John P. Sloan is currently a PhD candidate in the Literatures in English Department at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Duke Divinity School. His research focuses on early African American literature with a particular focus on religion and poetry. His dissertation project, tentatively titled Unearthing World Shapers: Enslaved Poiesis and the Case for Unfettered Reading, reframes enslaved poets as agile thinkers who, beyond themes of abolitionism, theorize the world through their multifaceted poetry. Sloan was recently awarded the Wilson Library Southern Studies Doctoral Fellowship at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His article on biblical interpretation in mid-nineteenth century African American propaganda about Haiti is forthcoming in Small Axe. Sloan is a strong proponent of community-engaged and community-accountable scholarship and advocates for programming which facilitates collective learning beyond the University.
