Cleve Tinsley

Cleve V. Tinsley IV is an ordained Baptist minister, scholar of religion and African American culture, and community social justice strategist based in Houston, TX. He is currently the Co-Managing Partner of projectCURATE—a non-profit social impact enterprise and intersectional justice collaborative—and a PhD candidate in the Department of Religion at Rice University. Cleve’s research focuses on critical understandings of the wider social scientific and historical approaches to the study of religion in general and African-American religion in particular. His current research explores the relationship between religion, black freedom struggles, and African-American formations in America and argues for more expansive sociological approaches to studying the meaning and nature of black religious identity given the complexity of religion and spirituality in the lives of African Americans today. Cleve also works as a research fellow in the Religion and Public Life Program (RPLP) at Rice and, prior to his doctoral training, earned his Master of Divinity (MDiv) at Princeton Theological Seminary. Cleve has worked in the past as a pastor and consultant for several churches and educational non-profit organizations in the US South and on the East Coast.