Emma M. Corey, Ph.D.

Emma M. Corey, Ph.D., joined Mercer’s faculty in 2026 after four years on faculty at Hendrix College. Before beginning graduate work, Corey spent years in nonprofit and community-based work. These experiences helped cultivate her passion for community-engaged research and teaching.

Education

• Ph.D., Religion, Emory University
• M.Div, Ethics and Theology, Emory University
• B.A., Religion, Birmingham-Southern

Specialty

Religion and global public health, religious ethics, qualitative research in religious studies, HIV/AIDS

Professional Interests

Corey’s research focuses on religion, healing, human difference and the moral imagination (broadly construed). She is interested in how our conceptions of religion and healing shape the way we see ourselves, one another and the moral possibilities for our life together. As an ethicist and ethnographer, Corey’s current research engages faith-based HIV/AIDS clinics for children and adolescents funded by United States tax dollars in Nairobi, Kenya. Drawing on participant observation, oral histories and a 12-year relationship with the organization, she illuminates the ways practitioners and volunteers navigate local ways of knowing, biomedical expertise and stark economic disparities within a global public health structure deeply influenced by Protestant Christianity in the United States.

Corey is also interested in the intersections of religion and race in the Americas, the anthropology of religion, and religion and popular culture.

Contact Emma M. Corey

478-301-2768
corey_em@mercer.edu
Office: Knight Hall, Room 313A