Santa Clara University

James B. Bennett, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

I was born in Santa Barbara, California. As an undergraduate in an interdisciplinary American Studies program (UCLA, B.A. in 1989), I realized that the role of religion was what really excited me across the study of American literature, history, political science and art. A history professor took an interest in me and explained that American religious history was its own field of study that I could pursue in graduate school. Never one to turn down the opportunity to stay in school, I went first to seminary and then to graduate school and became hooked (M.Div. Princeton Theological Seminary, 1993; Ph.D. in American Religious History, Yale University, 1999). My initial undergraduate interest was in the role religion played in American society. During graduate school I developed in interest in the opposite of the equation: how the American context has shaped religion in the United States. My fascination with these interactions continues to drive my research and teaching: how religion and culture in the United States interact and constantly reshape each other, and especially how groups of people negotiate these to create their identities.

 

Courses Taught

RSOC 9 Ways of Understanding Religion
RSOC 51 Religion in America
RSOC 111 Inventing Religion in America
RSOC 164 Religion, Race and Ethnicity in America

Publications

Books

Religion and the Rise of Jim Crow in New Orleans. Princeton: Princeton University Press, forthcoming.

Articles

"'Love to Christ,'—Gilbert Tennent, Presbyterian Reunion and a Sacramental Sermon." American Presbyterians 71 (Summer 1993) 77-89.

Chapters in Books

"Catholics, Creoles, and the Redefinition of Black and White in New Orleans, 1880-1920." In Race, Religion and Identity Formation in the Americas, ed. Henry Goldschmidt and Elizabeth McAlister; (New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

Encyclopedia Articles

"Samuel Harris." In American National Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).
Book Reviews
"Anne H. Pinn and Anthony B. Pinn, Fortress Introduction to Black Church History (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003)." Religious Studies Review, forthcoming.
"James F. Cooper, Jr., Tenacious of Their Liberties: The Congregationalists in Colonial Massachusetts (Religion in America; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002)." Religious Studies Review 26 (2000) 402.
"Keith Harper, The Quality of Mercy: Southern Baptists and Social Christianity, 1890-1920 (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1996)." Fides et Historia 29 (1997) 97-98.
"Edward Larson, Sex, Race and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996)." Fides et Historia 28 (1996) 128-130.

Presentations

"Black Methodists, Creole Catholics, and the Rise of the Plessy Case in New Orleans." Paper presented at the Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, November 2002.
"Reconstructing Racial Boundaries: The Suppression of Creole Identity and the Emergence of Black Catholic Parishes in New Orleans, 1890-1920." Paper presented at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, January 2002.
"The Rise of Segregated Catholic Parishes in New Orleans." Paper presented at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion, Yale University, New Haven, CT, April 2000.
"'The Ruinous Meshes of a False and Seductive System': African American Methodists and Anti-Catholicism in New Orleans." Paper presented at the American Society of Church History, Washington, D.C., January 1999.
"'Until this Curse of Polygamy is Wiped Out': Anti-Mormonism and African American Identity in the New South." Paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, November 1998.
"Religion, Gender and Identity in the New South." Paper presented at the American Religious History Workshop, Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, October 1998.
"Black, White and Methodist: Religion and Race Relations in New Orleans." Paper presented at the Pew Fellows Conference, Yale University, New Haven, CT, May 1998.
"Religion, Race and Identity in Post-Reconstruction New Orleans." Paper presented at the Louisiana Historical Association, New Iberia, LA, March 1998.
Awards & Grants
Center on Religion and Democracy, University of Virginia, Post-Doctoral Fellow, 2002-2003.
Center for Religion and American Life, Yale University, Post-Doctoral Fellow, 2002-2003.
University of Oklahoma Junior Faculty Research Grant, 2001.
Faculty Research Fellow, Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion, Yale University, 1999-2000.
Charlotte W. Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship, 1998-1999.
Yale University Dissertation Fellowship, 1998-1999.
Pew Program in Religion and American History Dissertation Fellowship, 1997-1998.
University Fellowship, Yale University, 1993-1995.
A. Bartlett Giamatti Fellowship, Yale University, 1993-1995.
President's Fellowship, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1990-1991.

Activities

Professional Memberships

    * American Academy of Religion
    * American Historical Association
    * American Society of Church History
    * Organization of American Historians

Activities

Advisor, Honors Student Association, University of Oklahoma, 2002-2002.
Panel Chair, Undergraduate Research Day, University of Oklahoma, April 2001.
Participant, New Faculty Seminar, University of Oklahoma, Fall 2001.
Coordinator, Yale Graduate Seminar in American Religion, Yale University, 1997-1998.
Project Assistant, Pew Program in Religion and American History, 1995-1997.
Coordinator, American Religious History Workshop, Yale University, 1994-1997.
Editor, Pew Notes, Pew Program in Religion and American History, 1994-1996.
Editor, Friends of Edwards, Works of Jonathan Edwards, Yale University Divinity School, 1994-1996.