Department of Religious Studies

Even though Star Wars has been a powerful and ever-present force in popular culture for the past 45 years, there is little work on the subject by academics who specialize in religion. In this talk I discuss why I think it’s important that scholars take popular culture more seriously, and possibly take ourselves less seriously. Examining data that is not considered to be earth-shatteringly important may encourage us to be more objective, attentive, and flexible when developing both specific interpretations and broad theories. In short, studying Star Wars may help us be better scholars of religion.