About Jacob Barrett

I am a PhD student in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Religion and Culture track. My research interests are grounded in questions about religion and governance, law, and the state and explored through contemporary examples from American politics. More specifically, I look at issues of religious freedom in the United States and the Supreme Court, placing the discourse on “religion and politics” within a discussion of performativity and authority to see the discursive and rhetorical tools used to create, maintain, and (re)negotiate terms of power and control. I aim to use computational analysis and the digital humanities to capture broad patterns in the outcomes and rhetoric of court decisions across time to demonstrate the dynamic nature of “religious freedom.” In addition to my academic research and teaching, I work as the Media and Communications Coordinator for the North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR) and the Director of Marketing and Publicity for the American Academy of Religion – Southeastern Region.