RR Spotlight Dr. Tara Smith: Warhammer 40K and Spirituality

Episode release date: May 12, 2024

Dr. Tara Smith is an interdisciplinary academic that works in the fields of science fiction, literature, and popular culture. Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School, writing on religious ideas and experiences of people who paint and play within the science fiction 'grim dark' universe of Warhammer 40,000. She is currently visiting Amsterdam's HHP Centre at the University of Amsterdam in her Fellowship role.  

In this interview, Tara discusses how there is a lacuna in the area of Religious Studies when it comes to researching the relationship between religion and tabletop games. Her work demonstrates that Warhammer 40k encourages players to talk and think about religion. We discuss the game and its influences, as well as the role of 'play' in Tara's research, which suggests that there is more imagination and interactional thought about religion than was previously presumed. As this is a work in progress, Tara also discusses her different approaches and her interests in broadening her research scope.  

NOTE: Two corrections in this interview --

At 0:22:06, Tara says that the Emperor is keeping the Warp open and this is how he dies. This is incorrect. The Emperor does not die while keeping the Warp open; instead, he is mortally wounded while fighting his son Horus. Later on, in his "in between" state, he helps to keep the Warp pathways navigable while on the Golden Throne.

At 0:49:15, Tara mentions there are 7 books in the Horus Heresy Series, but what was meant is the Siege of Terra which is a subsection of the overarching series. The Siege of Terra has 8 books (with the last book split into 3 volumes); the entire Horus Heresy has 64 books. 

Find Tara at:

https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/people/tara-smith

https://hds.academia.edu/TaraSmith

Theme music: Stephanie Shea