Biography
Molly Bassett is Associate Professor and Chair of the Dept. of Religious Studies at Georgia State University. She is the author of The Fate of Earthly Things: Aztec Gods and God-Bodies (Texas 2015) and The Bundle: Unwrapping Nahua Religious Traditions (Texas 2026) with an epilogue by Nahua scholar of religions Abelardo de la Cruz (UNC). She co-edited Indigenous Religious Traditions in 5 Minutes (Equinox 2022) with Natalie Avalos (CU Boulder). Method and Theory in the Study of Religion just published a special issue on Indigenous epistemologies that Molly co-edited with Métis scholar of religions Paul Gareau (University of Alberta). Her current project is The Portable Cosmos: Moteuczoma’s Boxes and Nahua Rulership, a study of Nahua structures of authority, co-authored with art historian Jeanette Favrot Peterson (UCSB). The NEH and the AAR have supported her research. Molly lives in Atlanta’s Kirkwood neighborhood with her husband, children, dogs, and a small flock of hens.
Candidate Statement
Like many of us, I was a graduate student when I learned about the AAR and attended my first conference. Since then, I have been fortunate to participate in roles that serve a majority of the membership, first as a Teaching Religion program unit member (then Chair) and then as a member (then Chair) of the Applied Religious Studies Committee. These units focus on practical issues scholars confront in determining the paths of their careers, whether as faculty training students or as students planning their futures. I have also been involved in the Religion in Latin America and the Caribbean program unit, and I co-edited “Spotlight on Teaching” for Religious Studies News during the pandemic. This year, I began chairing the AAR’s new book award jury dedicated to recognizing publications “mak[ing] religious studies insights accessible and relevant to broader or non-specialist audiences,” or what we call applied, pedagogical, and public scholarship.
My work with Teaching Religion and Applied Religious Studies has kept my focus as an AAR member on the larger group, including our largest constituency: graduate students. As the nature of our work and our work environments has changed over the last several years—and at a more rapid and alarming rate recently—engagement with graduates in diverse professions, faculty teaching large classes, colleagues dedicated to pedagogical innovation, students thinking about their careers, and faculty learning how to prepare students for the future has helped me balance realism with practiced hope. As higher education navigates changes brought by deleterious federal policies, significant budget reductions, and increased attention to programs’ metrics, I am committed to helping us find a path forward. More than most fields, our training endows us with a capacity to imagine a better future and bring it into being.
Joining the Board in a year when we have been focused on the future feels well timed. The uncertainty of the future calls for innovations with applications in diverse professional settings, including the academy; for partnerships across institutions; for conversations across old boundaries and disagreements; and for resilience as the ground shifts beneath our feet.