Collaborative Research: Places of Worship and the Politics of Citizenship: Immigrants and Communities of Faith in the New South

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Professor Patricia Ehrkamp in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky and Caroline Nagel in the Department of Geography at the University of South Carolina will explore citizenship as a fluid and often contested set of norms and expectations that establish belonging in society. Their research centers on the role that immigrant faith communities play in articulating and enacting particular conceptions of citizenship. Faith communities are central to the lives of many immigrants, and this research investigates how faith communities may be instrumental in shaping immigrants' understandings of rights, responsibilities, and societal norms. This project will employ in-depth, qualitative case studies of Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim places of worship. Data collection will take place through intensive interviews with faith community leaders and focus groups with ordinary members that include both immigrants and non-immigrants of faith communities. Interviews will take place in three metropolitan areas in the American South -- Charlotte, NC, Atlanta, GA, and Greenville-Spartanburg, SC. The South, and especially the Carolinas and Georgia, have experienced some of the highest rates of growth of the foreign-born population of any region in the United States. By focusing on these Southern metropolitan regions, and the ethnic and religious diversification taking place within them, this study offers insights into the social transformations being experienced in America's new immigrant gateways. This research will advance theoretical perspectives on citizenship by focusing on the ways that ordinary people negotiate citizenship in their everyday lives, and will open up the study of citizenship by investigating how people's faith and spiritual beliefs inform citizenship practices. This study will also contribute to regional studies scholarship by documenting the ways in which new immigrant groups are reconfiguring regional narratives and racial hierarchies in the South. Finally, this project will help to reframe public and academic debates about immigrants and citizenship and to move such debates beyond perennial concerns with immigrants' language skills and rates of naturalization. Toward this end, research findings will be disseminated on a project website and through a traveling photo exhibit of religious diversity in the South. This photo exhibit will utilize the talents of undergraduate photography students. The research will also provide support and research training for two doctoral students.