scholarship & research

Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones is a theologian and black studies scholar with expertise in Mariology, theological anthropology, and womanist and black feminist thought. Her research specifically considers black madonnas and iconography, human trafficking, the prison industrial complex, racial justice, visual culture, and artificial intelligence. She is a practicing birth worker, a trained iconographer, and has a career background in UX Copywriting and Design. Outside of academia, Dr. Adkins-Jones is a Baptist minister who frequently preaches and teaches around the country. A ‘displaced Southerner,’ she joyfully builds community and hospitality between Boston, MA and Newark, NJ.

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Books (In Progress)

  • Immaculate Misconceptions ( under review ) is a theological account of the rise of the global sex trade. Centering the icon of the Black Madonna, the book holds accountable theological notions of purity and rape at the site of black flesh.

  • See No Evil ( in progress ), examines how technology has changed the way we visualize violence and black death, and offers a theology of black protest.

  • Preserved ( research in progress ) is a eucharistic theology of black women’s lives. It examines several seemingly quotidian practices—from quilting and textile dyeing, to growing and canning (preserving, or "‘puttin’ up”) food—of black women in the south as sources of lived theological reflection.

Selected Articles

  • “Through A Glass Darkly: Theological [Re]Visioning with All The Boys” in Carrie Mae Weems: Strategies of Engagement. McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, 2018.

  • “Black/Feminist Futures: Reading Beauvoir in Black Skin, White Masks.” South Atlantic Quarterly 112(4): 697-723 (2013).

  • “From Crib to Cage: The Theological Calculus of Solitary Confinement.” The Muslim World 103(2): 209-222 (2013).

Essays + Poetry

  • “Before I Wake.” In The Shadow of Charleston Special Symposium, The Syndicate, (July 28, 2015): http://bit.ly/1JyHVmn

  • “saturday.” DIVINITY Magazine, (Spring 2015); reprinted in Between Midnight and Dawn: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide (Paraclete Press, 2016) http://bit.ly/1KH4gTV

  • “Ad(vent) Nauseum.” Curator Magazine, (Dec 11, 2014): http://bit.ly/1F93aV4

  • “Precious, Take Our Hand.” Stony Roads: Office of Black Church Studies Blog, Duke Divinity School (Nov 24, 2009)

  • “Learning to Speak.” Faith and Leadership Blog. Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, (Nov 10, 2009): http://bit.ly/1bSkTP