Elizabeth A. McAlister | |
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| Born | 1963 |
| Education | Vassar College, B.A. 1985 Yale University, M.A. 1990 & 1992, M.Phil. 1993, PhD 1995 |
| Employer | Wesleyan University |
Elizabeth A. McAlister is an American academic and university professor of religion, and African-American studies, feminist, gender, and sexuality studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.[1] She is known for her contributions in Afro-Caribbean, Pentecostalism, race theory, transnational migration, and evangelical spiritual warfare.[2][3]
McAlister earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Vassar College, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1985. She then attended Yale University for graduate school, where she received Masters of Arts (M.A.) in African and Afro-American Studies in 1990, an M.A. in history in 1992, an M.Phil. in American Studies in 1993, and a PhD in American Studies in 1995.
After receiving her Ph.D., McAlister worked as a post-doctoral fellow with the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis at Rutgers University from 1995 to 1996. In the fall of 1996, she began working as a visiting professor of religion at Wesleyan University before being hired as a full Professor in 1997. Since then, she has gone on to chair the university's African American Studies Department and Religion Department.[4][5] She has also served as director of the Center for African American Studies at Wesleyan.[5] In 2008, she won the Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching.[6]
Professor McAlister's work focuses on Afri-Caribbean religions, especially Haitian Vodou. Additionally, she is currently working on a manuscript entitled "Spiritual Warfare and the Militarization of Prayer" about American Christian Evangelicals.