My name is Ariyanne “Ari” Colston (also known as Ari Johnson). I am a third-year PhD student at Princeton University with research interests in African American religion, Black geographies, law and religious theory. My work studies the ways law, violence, and urban policy shape the contours of Black religion and sacred spacemaking in the United States, both materially and theoretically. I am also interested in the historical formation and decline of Black religious sites—specifically the architectural and spatial practices of Black churches.

Law, religion, and space shape my interests within and beyond graduate study. During my time at Candler School of Theology and Emory Law, I pursued my passion for Black space and place by specializing in property law, historic preservation, and black land loss prevention. I have held internships with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, and Georgia Heirs Property Law Center. I am also an ordained Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, where I put my love for African American Religious History, critical religious theory, and liberation theology into practice.

Alongside my formal training, I am an independent researcher of historic and abandoned Black sacred sites. My work uses photography, oral histories, and archival research to document forgotten Black sanctuaries. Within and beyond the classroom, my work in law, religion, and African American studies seeks to rethink dominant legal and cultural understandings of sacred space by studying and preserving Black ecclesiastical architecture, religious placemaking, and material culture.

Education

Ph.D Student, Religion, Princeton University

J.D., Emory School of Law, c.o. ‘22

M.Div., Candler School of Theology, c.o. ‘22

B.A., Religious Studies and International Studies, University of Miami, c.o. '17