419 - Section on Sociology of Religion Invited Session. Religion and the Politics of National Identity (co-sponsored with the Section on Sociology of Culture)

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Description

Religion is increasingly recognized – including by scholars outside of the sociology of religion – as a defining feature of political life and as a constitutive element of individual and collective identities. The question is no longer whether religion matters, but how. This session explores this question through the lens of political contestation over national identity. Public appeals to expand or contract the boundaries of national identity are often made through reference to religion, either on its own, or through its intersections with race, ethnicity, language, sexuality, immigration status, and class, among other forms of difference. Recent work deepens our understanding of how this works theoretically, and sheds light on how a wide variety of groups draw on religious ideals, symbols, practices, and identities in the course of expanding and policing the boundaries of national (and transnational) belonging.

Sub Unit

• Section on Sociology of Religion

Session Organizer

• Ruth Braunstein, University of Connecticut

Panelists

• Mucahit Bilici, John Jay College, CUNY

• Rogers Brubaker, Univ of California-Los Angeles

• Philip S. Gorski, Yale University

• Genevieve Zubrzycki, University of Michigan

Discussant

• Peggy Levitt, Wellesley College