Interreligious Studies Press is an imprint of the Journal of Interreligious Studies. Our first print volume is entitled Deep Understanding for Divisive Times: Essays Marking a Decade of the Journal of Interreligious Studies and it may be purchased here.

We have an open call for our next print volume. The PDF may be downloaded here and is found below.

Living in a Religiously Plural World: Voices from Secondary Education and Community Youth Organizations on Interreligious Engagement

Edited by Lucinda Mosher, Christine Gallagher, & Axel Takacs

Interreligious Studies Press, an imprint of the Journal of Interreligious Studies, co-published by Hebrew College, Boston University School of Theology, and Hartford Seminary, seeks to produce an edited collection of essays concerning curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular interreligious/interfaith engagement in secondary education and community youth organizations. This volume is in partnership with the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies and its Teachers Fellowship program directed by Christine Gallagher.

Volumes on the theory, practice, and pedagogies of interreligious/interfaith studies at the undergraduate and graduate level (including divinity schools and seminaries) are plentiful. These include, inter alia, Interreligious/Interfaith Studies (Beacon Press, 2018), Critical Perspectives on Interreligious Education (Brill, 2020), Interreligious Studies (Baylor University Press, 2020), Deep Understanding for Divisive Times (Interreligious Studies Press, 2020), and Decolonial Futures (Lexington Books, 2021). However, the editors of IRSP notice a relative dearth of scholarship on pedagogies and practices of teaching interreligiously at the secondary education level and age group, including activities led by community youth organizations. This volume will begin to fill this gap.

A major impetus for this volume is the argument presented by Khyati Joshi in White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America (NYU Press, 2020). Joshi critically demonstrates the various ways in which Christian normativity shapes the external/structural and internal/attitudinal dimensions of societies presently inhabiting Turtle Island, viz., the United States of America. She connects Christianity with notions of Whiteness and argues that “White Christian supremacy in America is the product of a centuries-long project in which notions of White racial superiority and Christian religious superiority have augmented and magnified each other” (5), creating legacies of systemic (legal and institutional) and ideological (attitudinal) religious and cultural oppression among minoritized groups. If the structural and attitudinal dimensions are to change, interreligious education for justice must take place at every level. We seek to bring together in this volume exemplary voices from both secondary education and community organizations involved with adolescents around interreligious/interfaith teaching, understanding, and justice.

We invite essays from any setting on any aspect of the importance of religious pluralism and justice and on critical engagement regarding the mutual imbrication of race and religion in the North American context. Authors may submit essays concerning public, private (non-sectarian), civil, or religiously affiliated schools and organizations. The editors are particularly interested in de-colonial approaches that center the voices of those indigenous to Turtle Island.

As usual for Interreligious Studies Press, we are not seeking novel, lengthy, research-driven manuscripts, but rather professional reflection based on practice. Though, we certainly will accept research- and theory-driven pieces, the volume is aiming to be as accessible and practical as possible for a wide readership.

Possible topics follow. However, these suggestions are not intended to be restrictive.

• Teaching about Religion in Public and Private Schools: practices, activities, and pedagogies
• Religious/Interreligious/Interfaith Literacy
• Understanding Christian Privilege within a Superficially Religiously Neutral Legal System
• Centering Native American Voices in the Teaching of American History and in Discussions of Contemporary Issues
• Student Groups Organized around Religion or Religious Affiliations (or Interfaith Groups)
• Transforming Education Systems and Educators for an Equal and Just Treatment of All in an Increasingly Religiously Diverse America
• Teaching Religion vs. Teaching About Religion
• Public School Partnerships with Faith-Based Organizations
• The Racialization of Religion
• Dismantling (White) Christian Supremacy in America
• Challenging the Normativity of Christianity
• Teaching Against Hate (Religiophobia, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, antisemitism, racism, White Supremacy, Christian Supremacy, etc.)
• Practices and Strategies for Interreligious/Interfaith Dialogue and Justice
• Negotiating Personal/Private Knowledge with Systemic/Structural Injustice

Upon publication of an accepted essay, authors will receive a modest honorarium of $100.00

Abstracts (100-200 words) are requested by September 15, 2021.

Essays (up to 3,000 words) are due by January 15, 2022.

We anticipate publication by May 2022, followed by a Book Launch Event.

Please send abstracts or inquiries to editors@irstudies.org.