The Religious Studies Project

RSP co-founder Chris Cotter and Paul Hedges discuss the construction of introductory textbooks in the contemporary world, including issues of positionality, criticality, and decolonization.

Tune in for this month's Discourse! with Andie Alexander, Daniel Gorman, Jr., and Paul-François Tremlett as they discuss the upcoming elections in the Philippines and the Russian Orthodox church response to the invasion of Ukraine.

In this episode, Dr. Méadhbh McIvor joins Savannah Finver to discuss her recent book Representing God: Christian Legal Activism in Contemporary England. Dr. McIvor provides our listeners with the background for her project; the method of ethnography, as well as its challenges and implications for the study of religion; and how the belief in a certain kind of afterlife impacts the kinds of legal and political activism that her interlocutors are willing to engage in.

You've heard of the CIA, but did you know that they're just as interested in religion as we are? Join Dr. Michael Graziano and Jacob Noblett as they discuss the impact of the OSS and CIA's religion-oriented intelligence operations across the globe!

This month's episode of Discourse! features Candace Mixon, Craig Martin, and Suzanne Owen discussing issues of religious freedom and rhetoric—you won't want to miss it!

Visit our archives to explore the insider/outsider problem in the study of religion. We explore questions such as "What is an 'insider' or 'outsider'?" and "How do scholars of religion study and engage 'insiders'?" to begin unpacking what all is at stake in this process of group formation.

Join host Theo Wildcroft and panelists Wendy Dossett, Dawn Llewellyn, Suzanne Newcombe, and Lisa Oakley as they discuss scholarship and academic approaches to issues of 'spiritual abuse'.

What sort of discursive traps to we fall into when talking about 'Islam' or 'the West'? How might we reframe our discussions with a critical humanist approach? In this episode, Khurram Hussain joins Andie Alexander to discuss his recent book, The Muslim Speaks (Zed Books, 2020) explore the benefits of critically engaging these issues in a way that takes seriously the human-focused study of religion.

The first Discourse! of 2022 is hosted by Michael Munnik (Cardiff), who is joined by guests Beth Singler (Cambridge) and Richard Newton (Alabama) to discuss how the media is talking about "religion" this month.

How can we approach the study of ayahuasca critically? In this RSP episode, join and hear Sidney Castillo talk with Bernd Brabec de Mori and Olivia Marcus on their research about indigenous and mestizo use of ayahuasca in the Peruvian rainforest.