Digital Spiritualities
Black Americans are using technology to express their religious identities, and religion scholar Margarita Guillory is here to tell their stories
From a podcast about metahumans to Voodoo-themed video games to #witchesofcolor on Instagram, Margarita Guillory’s research leads her into some fascinating corners of the digital and religious universes.
Guillory, an associate professor of religion and African American & Black diaspora studies, explores the ways in which African Americans use the internet, social media, mobile applications, and gaming to express their spiritual and religious identities—stories she’ll publish in her upcoming book, Africana Religion in the Digital Age (Routledge, 2024).
Guillory’s work falls into what researchers call the digital humanities, and her interest in the digital lives of Black Americans has been fueled by her students’ innate view that humanists cannot run away from technology. Guillory’s work was given an even bigger platform this year with the broadening of the mission of the BU Center for the Humanities, where she directs the newly formed Digital Humanities Initiative.
“You miss something when you do not incorporate [in your research] the ways in which these innovative technologies are impacting our lives, whether it’s from a philosophical standpoint, whether it’s from a religious standpoint, whether it’s from a sociological, economic, or political standpoint,” Guillory says. And the crux of technology and Black esoteric spirituality has proven to be rich soil for the former chemist.
“People of African descent—particularly African Americans in this country—are engaged,” Guillory says. “They’re engaging digital media in some really sophisticated and creative ways to create identities and to have these digital lives that allow them to foster a sense of freedom that they might not have in their offline realities.”
Religion and Technology
It’s easy to see where digital technologies have informed religion. Nearly every religious community has a website, and many use QR codes to collect donations. But Guillory argues religion has also had an impact on the development of some of these same technologies. Developers and users of the early World Wide Web, for instance, would sometimes describe the global network using the term legba, borrowed from Papa Legba, the Haitian lwa, or spirit who was known for connecting humans to the spirit world and speaking every language—but also for his unpredictability and propensity to deceive. And in accordance with the Hoodoo spirituality they practiced, many enslaved Africans in the American South wore mojo bags full of roots, herbs, and animal parts to bring them health, ward off evil spirits, and protect them from their enslavers. Guillory argues that these bags were a precursor to today’s wearable technologies that deliver real-time fitness and health data. “While the terminology of ‘biohacking’—whether it’s implantables, whether it’s wearables like a Fitbit watch—is new, utilizing devices to enhance one’s humanness is not new,” she says.
These are the kinds of connections Guillory loves to make. Though her religious studies have tended to focus on the “marginalized [spiritual traditions] within marginalized communities,” as she calls them, like Voodoo or Hoodoo, her teaching takes a wider view. Guillory’s Religion in a Digital Age course looks at the ways in which adherents to the world’s “big 5” religions—Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism—are using technology to “articulate various forms of [spiritual] identity.” In class, Guillory and her students look at Muslim online communities to see whether they reinforce or refute the authoritative structures sometimes embedded in conservative Islam. In another session, students play Shivah, a 2006 murder-mystery video game featuring a rabbi as its protagonist, and use it to discuss Judaism in culture. “That class allows me to stay current with the ways in which we see the dominant, ‘big 5’ religions interacting with digital media,” she says.
Guillory is on a mission to approach her scholarship in new ways—like “web-scraping” internet sites for data or employing recording software to capture gameplay—and to encourage her students and colleagues to do the same. But where not every scholar has been “on the digital humanities train,” Guillory says that at BU, graduate students are helping to turn the tide by asking different questions in their research and analyzing subject matter using more technologically advanced tools.
A recent graduate student embedded himself in Catholic online communities during COVID-19—a research method called digital ethnography—to study the ways in which congregations conducted rituals virtually during the pandemic. And it was an anthropology student taking Guillory’s African Diaspora Religions course who introduced Guillory to the #witchesofcolor community that is using social media to redefine Black witchcraft.
“She sent me all these links,” Guillory recalls. “I fell down a rabbit hole. I started researching more and more and more, and that led me from looking at Black witches on social media to looking at digital creatives who were doing all sorts of wonderful, innovative things with religion and in a world of podcasting.” That student’s tip blossomed into Guillory’s new book, which was made possible by a Public Theologies of Technology and Presence Grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, awarded in 2018.
A Home for the Digital Humanities
The digital humanities look at the technology invading our lives through a humanist lens while also encouraging digital innovation within humanities.
Earlier this year, Guillory joined the BU Center for the Humanities, as the center’s associate director and the inaugural director of the Digital Humanities Initiative. The initiative is developing digital tools that support the humanities and asks ethical questions about technology, like the structural biases within digital archives or artificial intelligence’s impact on the people who use it.
“We remind technologists that you are dealing with humans, and it’s important to take into consideration the humanistic ways in which your products are going to be implemented,” says Guillory, who taught chemistry before shifting her focus to the spiritual and technological realms.
Guillory says the beating heart of the Digital Humanities Initiative is the Digital Humanities Lab—which she envisions as a clearinghouse for humanities researchers from across the University doing digital scholarship to bring visibility to these projects. She wants to create a space for collaboration and learning—similar to the College of Engineering’s BUild Lab—featuring state-of-the-art tools and software students can use to create digital projects like the ones she assigns in her Religion and Hip-Hop class. There, students analyze hip-hop lyrics through the lens of religion. Guillory doesn’t ask for essays; however, students present their analysis through colorful digital murals and podcasts. Guillory envisions the lab as a place where students can be inspired by the projects of BU researchers on display or join a workshop on the ethics of generative artificial intelligence.
“Digital humanities is alive and well,” Guillory says. “And here’s a place where you can participate in this thriving enterprise.”
Hear more about Guillory’s journey into the digital humanities on episode 3 of the BU Center for the Humanities podcast.