Religion & Grief Teaching Resources

Given the year we’ve been through the multiple types of losses and sadnesses people have struggled with it is fitting that we consider the roles of religion in all of this. Religion & Grief, however, extends beyond the pandemic, and this discussion will explore the ways scholars of religion and American Studies are theorizing grief, death, suffering, and the rituals that attend to these moments. Have our understandings of grief changed or expanded in this current moment? Do new religious movements or the deeper engagement of groups (like the nones, women of color, victims of racialized or sexual violence) complicate our analysis and narration of grief? Is grief an adequately compelling and capacious term to address the loss and sadness that we theorize in our work? Join humanities and social science scholars as they explore these questions and the larger relationships between religion, ritual, and various types of grief and loss.

Panelists:

Candi Cann, Baylor University

Michael Brandon McCormack, University of Louisville

Cohosts:

Laura Levitt, Temple University

Brian Steensland, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Link to Resource