As I transition my SSRC research from Senegal to the Philippines, I am constantly ruminating over the question: why compare these two…
Notes from the field

In the summer of 2010, a small group of graduate students who received the SSRC Dissertation Development Research Fellowship (DPDF) blogged regularly for The Immanent Frame. The fellows came together in conjunction with a 2010 DPDF subfield called “After Secularization: New Approaches to Religion and Modernity.”
After the fellowship period ended, a select group of fellows continued the blog through the fall of 2010. In their short contributions to “Notes from the field,” the fellows shared notes and reflections on their emerging research, as well as other insights and questions, ruminations, and observations.
Then, in early June 2011, the SSRC program on religion and the public sphere convened twelve advanced graduate students and five distinguished professors for a five-day dissertation workshop on religion and international affairs. Over the course of the workshop, students shared their ongoing work, considered critiques from student and faculty participants, and debated the coherence of the very banner under which they had been gathered.
All of these reflections and notes from these students are gathered below.
A note on secular comparison
In Comparing the incommensurate, Vincent Pecora builds on David Buckley’s recent inquiry about methods of comparison and the challenges that…
War crimes, politics, and being changed by faith
Although Charles Taylor is currently on trial for allegedly funding and fueling the civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone, the…
London postcard
One of the great benefits of conducting research at the British Library is that days off provide the opportunity to…
Death metal: A “pipeline to God”?
Metal music’s obsession with religion is part of its obsession with living at the limit. The goal of metal is…
After atheism (Part I)
In a confessional mode, I’m afraid I have to get something off my chest: I don’t think I’m an atheist.…
Who’s afraid of Pelagius?
What could Obama’s take on Iranian democracy, early-modern theodicy, and twentieth-century leftist thought have in common? Despite these wide variations…
“This is not a Secular State”
In taxi cabs and formal interviews, I’ve been told that the study of secularism in the Philippines is a bit…
After atheism (Part II)
In my last post, I made the claim that I wasn’t an atheist. That’s a complicated claim. Atheism, despite being…
Secular representations of religion on Turkish television
Television broadcasting has played a significant role in the creation of a public governed by norms of secular reason in…