Research Group Session 3: Religion and Democracy – New Research Frontiers (Invite Only)

Session Submission Type: Research Group

Abstract

1. Overall Summary
The Religion and Politics Organized Section proposes a Research Workshop entitled “Religion and Democracy: New Research Frontiers” for the inaugural APSA Virtual Research Meeting. The workshop’s primary goal is to gather a group of scholars from diverse subfields of the discipline to highlight new challenges and opportunities for research in the contemporary age of democratic fragility, in the United States and across the globe. Research Group Leaders plan this virtual meeting as a first step towards future scholarly output, whether through a journal special issue or edited volume, and possess robust institutional resources to support these subsequent steps.

Religion’s impact on democracy, whether promoting Third Wave democratization or threatening liberal rights through the rise of radical movements, was a key force promoting the growth of scholarship on religion in political science in the late Twentieth Century. The global study of democracy is as vital as ever, with significant challenges facing democratic institutions across regions, including in the United States. Yet scholarship on religion and democracy has only begun to respond to these new global dynamics. Under what conditions do public expressions of religion foster or hinder the consolidation of democratic governance and minority rights? How does the public role of religion differ in this period from religion’s role in the Third Wave? And how could the causal arrow run in reverse, with trends in democracy reshaping the nature of religious affiliation and authority? This workshop’s primary goal is to build a community of scholarship addressing these research opportunities, through a series of panels spotlighting distinct dimensions of research.

2. Potential Structure and Participants
While the precise structure of the three sessions of our workshop will reflect the nature of eventual submissions, we envision several themes structuring the panels. First, we will work across core subfields of Political Science, including American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Political Theory, to encourage mutual learning between researchers addressing this topic from varied research traditions. Second, we will foreground methodological debates and innovations, reflecting our own diverse methodological expertise and the extent to which research methods in the study of religion and politics have progressed in the past two decades. Third, we will focus on the importance of conceptual precision, as core concepts in religion and democracy, from “Christian nationalism” to “political Islam” and even “secularism” require careful definition and operationalization for research to progress.

We plan a virtual workshop that blends senior scholars, younger researchers, and those unable to attend the in-person APSA Annual Meeting. Each of the Research Group Leaders serves on the Religion and Politics Section’s Executive Committee, and there are certainly senior members of our field who we would hope to recruit to the event. We also, in our capacities as section leaders, believe that this virtual event could be an ideal opportunity for younger scholars, graduate students, and international scholars to become engaged in our section’s work. The Religion and Politics section prioritizes promoting young scholars, particularly through our section-funded Small Grants program, established in 2020. We see this Virtual Workshop as another stage in that work.

3. Potential Outcomes and Next Steps
The Research Group Leaders envision this initial virtual convening as a first step in a broader effort to build a community of research and practice in this area. Should this convening produce productive exchanges, we plan to follow it with an in-person workshop grappling with similar themes, as well as an eventual collaborative publication. That could include a special issue of a journal, or an edited volume focused on the topic.

Each Research Group Leader brings professional experiences and resources that could aid in that process. Buckley directs a research center at the University of Louisville with substantial programmatic funds. Tezcür directs a school at Arizona State University that is also home to the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict. Djupe is former editor of the APSA journal Politics and Religion and edits a prominent book series on religion and politics. Each group leader also has extensive experience in publicly engaged scholarship, government service, and/or NGO consulting, which could provide further opportunities for developing and disseminating research from the group.

Sub Unit

• Research Groups / Religion and Democracy: New Research Frontiers

Discussants

• Rebecca A. Glazier University of Arkansas, Little Rock

• Michael Driessen John Cabot University

• Ramazan Kilinc Kennesaw State University

Participants

• Alexander R. Arifianto Nanyang Technological University

• Gizem Arikan Trinity College Dublin

• Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• Humeyra Biricik Oxford University

• Drew Cagle College of Coastal Georgia

• Nandini Deo Lehigh University

• Hanna Folsz Stanford University

• Natasha Gordon Columbia University

• Dina Osama Lotfy Cairo University

• Danielle Nicole Lussier Grinnell College

• Hannah Ridge Chapman University

• Radha Sarkar Tecnologico de Monterrey

• Muhammad Bilal Shakir McGill University

• Ashley Fabrizio Stanford University

• Sebastian Lucek Stanford University

Session Organizers

• David T. Buckley University of Louisville

• Güneş Murat Tezcür Arizona State University

• Paul A. Djupe Denison University