The Politics of Belonging: How Identity Informs Inclusion and Exclusion

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel brings together scholars across multiple subfields, who deploy different methodological approaches to help us better understand notions of belonging and inclusion, in democratic societies. Sean Harris analyzes the rhetoric of American, and Eastern European political elites with respect to their discursive deployment of Christianity and Christian symbolism. Harris’ work uncovers the different relationships between Christianity and national identity in these two regions, which helps reveal how elites understand the boundaries of national belonging and exclusion. Julianna Thomson likewise investigates Christian nationalism, but specifically focuses on the Her Voice Movement, in the United States. Thomson’s case study sheds light on the intersection of women’s participation in Christian nationalism – a movement often thought to be patriarchal – and highlights the complexities of women’s inclusion in this political space. Piper Biery turns to questions of citizenship, and its relationship to national identity. Biery focuses on the Sovereign Citizens Movement in the United States; a right-wing movement whose supporters paradoxically see themselves as simultaneously independent of state authority, and as “real” Americans. Biery’s work considers how belonging operates concurrently among fringe groups, and within the larger democratic society wherein these groups operate. Michael Feola examines the narrative framework of victimhood deployed by far-right activists. Specifically, Feola considers how white nationalists invert the extant power relations by portraying historically advantaged groups as losing their status. Ethnonationalist discourse reverses historical and ongoing persecution to present their case that whites are being unjustly excluded from the nation to which they rightly belong. Existential threat begets what white nationalists present as righteous rage; a rage that manifests in violence.

In all, the panel considers the role of inclusion and exclusion within the context of democracy. The panelists all consider the ways that Christian and/or white nationalist groups are defining the boundaries of the demos, and of their own movements.

Sub Unit

• Division 33: Religion and Politics

Individual Presentations

• American and European Understandings of Christian Nationalism - Sean D. Harris, Eastern University

• From Silence to Speech: Women’s Participation in Christian Nationalism - Julianna Thomson, George Mason University

• Belonging to Extremists - Piper Biery, West Texas A&M University

• Victims, Martyrs, and Saints: The Discursive Politics of White Rage - Michael Feola, Lafayette College

• Religious Revivalism, Political Power and Democracy in the Muslim World - Ramazan Kilinc, Kennesaw State University

Chair

• Scott Benjamin Ritner University of Colorado, Boulder

Discussant

• Matthew Stein College of Southern Nevada- Social Sciences