This seminar will focus on the role of religion in 21st-century right-wing movements in Europe and the Americas. For each case study, we will spend one week learning the basic history and contours of the case and one week reading and discussing material that analyzes and attempts to explain the case. Categories and explanatory models covered in these more analytical weeks will include religious nationalism, secularism and laicism, postcolonial critiques of secularism, populism, strengths and weaknesses of a “clash of civilizations” model for understanding current conflicts, and fundamentalism.
About Tia Kolbaba
Tia Kolbaba is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on Byzantine Orthodox self-definitions and definitions of "the other." Her publications include two books: The Byzantine Lists. Errors of the Latins (Illinois 2000) ; Inventing Latin Heretics. The Byzantines and the Filioque in the 9th Century (Kalamazoo 2008).