Religion and Immigration in The United States And Canada: A Bottom-Up Perspective
Where: Institut des Études Avancées de Paris, Salle des Gardes
When: March 20th – March 21st, 2025
Description: These past years have seen a resurgence of interest in the religious beliefs and practices of immigrant populations, both in popular and academic discourse. While this subject is most often addressed in the context of larger debates about multiculturalism and social cohesion within society as a whole, researchers are increasingly interested in religious identities as experienced by the newcomers themselves. As Peter Kivisto notes, two of the most fundamental questions to be asked about religion and immigration are: “Do religions help newcomers to adapt? Is religion a comfort, an aid to integration or an obstacle?” (2014). Following Kivisto’s comparative and transnational perspective, this conference will adopt a “bottom-up” approach to explore how religion has played a role in the migratory trajectories, lived experience and imaginary of newcomers in the United States and Canada from the nineteenth century to the present day, from a variety of disciplinary perspectives (history, anthropology, sociology and literature).
Institution: Institut des Études Avancées de Paris, Salle des Gardes
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