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Cara Burnidge

@burnidge.bsky.social
1.3K followers 786 following 129 posts

Historian of religion and politics in the US specializing in Gilded Age and Progressive Era, reform movements, and religious debates about American democracy. Views are my own, not my employer’s. Likes and reposts are not endorsements.

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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
“Hidden within these numbers, however, is an important story about what democracy means for Americans…” This is what scholars in the study of religion & in ethics have been saying for some time. “Democracy” is not a fixed concept, and religion helps us understand how and why
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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 07/10/2026
A third group of faith leaders have sued the Trump admin over restrictions on clergy access immigrant detainees. Others were brought by Protestant groups or individual Catholic leaders, but this one was filed by the Archdiocese of St. Louis *and the archbishop.* religionnews.com/2026/10/07/s...
religionnews.com
For the first time, a Catholic archbishop sues Trump over access to immigrant detainees
(RNS) — The lawsuit accused the Department of Homeland Security and ICE of instituting policies that violate 'core constitutional values.'
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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Everything he is saying here is fully vindicating my belief that we need Religious Studies as an academic discipline to begin to understand the culture surrounding AI, and its millenarian fantasies.
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Tricia Matthew @triciamatthew.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
This autumn is the 10th anniversary of the publication of Written/Unwritten: Diversity and the Hidden Truths of Tenure. It came out during a heartbreaking time, my mom’s passing. I worked on copy edits and proofs from her living room, between medical appointments. uncpress.org/978146962771...
uncpress.org
Written/Unwritten
The academy may claim to seek and value diversity in its professoriate, but reports from faculty of color around the country make clear that departments and ...
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It doesn’t require a company to run! These have been popular events at my campus, partnering with a local watering hole (the place serves food, not just alcohol to drink). We call it “Pint with a Prof”
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
MDiv and MHL are, but other religion, religion-ish degrees aren’t? (Maybe my uunderstanding is out of date?) money.usnews.com/loans/studen...
money.usnews.com
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Eliminating loans to study religion, but classifying theology as a professional degree
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
3-year graduation rates are skyrocketing and it’s understood as a victory.
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
JZ Smith, Map Is Not Territory (Chicago, 1993) Amy Deregotis, Moral Geographies: Maps, Missionaries and the American Frontier (Columbia, 2003) @econroykrutz.bsky.social Hierarchies of Heathenism: Missionaries Map the Globe, Diplomatic History 42.1 (2018)
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Judith Weisenfeld @jlweisenfeld.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This is a must-read by @vox-magica.bsky.social and @profgabriele.com that sets the dismantling of their outstanding Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech in the broader context of the assault on the Humanities.
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Same! It’s me today.
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Jonathan Dresner @jondresner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
"The university—especially the public university—has never been an “ivory tower,” but rather where we help create the public sphere we want to see in the world. Centering the public good means offering to our students the same robust intellectual environment their elite private-school peers enjoy."
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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 29/08/2026
As I show in this paper, when public institutions become (financially and reputationally) dependent on privileged people, they lose the incentive to equitably enforce the rules. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Avoiding Us versus Them: How Schools’ Dependence on Privileged “Helicopter” Parents Influences Enforcement of Rules - Jessica McCrory Calarco, 2020
As privilege-dependent organizations, U.S. public schools have an interest in catering to higher-SES White families. But, what happens when privileged families’...
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Corinne Gressang @corinnegressang.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Our University Does Not Require Books, Paper, or Human Knowledge www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/our... Woof. This satire is hitting hard
mcsweeneys.net
Our University Does Not Require Books, Paper, or Human Knowledge
“Such a radical shakeup in learning has never happened before, as far as I know. Is there even a way to learn about whether or not something has happened bef...
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I was not prepared for this day 😭 Dolly Parton fans: are we wearing butterflies while in mourning? 🦋
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Ronit Stahl @ronitstahl.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The conflict between AI and accommodations is *the* pedagogical issue of the moment. But there's no real leadership on this. It's all delegated to faculty to work out on their own, with occasional assists (or resistance) from disability offices. It's untenable, terrible for both students + faculty.
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Ronit Stahl @ronitstahl.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
As @disabilitystor1.bsky.social observes, there's no institutional help--and this is coming from the faculty who *want* to support all students who need accommodations. Faculty need thought partners, but most disability offices are under-resourced and, ime, appear baffled by faculty frustrated w/AI.
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Seconded. I don’t think it’s a mystery why several journals in my field no longer have a backlog. There are several contributing factors, but one that deserves attention is how we are still in the wake of COVID impacts on scholarly pipelines. It’s been one 6-year t&p cycle if you started fall 2020
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Ha. Love it. I say Yoshi. But it is tough because also Batman.
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Hm. Great question. One follow up: what game are they playing?
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
For context, the Board reviewed all academic programs across the 3 publics last year, and low enrolled programs had to close or significantly revise. “Pause” for two catalog years was not an option.
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
“Higher education, and the press that reports on it, both tend to look disproportionately at the Ivies for guidance and leadership. But the Ivies don’t represent the circumstances and conditions at the vast majority of institutions in this country….”
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mgraziano.bsky.social @mgraziano.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Exciting update from our program, where @burnidge.bsky.social is going great work iowacapitaldispatch.com/2026/05/26/u...
iowacapitaldispatch.com
University of Northern Iowa to lead collaborative religious studies initiative • Iowa Capital Dispatch
