About Us
American Religions in a Global Context is a hub for innovative and interdisciplinary scholarship and public-facing conversations on diverse religions in American society, and on American religions worldwide.
We are an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students who come together out of a shared scholarly interest in deepening our understanding of the dynamic roles of religion in American life, both within and beyond its borders. Understanding that both nations and religions are flexible constructions, we seek to understand their interplay better, how they shape American life, culture, and politics, and how religion informs the behaviors of America and Americans on the world stage. This necessarily includes accounts of racial, socio-economic, and gendered formations in religious life, as well as questions about citizenship, spirituality, secularism, practice, belief, material culture, intellectual history, and mobility.
As an interdisciplinary group, we are committed to supporting scholarship across the university through courses, seminars, conferences, and colloquia. We foster our shared interests by leveraging our diverse perspectives and expanding our shared capacity to ask more critical, urgent, and inventive questions.
Some of our core questions include the following:
- How have changing definitions of “religion” in America affected debates over religious liberty?
- How do people learn to hold religious commitments?
- What does it mean to be “spiritual but not religious”?
- What is the place of the supernatural in American life?
- How have religion and race intersected in American history?
- What does our perspective, from the American west, tell us about American religious life?
- What might we learn about religion from our neighbors in Silicon Valley?
American Religions in a Global Context offers pathways for graduate students and undergraduates.
Graduate students are encouraged to complete an interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in American Religions, in addition to the coursework and requirements of their home department. Please see the FAQ for more information.
Undergraduates with an interest in American Religions in a Global Context are encouraged to take at least one course in each cluster (See “Courses”: I. Overviews; II. Spirituality and the Supernatural; III. Religion and Politics; IV. Religion, Race, and Ethnicity).
In addition to coursework, the American Religions in a Global Context Initiative also brings scholars to campus who are doing exciting new work in the field. In recent years, the American Religions in a Global Context proseminar has welcomed Professors Eziaku Nwokocha, Lloyd Barba, Helen Jin Kim, Ralph H. Craig III, Melissa Borja, Emily Suzanne Clark, Rachel Gross, and David Walker to campus. Please see the “Events” page for details on upcoming talks.