Panel: A Humanist Response to Racial Injustice

Monica Miller

Monica R. Miller is Associate Professor of Religion & Africana Studies and Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Lehigh University. The author of numerous books and scholarly contributions spanning topics related to religion and social difference, popular culture, and new black religions, Miller serves among a host of national and international advisory and editorial board capacities spanning academic journals, presses and organizations including The American Academy of Religion where she is co-founder and co-chair of the AAR group Critical Approaches to Hip Hop and Religion, and The Institute for Humanist Studies where she is a Senior Research Fellow. Most recently published, Miller is the editor of Humanism in a Non-Humanist World, and is currently at work on numerous book projects focusing on “new black godz,” Kendrick Lamar, and “method as identity” in the study of religion.

Juhem Navarro-Rivera

Dr. Juhem Navarro-Rivera is Political Director and Managing Partner at Socioanalítica Research, a research and analysis consulting firm.

A political scientist by training, Dr. Navarro-Rivera is a leading scholar in the study of secularism, race, and politics in the United States and Latin America. He is the author or coauthor of many articles, chapters, and reports on secular demographics and politics and on Latino political behavior. His work and commentary has been featured in NBC Latino, the Religious News Service, and Open Democracy, in international media like O’ Globo (Brazil), The Times (London), and Reforma (Mexico), and in secular media like Free Inquiry, The Humanist Hour, and Friendly Atheist. He is member of the editorial boards of the peer-reviewed journals Secularism and Nonreligion, and Secular Studies.

Dr. Navarro-Rivera holds degrees in political science from the University of Puerto Rio (BA) and the University of Connecticut (M.A./PhD). You can listen to him in The Benito Juárez Experience, a podcast about culture, politics and society from a secular Latinx perspective, and read his blog The LatiNone.

Anthony Pinn

Dr. Anthony B. Pinn received his BA from Columbia University, Master of Divinity and PhD in the study of religion from Harvard University. He is currently the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and professor of religion at Rice University. Pinn is the founding director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning also at Rice University. In addition, he is Director of Research for the Institute for Humanist Studies – a Washington, DC-based think tank. Pinn’s research interests include humanism and hip hop culture. He is the author/editor of over 35 books, including When Colorblindness Isn’t the Answer:  Humanism and the Challenge of Race (2017); Humanism:  Essays in Race, Religion, and Cultural Production (2015); Writing God’s Obituary:  How a Good Methodist Became a Better Atheist (2014); Dale McGowan and Anthony B. Pinn, editors.  Everyday Humanism, Equinox (2014);  African American Humanist Principles: Living and Thinking Like the Children of Nimrod (2004), and the novel, The New Disciples (2015).