Katharine Gerbner
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ktgerbs.bsky.social
Katharine Gerbner
@ktgerbs.bsky.social
Historian of religion & race, archives, media/tech/comm, politics of education. History Prof & Dir. of Religious Studies @ University of Minnesota. Au: Christian Slavery (2018) and Archival Irruptions (2025). www.katharinegerbner.com
Thanks, Betsy! Yes there will be more. Also I think this one will be recorded
November 11, 2025 at 8:49 PM
lol thank you!
October 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
thanks so much, Sarah!
October 16, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Thanks so much Jason!!
October 15, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Also, what he writes about the humanities is SO IMPORTANT TO HEAR!

"The true value of a liberal arts education is not learning a collection of facts, but learning how to learn."

Thank you David.

www.startribune.com/david-m-perr...
Meet David M. Perry, our new contributing columnist focused on history, disabilities and education
He moved back to Minnesota because it is a state that believes in serving the public good. But, he writes, Minnesota is not always at its best.
www.startribune.com
October 15, 2025 at 2:59 PM
If you're planning to teach it, there's an Open Access version so students can get a free e-copy. My goal was for this book to be both teachable AND accessible.

Also: I'm happy to zoom in & answer questions from students if you assign it - just message me!

read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/3...
Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica
In 1760, following the largest slave revolt in the eighteenth-century British Empire, the Afro-Caribbean word Obeah first appeared in British colonial law.
read.dukeupress.edu
October 15, 2025 at 2:51 PM
At just 145 pages, Archival Irruptions is intended to be a short, teachable book and I designed it with Historical/Archival Methods and Religious Studies courses in mind. My hope is that it can help students work ethically, creatively, and rigorously with colonial archives to tell new histories.
October 15, 2025 at 2:51 PM
The result is a book about historical methods, ethics, and storytelling. Each chapter focuses on a different type of archival source and reads them for “irruptions” – ruptures in the colonial narrative that allow us to tell a new history that has otherwise been silenced.
October 15, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Archival Irruptions tells a new history of Obeah, an Afro-Caribbean religion that was criminalized in 1760 after the largest slave revolt in the 18th century British Empire. Using previously unexamined German Moravian sources, I examine the meaning of Obeah BEFORE it became a crime.
October 15, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Thanks so much, Calvin!
October 15, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Thanks so much, Brooke!
October 14, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Thanks Pippa!
October 2, 2025 at 10:51 AM
thank you!!
September 23, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Thanks so much! I'm a fan of your work :)
September 23, 2025 at 9:19 PM