I am an Assistant Professor of Gender and Diversity Studies at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. I completed my PhD in Religious Studies with a concentration in Islam in America at the University of Iowa in 2017. I also hold M.A. degrees in Religious Studies from University of Iowa; Islam and the West from Queen Mary-University of London; and Bioethics from Case Western Reserve University.
I am an expert in contemporary Black Islam, African-American religious history, and material religion. Currently, I am writing a book, Fashioning Black Islam: Race, Gender, and Belonging in the Ummah, which provides history of Black Muslim fashion beginning in the 1930s. I argue that Black Muslim women have used their clothing to challenge both white supremacist beauty standards and Arab-centrism in American Islam.
I am the curator of the Black Islam Syllabus. I am also the PI for the Oral History and Ephemera Archive at the Center for the Study of Religion and the City at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Kayla Renée Wheeler, PhD 