HDS Professor Tracey Hucks Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Hucks joins a distinguished cohort of scholars, artists, and leaders recognized for exceptional contributions to their fields.
Tracey E. Hucks, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Africana Religious Studies at Harvard Divinity School and Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most esteemed honorary societies.
She is one of 252 newly elected members this year, drawn from across higher education, the arts, public policy, and the sciences. Established in 1780, the Academy honors individuals for outstanding achievement and brings members together to engage critical issues facing society.
According to Hucks, the award letter from the Academy arrived upon her return from the Fifth United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent in Geneva, Switzerland.
"The timing of this unexpected honor was for me more than just an individual distinction, but a recognition of centuries of African-descended communities whose lives I seek to bring integrity and visibility to in the field of Africana religious studies," Hucks said. "I stand in gratitude to many who have come before me, and I am honored to enter this eminent Academy, where the excellence of my own Harvard teachers and mentors such as Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, David D. Hall, and Jacob K. Olupona have blazed a path as distinguished members."
A nationally recognized scholar of Africana religious studies and American religious history, Hucks examines the religious cultures of the African diaspora and their influence on identity, resistance, and intellectual life across the Atlantic world. Her research spans the Caribbean, West Africa, and the United States, drawing on historical, literary, and ethnographic sources to illuminate the complexity and enduring significance of Africana religious traditions.
Hucks is the author of Yoruba Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism, a finalist for the American Academy of Religion First Book Award in 2012, and the recent Obeah, Orisa and Religious Identity in Trinidad: Volume One: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination, part of a two-volume study co-authored with Dianne Stewart, MDiv ’93, that examines the role of Africana religious cultures in shaping diaspora identities.
HDS Dean Marla F. Frederick praised Hucks’s election as recognition of both her scholarly achievements and her influence as a teacher and leader.
“Tracey Hucks is a leading voice in Africana religious studies whose work brings rigorous attention to the histories and lived experiences of the African diaspora, while expanding the boundaries of the field and deepening our understanding of Black religious traditions," Frederick said. "Her election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences reflects not only the rigor and reach of her work, but also the broader impact of her teaching and leadership. We are proud to count her among the faculty of Harvard Divinity School.”
The new class of Academy members joins a distinguished lineage. Members include more than 250 Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, and leading thinkers and innovators from across a wide range of fields.
"On the 250th anniversary of the United States, I am most humbled to share membership with ancestors like Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Ralph Bunche, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and newly appointed members such as poet Sonia Sanchez—whose lives collectively bear witness to a courage of human dignity much needed in these times," said Hucks.
Induction ceremonies are scheduled to take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in fall 2026.
Banner photo of Professor Tracey Hucks by Lou Jones.