Social Science of Religion

[jigmenorbu]

Anybody out there applying to religion departments with plans for social scientific projects, methods, approaches? Projects which overlap with other departments? Anthropology, sociology, communications, etc.? If so, what research areas? I'm hoping to do ethnographic research on secularism, an issue tied up with lots of religious histories and questions. I'm sending the same proposal spun in slightly different ways to religion, anthropology, and interdisciplinary departments. Anyone else?

[peppermint.beatnik]

Anybody out there applying to religion departments with plans for social scientific projects, methods, approaches? Projects which overlap with other departments? Anthropology, sociology, communications, etc.? If so, what research areas? I'm hoping to do ethnographic research on secularism, an issue tied up with lots of religious histories and questions. I'm sending the same proposal spun in slightly different ways to religion, anthropology, and interdisciplinary departments. Anyone else?

yup, I do religion and social sciences using ethnographic methods. I am only applying to religious studies (no anthro; no interdisciplinary).

[philonic]

I'm interested primarily in applications of ritual theory to social-contextual/social-historical interpretation of the New Testament and other early Christian texts.

It has been difficult to find grad programs that will facilitate interests in social-science or hybrid methodologies. I'm just not interested in traditional historical-critical approaches, bleh.

[jigmenorbu]

I'm interested primarily in applications of ritual theory to social-contextual/social-historical interpretation of the New Testament and other early Christian texts.

It has been difficult to find grad programs that will facilitate interests in social-science or hybrid methodologies. I'm just not interested in traditional historical-critical approaches, bleh.

Whoa, that's wild. What are some of the main studies? Ritual theory, as in... Turner, Leach, Gluckmann, Catherine Bell... ish?

[Sparky]

Whoa, that's wild. What are some of the main studies? Ritual theory, as in... Turner, Leach, Gluckmann, Catherine Bell... ish?

Or maybe Whitehouse? I'm not 100% on board with his version of ritual theory, for various reasons, but a modified version of it could provide a really cool way to look at the early Church.

I'm interdisciplinary as well, but crossing over into history and literature instead of sociology. And maybe a tinge of philosophy from time to time, but I think we all do that to some extent. I'm applying to a veritable buffet of department titles.

[philonic]

Or maybe Whitehouse? I'm not 100% on board with his version of ritual theory, for various reasons, but a modified version of it could provide a really cool way to look at the early Church.

I'm interdisciplinary as well, but crossing over into history and literature instead of sociology. And maybe a tinge of philosophy from time to time, but I think we all do that to some extent. I'm applying to a veritable buffet of department titles.

Turner and Bell are the big names in ritual that I've been "using"; that word always sounds dirty in these kinds of discussions, but it works. Anyway, I'm not familiar with those other names. I've been trying to integrate some other theoretical pieces such as social drama, gender performativity, and discursive practices and power. I'm partial to Victor Turner, Catherine Bell is a bit out there; that ritual as ideology stuff is on the verge of pointless IMHO. Of course, Michel Foucault and Judith Butler are my other favs. I've also been interested in other ancient social paradigms such as patron-client relations and voluntary associations as exempla of imperial ideology.

For the sake of the thread, I forgot to mention that while my interests are obviously interdisciplinary I am not applying to any joint-programs. Anyone who is interested in doing so, though should consider applying to University of Toronto; they have the best interdisciplinary programs with respect to Religious studies. I have been accepted to study at the GTU in Berkeley, CA; UC Berkeley has approved me to work in any/all of their graduate departments. I also applied to Toronto and am waiting for their verdict.

[peppermint.beatnik]

Turner and Bell are the big names in ritual that I've been "using"; that word always sounds dirty in these kinds of discussions, but it works. Anyway, I'm not familiar with those other names. I've been trying to integrate some other theoretical pieces such as social drama, gender performativity, and discursive practices and power. I'm partial to Victor Turner, Catherine Bell is a bit out there; that ritual as ideology stuff is on the verge of pointless IMHO. Of course, Michel Foucault and Judith Butler are my other favs. I've also been interested in other ancient social paradigms such as patron-client relations and voluntary associations as exempla of imperial ideology.

