Stephen L. Selka, an ethnographer and cultural anthropologist of race and religion in Brazil, retires after fifteen years of service to various departments at Indiana University, especially the Department of Religious Studies.
Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Steve grew up in Florida in the 1970s and 1980s, two places and two decades which, I like to believe, were essential to the development of Steve’s easy-going demeanor, impish sense of humor, and casual iconoclasm, all of which he brought to bear in his research, teaching, and service.
Steve earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from Florida Atlantic University in the 1990s and completed his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Albany in 2003. His first academic job was Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University. Hired by IU in 2007, Steve initially served in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies and the Department of American Studies, before coming to Religious Studies, his tenure home.
Steve completed his first book, Religion and the Politics of Ethnic Identity in Bahia, Brazil (University of Florida Press) the year he arrived at IU. In that work, Steve explored what it meant to be Black in Brazil through the lens of Christian and African diasporic religions, especially Candomblé, and the ways in which those religions were used by Brazilians of African descent to forge a racial consciousness and identity. Steve’s book was well received by his peers, who consider it to be a “must-read for all those interested in race, justice, and religion in Bahia and beyond.”
Drawing upon his deep knowledge of race and religion in Brazil, Steve continued to publish and teach in that area of study for several more years, but in ways which moved beyond his monograph. In a series of articles published between 2008 and 2021, Steve explored questions of gender, race, demon possession, capitalism, tourism, and the “religious marketplace” in Bahia. Much of this research informs the content of his current book manuscript “Sisters in Spirit: Religion, Race and Tourism in Brazil,” as well as the content of several undergraduate and graduate courses at IU.
During his last few years at IU, Steve began a new research project and undergraduate course on post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction. The intent of this work is to get students and, eventually, readers to grapple with a complex set of questions generated by these two genres, such as What is “human nature”? How do colonization and slavery shape the ways in which we make distinctions between the human and non-human? And what does it mean to be “post-human”? From conversations with Steve, I know that this new area of interest will be the principal focus of his work in the years to come.
Steve served as the Director of Graduate Studies in Religious Studies for the academic years 2019–2022. It was then that I worked most closely with Steve, where I watched him navigate an array of challenges brought upon by the pandemic and the need for a graduate workers’ union. Steve was especially adept at keeping graduate students, as well as faculty and staff members, in good cheer during those years. His foresight and diligence helped to identify problems before they became so, and his tireless efforts helped graduate students to stay focused on their studies and, thus, their futures.
As evidence of Steve’s commitment to graduate students, several of them informed me that his “unrelenting support” for their education and his “excitement and enthusiasm for thinking with us is what made working with Steve a real joy.” He treated graduate students “as colleagues and co-conspirators,” an approach which has helped to make the Department of Religious Studies a “productive and welcoming community, both intellectually and personally.” Capturing a key aspect of his fashion sense, one graduate student noted “that of all the professors I’ve encountered, Steve by far has the snazziest collection of shoes.”
In an environment which rightly privileges hard work, deep thinking, and dedication, Steve did all of these things at IU, but with a mischievous smile and a battery of inside jokes, often in rhyme. As he once reminded us during a DGS report, “No G901 until your funding is done,” a mnemonic couplet he delivered while wearing a t-shirt which disarmingly read “I’m here because I was told there’d be pie.”
Beyond research, teaching, and service, but crucial to who he is, Steve devotes much of his time to music. He plays guitar and sings in various bands in Chicago and Bloomington, and he still schlepps around crates of vinyl LPs from the 1980s and 1990s, occasionally “unboxing” them for a night of high school revelry and college memories. Most important to his life are Kristen and Anya, who ground Steve in love, care, and, humor, not to mention a sugar high of witty rebukes.
I conclude this far-from-comprehensive biography with a few revelations about Steve which most people at IU might not know. He had a fondness for collecting office chairs. He’s like a raccoon, “but not as cute.” He would rather write thirteen good pages of scholarship than eighteen good pages. He was the creator of the Omicron Ron PSAs which filled Sycamore Hall during “these challenging times.” His favorite plushy is named Phil. His final lecture included nothing but donuts and karaoke—and, yes, there is a video. In other words, he’s still got it!
– Patrick Lally Michelson, Department of Religious Studies Associate Professor
The College of Arts