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.
Podcasts and Resources on the Contemporary Social-Scientific Study of Religion
Our June episode of Discourse!, featuring episode host Benjamin P. Marcus, Jade Hui, and Lauren Horn Griffin, covers religion and the news in the United States and Hong Kong. Kicking off the discussion with current issues of religion and the U.S. Supreme Court, they explore notions of religion, history, tradition, and authority in Justice Alito’s leaked draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and consider what the Court’s recent decision in Carson v. Makin might reveal to us about American assumptions vis-à-vis religion, the secular, and religious freedom. They conclude by discussing grieving rituals and performance art that occurred on the streets of Hong Kong on June 4th, 2022. Their discussion of religion in Hong Kong surfaces many of the same questions about history, tradition, authority, and the value of placing discussions about religion in one country in an international context. Be sure to tune in!!
This episode was recorded before the 24 June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
Tune in for our new Discourse! episode with Carmen Becker, Susannah Crockford, and Savannah Finver as they discuss legal issues of rights, abortion, protests, and more!
Tune in for Part I of our RSP Remix episodes on Cults and New Religious Movements!
What is curanderismo and where is it practiced? How does it connect to the borderlands? Is it a “folk” religion, and what exactly does that mean? Tune in with Andie Alexander, Israel L. Domínguez, Brett Hendrickson, and Jennifer Koshatka Seman for the RSP’s first episode on curanderismo!
In this month’s discourse, Sidney Castillo is joined by Chris Cotter and Sierra Lawson to discuss the contemporary localized manifestations of Easter and Passover celebrations, a current US Supreme Court Case relating to the First Amendment, and the entanglement of Catholicism and national identity in television’s “Derry Girls”.
In this response to our interview with David G. Robertson, Fryderyk Kwiatkowski builds on and furthers the discussion by exploring alternative approaches to studying gnosticism in conversation with Robertson’s analysis.
In this response to our episode with Khurram Hussain, Matt Sheedy situates Hussain’s work and outlines the usefulness of Hussain’s ‘critical humanist approach’. Sheedy then furthers the conversation by posing some questions about the implications of this approach and how it might translate to other disciplines.
Tancredi Marrone and Andrej Kapcar, in their response to our interview with Bernd Brabec de Mori and Olivia Marcus, unpack common assumptions about ayahuasca and shamanism and outline the benefits of decolonizing current approaches and understandings.
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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).
