Princeton professor to lecture on 'Red State Religion'

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Department of Sociology will welcome Princeton University Professor Robert Wuthnow as this year's Carroll D. Clark lecturer.

Wuthnow will present "Red State Religion: Conservative Resurgence in Kansas and Texas” at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, in the Kansas Union's Woodruff Auditorium. A book-signing and a reception will follow in the Big 12 Room at the Kansas Union.

“Professor Wuthnow was selected as this year's Clark lecturer because of his outstanding contributions to scholarship in the areas of religion and politics, cultural change and social movements," said Ebenezer Obadare, KU associate professor of sociology.

Wuthnow will examine the underlying issues of religiously motivated political activism in Kansas and the Midwest, Obadare added.

In his book "Red State Religion: Faith and Politics in America's Heartland," Wuthnow tells the story of religiously motivated political activism in Kansas from territorial days to the present. He examines how faith mixed with politics as both ordinary Kansans and leaders such as John Brown, Carrie Nation, William Allen White and Dwight Eisenhower struggled over the pivotal issues of their times, from slavery and Prohibition to populism and anti-communism.

Wuthnow's book also provides new insights to why Kansas became a conservative stronghold and emphasizes the role of religion in red states across the Midwest and the United States. 

Wuthnow received a bachelor's degree from KU in 1968.