Education

• Dr. Nixon Cleophat holds an M.Phil (Master of Philosophy) and Ph.D. in Systematic Theology and Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City  (2010 & 2014)
• Attended Harvard University and earned a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) in Biblical Studies and Political Theology (2006)
• Earned a BA in English and Secondary Education at Salem State University’s Honors Program (2003)

Teaching Position at Bloomfield College

• Associate Professor in Religion

Research Interests

• Indigenous religions, including African Religions (West African Vudun) as well as African-derived Caribbean religions such as Haitian Vodou
• Liberation theologies (Black Theology, Latin American Liberation Theology, African Liberation Theology, Womanist Theo-ethics)
• Queer theory
• Ecological ethics
• Systematic theology
• Pneumatology

Book and Chapter Publications

• Recently, he has published “Vodou as the Embryo and Marker of Haitian Socio-historical Identity,” in Shackled Sentiments: Slaves, Spirits, and Memories in the African Diaspora, Eric J. Montgomery, ed. (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2019).

He has co-authored a textbook

• A Critical Approaches to Religion: Race, Class, and Gender. San Diego: Cognella Publishing, 2019

He is a co-editor of two collections of an anthology

• Vodou in Haitian Memory. New York: Lexington Books, 2016.
• Vodou in the Haitian Experience. New York: Lexington Books, 2016.

In the anthology, he also contributed two chapters:

• "Haitian Vodou: The Ethic of Social Sin & the Praxis of Liberation"
• "Haitian Vodou, a Politico-Realist Theology of Survival."

Future Publication

• Dr. Cleophat relies on Haitian Vodou as a critical lens to examine the ethic of social sin and the praxis of liberation in Black Theology and Christian Realism.

Dr. Cleophat’s Likes and Hobbies

• He loves light pink, baby (sky) blue, and white are his favorite colors. He loves different types of red wines as long as they are not sweet or sour. He enjoys taking long walks in the park. He is a decent cook. He finds cooking to be cathartic in times of stress and other life’s ordeals. When he is not in the classroom, he’s often home watching terrible reality tv shows.

Glen A. Hayes is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Bloomfield College (NJ). He received his Ph.D. in History of Religions from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1985, where he studied with Edward C, Dimock, Jr., J.A.B. van Buitenen, Mircea Eliade, Jonathan Z. Smith, and Frank Reynolds. His dissertation examined the dynamics of body symbolism in Bengali Hindu tantric traditions. He co-founded the Society for Tantric Studies in 1986, and serves as its chairperson. He co-founded the Tantric Studies unit of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) in 2003, and has served as a co-chair. He has been a steering committee member of the Cognitive Science of Religion unit of the American Academy of Religion. He has published numerous studies of the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā tantric traditions of Bengal, including translations of primary texts. He has also explored the uses of metaphor theory and conceptual blending theory in the study of tantra. He continues to conduct research in Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā texts, as well as in cognitive science.