For the sake of the thread, I forgot to mention that while my interests are obviously interdisciplinary I am not applying to any joint-programs. Anyone who is interested in doing so, though should consider applying to University of Toronto; they have the best interdisciplinary programs with respect to Religious studies. I have been accepted to study at the GTU in Berkeley, CA; UC Berkeley has approved me to work in any/all of their graduate departments. I also applied to Toronto and am waiting for their verdict.

who do you want to work with at u of t?

[philonic]

who do you want to work with at u of t?

Drs. John Kloppenborg, John Marshall, and Andreas Bendlin (Classics) would be my primary choices in the field of Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity. Bendlin's primary areas of interest are Roman reiligion, Greco-Roman social history and ritual studies. Kloppenborg and Marshall both work in social-science NT interpretation. If I get in I think it would be a near perfect fit.

Are you applying to Toronto as well? Anywhere else?

[jacib]

Anybody out there applying to religion departments with plans for social scientific projects, methods, approaches? Projects which overlap with other departments? Anthropology, sociology, communications, etc.? If so, what research areas? I'm hoping to do ethnographic research on secularism, an issue tied up with lots of religious histories and questions. I'm sending the same proposal spun in slightly different ways to religion, anthropology, and interdisciplinary departments. Anyone else?

Jigmenorbu, I am incidentally interested in a very similar topic. I'm also interested in secularism, though less focused on ethnographic work and more on comparative/historical work. I applied to five sociology departments, and five religion departments (Duke, Chicago [MA], UCSB, Toronto [MA], BU), though I recently withdrew my apps from the last three after getting into one of my top choice sociology departments. Throughout the process, I actually felt more and more pushed out of religion departments. I went in to the application process considering sociology departments as almost an afterthought, but at this point, that's where my focus has been.

Are you applying later or have you already applied (your profile lists "Spring 2010")? Where have you applied, what precisely are your interests? If you don't want to share in this public place, it'd be cool if you private messaged me. I had always thought of religion as my home, but the more I read about it (NAASR and the J. Z. Smiths of the world can only do so much), the more I apply to the departments, see how they work and how I don't want to share their assumptions, the more I feel like people like me are marginalized in the study of religion. That's obviously not entirely true, and there are tons of sweet people around (Bruce Lincoln comes to mind) but a lot of the questions scholars of religion ask I don't find interesting.

As for secularism, I had a long talk with Jose Casanova of Georgetown about who is working on the issue right now, and he gave me a long, long list of people with whom I could pursue graduate work relating to secularism--mainly political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists (in roughly that order). The only one he mentioned affiliated with a Religion department was Mark Juergenmeyer at UCSB, who is also affiliated with the Sociology and Global Studies departments. I don't know, I felt like most of the Religion departments were not as accepting to my research ideas as I had hoped (Duke's was the one big exception... Actually I think Chicago and Toronto would have been exciting places if they didn't require Masterses first). But I mean, if you look at where most of the people who post on the Immanent Frame work, it's almost never someone from a Religion department. Philosophers get more stuff published on the Immanent Frame than "Religionists" do. In fact, Ebrahim Moosa at Duke is the only one who has posted recently on the Immanent Frame who is by training a "Religionist" of some kind, at least that I can think of. Actually, that's not true, looking back there are several recently. But none except Moosa are at places that train graduate students, I don't think. But still, I have been surprised at how bad a fit my project was for most religion departments. I was hard pressed to even find five to apply to that had a good chance of accepting me based on fit.

Edited February 11, 2010 by jacib

[tenorcervantes]

My research involves an ethnographic approach. Throughout undergrad I focused my research on Evangelical masculinity. For grad school, I am still wrestling with two research interests: 1) focusing on the use of the Bible in modern discourse on gender and sexuality; and 2) exploring Christian influence on indigenous gender and sexuality in Latin America. I only applied to religious studies departments, but intend on getting support from outside departments.

