Emplacing Religion: Transnational and Cross-Border Perspectives

Speaker(s): Elaine Peña (George Washington University)

 
Please join us for a virtual workshop with Dr. Elaine Peña, Associate Professor of American Studies at George Washington University.
 
This workshop is entitled "Emplacing Religion: Transnational and Cross-Border Perspectives." We will discuss two articles, published ten years apart, which draw explicit attention to embodied practice, materiality, and the role of the built environment in the study of religion. They differ in terms of their respective frames—transnational and cross-border—but both attend to the ways in which marginalized communities use devotional labor to claim space.  These texts also invite us to critically engage the idea that American religious spaces, and notions of American religion more generally, are produced, sustained, and legitimized primarily within the boundaries of the U.S. nation-state.
 
Peña’s research has appeared in e-misférica, American Quarterly, American Literary History, The Drama Review, Material Religion, and in several edited volumes.  She is the author of Performing Piety: Making Space Sacred with the Virgin of Guadalupe (University of California Press, 2011) and ¡Viva George! Celebrating Washington’s Birthday at the U.S.-Mexico Border (University of Texas Press, 2020).
 
Please RSVP in order to receive a Zoom link and an electronic copy of the articles for the session by filling out the following google form: https://forms.gle/tZ3FQaDHTf5gEvxU9
 
Organized by Concerning Violence: A Decolonial Collaborative Research Group, with cosponsorship from the Department of Religious Studies.