Adam DJ Brett is a scholar of religion, Indigenous studies, Christian thought, and digital humanities. He holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Syracuse University, where his work developed at the intersection of American religious history, visual culture, political theology, and the study of Christianity’s entanglements with empire, nationalism, and settler colonialism. He currently serves as Visiting Professor for Digital Humanities and Indigenous Studies at United Lutheran Seminary and as International Research Advisor for the American Indian Law Alliance.
Brett’s scholarship examines the religious and intellectual formations that have shaped modern structures of domination, with particular attention to Christian nationalism, the Doctrine of Discovery, Indigenous sovereignty, and the religious dimensions of law and political imagination. His work brings historical, theological, and critical methods into conversation with public humanities, archival research, and digital scholarship. He is especially interested in how religious ideas are materialized through images, institutions, legal regimes, public memory, and educational practice.
His dissertation has been published as Catastrophic Christianity: An Iconological Study of the Messianic Idea in American Protestant Christianity circa 1900–1940. The book investigates the visual and theological construction of messianic expectation in American Protestantism during the early twentieth century, analyzing how apocalyptic, nationalist, and imperial imaginaries shaped religious culture and public life.
In addition to his academic work, Brett contributes to public-facing research, advocacy, and educational initiatives concerning Indigenous rights, the Doctrine of Discovery, and the ongoing work of dismantling Christian settler colonial frameworks. His digital and public humanities work includes collaborative projects that make scholarly resources accessible to educators, communities, and advocacy organizations.
More information is available at adamdjbrett.com.
