Shifting Landscapes for Religious Studies in Red-State Public Institutions: Civic Centers, Legislative Control, and Classroom Surveillance

For public institutions in several states, recent years have witnessed an unprecedented level of government regulation of university matters. Under the banner of countering supposed political indoctrination, legislatures are regulating everything from syllabus design to what topics can be discussed in the classroom. The adoption of new technologies that facilitate public oversight, alongside continued surveillance both on-and off-campus, further this atmosphere of censorship and restriction. Meanwhile, state legislatures have created well-funded centers dedicated to “intellectual freedom” and the study of “civics,” which have quickly hired new faculty and proposed new courses, many of them on topics of religion and theology. This roundtable will bring together professors from a range of states affected by these changes. Each panelist will offer a brief take on some facet of their experience of this current landscape for religious studies, then the bulk of the session will be devoted to conversation of these urgent concerns.