Religion & the Madhouse: Featuring Judith Weisenfeld
Religion &
On this episode of Religion &, we invited scholars to engage in a wide-ranging conversation with Judith Weisenfeld on facets of her newest publication Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake (NYU Press, 2025). Listen to our conversation with Dr. Judith Weisenfeld that unpacks Black religious beliefs, new religious movements, and “religious excitement” as a psychiatric concept in institutionalization. Co-Host: Joseph L. Tucker Edmonds Joseph L. Tucker Edmonds is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at Indiana University...
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Religion & Latinx Traditions
Religion &
This episode will cover three new directions at the intersection of religion & Latinx traditions. First, panelists will reflect on politics and voting, offering insight from the 2024 election. Second, they will discuss emerging patterns in religious conversion or switching. Finally, the panelists will offer insight into new research directions in the field of US Latinx religion. Join us for an enlightening conversation where we explore Religion & Latinx Traditions. Host: Lloyd Barba Lloyd Barba is Assistant Professor of Religion and Core Faculty in Latinx and Latin American Studies at...
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Religion & Obsolescence
Religion &
On this episode of Religion &, we featured a special preview conversation about Christian Smith’s forthcoming book, Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America (Oxford University Press, 2025). Christian Smith, William R. Kenan Professor of Sociology at University of Notre Dame, has been a leading scholar of American religion for more than 30 years with many agenda-setting concepts, arguments, and books to his name. Based on a new survey and hundreds of interviews, Smith offers a sweeping account of why many Americans have lost faith in traditional religion...
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Religion & Catholic Studies
Religion &
On this episode of Religion &, we cultivated a wide-ranging discussion of the present state and prospects of Catholic Studies, 60 years after the close of Vatican II. What do recent institutional crosscurrents (e.g., synodality and increasing lay participation versus an increasingly conservative American priesthood) mean for the field? What is the status of Catholic studies in the wider academy? What are the neglected areas in scholarship, whether historical, theological, or social scientific? Listen to this conversation at the intersection of religion, institutional transformations,...
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Religion & Future Humans: Featuring Sylvester A. Johnson
Religion &
On this episode of Religion &, we invited three scholars to engage in a wide-ranging conversation with Dr. Sylvester A. Johnson, a leading thinker and theorist in the field of American religion. Dr. Johnson is not only known for his contributions as a historian and theorist, but he is highly regarded as an innovator and boundary breaker who disrupts disciplines and creates spaces for emerging themes and questions amongst scholars of religion. As the director of the Luce-funded “Future Humans, Human Futures” project, Dr. Johnson explores the intersection of religion,...
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Religion & the Aftermath of the 2024 Election
Religion &
The 2024 election season has been marked by unexpected and almost unbelievable twists and turns that have impacted every corner of American culture. From the contentious discourse on women’s rights to the daily news from war zones around the world, this political moment highlights the deep polarization throughout the country and the difficulty of engaging in thoughtful and reasoned debate. Religion and religious difference, furthermore, seems to be implicated in many of these debates as well as the larger question of what constitutes American democracy. During this episode, panelists will...
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Religion & Islamophobia
Religion &
Episode Description As the political and human casualties of the Israel-Palestine crisis continue to increase and shape the current state of the Arabic world, there has been a rise in instances of Islamophobia as well as a rise in protests, especially on university campuses, against this surging anti-Islamic sentiment. During this episode, panelists will discuss the history of the concept Islamophobia, its impact on American culture, and what other concepts might better explain the historical and contemporary moments that we face. The panelists will also explore the relationship between...
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Religion & Antisemitism
Religion &
Antisemitism has deep roots in American history and has continued to shape popular and political culture in the contemporary moment. Yet in many mainstream discussions in the United States, we often talk about it as if it were something new. This panel—featuring the authors of and experts featured on the podcast Antisemitism, U.S.A.—will discuss the long history of antisemitism, and how the fields of religious studies and American religious history think through the significance of that form of discrimination and violence in relation to the rest of American history. Join us for a...
info_outlineOn this episode of Religion &, we featured a special preview conversation about Christian Smith’s forthcoming book, Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America (Oxford University Press, 2025). Christian Smith, William R. Kenan Professor of Sociology at University of Notre Dame, has been a leading scholar of American religion for more than 30 years with many agenda-setting concepts, arguments, and books to his name. Based on a new survey and hundreds of interviews, Smith offers a sweeping account of why many Americans have lost faith in traditional religion and why it can be considered “obsolete.” Our conversation will address the book’s main themes and findings, probe Smith’s thinking about religion, secularism, and enchantment, and engage the many implications of the trends Smith outlines. Listen to this conversation that is provocative and illuminating on the current state of faith decline.
Host: Brian Steensland
Brian Steensland is Professor and Chair of Sociology at Indiana University Indianapolis. His areas of interest include religion, culture, politics, and civic life in contemporary American society. His books include Situating Spirituality: Context, Practice, and Power (Oxford, 2022), co-edited with Jaime Kucinskas and Anna Sun; The New Evangelical Social Engagement (Oxford, 2014), co-edited with Philip Goff; and The Failed Welfare Revolution: America’s Struggle over Guaranteed Income Policy (Princeton, 2008). His articles include The Measure of American Religion (Social Forces, 2000) and Cultural Categories and the American Welfare State (American Journal of Sociology, 2006).
Panelist: Carol Ann MacGregor
Carol Ann MacGregor is Vice President Academic and Dean (VPAD) at St. Jerome’s University which is the Catholic university federated with the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. Dr. MacGregor holds a PhD in Sociology from Princeton University and her research on Catholic K-12 education, religious non-affiliation and religion and civic engagement has appeared in journals including American Catholic Studies, American Sociological Review, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Social Science Research. Dr. MacGregor previously served as Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and was an Associate Professor of Sociology at Loyola University New Orleans.
Panelist: Christian Smith
Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. Smith is a leading American theorist of the philosophy of critical realism and the social theory of personalism. His larger theoretical agenda has been to move personhood, morality, motivated action, culture, and identity to the center of sociological theorizing generally and the sociology of religion specifically. Smith’s critical realist personalism require social science to revise its dominant approaches to causation, social ontology, and explanation.
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