Haintology and the Regulation of Black Desire
Haintology is a theoretical framework for reading unacknowledged institutional betrayal in Black Protestant churches. Drawing upon the sociological concept of haunting, it names the ways institutions regulate and disappear Black desire—spiritual, sexual, and political. This work attends to what is tangled or obscured in the wake of religious harm, offering a method for reckoning with institutional trust and Black church futurity.
Holy and Haunted
The primary book project of the Sanctuary, Holy and Haunted represents an original contribution to Black religious studies and womanist theology. Grounded in the framework of haintology, this scholarly work names the regulatory logics through which institutions manage and disappear Black desire—spiritual, sexual, and political—while reading the unacknowledged institutional betrayal within Black Protestant churches.
Theoretical Interlocutors
M. Shawn Copeland · Cathy Cohen · Ann Laura Stoler · Katie Geneva Cannon · Monica Coleman
ANANCY WEBWORK
A methodological framework and conjure epistemology rooted in the Anancy trickster tradition. It moves sideways through haunted institutional terrain, attending with critical precision to what is tangled, obscured, or intentionally disappeared by power structures.
CONJURE GOVERNANCE THEORY
A theoretical analysis detailing the regulatory logics through which Black faith institutions manage and suppress spiritual and sexual dissent. This theory interrogates the mechanisms of institutional haunting and the specific techniques used to discipline and disappear Black desire.
An Ancestral & Intellectual Lineage
The Theoretical Foundation
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Avery Gordon
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Katie Geneva Cannon
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M. Shawn Copeland
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Monica Coleman
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Cathy Cohen
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Patricia Hill Collins
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Ann Laura Stoler
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Emilie Townes
The work of the Sanctuary is scaffolded by the intellectual labor of Black feminists, sociologists, and theologians who name the ghosts of institutional betrayal and the power of communal conjure.
Submitted Scholarship
Current research and contributions to Black religious studies, womanist theology, and the sociology of religion.
Church Hurt as Institutional Formation
 Exploring the role of spiritual trauma in institutional trust and communal identity.
Religious Harm, Institutional Trust, and Black Church Futurity
A structural analysis of unacknowledged betrayal and the future of faith praxis.
Haintology as Theoretical Framework
Defining a framework for reading the regulation of Black desire and institutional riding through haint lore.