The History Department’s Workshop on Religion and Society was established to encourage greater cooperation and collaboration among the many faculty and graduate students with research and teaching interests that focus on religion and spirituality.  It is an intentionally interdisciplinary workshop that functions in collaboration with the new Religion & Society program of the College of Arts and Sciences.  The intent is to study the pervasive roles of religion in both historical and contemporary contexts, and to provide a forum for the exchange of insights and methodologies.

Since the department’s workshop system is in embryonic form at this point, our agenda and objectives are far from fixed.  For now, we see the Religion & Society Workshop as a place where people can present work in progress, where scholars visiting campus can interact with those from a variety of fields who have interests in the general area of religion, spirituality, and culture—and, most importantly, where those of us scattered throughout Maxwell and elsewhere at SU can get together with people of diverse geographic, analytical, and temporal perspectives.  At this point, we are meeting approximately every two weeks, and presenters have come from several historical fields, from law, from political science and philosophy, and from religion.