Comparative Approaches to Religion and Violence Unit
Violence at the Ballot Box: Religion in the Crosshairs of the Electoral Cycle
In light of this year’s Presidential Theme, CARV seeks to unpack the relationship between religion and marginality as it fuels election-related violence. Broadly, CARV invites proposals that address the role that religion plays in fomenting, negotiating, or mitigating threats and acts of election violence, voter suppression, voter intimidation, online and in-person harassment, and rioting. It likewise welcomes reflections on how these acts of violence relate to, or overlap with, religiously-inspired nationalist movements and identities, as well as analyses of comparative religious and secular nationalisms.
While these issues are of obvious salience for the 2024 U.S. presidential election cycle, CARV also welcomes research that situates religion, marginality, and election violence within a comparative global framework. Fruitful lines of inquiry include, but are not limited to:
Proposals that engage the subject of (non-)violence at the margins, understanding marginality to include broader themes of borders and limits, more specific cases of marginalized peoples and groups, the intentional marginalization of others, and efforts to lay claim to the margins and marginalized identities.
Proposals that recognize the place of gender and sexuality at both the margins and center(s) of politics. These may address the (dis)location of genders and sexualities within the context of election-related violence, and could pursue questions like: How is gender / sexuality rendered central or peripheral to advocacy for, and resistance to, electoral violence? How do patriarchal religious traditions influence actors or movements who commit / support / oppose electoral violence? How are gender and sexuality leveraged as subjects of religious concern, and what role do these presumed entanglements play in the advocacy for, and resistance to, electoral violence? Why?
Proposals that query the role(s) that young people play in advancing or opposing (non-) violence as forms of religious advocacy / protest, especially those that spotlight the shifting ways in which youth and young adults are remaking or redefining religious experiences. What roles are LGBTQIA2S+ children and youth playing in determining (and resisting) the boundaries of the “nation” in religious nationalisms? What ideological, rhetorical, ritual, and/or pragmatic roles are they playing in emerging religious/secular nationalisms? Why?
Since the end of the Cold War, acts of religiously motivated violence have all too often become part of our quotidian existence. Scholars from various disciplines have attempted to account for these incidents, noting such issues as a resurgence of anti-colonialism, poverty and economic injustice, the failures of secular nationalism, uprooted-ness, and the loss of a homeland, and the pervasive features of globalization in its economic, political, social, and cultural forms. What are the religious narratives that help animate these violent actors? This Unit contends that the theories, methodologies, and frameworks for studying the expanding field of religion and violence remain under-explored and require interdisciplinary work and collaboration to provide greater insights into the complex issues involved. The sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, economics, and political science of religion all have provided great insights into the nature of religion and violence over the last few decades and all are arguably interdisciplinary by nature. This Unit provides a venue devoted specifically to interdisciplinary discussions of the subject. We hope to channel and enhance contributions from the historically delineated (albeit constructed) humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences. In that vein, we hope to hear papers presenting cross-disciplinary dialogue and research on the topic of religion and violence.
| Chair | Dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Chase L. Way, Other | chase.laurelle.way@gmail… | - | View |
| W Miller | fmiller@ucdavis.edu | - | View |