Race and the Project of Distinction in the Study of Religion KU Leuven
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, ...