About
Mélena “Mae” Laudig is a historian, archival worker, and assistant professor who writes and teaches about early African American religious life and culture. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University, with graduate certificates in African American Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies, and received her B.A. in Religious Studies with distinction from Yale University.
Her first book project, Children at the Crossroads: Black Childhood and Religion During Slavery and Freedom in South Carolina, traces the historical significance of childhood in Black South Carolinians’ metaphysical practices across the long nineteenth century. This project has been made possible through fellowships from the McNeil Center for Early American Studies; the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving; the Library Company of Philadelphia; the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College; and the Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Laudig is an Assistant Professor of African American Christianity in the History and Ecumenics Department at Princeton Theological Seminary. Her courses work to dispel narratives of singularity concerning Black Christian and religious histories more broadly. She aims to introduce students to historical methods grounded in nuance, curiosity, and care. Recent courses include African American Religious History, African American Women and Religion, Christianity and Slavery in the U.S., and Religion and Childhood in the U.S.
Her roots are in West Texas, where she played under a dusty sun in orange jelly sandals and where elders’ testimonies seeded her commitment to Black sacred archives.
A curriculum vitae is available upon request. Contact: melena.laudig@ptsem.edu.