Inaugural Kenneth Karmiole Annual Lecture Series in Religion American Life Presents -- J. Gordon Melton "On Mapping America’s Spiritual Diversity: The Origins of the American Religions Collection"
Join us for UCSB Library's Inaugural Kenneth Karmiole Annual Lecture series in Religion in American Life featuring Dr. J. Gordon Melton. In 1968, Melton founded the Institute for the Study of American Religion and then donated the research library to UC Santa Barbara in 1985 providing the foundation for the American Religion Collection. Melton will shed light on the origin of the collection and how his encounter with the psychic/metaphysical world influenced its development and curatorial direction.
About the Speaker
D
r. J. Gordon Melton became Distinguished Professor of American Religious History at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies in Religion (ISR) in 2011 and directs the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Woodway, Texas. Since joining ISR, he has led joint projects, including a census of American Buddhist and Hindu communities (2010, updated 2019) and a church congregation survey in McLennan County, Texas; Whatcom County, Washington; and Richmond, Virginia. For two decades, he has also monitored the evolving church landscape in China.
Dr. Melton holds degrees from Birmingham-Southern College (B.A., 1964), Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary (M.Div., 1968), and Northwestern University (Ph.D., 1975). He is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. Since joining Baylor, Dr. Melton has edited Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Belief and Practice, Religious Celebrations: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations, and Faiths across Time: 5,000 Years of Religious History (2014).
A pioneer in New Religions Studies, he helped establish the sub-discipline and serves on the international board of the Center for Studies in New Religions (CESNUR) in Turin, Italy, a leading academic association on new and minority religions.
About the American Religions Collection
The American Religions Collection (ARC) was established by J. Gordon Melton in 1968 and is located in UCSB Library’s Special Research Collections. The purpose of ARC is to collect, organize, preserve, and make available to researchers primary resources relating to religious bodies and practices in the United States, with a particular focus on new religious movements. The Collection contains and solicits materials generated by, associated with, or written about these religious bodies and practices, including their historical, literary, social, and artistic aspects, and may include relevant international materials.
About the Series
The Kenneth Karmiole Annual Lecture Series on Religion in American Life is an endowed fund established by Kenneth Karmiole in support of an annual public lecture series related to the research, scholarship and collection materials within the UC Santa Barbara Library’s American Religions Collection (ARC).
