A new project based at the Social Science Research Council — including the folks who previously developed digital forums like The Immanent Frame and Frequencies, such as the SSRC’s Jonathan VanAntwerpen and Kathryn Lofton of Yale — is gearing up to take a long, hard look at how the digital turn affects the production, circulation, and consumption of knowledge about religion in a global context. We see THATCamp as a potentially integral player in this process, and we’d like your help starting now, at the ground floor.

I propose to facilitate a discussion about how an SSRC-driven publication project can jumpstart the kinds of discussions that THATCamp is bringing to AAR and beyond. What would a hypothetical collaborative manifesto on digital religion scholarship and journalism look like? What Buddhas need to be killed (so to speak); what idols need to be smashed? What groundwork needs to be laid? This is a unique opportunity to help shape a concrete, large-scale academic and public-facing project that’s very much in line with what brings us together for THATCamp in the first place.