Religious Studies Speaker Series: Sarah Dees Ph.D.
2:00PM-3:30PM, Wednesday, March 19.
Register here to attend via Zoom
“The Study of Native American Religions during the Assimilation Era”
Recent scholarship on religion emphasizes the importance of looking beyond “belief”—a key facet of Protestant Christianity—when studying historical and contemporary religious practice. In addition to examining objects, this includes considering sacred land and space, embodiment, and ritual practice. This talk discusses the efforts of Smithsonian researchers to document aspects of Native American religious materiality from 1870 to 1910, anticipating the “material turn” in Religious Studies that would come a century later. Smithsonian researchers studied Indigenous cultures throughout the United States, gathering data and objects from dozens of communities. However, this was also an era in which the U.S. Federal Government prohibited traditional Native American religious practices. This talk discusses the tensions engaged in this research and its complicated legacy.
Sarah E. Dees, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of American Religions in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Iowa State University. Her research and teaching specializations include religion, race, empire, politics, and GLAM (galleries/libraries/archives/museums), as well as religion and science, wellbeing, and popular culture. She is a co-editor of Material Religion: the Journal of Objects, Art, and Belief. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including an “American Postdoctoral Fellowship” from the American Association of University Women (2022-23) and a Young Scholar in American Religion (YSAR) award from the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture (2018-19). A partial list of her publications can be viewed here.
Her chapter, “Native American Religions:”, from the Oxford Encyclopedia of Religion in America will be especially helpful for students or anyone attending the talk with limited background in the study of Native American Religions.
The Religious Studies Speaker Series is made possible by a grant from Oakton’s Educational Foundation.
