Dr. Kayla Renée Wheeler
Assistant Professor, Gender and Diversity Studies Program
Assistant Professor, Theology Department
Dr. Wheeler was born in Cleveland, Ohio and is a third generation Ohioan. She is a first-generation college graduate. Dr. Wheeler earned her Ph.D. in Religious Studies with a concentration in Islam in America from the University of Iowa in 2017. Her research explores Black Muslim women's material culture, digital religion, and contemporary Islam in the Americas. She is writing a book entitiled, Fashioning Black Islam, which provides a history of Black Muslim fashion in the United States from the 1930s to the present. She is also working on a digital humanities project, Mapping Malcolm's Boston, which explores Malcolm X's life in Boston from the 1940s to 1950s. Dr. Wheeler is the curator of the award-winning Black Islam Syllabus.