"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"...

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...