The Study of Religion as A Public Good

To commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the study of religion at the University of Iowa, this talk considers the history of the academic study of religion in higher education and museum settings. In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, how and why were offices, departments, and programs dedicated to religion created in public educational institutions? What civic values were they thought to have held? What has changed—and why does this work still matter?

Dr. Sarah Dees is an alumnus of the Religious Studies Master's program, receiving a certificate in American Indian & Native Studies in 2009. Her thesis was titled "Religion, Violence, Representation: Media & the Mythology of Wounded Knee.”

Her research focuses on the history of the study and representations of Native American religions engaging with method and theory in the study of religion; religion, race, and empire; material religion; religion in museums; religious appropriation; and religion, health, and wellbeing.

She is currently working on her book project, tentatively titled The Materialization of Native American Religions: The Smithsonian, Settler Colonialism, and the Study of Indigenous Lifeways. It will be published as part of the Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology Series from the University of Nebraska Press