# Family, Faith, and Future: A Conversation with Dean Marla F. Frederick September 23, 2024 ![Dean Marla Frederick](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-04/Dean-Frederick-Interview-Thumb-900.jpg?itok=6QEYG3hn) Dean Marla F. Frederick / Photo: Justin Knight Marla F. Frederick, PhD, began her tenure as Harvard Divinity School’s eighteenth Dean on January 1, 2024, and was celebrated by faculty, students, and staff at a [festive ceremony](https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/01/23/harvard-divinity-school-community-welcomes-celebrates-new-dean-marla-frederick) later that month. Frederick returned to Harvard from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, where she served as the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Religion and Culture from 2019 to 2023. She served on the Harvard faculty from 2003 to 2019 as an assistant, associate, then full professor in the Department of African and African American Studies, with a joint appointment on the Committee on the Study of Religion. Frederick is a leading ethnographer and scholar focused on the African American religious experience. Throughout her career, she has employed an interdisciplinary approach to examining the ways religion, race, and politics impact our everyday lives. Her scholarship is principally focused on the study of religion and media, religion and social activism in the U.S. South, and the sustainability of Black institutions in a “post-racial” world. In the interview below, [Dean Frederick](https://hds.harvard.edu/people/marla-f-frederick) discusses the influence of her parents on her life, how an anthropology course in college changed the trajectory of her career, and her hopes for students and the broader HDS community. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. **Harvard Divinity School:** Could you talk about how growing up in Sumter, South Carolina, and attending First Baptist Missionary Church impacted your life? **Dean Frederick:** Sumter is, for some, a small town. For me, I like to call it a booming metropolis. I attended First Baptist Missionary Church with my parents since I was knee-high to a tadpole, and I really valued that community. Being at First Baptist was not only about understanding who God is in our lives, but it was also about developing an understanding of the responsibility that comes with Christian faith—lifting other people up, putting a primary emphasis on education, and supporting young people. I felt tremendously supported throughout my time at First Baptist. I grew up near Morris College, which was founded by Black Baptists in South Carolina. My dad was a graduate of the college, and my mother taught there, and we lived just a few blocks from the college. In that respect, I felt as though there were always people looking out for me. In return, they poured into me a commitment to look out for the interests of others. **HDS**: Your father passed away in August of last year, shortly after you were named HDS Dean, and your mother died suddenly in January of this year, a day after she saw you formally introduced as Dean to the HDS and Harvard community. You’ve talked about how their “loss caused waves of grief that nearly consumed” you. How did you get through that time, and what kind of influence did they have on you and your journey to now? **Dean Frederick**: I feel like I am still getting through it. My parents were the perfect yin and yang for my life. My dad grew up sharecropping and was keenly aware of the limited opportunities that many people have. So, he stressed the importance of taking the gifts that God has given us, building on them and making the most of every opportunity. My mother was a woman of deep faith who focused keenly on a person’s character. She was able to see the best in all kinds of people, and she placed great emphasis on appreciating one’s heart and soul. That is a trait I hope I carry on from her. When we had her funeral service, the testimonies given about her spoke so beautifully about who she was. If I am half the woman that my mother was, and if I attain half of the vision and ambition that my dad had for me—understanding that this is all a gift—then I think I will do OK in life. **HDS**: While we are talking about some of the people who have had the biggest impact on you, could you also talk about the influence of Dr. Charles Adams and Bishop Carlton Pearson, both of whom passed away last year? **Dean Frederick**: I interviewed Bishop Carlton Pearson for my book on American religious broadcasting. He had such an electric personality. I grew up Baptist, but he gave me such a deep appreciation for the Black Pentecostal tradition. I have listened to Bishop Pearson’s music over the years, and I have heard him preach. What was extraordinary about his latter years was his almost reconversion into Christianity and developing what he called an inclusive theology, which was radical for him to say as a Pentecostal. He reached so many people, and he had a profound impact on the growth of Black television and Black religious broadcasting. Putting him in that history was important for me. Every year, Dr. Charles Adams would come and preach at Religious Emphasis Week at Morris College and my parents would take us to hear Dr. Adams. So, when he came to HDS in 2007 as a professor, I was starstruck. What is so grand about Dr. Adams is that he represents the best of the Black preaching tradition—the intellectual acuity, the joy, the concern for the least of these, the ability to hear from God and apply scriptures to help transform not only individual lives, but an entire community. That was the power of his preaching. **HDS**: Moving into your scholarship, what inspired you to pursue the study of religion through an anthropological lens? **Dean Frederick**: I attended Spelman College, and while I was there, I was involved with a Christian students’ organization. I would also go to dinner with some of my close friends who were not involved, one of whom was Muslim, and we would have huge debates over Christianity, whether it was just the “white man’s religion” and all of those kinds of debates that were beaming on college campuses in the 90s. It was these debates that sparked my curiosity in studying religion. I took a course with Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, who was president of Spelman College at the time. As president, she taught one anthropology course a week each year with Professor Daryl White, and it was a phenomenal introduction to anthropology. Before that course, I was an English major on my way to law school and potentially a career in politics. But the class opened my eyes to the power of anthropology. I also had a mentor throughout my college years named Dr. Gloria Wade Gayles. She emphasized to me the need for more Black PhDs and people who can create a pipeline and encourage more young Black people to enter higher education. Because of the questions my friend raised, I knew I wanted to study religion. And because of my