Religion &
“Religion &” is a series of monthly conversations between leading academics and thinkers in multiple fields hosted by the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture to continue these critically important interventions. Every month via Zoom, emerging scholars alongside established thinkers will engage the pressing issues of the current moment, their impact on our fields of study, and the groundbreaking research, teaching and public engagement taking place across the country. This is our opportunity—as thinkers of religion and American culture—to assess and respond to this current moment and create a culture of sustained conversation on “Religion &” its impact on our changing world.
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Religion & Latinx Traditions
03/11/2025
Religion & Latinx Traditions
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 Amherst College. Along with Sergio González of Marquette University, he is the co-writer and co-host of the recently released, seven-episode podcast series Sanctuary: On the Border of Church and State. He is the author of the award-winning book Sowing the Sacred: Mexican-Pentecostal Farmworkers in California (Oxford University Press, 2022; paperback 2023) and editor of the newly-released volume Latin American and US Latino Religions in North America (Bloomsbury, 2024). Panelist: Jonathan Calvillo Jonathan Calvillo is Assistant Professor of Latinx Communities at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. His work examines how distinct Latine populations build communities of belonging through faith and creativity, often amidst systemic exclusion. As a sociologist and ethnographer, his expertise resides at the intersections of Latine lived religion, ethnoracial formation, civic engagement, urban migration, and grassroots creative movements. Calvillo has published three books: The Saints of Santa Ana: Faith and Ethnicity in a Mexican Majority City, In the Time of Sky-rhyming: How Hip Hop Resonated in Brown Los Angeles, and When the Spirit Is Your Inheritance: Reflections on Borderlands Pentecostalism. Panelist: Gastón Espinosa Gastón Espinosa is Arthur V. Stoughton Professor of Religious Studies at Claremont McKenna College. He has directed nine major surveys on Latino religions, politics, and activism from 1998–2022. He is the author or co-author of nine books; fifty refereed articles, book chapters, and reviews; sixty encyclopedia entries; 200 scholarly keynotes and presentations around the world; has made numerous television, radio, and media appearances; and has served as the director of eight major conferences. Panelist: Sujey Vega Sujey Vega is Associate Professor of American Studies and Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University. Trained as an applied anthropologist, Vega’s publications range from ethno-religious belonging, addressing the needs of Latina domestic violence survivors, and amplifying the voices of Latina/o Midwestern communities. Her first book, Latino Heartland (2015) earned honorable mention by the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize committee. Her forthcoming book, Mormon Barrio: Latinx Belonging in the Church of Latter Day Saints, historically locates the growth of Latina/o LDS members in the Phoenix area and the role the LDS church plays in the lives of current Latino Mormons. Check out additional resources for learning, teaching and watching. Learn more about this episode on the .
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Religion & Obsolescence
02/25/2025
Religion & Obsolescence
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 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. Check out additional resources for learning, teaching and watching. Learn more about this episode on the .
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Religion & Catholic Studies
01/28/2025
Religion & Catholic Studies
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, and the future of Catholic Studies. Co-Host: Peter J. Thuesen Peter J. Thuesen is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University Indianapolis and co-editor of Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. From 2009 to 2015, he chaired Indiana University Indianapolis’ Department of Religious Studies. A historian of American religion and the Christian tradition, he is author, most recently, of Tornado God: American Religion and Violent Weather (Oxford, 2020), which received the 2021 Christianity Today Book Award for History/Biography. His current book project is The People’s Cardinal: Richard Cushing and the Age of Catholic Optimism. Co-Host: Meghan Bowen Meghan Bowen is a PhD (Theology) candidate at Regis College (Toronto, ON). Her research seeks to reconsider St. Augustine’s theology of marriage within his socio-historical context as a means of advancing current theological discussions of marriage and of sexual ethics. Along with an MA in Theology, Meghan also holds an MA in Ethnomusicology. Beyond her academic work, Meghan is involved in music and liturgy, and has offered workshops on moral formation and the Christian life. Meghan is currently working as a research associate with the Religious Parenting in the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis project. Panelist: Tricia C. Bruce Tricia C. Bruce (PhD, University of California Santa Barbara) is a sociologist of religion whose books & major reports include Parish & Place, Polarization in the U.S. Catholic Church, Faithful Revolution, and How Americans Understand Abortion. Her work appears in The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Science Advances, and more, garnering awards from the Catholic Press Association, American Sociological Association Religion Section, and Religious Research Association. She is currently President of the Association for the Sociology of Religion; Consultor to the Vatican’s General Secretariat of the Synod; Director of Springtide Research Institute; and faculty fellow of USC’s Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies. Panelist: Michael Pasquier Michael Pasquier is the Jaak Seynaeve Professor of Christian Studies and Professor of Religious Studies and History at Louisiana State University. He served as President of the American Catholic Historical Association in 2023. He is the author of Religion in America: The Basics and Fathers on the Frontier: French Missionaries and the Roman Catholic Priesthood in the United States, 1789-1870. He’s also the editor of the book Gods of the Mississippi and producer of the documentary film Water Like Stone. Dr. Pasquier’s scholarship has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Panelist: Susan K. Wood Susan K. Wood is Professor of Systemic Theology at Regis College in the Toronto School of Theology, Canada. She received her doctorate in systematic theology from Marquette University. Very active in ecumenical work, she serves on the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue (1994-2019), the North American Roman Catholic-Orthodox Theological Consultation (2005-present), the International Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue (2008-2019), and the conversation between the Baptist World Alliance and the Roman Catholic Church (2006-2010, 2017-2022). She serves on the editorial advisory board of the journal Ecclesiology and the Toronto Journal of Theology. Most of her writing explores the connections between ecclesiology and sacramental theology. Check out additional resources for learning, teaching and watching. Learn more about this episode on the .
