Dr. Erika Gault is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies with a Ph.D. in American Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Gault is a scholar, poet, and ordained elder whose justice-centered work blends research, art, and religion to advocate for the rights of young Black people. Gault's work focuses on the intersection of religious history, technology, and urban black life in post-industrial America. On the topic of hip hop, religion, and digital ethnography she has delivered and published a number of papers regionally, nationally, and internationally.  She currently has a single-author volume on the digital-religious lives of young Black Christians under contract with NYU Press. Gault is also the co-editor of Beyond Christian Hip Hop: Towards Christians and Hip Hop (Routledge, 2019).
 

Recent Publications

Scholarly books and monographs

• Gault, Erika and Travis Harris, Beyond Christian Hip Hop: Toward Christians and Hip Hop, Routledge, 2019.

Refereed journal articles, published or accepted in final form

• Gault, Erika, Guest Editor, Special Issue: Africana Digital Humanities, Fire!!!, “My People Are Free: Theorizing the Digital Black Church,” (Spring 2020).
• Gault, Erika. “When Saints Found Out: Tasha Cobbs, Nicki Minaj and the Policing of Black Christianity Online” in Fire!!! The Multimedia Studies Journal of Black Studies, Fall Issue (2018): 9-34.

Chapters in scholarly books and monographs

• Gault, Erika. “Performing to the Rhythm of Justice: Martin Luther King’s Speeches and the Urban-Digital Context” In Reframing Urban Ministry: 21st Century Contexts and Considerations, edited by R. Drew Smith, Stephanie Boddie, Ronald Peters, 247-253. Louisville, KY: Westminister John Knox Press, 2018.
• Gault, Erika. “Why Are All the Gospel Rappers Online? The Role of Social Media Sites in Building Communities” Edited by Steven Malliet, Alexander Dhoest, Jacques Haers, Barbara Seagaert in Revisiting Subcultures: From Art of Resistance to Creative Innovation, New York: Routledge, 2015.
• Gault, Erika. “Grandfather Clause” in Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. New York: SAGE, 2013.
• Gault, Erika. “My Soul Knows How to Flow: A Critical Analysis of the History of Urban Black Christian-Themed Rap” Edited by Andre Johnson in Urban God Talk: Constructing a Hip Hop Spirituality, pp. 171-187. New York: Lexington Books, 2013.
• Gault, Erika. "Locked Out: The Beginning of the First Black Church Studies Programs, The Christian Citizen, 2007.

Research Interests: hip hop and religion, African American religious history, Black millennials, digital ethnography and new trends in Black churches