Race and Religion in Chicago

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course will explore the history of race and religion in the United States from the end of the Civil War to the twenty-first century. Taking Chicago as a case study, the course will introduce students to key topics in the study of race and religion in modern American history, considering especially how religion and race are each deeply imprinted by the other. Through close readings of the religious history and culture of Chicago over the last century and a half, the course will focus on Black-White racialization in Chicago, interrogating the construction of and contestation over whiteness among Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and new religious movements, as well as tracing the "spiritual afterlife of slavery" in Chicago's churches, synagogues, mosques, and other places of worship. The readings, guest lectures, field trips, and class discussions will also open out to consider other religious and racial issues and projects in Chicago (e.g., Latinx, Indian American, and Indigenous religious communities).