Discourse! February 2020 with Sierra Lawson and Sidney Castillo

In this episode of Discourse, host Breann Fallon sat down with Sierra Lawson and Sidney Castillo to discuss current affairs issues that relate to religion. Sidney raised the very recent congress elections in Peru (held on January 26) and the role Christianity and New Religious Movements have on voting. Sierra brought to the table a novel which is receiving much media attention, perhaps not for the right reason, Jeanine Cummins’ American Dirt. Cummins accepted a seven-figure sum for this book on the immigrant experience. Both the book and the American publishing industry at large have received negative attention for their lack of Latino representation and the homogenising of both Latino and immigrant narratives. Using this as a springboard, Sierra, Sidney, and Breann discuss notion of diversity in the Religious Studies publishing world as well as the prominence of “American-civil-religion” stabilising narratives in the American literature and entertainment scene.