At Morehouse College, research is not only about uncovering the past. It is about connecting history to the present and using that knowledge to shape the future. Through the Research Assistant Program, students and faculty engage in work that reflects the depth, complexity, and urgency of Black intellectual traditions across disciplines.
In the Department of Africana Studies and History, Dr. Ovell Hamilton, department chair, is working alongside Braxton Broady ’27, a junior History major with aspirations of attending law school. Their project explores Black Military History alongside local and state histories of Black Pentecostalism, uncovering narratives that are often overlooked but deeply foundational.
Through this work, Broady has immersed himself in primary source research, engaging directly with materials from veterans, religious leaders, and community voices. He has also played a key role in organizing interviews, helping to preserve lived experiences that might otherwise go undocumented.
Reflecting on the experience, Broady describes the work as transformative.
“My work with Dr. Hamilton this semester has been extraordinarily eye-opening. Having the opportunity to conduct sustained research under his mentorship has been invaluable. I have been able to look at primary sources from veterans and religious leaders and help organize interviews. My work so far has required much refinement of my organization and management abilities, as well as given me skills that will aid my academic journey beyond this project as I look towards graduate school programs.”
Under Dr. Hamilton’s guidance, this project contributes to a broader effort to document and interpret the intersections of military service, faith, and community within Black life. It highlights how institutions like the church have long served as sites of resilience, organization, and identity formation, particularly within African American communities.
Two projects emerging from the program this year, led by Dr. Ovell Hamilton and Dr. Harold Bennett, demonstrate how scholarship at Morehouse bridges history, faith, and innovation in powerful and unexpected ways.
In another corner of campus, Dr. Harold Bennett, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Endowed Chair of Philosophy and Religion, is working with senior Religion major Andra Taylor on a project that brings theological inquiry into conversation with emerging technologies.
Titled African American Pentecostal Biblical Hermeneutics and Social Justice in the Age of AI and Afrofuturism, their research examines how faith traditions can inform ethical approaches to artificial intelligence and digital systems.
At its core, the project asks a critical question. How can long-standing traditions rooted in justice and community guide the development and use of technologies that increasingly shape everyday life?
For Taylor, the experience has been both intellectually rigorous and deeply relevant.
“The Research Assistant Program has provided space to critically examine how emerging technologies intersect with faith traditions committed to social justice. My work explores how data and algorithms can be evaluated, and ultimately shaped, through African American Pentecostal ethical frameworks so that artificial intelligence becomes a tool for advocacy rather than a mechanism of inequality.”
This work situates African American Pentecostal thought within contemporary conversations about technology, power, and equity. It also reflects a broader Morehouse tradition of engaging timeless questions in new contexts, ensuring that scholarship remains both grounded and forward-looking.
Together, these projects reflect the breadth of research taking place through the Research Assistant Program. From archival work that preserves historical memory to theoretical exploration that reimagines the ethical dimensions of technology, students and faculty are engaging questions that matter across time and space.
At Morehouse, this kind of work is not incidental. It is intentional. It reflects a commitment to developing scholars who can think critically, act ethically, and contribute meaningfully to the world around them.