Josef Sorett

Josef Sorett is an American scholar of religion and race in the Americas. He has served as the Dean of Columbia College of Columbia University since July 2022.

Education
Josef Sorett received a Bachelor of Science in Health and Exercise Science from Oral Roberts University, an MDiv in Religion and Literature from Boston University, and his PhD in African American Studies from Harvard University.

Career
Sorett first taught at Columbia University in 2009, and he became Professor of Religion and African American and African Diaspora Studies, Chair of the Department of Religion, and Director of the Center on African-American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice. His research focuses on how religion has shaped cultures of Black communities and movements in the United States, from a perspective that straddles history, literature, religion, art, and music. Sorett is the editor of The Sexual Politics of Black Churches published by Columbia University Press in 2022. The book investigates the politics of sexuality within Black churches and their communities. Sorett, who since 2022 has also served as Chair of Columbia University's Inclusive Public Safety Advisory Committee to "foster an inclusive campus community" with dialogue about campus racism, received Columbia's Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2022.

Dean of Columbia College
Since July 2022, Dr. Sorett has served as the Dean of Columbia College and Vice President of Undergraduate Education.

During Columbia University students' 2024 Pro-Palestine campus protests, Sorett sent an email to students on April 18 urging them to "avoid the false surety of familiar assumptions" of their peers' thoughts, intentions, and motivations. Sorett sent an email to Columbia alumni on April 24 about the campus protests, denouncing antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric.

During Columbia's annual alumni reunion on May 31, 2024, Sorett engaged with texts by three Columbia administrators disparaging a panel about antisemitism on campus, at one point responding "LMAO" to one of the text messages. The three administrators were placed on leave and removed from their positions. Minouche Shafik, President of Columbia University, stated that the messages were "unacceptable and deeply upsetting." On July 8, Sorett apologized, noting that "while not intended as such, some of the text messages exchanged may call to mind antisemitic tropes".

Books

 * Spirit in the Dark: A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics (Oxford University Press, 2016)
 * The Sexual Politics of Black Churches (Columbia University Press, 2022) editor
 * Black is a Church: Christianity and the Contours of African American Life (Oxford University Press, 2023)