[jigmenorbu]

Jigmenorbu, I am incidentally interested in a very similar topic. I'm also interested in secularism, though less focused on ethnographic work and more on comparative/historical work. I applied to five sociology departments, and five religion departments (Duke, Chicago [MA], UCSB, Toronto [MA], BU), though I recently withdrew my apps from the last three after getting into one of my top choice sociology departments. Throughout the process, I actually felt more and more pushed out of religion departments. I went in to the application process considering sociology departments as almost an afterthought, but at this point, that's where my focus has been.

Are you applying later or have you already applied (your profile lists "Spring 2010")? Where have you applied, what precisely are your interests? If you don't want to share in this public place, it'd be cool if you private messaged me. I had always thought of religion as my home, but the more I read about it (NAASR and the J. Z. Smiths of the world can only do so much), the more I apply to the departments, see how they work and how I don't want to share their assumptions, the more I feel like people like me are marginalized in the study of religion. That's obviously not entirely true, and there are tons of sweet people around (Bruce Lincoln comes to mind) but a lot of the questions scholars of religion ask I don't find interesting.

As for secularism, I had a long talk with Jose Casanova of Georgetown about who is working on the issue right now, and he gave me a long, long list of people with whom I could pursue graduate work relating to secularism--mainly political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists (in roughly that order). The only one he mentioned affiliated with a Religion department was Mark Juergenmeyer at UCSB, who is also affiliated with the Sociology and Global Studies departments. I don't know, I felt like most of the Religion departments were not as accepting to my research ideas as I had hoped (Duke's was the one big exception... Actually I think Chicago and Toronto would have been exciting places if they didn't require Masterses first). But I mean, if you look at where most of the people who post on the Immanent Frame work, it's almost never someone from a Religion department. Philosophers get more stuff published on the Immanent Frame than "Religionists" do. In fact, Ebrahim Moosa at Duke is the only one who has posted recently on the Immanent Frame who is by training a "Religionist" of some kind, at least that I can think of. Actually, that's not true, looking back there are several recently. But none except Moosa are at places that train graduate students, I don't think. But still, I have been surprised at how bad a fit my project was for most religion departments. I was hard pressed to even find five to apply to that had a good chance of accepting me based on fit.

Hey Jacib,

That's cool. I think there's a lot to be said about all of this. I'm familiar with Casanova and Jurgensmeyer, recently heard them speak at the annual meetings of the AAR at a pretty good panel discussion on secularism including Charles Taylor and others. I would be very curious to hear more about the advice he gave you.

I applied (for Fall 2010) to Divinity at Chicago, Religion and Columbia, anthropology at Princeton and Cornell, and Media, Culture and Communication at NYU. I'm hoping to do cultures of secularism/everyday secularism/practices of secularism, as well as institutions/processes/ideologies of secularism and secular governance-- in America, and potential comparative interest in Europe. So pretty open at this point. What about you?

I'm curious about what you mentioned about feeling marginalized in religion departments, and your reference to the NAASR. I am very familiar with the debates on reductionism/anti-reductionism vis a vis theory and method in the study of religion, as represented by McCutcheon, Segal, Fitzgerald, and others. Is this what you're referring to? It seems like over the years, religious studies as a discipline has been able to incorporate many of the reforms proposed by those guys, and their whole argument seems a bit dramatic in the light of this history. That was my impression at least.

I think it's (secularism) an essentially interdisciplinary area of study, and I regret not applying to sociology departments, seeing that a lot of the most intelligent and expansive commentary on secularism is issuing from that discipline. Anthropology is more insular than I ever knew, I'm finding.

Have you started a programme?

[whubbla]

Any of y'all apply to UNC Chapel Hill Religious Studies? Am curious about admission information, etc.