How can theological inquiry help us understand the relationships among religion, cultural identity, and the ways people make meaning of their lives?
For Rev. Corwin Malcolm Davis, PhD, Assistant Professor of Africana Religions, Theologies, and Culture and Director of the Master of Divinity Program at Pacific School of Religion, these questions extend beyond traditional boundaries of theological study. His scholarship engages African Diasporic religious practices, feminist and queer theories, and cultural studies to examine how religion and spirituality shape human experience.
Davis brings this interdisciplinary approach to “Nobody Knows: Reintegrating Spirit, Fragments, and Archives,” an interview with artist Lyle Ashton Harris published in QTR: A Journal of Trans and Queer Studies in Religion in May 2026.
The publication reflects Davis’s interest in the ways religious life intersects with artistic expression, cultural histories, and questions of identity. By engaging with an artist whose work explores race, gender, and desire, Davis contributes to wider conversations about how art and religious thought can illuminate dimensions of human experience that are not always represented in conventional academic or theological frameworks.
This work reflects Pacific School of Religion’s commitment to theological education that welcomes diverse perspectives and engages the complex realities of the communities it serves. PSR prepares spiritually rooted leaders to create a world where all can thrive, grounding its educational mission in radical inclusion, social liberation, and a commitment to justice.
For Davis, scholarship is one way of bringing these conversations into the academy and beyond. His work invites readers to consider how religious traditions, cultural expression, and personal histories inform one another and how these relationships can deepen our understanding of the world.
As an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Davis also brings experience in congregational ministry to his academic work. His teaching, research, and engagement with religious communities reflect the connections between theological study and the lived practices of faith.
Through faculty scholarship like Davis’, PSR continues to foster an environment where theological questions can be explored across disciplines, traditions, and lived experiences. This approach supports a vision of theological education that does more than study religion: it creates space for critical inquiry, meaningful dialogue, and leadership responsive to the world’s complexity.
Read the interview: “Nobody Knows: Reintegrating Spirit, Fragments, and Archives”
Learn more about Rev. Corwin Malcolm Davis, PhD and his work at Pacific School of Religion.
