Author Archives: Craig Martin
Norms and Concepts: A Response to Watts and Mosurinjohn
[Note: this could be kinder, longer, more detailed, and better written, but I’m super busy and have to move on to other projects on my summer to-do list. Sorry, Galen, that my response couldn’t have been more constructive.] In “Can … Continue reading
Evidence for Racial Disparities in the US
Pew Research Center (2016) Median household income for blacks was 55% that of whites in 1967; the number rose to only 60% by 2014. Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White (2005) When Social Security was signed into law by … Continue reading
The Social Functions of Obligatory Denunciations
In preparation for a new course I’m teaching this fall, I’ve been reading a great deal on Islam. I’ve surveyed both scholarly and popular narratives on Islam, particularly as I hope to compare and contrast such narratives in my course. One … Continue reading
On Neo-Perennialism
Last year I commented on Facebook that I thought there were structural similarities between classical perennialism in religious studies and the arguments in three recent monographs I had read, specifically Stephen Bush’s Visions of Religion: Experience, Meaning, and Power, Jason Blum’s Zen … Continue reading
A Canadian Myth of Origin
The following is an excerpt from a chapter I’m writing for a book on mythmaking and identity formation at public tourist attractions, edited by Erin Roberts and Jennifer Eyl. I’d like to thank them for allowing me to share this … Continue reading
Disambiguating Normativity
I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with a certain type of argument about the use of norms in academic study. It usually goes something like this: “If we accept poststructuralist critiques of the field, everything is imbricated with values and power relations—these … Continue reading
Self-Radicalized?
Whenever there is a “terrorist” attack by anyone who identifies as Muslim, the first tendency of the press is to blame some reified, monolitic “Islam” for the event. By contrast, when there is a mass shooting by a white man … Continue reading
No One Misunderstands Their Own Religion
The claim that “this person/group does not understand their own religion” should be eliminated from academic prose. If we think someone misunderstands their religion, it’s we who misunderstand. Of course it’s clear that many Christians don’t know the history of … Continue reading
When Your Theory of Religion Is Part of the Problem
Yesterday the New York Times ran a story about a “decorated Army Reserve officer” and veteran of the war in Iraq who “left bacon at a mosque and brandished a handgun while threatening to kill Muslims.” One of the men … Continue reading
Craig Martin 
Afterword: Consequences for the Modern University
I’m presently completing a book project I’ve been working on for several years, tentatively titled Discourse and Ideology: A Critique of the Study of Culture. As I’m wrapping up the project, I’ve been thinking about the consequences of the project for … Continue reading →