Category Archives: Crowdsourcing

The Web of Religion, Religions, Religious

In “Religion, Religions, Religious,” J.Z. Smith asserted that “‘religion’ is not a native term; it is a term created by scholars for their intellectual purposes and therefore is theirs to define.” [This essay can be found here and here, and in pdf form here.] It is, in other often quoted words, “the creation of the scholar’s study.” While many scholars may rely on this to frame our research or teaching, our students and the general public are often introduced to “religion,” religions, and the religious through their own use of search engines. As Hugh Urban has recently pointed out, religions–like in this case Scientology–are being contested in the streets of cities and in cyberspace, seemingly separate from scholarly classifications.

For THATcamp AAR, I propose a session that considers how digital technologies, including but not limited to social media, can encourage critical approaches to religion. The organizing question is: rather than cataloging instances of religion, how can digital approaches to the humanities help Religious Studies scholars draw attention to or model critical inquiries of “religion,” religions, and the religious? In the spirit of THATcamp, I do not have answers to propose, but an interest in brainstorming with colleagues how we can incorporate sources, apps, and the like from the web into our research and teaching.

Listen to Wikipedia guided meditation

Listen to Wikipedia

I’d like to propose a second instance of a session I led recently at THATCamp Virginia, which I’m calling a “Listen to Wikipedia guided meditation.” What we did there, and what I’d like to do again (though there are probably many much more worthy sessions!) was to spend some time listening to and watching the site at listen.hatnote.com (pictured above), spend some more time interacting with the site, spend some time writing about it, then spend a few minutes talking about it. Happy to facilitate it again if folks are interested.