Tilling Sacred Grounds: Interiority, Black Women, and Religious Experience - Paperbackby Phillis Isabella Sheppard (Author) Tilling Sacred Grounds centers Black women's interiority as a site for religious experience. Phillis Isabella Sheppard argues that interiority is a site for the negotiation of gender, race, and sexuality and finds articulation in public religious practice. Author Biography Phillis Isabella Sheppard is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Associate Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture at Vanderbilt