Religion & the Aftermath of the 2024 Election
The 2024 election season has been marked by unexpected and almost unbelievable twists and turns that have impacted every corner of American culture. From the contentious discourse on women’s rights to the daily news from war zones around the world, this political moment highlights the deep polarization throughout the country and the difficulty of engaging in thoughtful and reasoned debate. Religion and religious difference, furthermore, seems to be implicated in many of these debates as well as the larger question of what constitutes American democracy. During this episode, panelists will discuss the results of the 2024 election, how those results were shaped by religious ideology and communities, and how religious communities historically and in the present moment have shaped presidential politics. The panelists will also explore the ways that themes from earlier episodes, like Islamophobia, antisemitism, and White Christian nationalism, have played a critical and outsized role in this election cycle. Join us for a conversation at the intersection of religion, politics, and the aftermath of the 2024 election.
Host: Andrew Whitehead
Andrew Whitehead is Professor of Sociology and Executive Director of the Association of Religion Data Archives (theARDA.com) at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University Indianapolis. Whitehead is one of the foremost scholars of Christian nationalism in the United States. He is the author of American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church, which was awarded the 2024 Gold Medal Book Award for Religion from Foreword Reviews and the 2024 Midwest Book Award winner for Religion & Philosophy.
Panelist: Katie Gaddini
Katie Gaddini is Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and Associate Professor of Sociology at the Social Research Institute, University College London (UCL). She is currently writing a book on Christian women and conservative politics from 1970 to present. She regularly writes op-eds and gives expert opinion to the media, including The New York Times, BBC News, CNN International, TIME magazine, Newsweek, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Hill.
Katie's Full BioPanelist: Nancy A. Khalil
Nancy A. Khalil is Assistant Professor in American Culture and Core Faculty in the Program on Arab and Muslim American Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research interests include Muslims, ethnography, religion, racialization, and advertising. Her current book project forthcoming with Stanford University Press is an ethnographic research project on Islamic higher education institutes and religious clerics, or imams, in the United States.
Nancy's Full BioPanelist: Eric L. McDaniel
Eric L. McDaniel is Professor in the Department of Government and Co-director of the Politics of Race and Ethnicity Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a graduate of Wilberforce University, the oldest private historically Black college or university, and took his PhD. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research examines how the intersection of race and religion influence the American political landscape. His first book, Politics in the Pews: The Political Mobilization of Black Churches, provides an explanation for why some Black churches choose to engage the political world while others do not. His most recent book, The Everyday Crusade: Christian Nationalism in American Politics, was co-authored with Irfan Nooruddin and Allyson Shortle.
Eric's Full BioReligion & the Aftermath of the 2024 Election Recordings
Religion & the Aftermath of the 2024 Election was hosted live on Thursday, November 14. Video and audio recordings of this episode are now available on YouTube and all major podcast platforms. Watch the video below and use the links to access the Religion & podcast feeds.
Additional Resources
Teaching and Learning Resources
Andrew Whitehead: American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church & American Idols Podcast
Katie Gaddini: Defensive racism and Christian righteousness in the time of Trump & The Struggle to Stay: Why Single Evangelical Women are Leaving the Church (Columbia University Press, 2022)
Nancy Khalil: How Campus Protests Exposed Flas in Higher Education Diversity Initiatives
Eric McDaniel: What Kind of Christian Are You? Religious Ideologies and Political Attitudes. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Religion &: Center Conversations on the State of Religion and the Current Moment
Religion & is a series of monthly webinars between leading academics and thinkers in multiple fields hosted by the Center to foster critical, interdisciplinary conversations. Each episode, we discuss a topic that looks at the relationship between religion, the pressing issues of current cultural moment, and its impact on the fields we study.
Previous episodes of Religion & can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
A JOURNAL OF INTERPRETATION: This semiannual publication explores the interplay between religion and other spheres of American culture.
More About the Journal Submit to the Journal Subscribe to the Journal