UNI professor Cara Burnidge will lead a collaborative religious studies initiative with University of Iowa and Iowa State University faculty.
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Is there a genre in which it is *not* the villain? 😬 the store is a series of small but expensive booby traps inside an influencer escape room.
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Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Tomorrow (May 22) at 6:00 pm EDT, Judson Memorial Church welcomes @wmstell.bsky.social, author of Born Again Queer. He'll discuss his history of the rise and fall of evangelical gay activism, shining a light on this largely forgotten chapter in American evangelicalism. Learn more: buff.ly/GtWaEMm
Born Again Queer: A History of Evangelical Gay Activism and the Making of Antigay Christianity by William StellWilliam Stell
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T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
It's not brainstorming if you don't use your brain to do it.
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Jo VanEvery @jovanevery.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
AND further evidence of confusion about what teaching (and even knowledge) actually is. Knowledge is NOT a synonym for information. Teaching is not just communicating information.
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Joshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 13/04/2026
There has to be some interesting philosophy about how the Internet is both forever, and also a remarkably fragile storage medium for knowledge and history.
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Super weird that broad bipartisan support for violently crushing student protest was effective. Really makes you think
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
There’s also a robust legal & intellectual history of religious freedom, we don’t have to speculate: David Sehat, Myth of American Religious Freedom Tisa Wenger, Religious Freedom Anything, everything by Winnifred Sullivan Charles McCrary, Sincerely Held Jeffrey Wheatley, American Fanatics
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Elizabeth Fenton, Religious Liberties: Anti-Catholicism and Liberal Democracy (2011) Spencer Fluhman A Peculiar People (on anti-Mormonism) 2012 Denise Spielberg Thomas Jefferson’s Quran (2014) Caleb Elfenbein Fear in Our Hearts: What Islamophobia Tells Us About America (2021)
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Of course there is great scholarship on this! Histories of religious liberty & intolerance, anti-Catholicism, antisemitism, anti-Mormonism, anti-Islam, and cults all document this pattern. Some of my favorites:
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Yes, and this pattern pre-dates MAGA by 200+ years religious liberty in the US has consistently made assumptions about “good” religion (deserving of religious freedom) & “bad” religion (those that aren’t bc they are perceived as “foreign,” coercive, or incompatible with democracy) We see that here
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Girls be like “I needed this” and it’s @kkdumez.bsky.social historicizing white Christian women.
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Feminist Killjoy @saranahmed.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
10 years. A love letter to diversity workers. And gratitude for my complaint collective. substack.com/@feministkil...
substack.com
Sara Ahmed (@feministkilljoys)
Ten years ago this month, I resigned from my post and my profession in protest at the failure of my institution to deal with the problem of sexual harassment. It was a lot to give up. But it was neces...
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
And this, my friends, is why we will always need to study the Humanities. The human condition don’t quit.
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Almost as unpleasant as watching people newly interested in the phenomenon they didn’t see coming writing and being cited over the highly knowledgeable people who did.
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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
The danger to my job from AI isn't that AI can do my job, it's that my job is made even more precarious by the way AI is shaping ideas of the value of work. It can't do my job, but it can be part of convincing people (incorrectly) that my job isn't necessary.
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
It was only 20 years ago that specialists in the history of US foreign policy began to take religion seriously* in foreign relations. Before that the consensus was religion was at best a “side issue.” So if you’re now on board, don’t forget to cite who taught you what is “obvious” now *YMMV
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Just like the goal for the elite is to accumulate wealth without labor (various forms of extraction and exploitation), the goal here is to accumulate “knowledge” without thinking (also various forms of extraction and exploitation)
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
“AI is the future” The future:
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Seems like lots of people are discovering ideas about a “family” or “household” vote as a sign Christian nationalism. As w/much of CN discourse, historians of women’s history did the work 30+ years ago See Elna Green’s Southern Strategies (UNC 1997), uncpress.org/978080784641...
uncpress.org
Southern Strategies
The biographies of more than 800 women form the basis for Elna Green’s study of the suffrage and the antisuffrage movements in the South. Green’s compreh...
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Candace Lukasik @clukasik.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
I’m also very much looking forward to visiting the @uvmvermont.bsky.social next week for a book talk on "Martyrs and Migrants" @nyupress.bsky.social. Here are the details: Date: Tuesday, March 3 Time: 3:30–5:00 PM Location: Lafayette 210 If you are in the area, I’d love to see you there.
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
This student reporter gets it. Each closure of a “Studies” program is also an attack on gen ed—the possibility that students can take courses outside of a career minded major, that all knowledge is good & makes a well lived life (not just a profitable career) No program is “safe” with that agenda
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
“it is heartbreaking to report on this news knowing how impactful these classes can be for students not only in the major, but also students who have taken classes as general education requirements or electives.”
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Kyla Wazana Tompkins @kwazana.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Another win for viewpoint diversity dailyiowan.com/2026/02/12/o...
dailyiowan.com
Opinion | Closing the African American Studies program is a gut wrenching loss to faculty and students
In the middle of January the UI Office of Strategic Communications put out a news release that the University of Iowa would conduct a review of low enrollment undergraduate majors to assess their dema...
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
NGL I think it will continue to be difficult to determine Claude’s selfhood until we determine linguistically and legally the selfhood of, say—idk just spitballing here—women. Or, relatedly but distinctly, if selfhood is determined by gender expression or self presentation
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
This “debate” about Claude’s selfhood just might be a reflection of how there actually isn’t consensus on “human” …a topic often explored in HUMANITIES classes
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Cara Burnidge @burnidge.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Age verification? I called a number I memorized to learn what the weather forecast was for the day.
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