The Keston Center for Religion, Politics, and Society is based at Baylor University in Waco, Tx. The center seeks to promote research, teaching, and understanding of religion and politics in communist, post-communist and totalitarian societies. Director is Kathy Hilllman. Contact is Keston Center Archivist Larisa Seago.

Ray B. Shackelford is a native Houstonian who serves as Vice President of Equitable Justice for the National Urban League (NUL), responsible for managing Reclaim Your Vote, the NULs national nonpartisan get out the vote campaign.

Sarah Luginbill is a visiting assistant professor in history and the humanities at Trinity University in San Antonio. Luginbill is interested in the intersection of museums and objects, especially religious or spiritual items. She currently researches portable Mass kits used by Catholic chaplains in the U.S. military during World Wars I and II.

Paul Putz serves as assistant director of the Faith & Sports Institute at Baylor University.

Jeff Levin is professor of epidemiology, population health and medical humanities as well as director of the Program on Religion and Population Health at Baylor University. His work helped pioneer the study of religion and health.

Matthew S. Pehl is an assistant professor of history at Texas Tech University and author of The Making of Working-Class Religion. According to his online bio, “class identity and religious cultures are the connective tissue that unite most of his [research] projects.”

João Chaves is assistant professor of the history of religion in the Americas at Baylor University. He has written on migration, evangelical history in the U.S. and Brazil, and evangelicals’ relationship to politics in the Americas.

Lydia Bean is a social scientist and nonprofit leader based in Texas. She is a fellow in the political reform program at New America. Bean was a 2020 Democratic candidate for the Texas House of Representatives and is the author of The Politics of Evangelical Identity. Contact via her website.

Lauren Turek is associate professor of history at Trinity University in San Antonio. Turek is a specialist in U.S. diplomatic history and American religious history and is the author of To Bring the Good News to All Nations: Evangelical Influence on Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Relations, which examines the growth and influence of Christian foreign policy […]