Boniuk Institute Zwan Postdoctoral Associate Sarah Reynolds was awarded an American Philosophical Society Franklin Research Grant for field research in Benin, West Africa, during the summer of 2025. An anthropologist of religion, Reynolds' research examines issues of identity in the African indigenous religion of Vodun, which is practiced in Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. While her previous work has examined issues of racial and national identity, her current research focuses on gender and women's empowerment within Vodun.
During her time in Benin, Reynolds used ethnographic field methods to conduct interviews and make observations to investigate the positives, negatives, and general nuances of women's religious work. By engaging in interviews with Vodun priestesses and tasinon (female assistants of male priests), she sought to understand the ways that women's spiritual power is viewed as special and unique, how women are empowered through their religious work, and if and to what extent women are limited in their work relative to their male counterparts.
Reynolds' efforts to understand these dynamics are important in the current moment to inform global discussions on women's rights and the role of women in various religious traditions.