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Photograph of Onaje Woodbine

Onaje Woodbine Associate Professor Philosophy and Religion

Degrees
Ph.D. Religious Studies, Boston University

M.T.S. Philosophy, Theology and Ethics, Boston University

B.A. Philosophy, Yale University

Bio
Onaje X. O. Woodbine is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion and African American Studies at American University in Washington, D.C. He earned a B.A. in Philosophy at Yale University and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Boston University. His research examines vital expressions of lived religion and healing, especially among contemporary African American communities in the United States.

His first book, Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball, garnered national praise as “a profound narrative of survival [and] self-determination 
 in this season where black male bodies are under attack.” Covered by The New York Times (“street basketball functions as an outlet of mourning and healing of urban youths”), NPR’s All Things Considered (“invites readers to look at basketball differently 
 as a sacred space where young black boys go to ‘reclaim their humanity’”), ESPN (“full of colorful tales and haunting heartbreaks”), Boston Magazine (“painful, beautiful, nonfiction debut”), and the National Catholic Reporter (“A powerful and deeply moving work 
 reveals a world of redemption and hope rarely glimpsed from the outside”), Black Gods was longlisted for the 2017 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing and named one of The Boston Globe’s best books of 2016.

Dr. Woodbine’s second book, Take Back What the Devil Stole: An African American Prophet’s Encounters in the Spirit World, also draws from “lived religion,” womanist theory, and ethnographic studies, to center the healing practices of an African American woman (Donna Haskins) who wrestles with structural inequality in the streets of Boston by inhabiting an alternate dimension she refers to as the “spirit realm.” Both ethnographic and phenomenological, this book explores Donna’s experiences of the supernatural and her sense of multireligious belonging as she blends together Catholic, Black Baptist, and Afro-Caribbean traditions. Devil Stole has received praise from The Christian Century as “a model of ethnographic work that centers the voice of its subject.”

In addition to his academic scholarship, Dr. Woodbine’s research has also contributed to increased awareness of African American religions and healing in the public square. Black Gods was adapted into a stage play, which was performed at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival in South Africa by Dr. Woodbine’s students and at independent schools across the United States. Dr. Woodbine’s research has been featured in an Ad campaign for Dove + Men Care on Black masculinity (2021) and led to consultations for the Netflix film High Flying Bird (2019) and the Museum of the City of New York’s exhibition “City/Game: Basketball in New York” (2020).
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Teaching

Spring 2025

  • CORE-105 Complex Problems Seminar: The Game Behind the Game

  • PHIL-396 Selected Topics:Non-Recurring: Ethics of Liberation

  • RELG-486 Topics in Religious Discussion: Relig/Spiritlty African Diasp