Exploring contemporary issues in the
academic study of religion through podcasts.
The Religious Studies Project is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organization (SCIO) devoted to producing engaging and accessible resources for the contemporary study of religion.
Since 2012, our weekly podcast and written response essays have featured hundreds of scholars sharing their research and expertise in religious studies.
In this episode, Dr. Danielle N. Boaz joins the RSP’s Benjamin Marcus to discuss her new book, Banning Black Gods: Law and Religions of the African Diaspora (PSU Press 2021). Dr. Boaz explains a key concept she explores throughout the book: “religious racism,” and also describes similarities and differences in the ways that legal systems in a variety of countries — including Brazil, Canada, England, France, Haiti, South Africa, and the United States — treat African-derived religious traditions. She explains how and why the study of law furthers the study of African-derived religious traditions and vice versa. Learn more about Dr. Boaz’s work on Twitter at @religiousracism.
For our final episode of Season 10, join Andie Alexander, Ishanika Sharma, and K. Merinda Simmons as they talk all things Critical Race Theory—or at least what can be covered in one episode!
Join Savannah H. Finver and Dr. S. Jonathon O’Donnell as they talk demons, American politics, interdisciplinary methodologies, and the critical study of religion.
In this episode, Boris Briones talks with Sidney Castillo on his comparative research of the Mapuche and Selk’nam of austral South America. Check it out to learn a thing or two about ethnohistory and scientific divulgation!
Is the Islamic state simply a reaction against the modern secular nation-state, or is there more to it? Join us as Noah Salomon answers this question among many more as he talks about his book For Love of the Prophet: An Ethnography of Sudan’s Islamic State.
Sarah Griffis highlights how Morehouse demonstrates the central issue of studying diverse social groups in antiquity: “how do you get something new out of what’s already there before it? Whatever it is that’s new needs to be intelligible enough to be compelling and persuasive.”
In this response, Joel Bordeaux notes that Ellen Gough’s focus on the ritual components and “tantricization” of Jain ascetic practices offers a new way of thinking through and contextualizing the “notoriously slippery notion of Tantra” in the subcontinent.
Raymond Haberski, Jr. writes that our interview with Ronit Stahl about Military chaplaincy “provides a nuanced picture of pluralism” in the United States. This reveals how massive institutions like the U.S. military operationalize pluralism to “both incorporate difference and flatten distinctions.”
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
The views expressed in podcasts, features and responses are the views of the individual contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Religious Studies Project or our sponsors. The Religious Studies Project is produced by the Religious Studies Project Association (SCIO), a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (charity number SC047750).
