https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to higher education en https://religiondispatches.org/2025/04/18/fight-against-right-wing-appalachian-school-choice-politics-fight-democracy-and-future This article first appeared in the Winter/Spring 2025 issue of our sibling publication, The Public Eye—a quarterly magazine for analysis and commentary on the US and Global Right. In October 2024, a flyer appeared in the mailboxes of Kentucky residents… Fri, 18 Apr 2025 06:53:46 EDT Mary Reynolds, Carol Mason fd441d96-b26c-4e9b-a955-2f3fec583090 https://religiondispatches.org/2025/04/10/we-called-better-responses-campus-antisemitism-and-adl-threatened-withdraw-sponsorship On March 23, I delivered a talk at the 4th annual Law and Antisemitism conference held at the UCLA School of Law. At a time when the Trump administration is kidnapping student critics of Israel in the name of Jewish… Thu, 10 Apr 2025 06:30:35 EDT Ben Lorber 42b84976-58fe-468b-9d8e-00c557d1a6cc https://religiondispatches.org/2024/05/28/alarming-new-report-shows-attacks-public-education-are-coordinated-right-wing-think Religion Dispatches recently sat down with Isaac Kamola, associate professor of political science at Trinity College, Hartford, and the director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) to discuss how… Tue, 28 May 2024 04:45:01 EDT Hialy Gutierrez 5bb9a8f2-9add-46f5-8b13-5d6b40a14065 https://religiondispatches.org/2024/04/30/do-you-want-columbia-be-cursed-god-alarming-exchanges-congress-and-beyond-highlight At the April 17 th House Education Committee hearing on Columbia University’s response to antisemitism on campus, Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) questions Columbia President Minouche Shafik about her knowledge of the Bible. In a clip of the hearing below, Allen… Tue, 30 Apr 2024 04:14:26 EDT Chance Bonar e41f1040-70d1-4407-843c-44de1452ae9e https://religiondispatches.org/2023/11/20/flagship-biblical-studies-group-faces-bitter-divide-over-statements-israelpalestine In a time of terrible grief and anger, does the study of ancient Israel require a particular political stance on modern Israel? Freedom of speech and inquiry, one of the bright lines dividing democracies from dictatorships, has been of such… Mon, 20 Nov 2023 11:52:24 EST Seth Sanders 85f9593b-fe37-44cd-b913-916f98883f91 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/01/26/hamline-case-free-expression-vs-religious-sensibilities-frame-obscures-stark-reality Recently, Hamline University faculty called for the resignation of President Fayneese Miller following the firing of adjunct professor Erika López Prater for showing the image of the Prophet in Islamic art. While most commentators have focused on the wisdom and… Thu, 26 Jan 2023 04:50:21 EST Junaid Jahangir b4a9923f-8f05-44b2-8594-90d302ed5065 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/11/01/yeshiva-likely-win-its-battle-against-lgbtq-group-do-jewish-orgs-really-want-empower Yeshiva University (YU), a storied New York City Orthodox Jewish institution, is the unlikely darling du jour of political and legal conservatives. Sued for discrimination by a group of students and alumni after it refused to recognize an undergraduate Pride… Tue, 01 Nov 2022 11:58:53 EDT Orit Avishai 26f9af27-f212-4f3d-8433-f999ab7fb4bf https://religiondispatches.org/2022/07/29/orthodox-churchs-authoritarian-anti-lgbtq-statement-poses-serious-threat-academic As discussed earlier this week on RD , the Orthodox Church in America recently released an encyclical that, on the surface at least, recapitulates the long-held doctrines of the OCA concerning same-sex marriage and gay rights, reinforcing heterosexual hegemony as… Fri, 29 Jul 2022 04:36:54 EDT Sarah Riccardi-Swartz 89f85464-36fc-45f1-b122-e3739b75efc4 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/10/19/north-america-has-hindu-nationalist-problem-and-scholars-are-frontlines-these-right-wing Though you aren’t likely to read about it on the front page of the New York Times or spot it in trending topics on Twitter, for over two decades now North America has had a Hindu Nationalism problem. Scholars in… Tue, 19 Oct 2021 05:11:11 EDT Manan Ahmed, Rohit Chopra, Audrey Truschke 96377973-7c29-4848-bb1a-6211ae86f90c https://religiondispatches.org/2021/05/11/transition-looms-jewish-studies-mired-controversy What is the state of Jewish Studies in America? This question has been raised anew in light of the series of events in the past few months surrounding the case of Hebrew Union College sociologist and admitted sexual harasser Steven… Tue, 11 May 2021 02:07:03 EDT Shaul Magid 3b4a5c1d-d2f8-4724-a0ea-047ec97076ad https://religiondispatches.org/2021/05/05/decolonizing-jewish-studies-part-ii-response-backlash Recently, we identified Jewish Studies scholarship that is sexist, racist, and cisheteronormative, arguing that neoliberal ideologies and metrics reinforce and promote such research. We invited collective reimagining of a more just and creative field. Thus, we’re bemused by a letter… Wed, 05 May 2021 04:32:47 EDT Gilah Kletenik, Rafael Rachel Neis 990d8c41-7307-4750-9bdd-1a052a4bb162 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/04/19/whats-matter-jewish-studies-sexism-harassment-and-neoliberalism-starters When our colleagues in Jewish Studies courageously publicized the systematic and decades-long sexual harassment and assault perpetrated by sociologist Steven M. Cohen, among the many difficult conversations it precipitated was one about the values underlying his work on what’s known… Mon, 19 Apr 2021 03:16:22 EDT Gilah Kletenik, Rafael Rachel Neis 3b35514b-c224-4975-9bf5-8fe94d51633a