2019 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion Forum: Wade Clark Roof

Wade Clark Roof is the 2019 winner of the Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion. Having passed away suddenly on August 24, 2019, he will receive the award posthumously at this year's Marty Award Forum.

Roof was Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he founded and directed the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion and Public Life. Trained as a sociologist of religion, and the author of fourteen books, he was widely known for his scholarship on the cultural, civic, and political effects of religious pluralism in the United States, and in particular on the spiritual lives of the baby boomer generation. Under his leadership, the Capps Center consistently brought together multiple publics—scholars, students, Santa Barbara residents, journalists, scientists, elected officials, and more—for extended conversations about key matters of common concern. The Marty Award recognizes Professor Roof’s many contributions as a public scholar, institution builder, and advocate for religious studies and the humanities.

In this year’s Marty Award Forum, E.J. Dionne (University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at Georgetown University, W. Averell Harriman Chair and Senior Fellow of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, and syndicated columnist for the Washington Post) will join Roof's former colleague Kathleen Moore (chair of the Religious Studies department at UCSB and interim director of the Capps Center) and two former students, Julie Ingersoll (University of North Florida) and J. Shawn Landres (Jumpstart Labs) for an extended public discussion of Roof’s life and work. Contributions from the audience will be welcomed as well.

Erik Owens, Boston College, Presiding

Panelists:
- E.J. Dionne, Brookings Institute, Washington Post
- Julie J. Ingersoll , University of North Florida
- J. Shawn Landres , University of California, Los Angeles
- Kathleen Moore, University of California, Santa Barbara

This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 24.