Decolonizing Religious Studies
Debates and Practical Strategies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.26654Keywords:
decolonization, postcolonialism, land back, race, ethnic studies, religious studies, colonialismAbstract
Knowing that the working scholar cannot be everywhere at once, The Conference fills in readers on what they may have missed from various academic gatherings. In this issue, we are pleased to share a panel discussion from the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Denver, Colorado. On behalf of the Academic Relations Committee, Peter Valdina (Albion College) moderated a conversation on decolonization and the academic study of religion. The panel brought Bulletin Editor Richard Newton (University of Alabama), Natalie Avalos (University of Colorado) together to discuss the matter from their research expertise in this area. Also participating in the discussion was Jessica Albrecht, PhD. candidate at the University of Heidelberg, among other scholars.
References
Avalos, Natalie. 2020a. “Taking a Critical Indigenous and Ethnic Studies Approach to Decolonizing Religious Studies.” Contending Modernities, Decoloniality and Liberation Theology Series, October 14.
———. 2020b. “Indigenous Stewardship as a Lifeway.” Journal of Environmental Media, 1.2: 133–138.
———. 2020c. “Decolonizing Religious Studies and its Layers of Complicity.” The Religious Studies Project, podcast interview by David McConeghy, August 17.
———. 2022. “Latinx Indigeneities and Christianity.” In The Oxford Handbook of Latino/a Christianities in the United States, edited by Kristy Nabhan Warren, 296–315. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
———. 2023. “Indigenous Stewardship: Religious Praxis and ‘Unsettling’ Settler Ecologies.” Political Theology. https://doi.org/10.1080/1462317X.2023.2212473.
Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective. 2021. “Feminist Critical Hindu Studies in Formation.” Religion Compass, March 2021.
———. 2022a. “Hindu Fragility and the Politics of Mimicry in North America.” Immanent Frame, November 2, 2022.
———. 2022b. “Auntylectuals: A Nonce of Aunty-Power.” Text and Performance Quarterly 42.3: 346–357.
Jain, Andrea. 2014. Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.
———. 2020. Peace, Love, Yoga: The Politics of Global Spirituality. New York Oxford University Press.
Newton, Richard. 2018. “Skin in the Game: Raising the Stakes with The Race Card Project.” Religious Studies News, November 5, 2018. https://rsn.aarweb.org/spotlight-on/teaching/anti-racism/raising-stakes-race-card-project.
———. 2020. Identifying Roots: Alex Haley and the Anthropology of Scriptures. Sheffield, UK: Equinox.
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