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As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, questions about revolution—past and present—take on renewed significance. This special episode of Religion & explores the many ways revolutionary movements have been shaped by religion, and in turn how revolution reshape religion. From the spiritual rhetoric of the American Revolution to the role of vodou in Haiti to the anti-clericalism in France, religion has often served as a catalyst for radical change. Join us for a preview of the 9th Biennial Conference on Religion and American Culture, where "Religion & Revolution" will be central to exploring the intersections of faith and political upheaval.
Host: Philip Goff
Philip Goff, Chancellor's Professor of American Studies, has been the executive director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture since 2000. His research specialization is American religious history, with eight books and over 200 articles, reviews and scholarly papers in that area. His recent books include: Civil Religion in America: Religion and the American Nation in the Twenty-First Century (with Rhys Williams and Raymond Haberski), The Bible in American Life (with Arthur Farnsley II and Peter Thuesen), and Religion and the Marketplace in the United States (with Jan Stievermann and Detlef Junker). Dedicated to public teaching, he has been a scriptwriter, consultant, and interviewee for documentaries related to religion in American life for PBS, BBC, and HBO. He is Lead Co-Editor of Religion & American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation.
Panelist: Katherine Carté
Katherine Carté is Professor of History and Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor at Southern Methodist University. She specializes in religion in the eighteenth-century British Atlantic. She is the author of Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History (University of North Carolina Press, 2021) and editor of the forthcoming volume, Revolutionary Turns: Religion & America's Founding Era, which will appear from University of Virginia Press in Fall 2026. She is currently studying the role of religion and partisanship in Revolutionary Savannah, Georgia.
Panelist: Daniella Kostroun
Daniella Kostroun is Chair of the Department of History and Associate Professor in History at Indiana University Indianapolis. She specializes in the history of women and religion in Early Modern France and the Atlantic World. She is a former President of the Society for French Historical Studies and is a corresponding member of the Nantes Institutes for Advanced Studies in Nantes, France. She is the recipient of several grants and awards, and has served on the governing board of the Western Society for French History and on the Editorial Board of French Historical Studies.
Panelist: Jesús G. Ruiz
Jesús G. Ruiz is Assistant Professor of the Practice in Caribbean Studies at Vanderbilt University, where he directs the Caribbean Studies Minor and coordinates FLAS Fellowships and the Simon Collier Summer Awards. A historian of Latin America and the Caribbean, his research centers on slavery, freedom, and Black political thought in the Atlantic World. His book, The Black Royalists (Harvard University Press, forthcoming), reinterprets royalism in the Haitian Revolution as a transcultural politics of freedom. His scholarship appears in Slavery & Abolition, where his 2025 article on the Boca Nigua revolt won the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Haiti/Dominican Republic Section Best Article Award. A first-generation college graduate, Ruiz has held fellowships from ACLS, NEH, and Fulbright, and teaches courses on Afro-Latin America, migration, and the Caribbean.
Check out additional resources for learning, teaching and watching.
Show Notes: https://raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/teaching_resources/religion-revolution-show-notes/
Teaching and Learning Resources: https://raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/teaching_resources/religion-revolution-resources-from-panelists/
Learn more about this episode on the Religion & Website: https://raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/programs/religion-and/revolution/
