Stephen Selka :: Faculty
Assistant Professor, Program in American Studies
Assistant Professor, African American and African Diaspora Studies
Office: Memorial East M30
Phone: (812) 855-5610
E-mail: sselka 
indiana.edu
Education
PhD, University at Albany, SUNY, 2003
Research Interests
- Religion, identity, and politics
- Identity and social movements
- Brazil and the U.S.
- Diaspora studies
- Transnational tourism
- Urban anthropology
Personal Statement
I am a sociocultural anthropologist interested in the intersection of religion, race and politics in Brazil and the Americas. My primary research focuses on the intersection of religion and racial mobilization in Bahia, Brazil, where I have been conducing ethnographic fieldwork since 1999. My recently published book, Religion and the Politics of Ethnic Identity in Brazil, explores the variety of ways that people of descent involved with different religious groups construct their identities as Afro-Brazilians and participate in struggles against racism. My current project focuses on the Sisterhood of Boa Morte, an Afro-Catholic religious confraternity in Bahia whose members are women of African decent and initiates of Candomblé (an African diasporic religion practiced in Brazil). Every August, Boa Morte’s yearly festival draws a fascinating array of political and religious groups concerned with Afro-Brazilian culture and the struggle against racism, including a large number of African American visitors from the United States. These groups are central to my ongoing research on the connections between local cultural practices and the construction of transnational black identities. This work addresses the ongoing transformations of groups such as Boa Morte in the context of: 1) the increasing amount of material and symbolic capital that the state of Bahia has invested in sites where Bahia’s Afro-Brazilian heritage is constructed and celebrated; 2) the growth of domestic and transnational cultural tourism focusing on this heritage; and 3) the emergence of a black consciousness movement focused on – among other things – “rescuing” the Afro-Brazilian heritage from political and commercial appropriation.
Courses Recently Taught
- Afro-Brazilian Identity
- Global Tourism
- Qualitative Research Methods
Publication Highlights
Religion and the Politics of Ethnic Identity in Bahia, Brazil, University Press of Florida, 2007
“Mediated Authenticity: Tradition, Modernity, and Postmodernity in Brazilian Candomblé, Nova Religio, 11:1, pp. 5-30, 2007
“Ethnoreligious Identity Politics in Bahia, Brazil,” Latin American Perspectives, 32:1, 72-94, 200
Honors and Awards
- Most Influential Professor Award from the Latin American Studies Graduate Students at Tulane University
- Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award, University at Albany
- Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation
