The John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics draws on the vast experience and resources of many people to fulfill its mission: to deepen academic and public understanding of religion and politics in the United States.
Faculty
Our faculty produce some of the foremost research and scholarship in various fields covering religion and U.S. politics. They offer a wealth of experience and guidance to the Washington University community, as well as the St. Louis region and beyond.
My research focuses on Islam, gender, and race in America. My first book analyzes American Muslim women’s religious authority, examining how they negotiate the Islamic tradition and build gender-equitable worship spaces.
I work on contemporary religious ethics and political theory with an emphasis on feminist thought, Christian theology, and modern forms of power critique. My first book is about uncertainty in loving relationships and its lessons for contemporary ethics and politics.
John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities
Most of my scholarship centers on American Christianity, including the changing profile of American evangelicals and ongoing conflicts over gender, sexuality, and marriage.
Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law & Religion and Professor of Political Science (by courtesy)
As a scholar of law and religion, my primary interests are the First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, and related questions of legal and political theory.
My research and teaching focus on African American religions, Mormonism, religion on the Pacific borderlands of the Americas, and issues of intercultural contact.
Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor
I am a historian of American religion and culture; my topics of research have ranged widely: evangelical revivalism, ritual studies, consumer culture, religious liberalism, atheism, and secularism.
Director and Reverend Priscilla Wood Neaves Distinguished Professor of Religion and Politics
My current research concerns how Anglo-American Protestants described other religions and developed new ideas of religious conversion from 1660 to 1760.
