Episode 109: Review Session - What'd we Learn? What Happens Next?
Transcript for Episode 109:
Shownotes for Episode 109:
Today’s lesson plan is simple: let’s talk about what we learned, what we hope you learned, and what’ll be coming next for Keeping it 101! We know semesters usually end and then students move on, but this isn’t some gen ed requirement! You’re majoring in Keeping it 101 now, right? We’ve got summer session and Fall semester ahead.
Over the season we had a bunch of keywords! Find them in our glossary.
The 101:
In this episode, we’re riding this theme of “last day of class” pretty hard. The professor-work today is more or less a review. We wanted to name what we think we’ve taught & talked about, then move into some big-picture-take-homes for season 1.
Season 1 of Keeping it 101 covered:
legal definitions and protections for religion in the US, with the Satanic Temple as a case study;
how folks exercise agency to “be seen” or recognized or protected within the system of “religion,” with Native (capital N) religions as a case study;
imperialism and the world religions/major religions/minor religions model;
Ilyse stayed true to her inadvertent season 1 runner, and had a related calendar rant about Hogwarts, Rowling, and Wizard Christmas when wizards supposedly don’t know from Muggle cultures.
hajj as a way to think about who gets to be “religious;”
and we’re trying to make fetch happen with “religion isn’t done with you, even if you don’t care about religion.”
For a particularly relevant example, Megan called out the renewed and feverish push to limit reproductive healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. See here to be dismayed.
Season 1 also featured 3 bonus episodes!
an EXTRA CREDIT deep-dive with our beloved friend, Prof. Omid Safi;
an EXTRA CURRICULAR fun episode about RuPaul’s Drag Race and religion;
and a BONUS episode, featuring a tiny killjoy, on religious innovation during the COVID-19 crisis.
Story Time:
Sylvester Johnson, African American Religions 1500-2000, p 39:
Ilyse and Megan gushed about this book for a host of reasons, many of which are evident in this teeny little passage: first and foremost because it’s tying American history, imperialism, & religion through the specific contours of Black and African diasporic folk; second, because Johnson hammers home the idea that religion is politics, politics are religious, and there is no America without what Judith Weisenfeld called religio-racial imperialism.
When Megan & Ilyse summed up what they hoped our audience learned, they said:
Ilyse: “I want everyone--truly everyone--maybe not to know the particulars of how white Christian European and American colonizers fundamentally inscribed racial and religious superiority in every single system, but I do want you to know that fact.”
Megan: “Religion is what people do, not just what A Person does (or thinks or believes). One of the most important things we’ve argued this “semester”/season is that religion is about communities, systems, and institutions—that while LOTS of folks, and ESPECIALLY Americans, assume religion is about their personal feels, we’ve showed you how religion shows up in hospitals, calendars (Ilyse is never over calendars), courts, and airports.”
Johnson’s whole book—and we think this little, teeny excerpt—gets at all this nicely for us. If you can’t find his book locally, check out his podcast interview about it here, and find an interview about his work in the “Conversations in Black” series at Marginalia Review of Books here.
Primary Sources:
In this week’s Primary Sources, Ilyse & Megan talked about what they learned doing the pod. Mostly, it was a love fest and Ilyse is still embarrassed about it but Megan is pleased—and since you know us by now, you’ve figured out that’s mostly all that matters. Thanks for listening, y’all.
The season’s over. Class is done. But stay tuned for SMART GRRL SUMMER: 4 extra, thematic episodes coming to your ears as a bonus, summer session ahead of Season 2 of Keeping it 101!
Your homework for Episode 109:
Ilyse is notoriously bad at light, summery reads. But she tried, nerds:
G Willow Wilson, has a TON of fiction that I revisit. Ms Marvel for y’all comic book readers. Alif the Unseen is in my mind a classic. The Bird King is so, so delightful.
Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy (Sea of Poppies; River of Smoke; Flood of Fire) is something Ilyse loves. Not light summer reading, but really a wonderful, built-out, global, historical colonialism-imperialism-race-read with such compelling characters.
Turns out, Ilyse reads a lot of queer, Muslim YA. You should too!
The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan
Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
Megan has a few reads to recommend while you await Smart Grrl Summer.
Nadya Tolokonnikova Read and Riot, which pairs well with (NC-17 scene-having) Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.
Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye. Which she read many times and made all her friends read, too.