Santa Clara University

James B. Bennett, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies

James Bennett received his B.A. from UCLA, his M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1999. He taught at the University of Oklahoma from 2000-2002 and joined the Santa Clara University faculty in 2002. His teaching and research focuses on American religious history, with a focus on race, new religious movements, and the American West.

Teaching:
RSOC 9 Ways of Understanding Religion
RSOC 51 Religion in America
RSOC 111 Inventing Religion in America

Selected Publications: (for a complete list, access CV here)
"Tensions Within: The Elusive Quest for Christian Cooperation in America." In American Christianities: A History of Dominance and Diversity, edited by Catherine A. Brekus and W. Clark Gilpin. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.

"Until This Curse of Polygamy is Wiped Out": Black Methodists, White Mormons, and Constructions of Racial Identity in the Late Nineteenth Century." Religion and American Culture Vol. 21 (Summer 2011): 167-194.

"Race and Racism." In Encyclopedia of Religion in America, Vol 4, edited by Peter W. Williams and Charles H. Lippy. Washington, D.C.: C Q Press, 2010, pp. 1825-1833.

Religion and the Rise of Jim Crow in New Orleans. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.