own faith commitments, I wanted to get a better understanding of religion—and not just from a theological perspective. I wanted to explore the impact of faith on people’s everyday lives. That’s what compelled me to go into anthropology. **HDS**: What was the impetus for wanting to return to Harvard and to lead HDS as Dean? **Dean Frederick**: I have always had a deep love and respect for HDS. I taught in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for 16 years and served on many committees and had students from HDS taking my classes. The multi-religious commitment of the Divinity School was attractive, because I believe that part of serving the world is knowing and understanding people. HDS has a great commitment to developing servant leaders who go into the world to help make it a better, more just place. It also has a longstanding commitment to producing extraordinary scholars of religion who go on to teach and research the variety of the world’s traditions. I was excited about returning to HDS because I was returning to a community that I already knew, with faculty whom I deeply respected and with students who have intellectual passion and a heart for humanity. In August of 2023, my dad became sick, and I remained unsure of whether I should take the role of HDS Dean because being in Georgia, I was much closer to my parents in South Carolina. But my dad was the one who told me that I should absolutely take this position. It felt right to come back to HDS to work with Claudine Gay, who appointed me as Dean and had called me to deliver the news. I was excited about her leadership and what it meant to learn under her. So, it has been a point of great celebration and great heartbreak—the transitions that have taken place this year. Yet, I am still here with great confidence that this is exactly where I am supposed to be at this time in history. **HDS**: How much did it mean for you to have your father’s backing as you entered into this new opportunity? **Dean Frederick**: It meant absolutely everything, especially after he passed, because it was such a dark, solemn period for me. I could have easily said, “No, I don’t want to do this at all.” But then I had his voice in my head saying, “This is absolutely something that you *should* do.” My dad was excited for me, because he believed I had leadership qualities that I needed to execute and that HDS would be a great place to do that. **HDS**: The University has placed a great importance on cultivating space for difficult conversations and dialogues across difference. Is that a priority for you this year and something you would like the School to take a bigger part in? **Dean Frederick**: Absolutely. It is important that we continue to have these conversations so that we learn how to have them across our differences. As an anthropologist, I appreciate understanding how people come to their points of view, even if you disagree with them. Speaking from my own faith tradition, it instructs me to be angry towards injustice and sin not. We can be angry about something and still engage in thoughtful conversations with others so that we always hold—in mind and in heart—the full humanity of the people with whom we disagree. It is important to understand the kinds of ideologies and religious commitments that inform how people think about the world. We are going to start a reading community this year. We will read one book from an Israeli perspective on the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. We will then read a Palestinian perspective on the history of the conflict. At the end, we will read a narrative fiction about the conflict and, in that process, hope to create—even if we still disagree—understanding. We’re an academic community, and what we should be doing in this space is sharpening our learning and understanding of each other. We will meet on campus in November, February, and April to discuss the books, and I hope to have a virtual gathering component, as well. The books for this year will be: *Letters to my Palestinian Neighbor* by Yossi Klein Halevi; *Where the Line is Drawn: A Tale of Crossings, Friendships, and Fifty Years of Occupation in Israel-Palestine* by Raja Shehadeh; and *Apeirogon: A Novel* by Colum McCann. **HDS**: What is the importance of studying religion today, and why specifically is it important to do it here at Harvard Divinity School? **Dean Frederick**: I recently had the opportunity to speak with former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. He talked about the importance for him as Secretary to understand religion in the world, as well as how that understanding helped him better engage in diplomatic activities. For me, that idea signals the unique importance of HDS as a divinity school that focuses on inter-religious dialogue and multi-religious learning. I believe that we cannot fully understand our own religious traditions until we also study at least one other tradition. This commitment to a comparative understanding of religion makes HDS unique and enables our students to become bold leaders, peace builders, and justice seekers. **HDS**: For those within the community who might not know you very well yet, what do you want them to know about you and your values? And, for new and current students, what do you hope for them during their time at HDS? **Dean Frederick**: A friend of mine said to me, “Marla, if there are two things people are going to know about you, it’s that you’re from Sumter, and you love Jesus.” In addition, though, I have a deep commitment to education, to community and community organizations, and I value people and their stories. I value understanding the communities that people come from, their trials, and their triumphs. That is something that I think comes from my anthropological training and my faith background. I try to tap into my mom’s spirit and the part of her that believed everybody has the capacity to achieve and to do great things if somebody believes in them—if somebody supports them. My mom could see that in everyone. I hope that part of my work as a Dean is to be someone who supports students and helps our faculty, and others, tap into our students’ potential. I hope for them what happened to me *and for me* in graduate school, which was that I was challenged beyond my own perceptions of reality. All of the things I assumed were obvious were shaken up in graduate school. When that happens, you have to figure out what you really believe, because you learn from a variety of other traditions. I hope that our students are challenged. I hope that they find a deep purpose for their lives. And I hope that they leave here with vigor, passion, and a commitment to better humanity. *Watch Dean Frederick answer some rapid fire questions below, and check out the full interview playlist* [on the HDS YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3sqFlOnBCzBUajww6xYUCjmB7dMiybiw)*.* —*HDS Office of Communications* See also:- [ Faculty and Research ](/discover-stories-about/faculty-and-research)