Mélena “Mae” Laudig

Mélena “Mae” Laudig is Assistant Professor of African American Christianity in the History and Ecumenics Department at Princeton Theological Seminary. A social and cultural historian, Laudig specializes in the history of Black religions in early and antebellum America. Working at the intersection of Africana Religious Studies, Black Childhood Studies, and Slavery Studies, she focuses on the impacts of slavery and emancipation on Black religious life and culture as well as the religious histories of Black children.

Her first book manuscript, currently titled “Her Country’s Children”: African American Childhood and Religion in Slavery and Freedom, traces how religious institutions, communities, and discourses shaped experiences and conceptions of Black childhood in the early United States. Other projects include a history of the Mather School, a Baptist boarding school for Black girls established in Reconstruction-era South Carolina, as well as work on the conversion and religious ministry of Christopher McPherson, a Black clerk and writer in colonial Virginia. Laudig’s work has been supported by fellowships from the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving, and the Library Company of Philadelphia, among others.

Laudig completed her BA in Religious Studies from Yale University and earned both her MA and PhD in Religion from Princeton University, where she focused on Religion in the Americas and gained certificates in African American Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies.