Protestant Privilege and Pluralism on Campus
Contrasting Cases from North Carolina’s Research Triangle, c.1800–Present
Summary
(Alyssa Rockenbach, Professor & Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor, North Carolina State University)
«In his astute analysis of religious life on four North Carolina campuses, Scott Muir finds that, aside from a general pattern of secularization and a gradual increase in religious diversity, Protestant privilege endures, even as campuses accommodate religious pluralism. More important, the author’s careful, exhaustive research and nuanced analyses of distinctive campus religious climates should make us wary of standard, one-size-fits-all narratives about the slippery slope toward secularism in the academy.»
(Randall Balmer, John Phillips Professor of Religion, Dartmouth College)
This book illustrates how the university campus has been and continues to be a crucial space where diverse actors who embody Protestant, secular and pluralist forces negotiate the role of religion in a pluralistic society. Through comparative analysis of four distinct institutions in North Carolina’s Research Triangle from the nineteenth century to the present day, we observe how campus religious climates have varied quite significantly within a single metropolitan area – all the more across the vast system of American higher education. Institutional identity factors including race, gender, geographical reach, resource disparities, and denominational affiliations have powerfully shaped the way these universities relate to their Protestant roots amidst growing religious diversity. And these universities, in turn, have accelerated the religious transformation of a region of the American South that is emblematic of widening cultural divides. Protestant Privilege and Pluralism on Campus illuminates a range of challenges to achieving a substantive and inclusive dialogue about meaning and values on campus and beyond.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- Chapter 1 The Campus – A Contested Space: Competing Perspectives on Religion and Higher Education
- Chapter 2 A Fragmented Establishment: Protestant, Pluralist and Secular Forces at Duke University, 1839–2019
- Chapter 3 A Puzzle of Paradoxes: Piety, Patriarchy, and Women–s Empowerment at Meredith College, 1900–2019
- Chapter 4 Institutional Myths: Race, Protestant Privilege and Pluralism at NCCU and UNC-CH, 1795–2019
- Chapter 5 Conclusion: An Interactive Framework for Comparing Diverse Religious Climates on Campus
- Index
- Series index
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
The German National Library lists this publication in the German
National Bibliography; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet
at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Muir, Scott, 1985- author.
Title: Protestant privilege and pluralism on campus: contrasting cases
from North Carolina’s research triangle / Scott Muir.
Description: New York: Peter Lang Publishing, [2023] | Series: Histories of
religious pluralism, 2632-3257; volume number 2 | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022057252 (print) | LCCN 2022057253 (ebook) | ISBN
9781789975772 (Paperback) | ISBN 9781803740850 (eBook) | ISBN
9781803740867 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: College students--Religious life--Research Triangle--North
Carolina | Religious pluralism--Research Triangle--North Carolina--Case
studies. | Religious tolerance--Research Triangle--North Carolina. |
Duke University--Religion. | Meredith College (Raleigh, N.C.)--Religion.
| North Carolina State University--Religion. | University of North
Carolina (1793-1962)--Religion. | University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill--Religion.
Classification: LCC BL625.9.C64 M85 2023 (print) | LCC BL625.9.C64
(ebook) | DDC 200.84/20973--dc23/eng20230223
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022057252
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022057253
Cover image: Aerial View of Duke University West Campus, c.1954.
Box 80, folder ‘Aerial Views—Duke University West Campus, c.1954-1973 (f2).’
Photo courtesy of Duke University, University Archives Photograph Collection,
David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Cover design by Peter Lang Group AG
ISSN: 2632-3257
ISBN 978-1-78997-577-2 (print)
ISBN 978-1-80374-085-0 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-1-80374-086-7 (ePub)
DOI 10.3726/b20996
© 2023 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne
Published by Peter Lang Ltd, Oxford, United Kingdom
info@peterlang.com - www.peterlang.com
Scott Muir has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as Author of this Work.
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
About the author
Scott Muir was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and lives with his family in Durham, North Carolina. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from Duke University, an MTS from Emory University, a BA from Dartmouth College and has taught at Duke, Emory, and Western Carolina University. Muir currently serves as Director of Undergraduate Initiatives at the National Humanities Alliance, where he leads efforts to forward innovation in undergraduate humanities education and attract a broader range of students to the humanities. He is host of the podcast What Are You Going to Do with That? and author of multiple articles exploring the religious dimensions of live music published in Sacred Matters Magazine.
About the book
‘Muir offers a compelling take on the intricacies of religious pluralism in U.S. higher education. Rich portrayals of Protestant, secular, and pluralist dynamics at four unique campuses shed light on their distinctive histories and provide timely implications for leaders and educators seeking to cultivate campus environments where all can flourish.’
– Alyssa Rockenbach, Professor & Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor,
North Carolina State University
‘In his astute analysis of religious life on four North Carolina campuses, Scott Muir finds that, aside from a general pattern of secularization and a gradual increase in religious diversity, Protestant privilege endures, even as campuses accommodate religious pluralism. More important, the author’s careful, exhaustive research and nuanced analyses of distinctive campus religious climates should make us wary of standard, one-size-fits-all narratives about the slippery slope toward secularism in the academy.’
– Randall Balmer, John Phillips Professor of Religion, Dartmouth College
This book illustrates how the university campus has been and continues to be a crucial space where diverse actors who embody Protestant, secular and pluralist forces negotiate the role of religion in a pluralistic society. Through comparative analysis of four distinct institutions in North Carolina’s Research Triangle from the nineteenth century to the present day, we observe how campus religious climates have varied quite significantly within a single metropolitan area – all the more across the vast system of American higher education. Institutional identity factors including race, gender, geographical reach, resource disparities, and denominational affiliations have powerfully shaped the way these universities relate to their Protestant roots amidst growing religious diversity. And these universities, in turn, have accelerated the religious transformation of a region of the American South that is emblematic of widening cultural divides. Protestant Privilege and Pluralism on Campus illuminates a range of challenges to achieving a substantive and inclusive dialogue about meaning and values on campus and beyond.
This eBook can be cited
This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.
Acknowledgements
I would first like to thank the enormously helpful archivists who enabled this research: Amy McDonald, Valerie Gillispie, Andrew Armacost, Jennifer Baker, and Naomi Nelson of Duke’s David M. Rubenstein Library; Meredith Haynes, Carrie Nichols, and Janice Sniker of Meredith’s Carlyle Campbell Library; Andre’ Vann, Coordinator of the North Carolina Central University Archives at the James Shepard Memorial Library; Matthew Turi at the University of North Carolina’s Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library. I’d also like to thank Shauna Morin of North Carolina State University, who provided data from the Campus Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey. Thank you all for all that you do to support scholarship and preserve the history of these institutions.
Secondly, I would like to thank all of the generous stakeholders who sat for interviews: Abdullah Antepli, Donna Battle, Dean Blackburn, Fred Brooks, Charlene Brown, Shannon Grimes, Steve Hinkle, Peter Kaufman, Christy Lohr Sapp, Jennie Ofstein, Michael Page, Madison Perry, and Will Willimon. And thanks to the many others who offered their perspectives in a more informal manner. Thank you for your candid and poignant stories; they have helped keep the diverse human beings who have made these institutions what they are squarely in view.
Third, I would like to thank the mentors and colleagues who helped guide me through this project. Mark Chaves, who supervised the dissertation on which this book is based, and my supportive committee – Yaakov Ariel, Kate Bowler, Russell Richey, Alyssa Rockenbach, and Grant Wacker – thank you for your many insights which have enriched this book and your generous encouragement which helped to see it to fruition. A hearty thank you to David Manning for reaching out with the opportunity to contribute to Peter Lang’s Histories of Religious Pluralism Series and for gently and patiently coaxing this book out of me in the midst of a global pandemic and a whole host of competing personal and professional demands on my ←vii | viii→time. And thanks to Preetha Ambat, Natasha Collin, Phil Dunshea, Lucy Melville, Ashita Shah, Dyana Jaffris and everyone else at Peter Lang who has helped bring this book into being. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude for my anonymous reviewers’ generous attention and very helpful constructive comments – thank you for your service!
Fourth, I would like to thank the community of scholars and practitioners upon which this book depends. First, to all those whose work I engage in this project, my critical comments notwithstanding. Thank you for inspiring this project and providing grist for the mill. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude for the ways that George Marsden and Douglas and Rhonda Jacobsen graciously encouraged me to pursue my alternate reading of the history of religion in American higher education. A big thank you to the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion for opportunities to present earlier iterations of this project, and to the AAR Sociology of Religion Group in particular for your very helpful feedback. And many thanks to Kathryn Lester-Bacon for inviting me to present my account of the history of religious life at Duke to the community of religious life staff, representatives, and volunteers and to the members of that community for their thoughtful feedback. I would also like to thank: Zaid Adhami, Randall Balmer, Brandon Bayne, Michael Berger, James Chappel, Valerie Cooper, Susan Henry Crowe, Tara Doyle, Carl Ernst, Eddie Glaude, Shalom Goldman, Aaron Griffith, Mona Hassan, Glen Hinson, Bobbi Patterson, Laurie Patton, Omid Safi, Martin Saunders, Collin Setterberg, John Snarey, Steve Tipton, Joseph Winters, Saadia Yacoob, and Joshua Young – for their contributions along the way.
Fifth, I would like to thank my colleagues at the National Humanities Alliance (NHA) for their encouragement as I prepared this book for publication while working alongside them to advocate for the value of the humanities on campuses, in communities, and on Capitol Hill. Nothing has helped me to decenter elite institutions from my understanding of American higher education (one of the aims of this book) so much as our collective effort to support the humanities across the full range of higher education institutions. Furthermore, our work together has helped me to take a broader view of the humanities as a vast network of institutions – including ←viii | ix→universities, scholarly societies, federal agencies, state humanities councils, cultural organizations, and philanthropic foundations – that serve to sustain an expansive set of practices. In this way, my work at NHA has helped me to see this book as one small contribution to a precious sphere of human activity that must be preserved for the benefit of future generations.
Last, but not least, I would like to thank my family. My wife Sarah Brittingham and our children, Eloise and Tobin, who have made the writing of this book possible with their sacrifices over the past decade. And my parents, Doris and Jeff Muir, and my dear friend Suzanne Clark, who generously facilitated countless opportunities for focused work on this project.
Details
- Pages
- XVI, 230
- Year
- 2023
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781803740850
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781803740867
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9781789975772
- DOI
- 10.3726/b20996
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2023 (June)
- Keywords
- Religious pluralism in U.S. higher education Religious transformation of a region of the American South Campus religious climates
- Published
- Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien, 2023. XVI, 230 pp., 9 fig. b/w.