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Religion & Future Humans: Featuring Sylvester A. Johnson
12/12/2024
Religion & Future Humans: Featuring Sylvester A. Johnson
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, technology, and ethics to tackle what it means to be human in this current moment. Philip Goff, Andrea Jain, and Leonard McKinnis joined us to interrogate and theorize alongside Dr. Johnson the futures of the humanities, surveillance, and AI and how they are all deeply impacted by religion. Engage in a conversation with Dr. Sylvester A. Johnson that promises to push boundaries, imagine new possibilities, and unpack emerging theories as we think about the future of religion and the humans that are shaped by them. Featured Panelist: Sylvester A. Johnson Sylvester A. Johnson is Professor of Black Studies at Northwestern University. He was appointed to hold the 2024 Kluge Chair in Technology and Society at the Library of Congress’s Kluge Center. As a scholar of race, religion, and technology, Johnson works at the intersection of technical and humanistic stakeholders to advance more democratic, inclusive outcomes for an innovation-driven society. His research has examined religion, race, and empire in the Atlantic world; religion and sexuality; national security practices; and the impact of intelligent machines and human enhancement on human identity and systems of racial domination. Johnson is a founding co-editor of the Journal of Africana Religions. He has authored two books: African American Religions, 1500–2000: Colonialism, Democracy, and Freedom, published by Cambridge University Press in 2015 and a winner of the Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award, and The Myth of Ham in Nineteenth-Century American Christianity: Race, Heathens, and the People of God, published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2004, which garnered the American Academy of Religion’s Best First Book Award. He also co-edited, with Steven Weitzman, The FBI and Religion: Faith and National Security Before and After 9/11, published by University of California Press in 2017. Panelist: Philip Goff Philip Goff is Professor of History at Indiana University Indianapolis and Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture. His research specialization is American religious history, with eight books and over 200 articles, reviews, and scholarly papers in that area. His recent books include: Civil Religion in America: Religion and the American Nation in the Twenty-First Century (with Rhys Williams and Raymond Haberski), The Bible in American Life (with Arthur Farnsley II and Peter Thuesen), and Religion and the Marketplace in the United States (with Jan Stievermann and Detlef Junker). In addition, he is the lead co-editor of Religion & American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. Panelist: Andrea Jain Andrea R. Jain, Ph.D. is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University Indianapolis and research affiliate at Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute, editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and author of Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture (Oxford 2014) and Peace Love Yoga: The Politics of Global Spirituality (Oxford, 2020). She received her doctorate degree in religious studies from Rice University in 2010. Her areas of research include religion and capitalism; global spirituality and modern yoga; gender, sexuality, and religion; and theories of religion. Panelist: Leonard C. McKinnis, II Leonard C. McKinnis, II is Assistant Professor of Religion and Black Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a scholar of 20th century Black religious movements that spawned in the wake of the Great Migration. His first book, The Black Coptic Church: Race and Imagination in a New Religion, was published in 2023 with NYU Press. At present, McKinnis is working on an ethnographic study of the Nation of Islam. The book, tentatively titled, Everyday Muslim: Material Spirituality and Lived Religion in the Nation of Islam, investigates spirituality as material and embodied practice among Nation of Islam followers. His work has been supported by the Crossroads Fellowship, Wabash, and the American Academy of Religion. Check out additional resources for learning, teaching and watching. Learn more about this episode on the .