https://religiondispatches.org/2021/02/10/dispatches-rhodian-shore-tough-love-letter-religious-studies When writing as critical scholars of religion about the impacts and role of religion in society we need to broaden our remit, and must do so quickly. Let me explain why. It’s probably best to start with environmental history, thus… Wed, 10 Feb 2021 12:27:30 EST Todd LeVasseur 0adf051c-302e-4025-867d-749cc2b1fb7a https://religiondispatches.org/2020/12/07/university-vermont-might-be-done-religion-religion-isnt-done-us In case you missed it: Religion has had quite a year. The Muslim Ban celebrated its second (or third) birthday . Reproductive justice once again took a backseat to religious “liberty,” and queer parental rights might well be next. The… Mon, 07 Dec 2020 01:19:07 EST Megan Goodwin 06875b82-a3c9-40b9-97dd-ee1b169cd3ec https://religiondispatches.org/2020/07/16/tearing-down-evangelical-icons-why-penns-decision-remove-george-whitefield-statue-may-be It’s a curious fact of history that a statue of John Wesley stands prominently ensconced in the center of downtown Savannah, Georgia. In stark contrast, a nondescript gazebo dedicated to George Whitefield sits nestled in a quiet residential area on… Thu, 16 Jul 2020 02:00:07 EDT Peter Y. Choi b01d1530-492c-46ec-be1b-a7ea22d0fc17 https://religiondispatches.org/2020/07/01/erasure-whiteness-responses-convicted-pedophile-jan-joosten-white-man In her now classic paper titled White Fragility , Robin DiAngelo writes about the many ways that white people create a world in their own image. She argues that this world emerges from and reflects a “deeply internalized, and largely… Wed, 01 Jul 2020 03:46:52 EDT Jae Han 49a8db84-3361-4258-9791-77b99d50e90d https://religiondispatches.org/2020/06/24/love-scholarship-hate-scholars-sin-himpathy-academic-pedophile-enables-culture-abuse In her excellent book Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny , the philosopher Kate Manne coined the term Himpathy , which she defined as “the excessive sympathy sometimes shown toward male perpetrators of sexual violence.” This tendency stems “largely from… Wed, 24 Jun 2020 07:13:57 EDT Stephen Young 64a8acf0-55ac-487f-9996-695dfebb9d6a https://religiondispatches.org/2020/06/05/powerful-statement-black-presidents-and-deans-say-no-more-stolen-black-lives On Monday, I and a group of womanist Presidents and Deans, decided that we would not be silent as we witnessed the ongoing murders of and harm to Black people by police officers. We began to write a statement articulating… Fri, 05 Jun 2020 01:54:17 EDT Pamela R. Lightsey 0c800e83-25ad-4fa0-9f34-c74f383f3a68 https://religiondispatches.org/2019/04/01/lgbtq-victory-christian-azusa-pacific-u-leaves-significant-questions-about-future-and While activists cite the policy change and the opportunity for more discussion and visibility on campus, it isn’t clear how faculty would feel safe openly exploring queer theology while contractually required to oppose same-sex relationships on theological grounds. Mon, 01 Apr 2019 02:18:36 EDT Chrissy Stroop 0f468222-5ba5-4453-9673-52e3ac9662f7 https://religiondispatches.org/2019/02/15/pair-christian-colleges-quietly-cracking-down-lgbtq-acceptance As America reels from the exposure of a massive child sexual abuse scandal in the Southern Baptist Convention, we should pause to take stock of the culpability of the broader conservative, mostly white evangelical subculture. Fri, 15 Feb 2019 04:05:51 EST Chrissy Stroop eaf86ab7-5513-457d-9c52-b5d420a5ab23 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/05/15/heart-texas-aint-hateful-open-letter-lawmakers-texan-trans-queer-latinx Dear Texas Legislators, The Lone Star State still holds a ten-gallon spot in my heart, but I am afraid that the warm, welcoming place I loved, the place that proved so crucially formative to my sense of self, will be… Mon, 15 May 2017 04:05:18 EDT Robyn Henderson-Espinoza 85df9421-ba01-4af6-8346-3b598735125a https://religiondispatches.org/2017/03/23/andrew-sullivan-really-took-opportunity-misread-intersectionality “Here’s the latest in the assault on liberal democracy,” writes Andrew Sullivan, as he decries the recent student shut-down of controversial author Charles Murray’s talk at Middlebury College earlier this month. But it was the headline that grabbed our attention… Thu, 23 Mar 2017 09:00:15 EDT Sunnivie Brydum, Evan Derkacz 47e922a4-d490-4657-96f6-22b889498a05 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/05/26/risk-teaching-theology-public-university-response A year ago, the University of California at Berkeley announced that it had been awarded a three-year grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, totaling $1 million dollars, to support programming at the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (BCSR)… Thu, 26 May 2016 11:07:56 EDT Martin Kavka 98bf73d2-73fb-4ea1-8c5f-f8094fdc4b54 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/02/02/what-good-it-union-gain-world-forfeit-its-soul “I have never really understood exactly what a ‘liberal’ is,” Assata Shakur writes, “since I have heard ‘liberals’ express every conceivable opinion on every conceivable subject.” I am prompted to use the words of Shakur in response to the failure… Tue, 02 Feb 2016 01:42:31 EST Yazmine Nichols cb286fd4-bbc3-4d90-bdbb-7fae424bbfbe https://religiondispatches.org/2016/02/02/rumors-suicide-liberal-church-are-exaggerated-response-chris-hedges Within the first dozen words of Chris Hedges’ recent articl e on liberal Protestants we learn both that its institutions are “demonic” (bad!) and that it is committing “suicide” (also bad, or at least lamentable). It is not clear whether… Tue, 02 Feb 2016 01:11:58 EST Mark Hulsether b7efc4a3-db00-4570-8c37-8ea9b4dc512d