Understanding Religion and Populism

Please join the Pulitzer Center and Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs on Friday, March 5, at 12:00pm EST for a webinar on the intersections of populism and religion featuring Kalpana Jain, a Pulitzer Center grantee and long-time investigative journalist. 

The complex relationship between media, religion, and populism grows ever more complicated and pronounced with the propagation of social media, new forms of religious extremism, and nationalist populism rising with a fervor across the globe. How the media reports on the (mis)use of religious narratives to advance national superiority, balancing how to inform without amplifying, is an important area for further study and dialogue.

During her tenure at The Times of India, Jain has reported on Hindu nationalism, India's ailing public health system, and social justice issues. Her reports led to the resignation of a health minister. Her Pulitzer Center-supported project, Hindu Nationalism, Its Toll, and India's Inter-Faith Resilience, explores the toll of Hindu nationalism on Indian society through the lives of women and millennials.

Joining Jain will be John Fea, a professor of American history and chair of the history department at Messiah University and a scholar of Christian nationalism. Jain and Fea will engage in a conversation about specific examples of religion and nationalist populism in different regions of the world and how those narratives relate to broader trends globally. The dialogue will be moderated by Ann Peters, the university and community outreach director at the Pulitzer Center.

This event is co-sponsored by the Pulitzer Center and Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, a Campus Consortium partner.

This event will be recorded and a captioned video will be posted by the Berkley Center after the event date. To RSVP for the Zoom webinar, click here.