Dr. Julia Robinson Moore
Dr. Julia Robinson Moore
Julia Robinson Moore (Ph.D., Michigan State University) joined the Department of Religious Studies at UNC Charlotte in 2005. She teaches courses in African American religion, religions of the African Diaspora, and racial violence in America. Her first book, Race, Religion, and the Pulpit: Reverend Robert L. Bradby and the Making of Urban Detroit (2015), explores how Second Baptist Church of Detroit’s nineteenth minister became the catalyst for economic empowerment, community-building, and the formation of an urban African American working class in Detroit.
Her current research project, Preserving Sacred Sites & Histories Initiative: Connecting History, Religion, and Architecture for the Public Good in the City of Charlotte facilitates student learning through religious literacy of built environments, architectural history and design, and historical research of Charlotte’s most sacred sites. Students who participate in courses and/or community events related to The Preserving Sacred Sites and Histories Initiative (PSSH) interface with community stakeholders to preserve story and re-envision spaces for the public good. PSSH is under the direction of Julia Robinson Moore. She stands in an interdisciplinary partnership with Matthew Gin, Assistant Professor of Architectural History in the College of Arts & Architecture, and Adreonna Bennett, Community Archivist at J. Murrey Atkins Library.
Dr. Moore also has an additional research project titled, René Girard in the American South: New Frontiers in Mimetic Theory, which explores how Girard’s work speaks to the lived realities of American contemporary culture.
Research Interests
Trained as a historian and religious studies scholar, my work focuses on the intersections of racism, religion, and racial violence within American Protestantism and the African Diaspora. I am committed to studying these intersections in order to unearth strategies of reparative justice, healing, and societal reform. My current research agenda speaks to the historical complexities of Black and White race relations in the city of city Charlotte through the lens of American Presbyterianism and the peace-building models of positive mimesis. Because peace-building through community-engaged-scholarship is at the heart of my research, the Preserving Sacred Sites & Histories (PSSH) was established in 2021. PSSH was conceived as a bridge-builder between Charlotte communities that have been historically divided by race. Financial support of the Persevering Sacred Sites & Histories Initiative: Honoring the Ancestors can be found here at the sponsors link.