Biography
Dr. An specializes in Religions of the Americas with a particular focus on Latin America and the Caribbean. His research focuses on the construction of religion, race, and political identity in colonial and postcolonial Americas. Dr. An received his Ph.D. in Philosophical Studies of Religion at Drew University and he has previously taught in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Lebanon Valley College, PA.
Dr. An’s first book, The Decolonial Abyss (Fordham University Press, 2016) rethinks the relation between mysticism and politics by putting Neoplatonic mystical thought into conversation with continental philosophy and Afro-Caribbean philosophy. He is currently co-editing a book on Race, Coloniality, and Philosophy of Religion. He teaches courses on World Religions, Religion and Race, Religion and Migration, and Central American Religious Movements.
In addition to teaching and research, Dr. An is a member of the steering committee of both World Christianities Group and Liberation Theologies Group at the American Academy of Religion. He is also on the Editorial Board of Horizontes Decoloniales.
For a full list of publications (PDF), click HERE.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Books
The Coloniality of the Secular: Race, Religion, and Poetics of World-Making (Forthcoming, Duke University Press)
Beyond Man: Race, Coloniality, and Philosophy of Religion, Co-editor with Eleanor Craig (Duke University Press, 2021)
The Decolonial Abyss: Mysticism and Cosmopolitics from the Ruins (Fordham University Press, 2016)
Book chapters and articles
“The Body as Praxis: Disarticulating the Human from Ownership and Property,” Africana Religious Studies, Kenneth Ngwa, ed. (New York: Fordham University Press, Forthcoming)
“On Violence and Redemption: Fanon and Colonial Theodicy” Beyond Man: Race, Coloniality, and Philosophy of Religion, An Yountae and Eleanor Craig, eds. (Durham: Duke University Press, In Press)
“A Decolonial Theory of Religion: Race, Coloniality, and Secularity in the Americas” Journal of the American Academy of Religion Vol. 88, Issue 4. December 2020.
“Decolonizing the Cosmo-polis: Cosmopolitanism as a Rehumanizing Project,” Decolonial Christianities: Latinx and Latin American Perspectives, Raimundo Barreto and Roberto Sirvent, eds. (New York: Palgrave Press, 2019)