Religion, Race, Gender, and the American Presidency Keynote Lunch
Dr. Levi Allen is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Indiana State University. His research focuses primarily on the confluence of religion and politics and how voters make decisions when their identities cross-pressure one another. His current book project, entitled Political Heretics?: Why Voters Defect from their Social Identities, focuses on how white born-again Christians who identify as Democrats balance their competing identities. His work has been published in such outlets such as Political Research Quarterly, American Politics Research, and Advances in Political Psychology.
Gastón Espinosa (chair) is the Arthur V. Stoughton professor of religious studies at Claremont McKenna College and the co-editor of the Columbia University Press Series in Religion & Politics. He has directed seven Latino national surveys and is the author or editor of Latino Religions & Politics in American Public Life (in progress), Race, Religion, Gender & the American Presidency (Spring 2025), Religion, Race & Barack Obama's New Democratic Pluralism, Religion & American Presidency: Washington to Bush, and Latino Religions & Civic Activism in the United States.
Dalia Fahmy is associate professor of political science at Long Island University and is a senior fellow at The Center for Global Policy in Washington DC. She is the author or editor of The Rise and Fall of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Future of Political Islam (forthcoming), Arab Spring: Modernity, Identity and Change, and Illiberal Intelligentsia and the Future of Egyptian Democracy. She has published widely in scholarly journals and written editorials in media outlets including ABC, CNN, and the Washington Post.
Andra Gillespie is associate professor of political science at Emory University. She specializes in African American politics, post-Civil Rights leadership, and political participation and is the author of Race and the Obama Administration: Substance, Symbols and Hope and the New Black Politician: Cory Booker, Newark, and Post-Racial America. Dr. Gillespie writes broadly for both scholarly and public venues, including Journal of Race and Policy, American Politics Review, Phylon, and the National Political Science Review.
Jerry Z. Park is associate professor of sociology and an affiliate fellow of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion. His research explores religion, race, identity, politics, and civic participation and his work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including Sociological Perspectives, Religions, Social Problems, The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Social Psychology Quarterly, Review of Religious Research, and the American Journal of Sociology.
Imam Hadi Qazwani is the Muslim Chaplain at the Claremont Colleges Chaplaincy Center. After growing up in Iraq, he pursued Islamic studies at the pre-eminent seminary in Iran for six years before returning to the U.S. to graduate from UC Irvine. He earned his Ph.D from U.S.C. in Religious Studies, with aa focus on Islamic Studies. He has spoken on key issues affecting the U.S. Muslim community, including the intersection of religion, politics, and social change.
Rabbi Danny Lutz is the Jewish Chaplain at the Claremont Colleges Chaplaincy Center. He received his Master of Arts in Rabbinic Studies from American Jewish University and has spoken on many topics critical to the Jewish experience and identity, including in interfaith dialogue, Israel/Palestine, and politics and social change.
This conference is co-sponsored by the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies, the Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World, the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, the Kravis Lab for Civic Leadership, and the Department of Religious Studies, all at CMC.
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