Corey D. B. Walker, M.Div., M.T.S., Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Fellow
About Corey
Interim Dean, School of Divinity Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities Inaugural Director, Program in African American Studies Wake Forest University. A scholar committed to a broad and inclusive vision of human flourishing, Corey D. B. Walker is Interim Dean of the School of Divinity, Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities, and Inaugural Director of the Program in African American Studies at Wake Forest University. His research, teaching, and public scholarship span the areas of African American philosophy, critical theory, ethics, and religion and American public life. An accomplished scholar and academic leader, Dean Walker has held faculty and academic leadership appointments at Brown University, University of Virginia, Virginia Union University, and Winston-Salem State University and visiting professorships at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Union Presbyterian Seminary, and the University of Richmond. Dean Walker is the 2023-2024 Phi Beta Kappa Frank M. Updike Scholar.
He is author and editor of several books and has published over sixty articles, essays, and book chapters in a wide variety of scholarly journals and publications. A much sought after speaker, Dean Walker engages congregations and communities across the nation and has appeared on a variety of media programs in the United States and abroad.
P.O. Box 7719 | 1834 Wake Forest Road | Winston-Salem, NC 27109 | 336.758.3957
Experience
An accomplished academic leader, Walker served as vice president and dean of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University just prior to coming to the University of Richmond. Other leadership roles he has held include serving as founding dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, Business, and Education at Winston-Salem State University, chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Brown University, and inaugural director of the Center for the Study of Local Knowledge at the University of Virginia.
A dedicated teacher and scholar, Walker has served as a member of the faculty at the University of Virginia, Brown University, Winston-Salem State University, and Virginia Union University. He was also visiting professor at the Historisches Institut at Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena in Germany and non-resident fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University.
Publications
Walker is author of the book “A Noble Fight: African American Freemasonry and the Struggle for Democracy in America,” editor of the special issue of the journal Political Theology on the theme “Theology and Democratic Futures,” and associate editor of the award-winning SAGE “Encyclopedia of Identity.” He has published over 50 articles, reviews, book chapters, and essays appearing in a wide range of scholarly journals. He co-directed and co-produced the documentary film “Fifeville” with acclaimed artist and filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson. Walker’s scholarship focuses on the complexities of religion, philosophy, history, memory, culture, and public life.
