"Hate speech" is as contested as it is distressingly common in contemporary public discourse. It poses dilemmas that extend beyond political and legal debates about how it should be regulated. For professional historians - particularly scholars of religion in its historical dimensions - it also raises questions of classification and academic ethics. Is "hate speech"...

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The Museum of the Bible on D.C.'s national mall was founded and funded by the billionaire owners of Hobby Lobby. From the start, the museum has been controversial in the national press and in the field of biblical studies. Through a close examination of the museum’s exhibits and its collection of archaeological and historical objects,...

The idea that so-called races reflect inherent biological differences between social groups has been a prominent aspect of Western thought since at least the Enlightenment. While there have been moments of refuting this way of thinking, fixed biological conceptions of race haunt new genetic technologies, where race is thought to be measurable at the molecular...

In Haitian Vodou, one lwa (deity) is widely celebrated as the spirit of pèp la (the people). The lwa Gede is a trickster who resides over death and sexual regeneration. He embodies transgressive masculinity and carnivalesque freedom. This presentation explores how such a rogue became a national sign. It traces Gede’s rise in popularity to...

Canceled! Though typically translated as “Jewish law,” the term halakhah is not an easy match for what is usually thought of as law. This is because the rabbinic legal system has rarely wielded the political power to enforce its many detailed rules, nor has it ever been the law of any state. Even more idiosyncratically,...

African American religious history has largely been written from the perspective of believers and belief. But what about the religious perspectives of skeptics, the doubtful, and unbelievers? What value can be gained from explorations of their views? Wallace Best answers these questions with a historical-literary analysis of the work of Harlem Renaissance writer, Langston Hughes....