Chireau, Yvonne P. 1961- (Yvonne Patricia Chireau)

PERSONAL:

Born February 21, 1961. Education: Mount Holyoke College, B.A., 1982; Harvard Divinity School, M.T.S., 1986; Princeton University, Ph.D., 1994.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Swarthmore, PA. Office—Department of Religion, Pearson 211, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081-1397. E-mail—ychirea1@swarthmore.edu.

CAREER:

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, teaching assistant and preceptor in religion department, 1989-91; Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, assistant professor, 1993-99, associate professor, 1999-2007, professor of religion, 2007—, chair of department of religion, 2002-06, chair of Asian American, Latino, Native American, and African Heritage Concerns Committee, chair, 1999—. Has served as a media consultant.

MEMBER:

American Academy of Religion.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Graduate fellowship, Princeton University, 1988; Mellon Research Travel Grant for study in Havana, Cuba, 1990; Five-College Fellowship, Amherst College, 1991-92; dissertation grant, Fund for Theological Education, 1991; Class of 1905 Dissertation Fellow, Mount Holyoke College, 1992; Charlotte Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship, 1993; Faculty Research Grant, Swarthmore College, 1995; Young Scholars in American Religion Fellow, Indiana-Purdue University Center for the Study of American Religion, 1995-96; Faculty Innovation Grant for Electronic Education Access in the Future (FIG-LEAF), Swarthmore College, 1996; Alumnae Association Mary Lyon Award, Mount Holyoke College, 1996; Emerging Scholars Award, American Academy of University Women, finalist, 1996; affiliate fellow, Princeton University Center for the Study of American Religion, 1996-97; faculty fellowship, Yale University Pew Program in Religion and American History, 1996-97; Mellon Tri-College Collaborative Curricular Initiative Grant, 1997-98; affiliate research grant, Harvard University Pluralism Project, 1998; National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute fellow, University of Virginia, 1998; individual research grant, American Academy of Religion, 2000; sabbatical grant, Swarthmore College, 2004-05; Mellon Trico Fellowship Seed Grant, 2004-05.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Nathaniel Deutsch) Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2003.

Author of articles on African magical religious practices.

SIDELIGHTS:

Born February 21, 1961, Yvonne P. Chireau is a professor of religion at Swarthmore College. She did her undergraduate work at Mount Holyoke College, receiving a B.A. in religion and political science in 1982. She received her M.T.A. from Harvard Divinity School in 1986, and her Ph.D. in religious studies from Princeton University in 1994. Her specialty is Africa-based religions and their relationships to healing traditions.

Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism, which Chireau edited with Nathaniel Deutsch, explores the relationship between African Americans and Judaism. The three sections examine three facets of this relationship: African American Jewish communities, African American Muslim perceptions of Judaism and the traditions they have borrowed from it, and a similar chapter on African American Christians.

In the first section, the authors look at the history of black Jewish communities, beginning in the eighteenth century, through the vehicles of two African American Jewish organizations: the Hebrew Israelites and the Alliance of Black Jews. The second section focuses on the Nation of Islam and the Holy Tabernacle Ministries, both African American Muslim organizations, and the contradictory relationships they have with Judaism. Although both condemn Jews, both share many traditions and doctrines with Judaism. The third section examines the relationship between African American Christian churches and their use of Jewish religious spaces and symbols; a chapter is devoted to the similarities between anti-Semitism and racism as expressed through voodoo. In his review of Black Zion for the Journal of Religion, Anthony B. Pinn predicted: "Readers will appreciate its effort to explore African American religion and religious identity as a set of complex realities extending beyond the typically discussed forms. Students and scholars will find this a welcome addition to existing literature."

Chireau has made a close study of the use of magic in African and African American healing and religion. Her book Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition examines these magical traditions within the context of the African American culture. Rooted in African tradition, black magic, which she also refers to as "conjure" and "hoodoo," came to America with African slaves and metamorphosed into a uniquely American practice in the southern states, both during that time and after the end of the Civil War. The practice changed as practitioners gained a greater experience of other peoples and cultures.

Eventually, conjure and Christianity blended together, with many seeing no dichotomy between magic and religion, since conjure taught morality and was used to help rather than harm. Michael Pickering pointed out in his review for Folklore that "Chireau provides a convincing argument that, although distinct in various ways, [Christianity and conjure] were far from being contradictory. Instead, contrary to evolutionist principles and values, they have operated as congruent features in the changing patterns of African-American life for at least the past two centuries." Chireau shows how references to black magic, conjure, or hoodoo show up in blues and folk literature and in the writings of African Americans such as Zora Neale Hurston. She also discusses its appeal to contemporary practitioners. Black Magic includes listings of various resources such as manuals, charms, and advertisements for magical services.

Critics declared that Black Magic is a valuable and needed resource in an understudied field. In World History Connected, Claudette L. Tolson wrote that the work is "a wonderful book on conjure" and "a very valuable resource." Tolson added that Chireau's "work is extremely important because conjure has often been overlooked and seen negatively within the African-American community and worldwide." In her review for Church History, Jalane D. Schmidt called Black Magic "an important reminder for the field to reconsider the parameters of African American religious history with regard to religion and magic."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, July 1, 2004, L.H. Mamiya, review of Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition.

Church History, September 1, 2006, Jalane D. Schmidt, review of Black Magic, p. 696.

Folklore, August 1, 2005, Michael Pickering, review of Black Magic, p. 231.

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, September 1, 2004, review of Black Magic.

Journal of Religion, April, 2002, Anthony B. Pinn, review of Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism, p. 331.

Western Folklore, January 1, 2005, Eoghan C. Ballard, review of Black Magic.

ONLINE

Swarthmore College Web site,http://www.swarthmore.edu/ (May 14, 2008), curriculum vitae of Yvonne P. Chireau.

World History Connected,http://www.historycooperative.org/ (May 14, 2008), Claudette L. Tolson, review of Black Magic.