Service

Alongside service as the George Washington Williams Professor of Music, Sacred Music, and Divinity at Yale University, Dr. Shelley is also faculty director of the Institute of Sacred Music’s Interdisciplinary Program in Music and the Black Church. Launched in 2021, this program brings sustained scholarly attention to the music of the Black Church and its wide-ranging influence across American and global musical cultures. It convenes scholars, students, and practitioners for research, performance, and public conversation, positioning Black sacred music as a central site of intellectual and artistic inquiry at Yale.

Under Shelley’s leadership, the program has also become a point of national convening. It has hosted leading gospel artists – including Kirk Franklin, Kurt Carr, Donald Lawrence, Richard Smallwood, The Clark Sisters, and Cory Henry – as well as premier choir directors and leading practitioners from across the country. The program has also organized conferences and symposia anchored by scholarly presentations: Ambre Dromgoole, Ashon Crawley, Charrise Barron, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Cornel West, Henry Washington, James Abbington, Louise Toppin, Marla Frederick, among others. Through concerts, lectures, and student engagement, the program creates sustained exchange between the academy and the living traditions of Black gospel music.