In a provocative article titled Digging Wells While Houses Burn (2006), David Gordon White argues that certain studies of religion actively stoke supremacist ideologies and politics. The only way to avoid this unsavoury collaboration is to rethink the way we do our work — the stories we choose to tell, and the methods we use to tell them. According to White, academics of religion who fail to engage with this responsibility are “digging wells while houses burn”, ignoring devastating realities that urgently demand their attention. In this context, we invite scholars of all religions, across all disciplines, to reflect on the relationship between their academic work, on the one hand, and violence and supremacy, on the other. Particular areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Studying religion in contexts of majoritarian violence, occupation, and genocide (e.g. Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Tibet).
• Systematic critiques (legal, historical, theological, and so on) of the mutually reinforcing relationship between religious discourses and supremacist ideology.
• How have scholarly agendas and university spaces contributed to the entrenchment of religion-infused supremacies?
• Engagements with “authorship”: what is the role of privilege and identity in crafting religion research?
• Intersectional analyses of religious supremacy: gender, sexuality, race, caste, and class.
• Thematic and methodological issues related to the scholarly analysis of “religious” violence.
• Ways forward: how must our concepts and conversations change?

Those interested in participating should complete this form (https://forms.gle/MygENBHjLUA5m3Xu8) by 1st March 2026. Successful applicants will be notified by 10th March 2026. Scholars residing outside the United Kingdom will have the option to present online. In case of any queries, please contact Namrata Narula (nn307@cam.ac.uk) or Dr Hina Khalid (hk410@cam.ac.uk).