Mélena Laudig is a second-year doctoral student in the Religion in America subfield
pursuing certificates from the African American Studies Department and the Program in Gender
and Sexuality Studies. She primarily researches nineteenth-century African American religious
history. In particular, she is interested in Black missionary and emigration movements to the
Caribbean and the African continent, the formation of Black women’s identities through
transnational movement and conceptions of Black religious freedom. She earned her Bachelor of
Arts in Religious Studies from Yale University in 2019. Her work has been supported by Yale’s
Edward A. Bouchet Fellowship as well as the Program in American Studies and the Center for
African American Studies at Princeton.
Mélena Laudig
