Abraham’s Whiteboard: Race, Religion and Borders with Dr. Laura Alexander

The contemporary international order of nation-states with strict territorial boundaries began to solidify at the same time that European colonial powers began occupying territory and extracting resources from peoples around the world. The colonial era provided the context for the development of modern ideas about race, including assumptions about how race and religion intertwined.

 The simultaneous development of strict national borders and ideologies about race, religion, and civilization has led to many of the tensions we see today around immigration policies. This talk will examine the intersection of race, religion, and contemporary ideas about borders and the nation-state, focusing on the United States, in order better to understand immigration as a social issue and to suggest how communities might move forward in our current context.

Abraham’s Whiteboard is a monthly educational class led by Tri-Faith’s Mission Advancement Coordinator, Megan Griffiths, on a wide variety of special topics, historical moments, and world religions. For example, a session could focus on definitions of religion or on non-Abrahamic religions like Hinduism or Buddhism. All Abraham’s Whiteboard sessions are open to all people regardless of background, but will connect the content to Judaism, Christianity, and/or Islam.

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