The Immanent Frame, published by the Social Science Research Council, has long served as a central site for debate, discussion, and analysis of the role of religion in public life. We’re thrilled to share a refreshed version of the TIF website, marking a new chapter and enhancing the visibility of TIF’s publications.
TIF began in 2007 to convene sustained dialogue and critical exchanges about “the secular” inspired by Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age. Over the past 19 years, TIF has hosted lively discussions about religion, secularism, and the public sphere. In TIF’s redesign, the Council aims to maintain TIF as a scholarly forum that brings relevant research in religious studies to new audiences.
Our new editor Brook Wilensky-Lanford, alongside the TIF editorial board, is leading the creation of new content and an effort to revitalize TIF’s editorial formats. In the coming weeks, we look forward to publishing new essays by Samira Mehta on the disappointments of “women’s history,” Reverend Angela Denker on the lessons of Minneapolis, and a conversation curated by Charlie McCrary among scholars Sonia Hazard, Tisa Wenger, and Jeffrey Wheatley, all of whom have recently published new books on religion and empire in the 19th century.
The new design for TIF allows us to bring older content to the fore in thoughtful ways and to better highlight new work. Readers will find easier pathways for accessing relevant articles and searching by topic.
TIF has published interviews with Judith Butler, Talal Asad, and other scholars central to the study of religion and secularism. TIF has published 45 book forums, beginning with the opening exchange on A Secular Age and most recently with the Mapping Malcolm forum. TIF also has published topical essay forums, including a forum on Hindutva and the shared scripts of the global right, a recent forum using the concept of karma to interrogate current events, and an exchange on aggressive prayer, curses and maledictions. Special projects convene scholars to pursue deep inquiries into form, narrative, image, argument, and the fundamental questions of their disciplines. Most recently, Sensing the Social gathered science studies and religious studies scholars to collaboratively explore shared problems in their fields.
TIF also publishes essays on current events and debates in the field, like this 2016 essay by Erin K. Wilson and Luca Mavelli exploring the role of religion in global debates on the European refugee crisis, Joanna Tice Jen on the politics of U.S. evangelicals, and Winnifred Fallers Sullivan on the 2018 Masterpiece Cakeshop U.S. Supreme Court decision.
We will also be relaunching the TIF monthly newsletter, which will share new TIF publications as well as announcements in the field. If you are promoting a talk, working on a call for papers, planning a special journal issue, or have other news of the profession you would like to share please email us so we may feature it in our newsletter.
TIF publications have always been known for their playful creativity and openness to experimentation. Now we want to mark a new openness in the publication. In the year to come, we will partner with other publications and outlets in the field to bring the exchanges we foster at TIF to new audiences. While contributions to The Immanent Frame will remain primarily by invitation, we would like to invite writers and thinkers with scholarship relevant to religion, secularism, and the public sphere to send us proposals for articles at our email address.
