Miner's Canaries
Dr. Jonathan Tran
Wednesday, November 2, 7:00pm
Buyse Lecture Hall (Meyer Science Center 145)
How Asian Americans Change the Race Conversation Just Like Christianity Changes the Race Conversation
Abstract:
This lecture challenges how race and racism are currently imagined by (1) shifting questions about racial identity to questions about political economy, (2) affirming the perspective of those marginalized by racism and antiracism alike, and (3) relating Christianity as more than a villain in our stories about race. A properly political economic account of racism must incorporate those marginalized by the politics of identity (namely the white/black racial binary). It also requires the work of theology in narrating racism as a distortion of God’s economy.
About Dr. Tran:
Dr. Jonathan Tran is Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology at Baylor University, where he holds the George W. Baines Chair of Religion. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism (Oxford). He also serves as co-editor for books series by Oxford University Press and Stanford University Press and sits on the editorial boards of Journal of Religious Ethics and Christian Century. Currently, he is Visiting Professor at University of Chicago Divinity School.