Charles H. Long has played a leading role in building and promoting the field of African Diaspora studies as a part of African American Studies and of Religious Studies. His distinguished career includes years as a professor on the faculties of the University of Chicago, the University of North Carolina, Duke University, Syracuse University, where he also directed the Humanities Doctoral Program, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was also the Director of the Center for Black Studies. Many of the students whose dissertations he advised have gone on to become key scholars in African Diaspora studies and in other fields in Religious Studies.

Since his retirement in 1996, Prof. Long has continued to teach as a visiting professor at the University of Capetown in South Africa, as well as at the University of Michigan and the University of Missouri. He has served as a consultant to a wide range of programs, including the African Heritage Museum in Philadelphia since 1985, and to the NEH Project, "God's Trombones" since 1987. He was one of the three founding editors of the journal History of Religions, and was founding editor of the series Studies in Religion of the University of North Carolina Press. In 1991, he received the Professional Achievement Citation of the University of Chicago Alumni Association. In 1973, he was the President of the American Academy of Religion. He was also a founding member of the Society for the Study of Black Religion, for which he served as President from 1987-1990. He is the author of Alpha, The Myths of Creation; The History of Religions: Essays in Understanding, ed. with Joseph Kitagawa; and Significations: Signs, Symbols and Images in the Interpretation of Religion, and of numerous articles, and reviews.