Arizona State University is initiating a multi-year collaborative and interdisciplinary project that will use the lens of race and ethnicity to re-imagine the religious history of the American West.

The project will explore the historical construction of racial, ethnic, and religious categories and identities in the West, with particular attention to (but not limited to)  the religious experiences of African-Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, Jews, Asians, and other minorities—including their interactions with each other and with traditions of the dominant culture.

An inaugural conference is planned for March 3-4, 2006. The community of scholars who come together for this conference will initiate the project’s collaborative work and participate in shaping its future directions.

Funded by the Institute for Humanities Research with support from the Department of Religious Studies and the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University.