In religious studies . . . our students learn non-knowing not by thinking their way to it, but by actually…
On disciplines and non-knowing: A reply to Agnes Callard
public scholarship
Believer, religious studies, and the public
In this short forum, we have asked a handful of scholars to discuss the relationship between scholarship, public knowledge, and…
Scholar or retailer of import goods? Reza Aslan, his guru, and his critics
![By Ken Wieland [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://ssrc-static.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/12155304/Ahilya_Ghat_by_the_Ganges_Varanasi-e1494618784878.jpg)
“I came to Varanasi India to do a show about Hinduism, about karma, reincarnation, the caste system, and a little…
West’s witness
For New York Magazine, Lisa Miller profiles Cornel West, surveying the course of his academic career, personal life, and variety…
Back to his roots
When writing about other people, we all should follow Pierre Bourdieu’s advice to not be too fascinated by our human…
Public sociology: rigor and relevance
Any authors would be pleased by an array of laudatory and thoughtful comments on their work, especially by a group…
American Grace and public sociology
Robert Putnam and David E. Campbell’s American Grace follows up on these Tocquevillean themes, exploring the contemporary American religious landscape to understand,…
Normative demands of Islamic studies scholarship
As a lawyer, I appreciate the critical importance of historical inquiry to contemporary legal challenges; as a historian, I resist…
Why I don’t read non-fiction from Barnes and Noble, and why that’s a problem for public scholarship; or, what I learned in third grade about epistemology and essentialization
I have not been interested in the Barnes and Noble non-fiction section for a long time. There might be a…
Explaining Islam to the public
Perhaps no group of scholars has had as much at stake in the public understanding of religion of late as…