Religious Nationalisms, Race, and Racialization

This session aims to explore perspectives on the intersections of religion, nationalism, race, and racialization, in particular focusing on contexts beyond the U.S.

In the context of growing political polarization and the rise of far-right populism in many countries, studies of transnational moral conservative movements have asserted that national identities formed around religious and “traditional” values are still highly relevant in contemporary politics at local and global levels (Ayoub & Stoeckl, 2024: 6).

Within the sociology of religion, “White Christian Nationalism” has been increasingly conceptualized and critiqued with regard to its role in the development of the MAGA movement and the Alt-Right in the U.S. (Gorski & Perry, 2022; Onishi, 2023; Emerson & Bracey, 2024). However, how do religiously inflected constructions of “whiteness” and national identity manifest in contexts outside of North America? How do religious nationalisms and constructions of race shape societies in non- “white”, “western”, and Christian contexts? What can sociologies exploring the intersections of these issues reveal in terms of methodological, conceptual, and practical understandings of the role of religion and racialization in contemporary geopolitics and in everyday life?

This session invites contributions engaging with these and other relevant questions relating to sociologies of race, religion, and nationalism through empirical and theoretical work.

Session Organizer:

Claire CASTLES, Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom, ccastles02@qub.ac.uk

See more of: RC22 Sociology of Religion
See more of: RC05 Racism, Nationalism, Indigeneity and Ethnicity
Back to: Full Group Listing