Claiming Identity in the Study of Religion 2015
Social and Rhetorical Techniques Examined
1st Edition
Published on 1. August 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
254 pages
978-1-78179-074-8 (ISBN)
Description
Focusing on the academic study of religion, Claiming Identity in the Study of Religion is the first in a series that grapples with the historicity of identity and the social and rhetorical techniques that make claims to identity possible. In this volume, six previously published essays by scholar of religion Russell T. McCutcheon are each coupled with a new substantive commentary by North American contributors. McCutcheon's essays highlight different identifying claims within the work of a number of leading scholars of religion. The companion contributions analyze the strategies of identification employed by the scholars whom McCutcheon discusses. Monica R. Miller provides an introduction to the volume and Steven W. Ramey provides a concluding essay. The strategies of identification highlighted and exposed in this text are further explored in the second volume in the series, The Problem of Nostalgia in the Study of Identity through a set of detailed ethnographic and historical studies that press novel ways of studying identity as an always active and ongoing process of signification.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
325 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78179-074-8 (9781781790748)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Monica R. Miller is Assistant Professor of Religion and Africana Studies at Lehigh University and among other publications, author of Religion and Hip Hop (Routledge). Miller currently serves as a Senior Research Fellow with The Institute for Humanist Studies.
Content
Editor's IntroductionMonica R. Miller Topic I: Claiming IdentityK. Merinda Simmons (University of Alabama): '"Well, Isn't That Special?': What We Talk about When We Talk about Identity"Russell T. McCutcheon (University of Alabama): "Will Your Cognitive Anchor Hold in the Storms of Culture?" Topic II: Behind the 'A-historical'Leslie Dorrough Smith (Avila University): "Everything is a Cemetery: On the History Behind the 'Ahistorical"'Russell T. McCutcheon: "The Melancholy Empire Builder: The Life and Works of Mircea Eliade"Topic III: Theoretical and Methodological CakeMonica R. Miller: "Who Is the Nigger?: Strategies of Using the 'N' Word and Having it Both Ways"Russell T. McCutcheon: "A Gift with Diminished Returns: On Jeff Kripal's The Serpent's Gift"Topic IV: Costs of Conceptual ColonialismCraig Martin (St Thomas Aquinas College): "Conceptual Colonialism: How Descriptions Carry Explanations"Russell T. McCutcheon: "It's a Lie. There's No Truth in It! It's a Sin!": The Cost of Saving Others from Themselves" Topic V: Cost-Benefit AnalysisSteven Ramey (University of Alabama): "Authorizing Identifications, Disciplining Techniques: The Affinities of Public Advocacy"Russell T. McCutcheon: "Affinities, Benefits, and Costs: The ABCs of Good Scholars Gone Public" Topic VI: Limiting EngagementsVaia Touna (University of Alberta, PhD candidate): "What's New is Old Again: The ALPHAnualphapialphalambdaalpha omegasigmaeta of Tradition"Russell T. McCutcheon: "The Resiliency of Conceptual Anachronisms: On the Limits of 'the West' and 'Religion"'AfterwordSteven Ramey: "Accidental Favorites: The Implicit in the Study of Religion"