“As a professor who cares about scholarship that is relevant in the ‘real world,’ I am grateful to be a part of the inspiring work that the Louisville Institute does to facilitate exciting and impactful projects in the church, the academy, and the society at large.”

Justin Michael Reed is a Hebrew Bible scholar whose research and teaching concerns Black biblical hermeneutics, reception history, ideological criticism, and the study of race and ethnicity.

He currently serves as associate professor of Old Testament at Louisville Seminary. Before that, he earned his PhD in Hebrew Bible from Princeton Seminary, his master’s in theological studies from Harvard, and his bachelors in African and African American studies from Stanford.

In his first monograph, The Injustice of Noah’s Curse (Oxford University Press, 2025), he brings together critical race theory, speech act theory, intertextuality, and irony to argue for a new interpretation to a text with a notoriously dangerous history of consequences. The research for the book earned him a 2025 Manfred Lautenschlager Award for Theological Promise.

He is ordained as a Progressive National Baptist minister, and he contributes to the wider church by sharing the insights of critical biblical scholarship in ways that are interesting and accessible. For access to some of his work, visit his personal website: drjustinreed.com/links.

He is married to attorney Catherine Howard, who serves as a public defender; they are the proud parents of Jordan and Justice.