AAR 2019 Book Panel: "Who Owns Religion?" by Laurie Louise Patton

Laurie L. Patton is 2019 President of the American Academy of Religion, President of Middlebury College, and a scholar of South Asian history and culture. Her forthcoming book, "Who Owns Religion? Scholars and Their Publics in the Late Twentieth Century" (University of Chicago, December 2019), examines the cultural work of the study of religion through a discussion of extreme cases—the controversies of the late 80s and 90s—where the work of scholars was passionately refuted and refused by the publics they describe. The emergence of the multicultural politics of recognition during this decade created the possibility of “eruptive” public spaces, which were magnified by the emergence of the Internet, a development that changed the nature of readership for all involved in producing scholarship. Patton’s incisive analysis of the six cases leads to a series of reflections on the status of public scholarship today, and the self-critical work that scholars should pursue as they engage in their work. The book will be essential reading for religious studies scholars.

Mara Willard, Boston College, Presiding

Panelists:
- Leela Prasad, Duke University
- Erik Owens, Boston College
- Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Responding:
- Laurie Louise Patton, Middlebury College

This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 23.