The Politics of Race and Religion

This research group is committed to examine societal transitions, or sustainable society, through contemporary and historical studies of the politics of race and religion. This research considers the overlapping and often conflicting arenas of race and religion in societies in South, Central, and North America. Our interdisciplinary scholarship in the humanities and social sciences contributes to an understanding of the complex issues raised by race and religion in the Americas and globally. We are attentive to the ways race and religion have individually and jointly shaped nation-building, social and cultural institutions, and relations among national and transnational populations.

Race and religion have been foundational to the establishment and development of the nations of the Americas. In the context of the first Latin American pope, the simultaneous decline of Catholicism in the Americas, and the rise of evangelical and non-Western religions in the hemisphere, this research cluster emphasizes the ways race and religion have shaped and continue to influence nations, laws, communities, ethics, and leadership in the Americas.