What if the study of religion started with the African American experience? Instead of privileging a specific tradition, this course examines the history of a people who came to a new world compelled to quickly learn the significance of "religion" itself. We will follow along by plumbing the depths of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, listening to … Continue reading REL 101 (WCH): Signifying Religion: An African American Worldview
To be clear, I'm not against statistics. We can qualify "religion." We can quantify "religion." But words and numbers represent human relationships (and thus, politics). Religious studies is about striving to see them more clearly. The discipline doesn't have a monopoly on this. But it is our intellectual burden, and we take it seriously.
The Institute for Signifying Scriptures is an independent research organization focused on investigating the dynamics associated with "scriptures." The conversation takes serious the category's development and deployment in Western cultural politics, working to surface the very assumptions that it belays. Founded by Vincent L. Wimbush, the collaborative enterprise has as its mission the "excavation of … Continue reading Reflections on the ISS- Scriptures at Their Root
Last June was a pretty raucous time for me. I was finishing up my dissertation on the politics of scriptures. I was packing boxes to move from LA to PA. And I was doing a lot of dreaming, not just about what was coming next, but also about what I would be leaving behind. It … Continue reading Identity Cards & Identity Cost–Is it worth it?
The editors of The Practicum Blog asked me to share my take on REL101 for their Syllabus Project series.
