How Has Ethnic Studies Changed American Religious Studies?

Last month marked the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the four-month, student-led strike at San Francisco State University. This strike–along with a similar protest at the University of California, Berkeley, that began in early 1969—captured national attention as student activists from the Black Student Union and the Third World Liberation Front occupied buildings and organized sit-ins and other demonstrations. Hundreds of students were arrested, and clashes with police were violent.



African American, Native American, Asian American, and Latina/o activists united to organize this strike in order to advance a radically new vision of education. Opposing the racism and colonialism that they considered to be a shared source of oppression, student strikers called for equal access to higher education and increased hiring of faculty of color. In addition, they demanded that universities change their curricula and programming to reflect and honor the experiences of all people, including racial and ethnic minorities. As a result of the strike, San Francisco State established the College of Ethnic Studies—the first college of its kind—and other universities across the United States followed suit and created their own ethnic studies programs and departments.

A half century later, students, faculty, and community activists have been reflecting on the San Francisco State strike and the past, present, and future of ethnic studies. How has ethnic studies changed how we study, understand, and teach about the United States? As a religion scholar, I’ve been particularly interested in thinking about the relationship between ethnic studies and religious studies. How has ethnic studies enriched, and also complicated, the study of American religion? And what are the challenges of working at the intersection of religious and ethnic studies?

To explore this question, I turned to four rising stars in the field of American religion: