Date of Award

Spring 2023

Document Type

Thesis

Terms of Use

© 2023 Patrick Li. All rights reserved. This work is freely available courtesy of the author. It may only be used for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes. For all other uses, including reproduction and distribution, please contact the copyright holder.

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Educational Studies Department, Black Studies Program

First Advisor

James Padilioni

Second Advisor

Diane Downer Anderson

Abstract

Hoodoo, Conjure, and Rootwork refer to the constellation of African American traditions of spiritual and physical healing, ancestral devotion, retaliation, and protection created in response to chattel slavery. The current study investigates the multimodal potentials of Hoodoo for holistic healing in the contemporary digital age. Expanding on Erika Gault’s definition of digital Black religion studies as “the study of Black folks’ digital pathways to healing and wholeness (freedom) and their religious contribution to the development of digital technology,” I triangulate a framework of Hoodoo Healing Literacies (HHLs) using practices of Rootwork, Conjure, and CyberHoodoo. These practices correlate to bio-psycho, psycho-spiritual, and psycho-social wellness and healing, respectively. By analyzing Hoodoo subreddit discourse and other forms of media, I explore the ways in which Hoodoo affords healing through magic and folk medicine, ancestral veneration, and cooperative economics as technologies of Black joy and liberation.

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