University in Flames
Ecologies of Scholarship in the Study of Religion
Edited by Teemu Taira
Paperback (Published)
(August 2026)
ISBN: 9781800507968
6.14 x 9.21 inches
Price: $32.00
In stock
Hardback (Published)
(August 2026)
ISBN: 9781800507951
6.14 x 9.21 inches
Price: $100.00
In stock
This volume asks, in what ways do specific educational, institutional, and broader social locations and environments inform perspectives on religion and the contours of scholarly debate?
Neoliberalism and authoritarian populism are some of the main forces endangering contemporary universities. This applies to the study of religion in several ways. The numbers of new tenured positions and students are going down in North America, but some departments suffer more than others. What is required is a careful reflection on the current working conditions and an examination of future of the field. This volume asks, in what ways do specific educational, institutional, and broader social locations and environments inform perspectives on religion and the contours of scholarly debate? Based on surveys and self-consciously personal observations of various university settings, explorations of research environments, and investigations of dissemination platforms, these personal contributions from different career stages exemplify the dynamic between forces shaping academia today and individuals navigating in their situation while constructing a better future for themselves and the field of study. Examining the elements that comprise the ecology of the field provides opportunities to sharpen our scholarly pursuits.
Table of Contents
1 University in Flames: An Introduction 1
Teemu Taira
2 A Different Type of Climate Crisis: Thinking and Teaching with Critical Interdisciplinarity When the University is on Fire 11
Leslie Dorrough Smith
Institutional Climate
3 Religious Studies is Not Natural; or, Climate Changes for the “Critical” Study of “Religion” 31
Matthew C. Baldwin
4 Imagining Religion: From Chicago to Topeka 58
Chris Jones
5 Navigating Shaky Ground: An Environmental Survey of the Study of Religion in Canada 70
Chris Miller
6 Religious Studies in the Built Environment of Higher Education in North America 86
Rita M. Lester
Research Environment
7 In and of the Research Environment: Mennonites, Latin America, and Religious Studies 93
Rebecca Janzen
8 Whither the Settler in the Transdisciplinary Study of Religion? 100
Stacie Swain
9 Historical Sites and Memory: Physical Sites as Research Environments 112
Allison Isidore
10 The Scholarly Built Environment 120
Sarah Dees
Dissemination Platform
11 Predatory Journals and the Middle Eastern Academy: Orientalism in Disguise? 127
Edith Szanto
vi • University in Flames
12 “Anticapitalist Manifesto” or “Social-Democratic Bedtime Story”? Diverse Platforms and Diverging Interpretations of Karl Polanyi’s
The Great Transformation 138
Thomas J. Carrico, Jr.
13 On Ghosts and Trees: The Supreme Court as an Arborescent, Haunted Dissemination Platform 148
Jacob Barrett
14 Displaying Religion: History, Holy, or Religion? 160
Trevor Linn
15 Platform Capitalism, Subjugated Knowledges, and the Myth of Pre-Mediated Scholarship 170
Lauren Horn Griffin
Sociocultural Location
16 Can We Be Self-Reflexive? Scrutinizing Our Sociocultural Position 179
Vaia Touna
17 Ethnography in a Fishbowl: Reflections on Scholarly Embeddedness 188
Mary Hamner
18 When Life Happens: An Exploration into Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Concept and Graduate Research 195
Xochiquetzal Luna Morales
19 Reflexivity, the Religious Studies Habitus, and Institutional Constraints 203
Sean McCloud
Index 207
- Edited by Teemu Taira
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