For years now, those on the right have used cities as symbols of crime and dysfunction, and here in New York State it's no different. President-elect Donald Trump has described New York City as a “filthy” “city in decline," while columnists for the right-wing New York Post have listed high crime and the "migrant explosion" as reasons to leave the city.
Liam Greenwell’s main research focuses on the identity formation of evangelicals in Kentucky. For this short-term project, Greenwell brings that topical interest to the distinct context of upstate New York. Evangelicalism is not the political force here that it is in the US South, but a full ten percent of New Yorkers nonetheless identify as evangelical. Greenwell asks: how do evangelicals in New York view themselves in relation to rurality? How does the right-wing fear mongering around cities come to bear in the site of the rural church? And in a state where the largest city in the country holds so much political sway, what affective resonances does the perceived marginalization of both evangelicals and rural life generate? Greenwell will answer these questions with ethnographic fieldwork in rural churches and among pastors, presenting these findings at a conference in the spring.
Collaborators:
Liam Greenwell, Anthropology
