Claiming Identity in the Study of Religion: Social and Rhetorical Techniques Examined(Culture on the Edge: Studies in Identity Formation)

Focusing on the academic study of religion, Claiming Identity in the Study of Religion is the first in a series that grapples with the historicity of identity and the social and rhetorical techniques that make claims to identity possible. In this volume, six previously published essays by scholar of religion Russell T. McCutcheon are each coupled with a new substantive commentary by North American contributors. McCutcheon's essays highlight different identifying claims within the work of a number of leading scholars of religion. The companion contributions analyze the strategies of identification employed by the scholars whom McCutcheon discusses. Monica R. Miller provides an introduction to the volume and there is a concluding essay by Steven Ramey. The strategies of identification highlighted and exposed in this text are further explored in the second volume in the series, The Problem of Nostalgia in the Study of Identity through a set of detailed ethnographic/historical studies that press novel ways of studying identity as an always active and ongoing process of signification.

Table of Contents:
Editor's IntroductionMonica R. Miller Topic I: Claiming IdentityK. Merinda Simmons (University of Alabama): '"Well, Isn't That Special?': What We Talk about When We Talk about Identity"Russell T. McCutcheon (University of Alabama): "Will Your Cognitive Anchor Hold in the Storms of Culture?" Topic II: Behind the 'A-historical'Leslie Dorrough Smith (Avila University): "Everything is a Cemetery: On the History Behind the 'Ahistorical"'Russell T. McCutcheon: "The Melancholy Empire Builder: The Life and Works of Mircea Eliade"Topic III: Theoretical and Methodological CakeMonica R. Miller: "Who Is the Nigger?: Strategies of Using the 'N' Word and Having it Both Ways"Russell T. McCutcheon: "A Gift with Diminished Returns: On Jeff Kripal's The Serpent's Gift"Topic IV: Costs of Conceptual ColonialismCraig Martin (St Thomas Aquinas College): "Conceptual Colonialism: How Descriptions Carry Explanations"Russell T. McCutcheon: "It's a Lie. There's No Truth in It! It's a Sin!": The Cost of Saving Others from Themselves" Topic V: Cost-Benefit AnalysisSteven Ramey (University of Alabama): "Authorizing Identifications, Disciplining Techniques: The Affinities of Public Advocacy"Russell T. McCutcheon: "Affinities, Benefits, and Costs: The ABCs of Good Scholars Gone Public" Topic VI: Limiting EngagementsVaia Touna (University of Alberta, PhD candidate): "What's New is Old Again: The ALPHAnualphapialphalambdaalpha omegasigmaeta of Tradition"Russell T. McCutcheon: "The Resiliency of Conceptual Anachronisms: On the Limits of 'the West' and 'Religion"'AfterwordSteven Ramey: "Accidental Favorites: The Implicit in the Study of Religion"

About the Author :
Monica R. Miller is Assistant Professor of Religion and Africana Studies at Lehigh University and among other publications, author of Religion and Hip Hop (Routledge). Miller currently serves as a Senior Research Fellow with The Institute for Humanist Studies.

Review :
Miller and her contributing authors remind us that concepts such as "identity," "culture," and "religion," are anything but self-evident. Rather than tangible material entities, they are ghosts given form by the writer's desires;Sean McCloud, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina, Charlotte;Claiming Identity in the Study of Religion tackles some of the most formidable questions relating to the discursive construction of identity that scholars and students struggle to negotiate. Whether you find yourself nodding in agreement with these essays, or eagerly searching for weaknesses in their arguments, the book provides an accessible and invaluable entryway into theoretical challenges religious studies scholars face when making identity claims and points toward fruitful methods of dealing with questions of classification. This is a "must read" for anyone interested in identity formation;Craig Prentiss, Professor of Religious Studies, Rockhurst University, Missouri;When religion, culture, society, identity, and other such concepts are destabilized and revealed to be dynamic, manufactured constructs, what is the academic study of religion to do? One answer, as represented by the essays in this provocative volume, is to turn to the study of processes of classification. The studies of strategies of identification contained within exemplify recent attempts to rethink the study of religion as the reflexive examination of "battles for capital and positions";Richard J. Callahan, Jr., Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Missouri