness
- Sit Still with Sierra Podcast: Let’s Talk About Christian Influencers
- The Divine Audacity Podcast: Who Is God to the Black Woman? Womanism 101
- The Decolonized Christian Podcast: Roe v. Wade & Sex Positivity
- She Will Not Fall Podcast
- Mutuality Matters Podcast: (New Voices) So, Are Women Equal Yet!?
Articles:
- Sojourners: “What Are Our ‘Ancestors’ Saying To Us?”
- Faithfully Magazine: “‘I Don’t Know Nothing About No Struggle’ — How Norman Gyamfi Misses the Mark on Black Gospel Music”
- Sojourners: “From the Early Church to ‘Boots on the Ground,’ Dance is Worship”
- Sojourners: “A Love Letter to Black Women Preachers”
- Sojourners: “We Need a God Who is ‘Furious'”
- Sojourners: “‘The Deliverance’ Aims to Exorcize the Demon of Racism”
- Sojourners: “‘Abbott Elementary’ on Loving a Church That Doesn’t Always Love You Back”
- Sojourners: “‘The Color Purple’ Can Survive Alice Walker’s Prejudice”
- Sojourners: “‘The Hero and the Whore’ Offers Hope and Redemption”
- Sojourners: “Pleasure is a Sacred Gift”
- Sojourners: “‘Red Lip Theology’ Let’s Black Christian Women Be Ourselves”
- CBE International Mutuality Magazine: “A Reflection of the State of Women’s Equality in the Black Baptist Church Context”
- Black Church Weekly Newsletter: “A Lament and Celebration: Black Women Are Still Making History in the Black Church”
- Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion’s Canopy Forum: “Onward Christian Soldiers: Addressing American Christianity and Trump”
- CBE International Mutuality Blog: “The Freedom-Faith of Rev. Dr. Prathia Hall”
- Facing South: “In the Georgia runoffs, ‘poll chaplains’ continue King’s legacy”
- Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion’s Canopy Forum: “When Campaign Attacks Become Theological”
- Facing South: “These Georgians can’t vote on Tuesday. But they’re mobilizing by the thousands.”
- Sojourners: “How One Worship Leader Made Racial Justice Protests About Christian Persecution”
- CBE International Mutuality Magazine: “What I Wish You Knew About Black Women in Ministry: An Open Letter”
- The Emory Wheel: “Addressing Racism Against the Trayvon Generation on Campus”
- Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion’s Canopy Forum: “Answering the Call: How the Church Can Respond to the Call to Defund the Police”
- Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion’s Canopy Forum: “Addressing Questions of Justice with the Ahmaud Arbery Case”
- Sojourners: “The Long Road to Decriminalizing Blackness: ‘When They See Us’ and The Central Park Five”
- Sojourners: “Who Remains for the Families of the Slain?”
Blog Post with Enthused: The Blog for Candler School of Theology: “Walk with Me: Confronting Faith and the Legacy of Slavery”
Master of Divinity Thesis: When Words Aren’t Enough: Exploring Liturgical Dance as a Pastoral Care Practice for Black Christian Women
Select Sermons:
- Taking Care of Business, The Gathering A Womanist Church (Dallas, TX), Judges 4: 1-9; 17-22 – July 18, 2026
- Cultivating Spaces of Freedom while Living Under Empire, CityWell United Methodist Church (Durham, NC), Luke 13:10-17 – March 15, 2026
- Dance Like David, CityWell United Methodist Church (Durham, NC) – 2 Samuel 6:12-23 – September 7, 2025
- Co-Creating the World Anew, Trinity Sunday, CityWell United Methodist Church (Durham, NC) – Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 – June 15, 2025
- Choosing Wellness, CityWell United Methodist Church (Durham, NC) – John 5:1-9 – May 25, 2025
- I Need You to Survive: On Kinship and Community, CityWell United Methodist Church (Durham, NC) – Ruth 4:9-17 – August 25, 2024
- What Alice Walker’s The Color Purple Teaches Us About God, CityWell United Methodist Church (Durham, NC) – Acts 17:22-34 – May 14, 2023
- I Know I’ve Been Changed, CityWell United Methodist Church (Durham, NC) – Genesis 31:25-27, 43-40 – March 19, 2023
- On Black Joy & Pain, Sermon at Greater Mt. Sinai Baptist Church (Charlotte, NC) – Psalm 126 – September 26, 2021
- The God Who Sees (Initial Sermon for Licensing), Nineteenth Street Baptist Church (Washington, DC) – Genesis 16:7-13; 21:14-21 – May 26, 2019
Undergraduate Senior Honors Thesis: “Caring for the Least of These”: Social Justice Activism in the Black Church in the Twenty-First Century
Additional Blog Posts with the Doyle Undergraduate Fellows Program:
Doyle Undergraduate Fellows Final Research Project: “Faith-Based Social Justice: Affordable Housing and Interfaith Work”
Deirdre Jonese Austin 