Revisiting Religion and Place in Light of Environmental, Legal and Indigenous Studies

Given recent advances on the study of place in the environmental humanities, social sciences, legal studies, and indigenous studies, the time is ripe for rethinking place as a fundamental feature of the study of religion. Our Institute will focus on those emerging disciplines that have productively and effectively highlighted the deep interconnections between conceptions of place, the sacred, and the secular at multiple levels. Taking seriously the fact that our Institute is focused on the intersections of religion and notions of place, significant field-based engagement will complement close reading and discussion of important contemporary scholarship.