Her research explores the religious dimensions of race, authority, and freedom in early America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic world. Her first book, Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World, shows how debates between slave-owners, black Christians, and missionaries transformed the practice of Protestantism and the language of race. Her new book project, “Constructing Religion, Defining Crime,” examines how some non-European religions – particularly those that were practiced under slavery – have been excluded from the category of religion and criminalized over the past three centuries. Another project investigates the religious and medical practices of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, paying particular attention to obeah. She has an MA in History and PhD in the History of American Civilization from Harvard University.