Josef Sorett

Josef Sorett serves as Dean of Columbia College, Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor, Vice President for Undergraduate Education, and professor of Religion and African American and African Diaspora Studies. As dean of the College, he stewards the College’s curriculum and the academic, co-curricular and programmatic initiatives that define the undergraduate experience across Columbia’s undergraduate schools.

An interdisciplinary scholar of religion and race in the Americas, Sorett joined the Columbia faculty in 2009. He uses historical and literary approaches to explore religion in Black communities and cultures in the United States. His books include Spirit in the Dark: A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics (Oxford, 2016); The Sexual Politics of Black Churches (Columbia, 2022); and Black is a Church: Christianity and the Contours of African American Life (Oxford, 2023). He is currently working on There’s a God on the Mic: Hip Hop’s (Surprising) Religious History.

He received his B.S. from Oral Roberts University, an M.Div. from Boston University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.