Biography
Sarah M. Reynolds is a Ph.D. candidate in sociocultural anthropology. Her research examines the distinctions between religion and spirituality in Benin Republic. Specifically, she investigates how Beninese work to remake, reimagine, rebrand, revive, and relabel Vodun given its history of marginalization and unsavory representation. She uses the lenses of traditional healing and race as the primary modes of inquiry in examining how Beninese have been tasked with creating new forms of Vodun religious representation. Reynolds has linguistic experience in both French and Fongbe and has received multiple grants for her work, including a Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant. She received her M.A. in Anthropology from Brandeis University and her B.A. in both Anthropology and International Studies from Louisiana State University.