@judithweisenfeld.com
African American religious history & religion and race in America. https://www.judithweisenfeld.com/ New-ish: Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU Press)
Saturday, April 18, 2026 at Princeton University.
A conference organized by @bryandaniellowe.bsky.social.
Rethinking the Origins of Buddhist Studies in North America:
Kenneth Ch’en and the Central Role of Asian and Asian-American Scholars in Founding the Field.
Front of the Brandenburg Methodist Episcopal Church, located at 215 Broadway in Brandenburg, Kentucky, United States. Wikimedia Commons
Ten scholars revisit Jon Butler’s 2004 Journal of American History article, “Jack-in-the-Box Faith: The Religion Problem in Modern American History,” evaluating how it inspired historians to embed religion in “mainstream” modern U.S. history, and its legacy amidst historiographical trends.
I'm honored to have contributed to a roundtable in @modamhist.bsky.social reflecting on Jon Butler's 2004 article, “Jack-in-the-Box Faith: The Religion Problem in Modern American History." Thanks to Darren Dochuk for the invitation to join a great group of scholars.
Shoutout to Alisha Gray and the Misties!!!!! #Unrivaled 🏆
Friends who attend #AARSBL: this year I don’t have the time to submit any proposals given my upcoming dissertation defense. If your session (on any topic related to my work) could use a respondent or moderator or extra panelist, please hit me up! I’d love to still have a reason to attend AAR.
African American Episcopal Historical Collection Travel Grant
Deadline: April 30, 2026
Grants are open to faculty, students, independent researchers, clergy, and laypersons. Funds may be used for travel, lodging, meals, photocopying, and other research expenses.
*Enemies of the Future: As part of the 2026 AAR theme of Future/s, explorations of Luddism, anti-tech, anti-AI, intentionally low-tech, and anti-modern religion (e.g., Anabaptism). *Techno-futures: As part of the AAR 2026 presidential theme of Future/s, considerations of the transformative role of technology in creating new material forms, new scientific horizons, and new religious iterations. Does the science/religion dynamic change as technology changes? *Funding Structures, Funding Collapse: Studies of the transformed landscape of funding for science in the second Trump presidency and its implications for religion as well as how science and religion funding have built the field. *Prediction and Uncertainty: Considerations of science and prediction, of unpredictability, divination, prophecy, the affects of certainty/uncertainty, despair and hope, optimism/pessimism, and speculation. *Revisiting When Prophecy Fails and Cognitive Dissonance: Considerations of new research emerging in the past decade challenging or reframing Festinger et al.’s influential 1956 book When Prophecy Fails and Festinger’s follow-up volume Cognitive Dissonance. *Genealogies of Science and Religion (for a possible cosponsored session between the Science, Technology, and Religion and Cultural History of the Study of Religion units): Where does science and religion—as a subfield—come from? What are the origin points, lineages, inflections, institutional politics, and material conditions of knowledge production that have led to the current field? Proposals may consider the Pitts Digital Collection repository of “American Academy of Religion Program Books” and/or explore the history of the STR unit (founded as “Theology and Science” in 1987) and related subdivisions of AAR/SBL. We welcome proposals from all scholarly ranks including graduate, contingent, and early-career scholars. AI-generated proposals will not be considered.
AAR folks! The deadline for submissions is about to be extended to March 9. Have a look at our CFP for the Science, Technology, and Religion unit and consider submitting if you have something that you think might fit!
Good thing some US colleges are closing their Religious Studies departments—definitively not “useful” at all or an area of expertise that might be relevant for understanding our present…
Tomorrow I'll be giving a virtual lecture on Sudan at Northeastern Illinois University’s 12th Annual Conference on Genocide and Human Rights in Africa and the Diaspora 🇸🇩
📅 Date: March 3, 2026
🕒 Time: 3:45–4:45 p.m. CST (Zoom)
💻 Registration link: www.neiu.edu/academics/ou...
He's talking about the ballroom and gold drapes.
I had the privilege of serving as a judge for this year's AAP PROSE Awards. Many fantastic books made for many hard choices, but as an early Americanist I am thrilled to see David Eltis, Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades, win the top award.
publishers.org/news/the-ass...
I know this feels pointless but everyone has to call their congressional reps and say they oppose war with Iran and they oppose Trump illegally starting one without congressional approval — both
congresscalllist.com
Thank you both for doing this!
“She is an international student w/a visa…She appeared to have been taken from her Columbia-owned apartment on West 121st Street…Ms. Aghayeva posted a one-second video on her popular Instagram account showing her in the back of a vehicle with the caption: ‘Dhs illegally arrested me. Please help.’”
This is a fantastic interview in the Harvard Divinity School Bulletin with @xroadproj.bsky.social Research Fellow @ahmadgreene.com about his excellent book, *Underworld Work: Black Atlantic Religion Making in Jim Crow New Orleans.*
What a terrible loss.
What terrible news.
CFP: Black Queer/Trans Studies Graduate Conference
Princeton University | May 1-2, 2026
Deadline for Abstracts: March 15, 2026
"We welcome proposals on any subject related to Black queer/trans studies, broadly defined" from graduate students and undergraduate seniors.
Thanks!
I'm honored that Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake received a 2026 PROSE Award from the Association of American Publishers in the Psychology and Applied Social Work category.
Friends! We did it!! Transcribe 2026 saw more than 8,000 people transform 37,790 pages. We are 100% done!
"There is a power in numbers and in union; because the many are more than the few." - Frederick Douglass, 1883
55 left!
CFP: Archival Abundances and Silences in Islamic Studies
October 2-3, 2026
Deadline: March 6, 2026
The Princeton Department of Religion invites proposals from graduate students and early-career scholars for papers that address the theme of the conference from a variety of disciplines and methods.
Job: 2-year Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at Rhodes College. Review of applications begins March 9, 2026.
Applications are now open for the 2026-2028 Young Scholars in American Religion cohort.
Applications are due April 1, 2026.
Learn more about YSAR and apply to be apart of the next cohort: raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/young-schola...
I'll be at Mercer University from February 24-25 delivering the Harry Vaughan Smith Lectures on "The Crossroads of Race and Religion in African American History." Three lectures, two days, if you're in the area.
A cat watching a video of a mouse.
Cat TV.
And we're still going!
Happy birthday Frederick Douglass!
Still LOTS to transcribe!
www.zooniverse.org/projects/dou...
