Welcome to the American Religious Sounds Project blog. Here you will find an archive of posts from researchers, teachers, community members, students, and ARSP team members about their experiences with all aspects of the ARSP. The blog posts, written between 2014-2022, include reflections on teaching with the ARSP archive, responses to gallery exhibits, news stories and updates about the project, descriptions of recording at research sites by both scholars and students, and miscellaneous writings about religion and sound. The blog was intended to be a space for presenting ideas in progress, celebrating collaboration, fostering scholarly networks, and sharing innovative practices for incorporating the ARSP in teaching and research.
On October 24, the ARSP leadership team gathered at OSU for an all-day workshop with our four newest partners. Jake Johnson (Oklahoma City University) has already begun working with his students on the project this term, and in Spring 2020 he will be joined by Harold Morales (Morgan State University), Pierce Salguero (Penn State Abington), and Homayra Ziad (Johns Hopkins University).
This summer and fall, the ARSP staff have been working on revising the materials we provide to coordinators at sites that are joining the project, including our manual of best practices. The manual covers everything from the project philosophy to recording technology to strategies for introducing undergraduates to ethnography via sound. Alongside that, we’ve also given a lot of thought to the ethical implications of our work.
Our multimedia producer Lauren Pond’s has published her audiography "Listening for Religion" in [in]Transition's special issue on audiographic criticism.
We are delighted to announce that, effective June 26, Kate Topham will be joining the American Religious Sounds Project in the role of Digital Archivist! Kate is uniquely qualified for this position, having just graduated from the University of Michigan’s School of Information with a MSI in Digital Curation and Archives and Records Management.
Tricycle, the leading independent journal of Buddhism in the West, has featured the work of the American Religious Sounds Project in a May 16 article by Sheila Burt.
By Lauren Pond
ARSP Multimedia Producer
The ARSP team recently traveled to Denver, Colorado, for the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Meeting, held this year at the Colorado Convention Center.
In September, ARSP co-directors Isaac Weiner and Amy DeRogatis participated in a public conversation with artist James Webb at the opening of his sound exhibit “Prayer” at the Art Institute of Chicago.
By Rachel McBride Lindsey
Saint Louis University
What do we gain as researchers by listening for religion in the city? This was one of the questions I posed to students in my second-year elective course, “Arch City Religion: Religious Life and Practice in St. Louis,” last spring.