{"id":636,"date":"2016-12-04T12:23:09","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T16:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/?p=636"},"modified":"2016-12-06T16:09:25","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T20:09:25","slug":"what-now-scholarly-work-in-the-wake-of-trumps-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/2016\/12\/04\/what-now-scholarly-work-in-the-wake-of-trumps-election\/","title":{"rendered":"What now? Scholarly Work\u00a0in\u00a0the Wake of Trump’s Election"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Professor Vicki L. Brennan<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the days following the election I felt as though I were in a fog, upset\u00a0about what seemed to be a validation of the role that\u00a0misogyny<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0racism<\/a>\u00a0had played in the election, anxious\u00a0about what a Trump presidency\u00a0would mean for the United States and the world more generally, and unsure about what I could or even should do to respond to and act on any of this. I joined the\u00a0ranks<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0many<\/a>\u00a0who made donations to nonprofit organizations. I vowed to make my own political commitments more clear and also to avoid the insularity and negativity found on\u00a0social media<\/a>\u00a0sites. But still, I wondered (and still do): What now? What role do we as scholars have to play in Trump’s America? These questions seem especially vital given both the nature of our expertise (see my colleagues comments above for evidence of that) but also due to the fact that our expertise seems less valued and respected than ever before in a\u00a0supposedly<\/a>\u00a0“post-fact<\/a>” world.<\/p>\n

Scholars of religion are responding in a number of ways. What follows are links to statements, op-eds, and analyses that have appeared in the weeks since the election that\u00a0provide some answers to the question: “What now?”<\/p>\n

Disciplinary Resolutions and Statements:<\/strong>\u00a0The annual meetings of scholarly organizations most relevant to my own research and teaching interests\u00a0took place soon after the election; the\u00a0American Anthropological Association<\/a>\u00a0meeting from November 16-20; the\u00a0American Academy of Religion<\/a>\u00a0from November 19-22; and the\u00a0African Studies Association<\/a>\u00a0from December 1-3. I\u00a0decided to stay home this year, so I viewed the meetings from a distance, via text messages from friends, live-tweeting feeds, and blog posts made by those in attendance. Based on these observations, it seems that for many these meetings were sites for the building of solidarity and plans for action.<\/p>\n

A number\u00a0of the scholarly associations with which members of our department are associated issued resolutions or statements in response to the election:<\/p>\n