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Project

Race and the Project of Distinction in the Study of Religion

How has race shaped the academic study of religion in “the West”? My study investigates how efforts to establish “religion” as an autonomous, unique category and realm of study were grounded in and legitimated by what I call a racialized project of distinction. I hypothesize that 1) late 19th cen. European and mid-20th cen. US attempts to conceptualize “religion” relied on the desire and effort to draw rigid distinctions—i.e. sacred/profane, religious/secular, primitive/civilized—and that 2) this project of distinction is shaped by, reinforced, and contributed to racial categories and hierarchies (i.e is racialized). This research is innovative because it studies foundational texts in religious studies (incl. Tylor, Müller, Frazer and Eliade) through the lens of philosophical interventions in black studies, thereby bringing two research fields together that often remain separate. It is timely and urgent because studying the racialization of "religion" contributes to nascent efforts that decolonize the study of religion and by extension discourses on religion in public domains. Focusing on how colonization helped shape the conceptual entanglement of race and religion, my research also has implications for the current relationship between the academy and other domains (social, political, etc). In making the—often subtle—racialization of religion more visible, my research helps to better understand how constructs of race and religion continue to affect and shape life in Europe.

Date:1 Oct 2021 →  31 Dec 2022
Keywords:black studies, categorization, decolonization
Disciplines:Theories of religions