Discerning a Call to Doctoral Studies

Samaria Divine holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Religion with a focus on the Hebrew Bible. At FTE, she directs FTE’s doctoral initiatives and oversees efforts to create an engaged community of diverse scholars and supports doctoral students in completing their programs. Her own experiences applying to and navigating doctoral studies ignited her passion for assisting other upcoming underrepresented and underserved scholars in their academic pursuits. She holds a Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Georgia State University.

Ambre Dromgoole is an assistant professor of Africana religions and music in the Africana Studies & Research Center at Cornell University. Dr. Dromgoole received her B.A. in Religion and Musical Studies from Oberlin College and Conservatory, her M.A. from Yale Divinity School and Institute of Sacred Music, and her PhD in African American studies and religious studies from Yale University. She has presented work for the Society for Ethnomusicology, the American Studies Association, and the American Academy of Religion and has held fellowships with the Ford Foundation and the Louisville Institute, among others. Her current book project There’s a Heaven Somewhere: A Sonic History of Black Womanhood documents the twentieth-century history of itinerant women gospel musicians as a collective, paying particular attention to their musical trainings as girls in Afro-Protestant contexts as well as their formation in the entertainment industry.