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Religion & the Aftermath of the 2024 Election
11/26/2024
Religion & the Aftermath of the 2024 Election
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 discuss the results of the 2024 election, how those results were shaped by religious ideology and communities, and how religious communities historically and in the present moment have shaped presidential politics. The panelists will also explore the ways that themes from earlier episodes, like Islamophobia, antisemitism, and White Christian nationalism, have played a critical and outsized role in this election cycle. Join us for a conversation at the intersection of religion, politics, and the aftermath of the 2024 election. Host: Andrew Whitehead Andrew Whitehead is Professor of Sociology and Executive Director of the Association of Religion Data Archives (theARDA.com) at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University Indianapolis. Whitehead is one of the foremost scholars of Christian nationalism in the United States. He is the author of , which was awarded the 2024 Gold Medal Book Award for Religion from and the 2024 winner for Religion & Philosophy. Panelist: Katie Gaddini Katie Gaddini is Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and Associate Professor of Sociology at the Social Research Institute, University College London (UCL). She is currently writing a book on Christian women and conservative politics from 1970 to present. She regularly writes op-eds and gives expert opinion to the media, including The New York Times, BBC News, CNN International, TIME magazine, Newsweek, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Hill. Panelist: Nancy A. Khalil Nancy A. Khalil is Assistant Professor in American Culture and Core Faculty in the Program on Arab and Muslim American Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research interests include Muslims, ethnography, religion, racialization, and advertising. Her current book project forthcoming with Stanford University Press is an ethnographic research project on Islamic higher education institutes and religious clerics, or imams, in the United States. Panelist: Eric L. McDaniel Eric L. McDaniel is Professor in the Department of Government and Co-director of the Politics of Race and Ethnicity Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a graduate of Wilberforce University, the oldest private historically Black college or university, and took his PhD. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research examines how the intersection of race and religion influence the American political landscape. His first book, Politics in the Pews: The Political Mobilization of Black Churches, provides an explanation for why some Black churches choose to engage the political world while others do not. His most recent book, The Everyday Crusade: Christian Nationalism in American Politics, was co-authored with Irfan Nooruddin and Allyson Shortle. Check out additional resources for learning, teaching and watching. Learn more about this episode on the .
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Religion & Islamophobia
10/23/2024
Religion & Islamophobia
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 antisemitism and Islamophobia and why scholars and thinkers of religion are uniquely placed to think through the complex and often unclear relationship of these phenomena. Join us for a conversation at the intersection of religion, Islamophobia, and the current state of political unrest. Host: Khadija Khaja Khadija Khaja is Associate Professor of Social Work at Indiana University Indianapolis. Her research interests include building inclusive teaching and learning climates, international social work practice, Islamophobia, Muslim social work needs, bullying of Muslims, civil discourse in higher education, the practice of female circumcision, addressing the growth of white nationalist movements, and effective teaching/learning in online communities. Panelist: Zareena Grewal Zareena Grewal is Associate Professor of American Studies, Ethnicity, Race, & Migration, and Religious Studies at Yale University. She is a historical anthropologist and a documentary filmmaker whose research focuses on race, gender, religion, nationalism, and transnationalism across a wide spectrum of American Muslim communities. Her first book, Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority (NYU 2013), is an ethnography of transnational Muslim networks that link US mosques to Islamic movements in the post-colonial Middle East through debates about the reform of Islam. Panelist: Talha Kahf Talha Kahf, a senior at the Indiana University School of Social Work, is a Muslim Syrian living in the Midwest. Born to a mother who came from a refugee background, Talha grew up learning to identify structural gaps in society. Along the journey, Talha and his family experienced Islamophobia within the education, healthcare, and legal systems. With each experience, Talha developed his personal values and began on a journey of ancestral connection and decolonization. Panelist: Kayla Renée Wheeler Kayla Renée Wheeler is Assistant Professor of Critical Ethnic Studies and Theology and the Africana Studies Program Director at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. Wheeler is an expert in Black Islam, Islamic bioethics, and digital religion. Currently, she is writing a book entitled, Fashioning Black Islam, which provides a history of Black Muslim fashion in the United States from the 1930s to the present. She is the author of the digital humanities project, Mapping Malcolm’s Boston, which explores Malcolm X’s life in Boston from the 1940s to 1950s. Dr. Wheeler is also the curator of the award-winning Black Islam Syllabus. Check out additional resources for learning, teaching and watching. Learn more about this episode on the .
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Religion & Antisemitism
09/24/2024
Religion & Antisemitism
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 conversation at the intersection of religion, American culture, and the history of antisemitism. Co-Host: Lincoln Mullen Lincoln Mullen is Professor of History at George Mason University and Executive Director of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. He is the author of The Chance of Salvation: A History of Conversion in America (2017), America’s Public Bible: A Commentary (2022), and Antisemitism, U.S.A.: A History (2024). Co-Host: John Turner John Turner teaches and writes about the the place of religion in American history. He came to George Mason University in 2012, having earned a Ph.D. in American History from the University of Notre Dame and a Masters of Divinity from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Turner is the author of several books, including Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet (Yale, 2025); They Knew They Were Pilgrims (Yale, 2020), and Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet (Harvard, 2012). He co-wrote the scripts for Antisemitism, U.S.A. Panelist: Sarah Imhoff Sarah Imhoff is Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University, Bloomington. She writes about religion and the body with a particular interest in gender, sexuality, race, and disability. She is author of Masculinity and the Making of American Judaism (Indiana University Press, 2017) and The Lives of Jessie Sampter: Queer, Disabled, Zionist (Duke University Press, 2022) and, with Susannah Heschel, The Woman Question in Jewish Studies (Princeton University Press, forthcoming 2025). She is the founding co-editor of the journal American Religion. Panelist: Britt Tevis Britt Tevis is Backer Assistant Professor in Jewish Studies in the Department of History at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She teaches courses on the history of antisemitism in the United States as well as American Jewish history. Her anthology of historical texts illuminating various dimensions of antisemitism in the United States will be published by Yale University Press in 2025. She earned her Ph.D. and J.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Check out additional resources for learning, teaching and watching. Learn more about this episode on the .
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