Key Categories in the Study of Religion - Contexts and Critiques - Rebekka King
10. That's a Racist Question: Interrogating Racism in the Study of American Religions
Key Categories in the Study of Religion - Contexts and Critiques - Rebekka King
Martha Smith Roberts [+]
Fullerton College
Martha Smith Roberts is Assistant Professor of Religion at Fullerton College. Martha's teaching covers all aspects of religion in culture and the diversity of religious traditions around the world. Her research and writing focus on North American religious diversity and pluralism, race and ethnicity, new religious movements, and religious studies pedagogy. She has written articles on hula hooping, communities of practice, antiracist pedagogy, and religious diversity and pluralism in the United States.
Description
This chapter responds to Richard Newton's thesis by excavating American religious history through a recognition of the racist past of religious studies and a productive reckoning with that past. To do this, the chapter acknowledges that scholars of religion must recognize the ways the field has historically reproduced structures of racism and think critically about our own roles in the use and perpetuation of those structures via the category of race.