James Howard Hill, Jr., Ph.D. is a theorist of religion and culture, an educator, a writer, and an artist. Through his writing, teaching, workshops, art practice, and speaking engagements, Dr. Hill invites readers, listeners, and audiences of all stations and persuasions to consider the ways beauty and horror, magic and madness, good and evil often exist in braided, haunting tension. Dr. Hill achieves this by weaving his own witness as a Ph.D.-earning survivor of childhood trauma into his research, writing, teaching, and public speaking engagements.

The ultimate end of Dr. Hill’s work is to promote the practice of haunting joy in every sphere of life —particularly in domains where troubled and troubling Black life is considered to be beyond the pale of care. Because Dr. Hill strives to practice haunting joy, his life and work are governed by the gravitas of deep love and critical concern extended toward all life.

Dr. Hill currently holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at Boston University. He holds a B.A. from Criswell College, an M.T.S. from Southern Methodist University, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. He teaches courses and conducts research in black study, religion and culture in the United States, cultural criticism and theory, black theologies of liberation, theopoetics, the destructive plundering of the environment, political and critical theory. Dr. Hill is the author of two forthcoming book: “The Michael Jackson Cacophony: Religion and the Politics of Black Popular Culture, 1963-1989″ (under contract with University of Chicago Press Class 200: New Studies in Religion series) and Haunting Joy: Essays on Religion, Black Popular Culture, and Overcoming Childhood Adversity (under contract with Fortress Press). His scholarship has received recognition and support from The Crossroads Project, The Heidelberg Center for American Studies (Heidelberg, Germany), The Henry Luce Foundation, the Forum for Theological Exploration, The Louisville Institute, Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, Social Science Research Council (SSRC), and the Mellon Cluster Research Fellowship in Comparative Race and Diaspora studies.  

His public commentary on issues of race, popular culture, sports, politics, and religion can be read in Black Agenda Report, The Syndicate, Black Perspectives, and The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, among other outlets.