3236 - Populism and Religion: Comparative-Historical Approaches

Session Submission Type: Paper Session (100 min)

Description

While the literature on the rise of populism(s) is rich and ever growing, the interplay between populism and religion(s), especially in non-Western cases, remains underexamined. This session brings together case studies and comparative works that offer historical sociological perspectives on the study of populism and religion. Across multiple geographies and religious traditions, it considers the various ways in which religion and populism interact, and asks: What are the religious origins and consequences of populism and vice versa? How do populists, both left- and right-wing, utilize religion/secularity as an identity marker and mobilization tool? How do religious leaders and communities deploy populism? In what ways do religion and populism get entangled with other forces, such as nationalism? The session explores these and other questions to shed light on the populism-religion nexus.

Sub Unit

• Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology / Populism and Religion: Comparative-Historical Approaches

Cosponsor

• Section on Sociology of Religion

Presider

• Efe Peker, University of Ottawa

Individual Presentations

• Religion and Gender in the European Populist Right - Ayse Serdar, Istanbul Technical University; Ebru Öztürk, Mid Sweden University; Katarina Giritli Nygren, Mid Sweden University

• Religion, Populism, and Nationalism in Nine Eastern European States - Pamela Irving Jackson, Rhode Island College; Peter E. Doerschler, Bloomsburg University

• Religious Populism in America and the Possibility for Democratic Politics - Rhys H. Williams, Loyola University-Chicago

Discussant

• Shai M. Dromi, Harvard University

Session Organizers

• Efe Peker, University of Ottawa

• Gulay Turkmen, WZB Berlin