Wednesday, September 10, 4-6pm, OSU Research Commons [18th Avenue Library, third floor], 175 W. 18th Ave.

Join the OSU Center for the Study of Religion [CSR] for a colloquium celebrating the publication of Religion in the Americas: Trans-hemispheric and Transcultural Approaches, a new volume co-edited by CSR affiliate Jessica Delgado, associate professor in the departments of History and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Jessica will be joined by her co-editor Christopher D. Tirres (Santa Clara University). They will offer insight about the volume and its genesis. OSU’s Michelle Wibbelsman (Department of Spanish and Portuguese) and Alyssa Bedrosian (Department of Spanish and Portuguese) will also offer brief responses, and David Carrasco, the Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America in the Harvard Divinity School, will be present via Zoom.

This event is free and open and welcoming to all. Co-hosted by the OSU Center for Latin American Studies and the OSU Humanities Institute.

Religion in the Américas explores the fluid, dynamic, and complex nature of religion across Latin America and its diasporic communities in the United States. Utilizing a transdisciplinary and trans-hemispheric lens, this groundbreaking anthology transcends traditional scholarly boundaries — geographical, disciplinary, and temporal — as it explores ideas and cultural practices that share a common history of Iberian colonialism.

This robust collection of essays forges a dialogue among scholars throughout the Americas who represent a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The book is divided into five sections: “Fluidity in the Afro-Latine Diaspora,” “Aesthetics in Las Américas,” “Critical Feminist Epistemologies and Activism,” “The Limits of Institutional Religion,” and “Spiritual Invasions and Contagions.” Throughout the volume, the concept of “experience” serves as a foundational lens, as chapters examine how individuals and communities actively interpret and negotiate their realities within diverse historical and social contexts.

Focusing on religion as a culturally conditioned epistemic practice, Religion in the Américas invites readers to engage with religion in the Americas on multiple, intersecting levels of knowledge, including local insights, scholarly analyses, and the positionality and queries of readers themselves. The book’s dialogical approach encourages not only continual reevaluation of the complexities of religious experience in the Americas but also creative innovation that will inspire new avenues of inquiry.

Hosted by OSU Center for the Study of Religion.