Michael Graziano, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Religion

Michael GrazianoOffice: Bartlett 2083, Department of Philosophy and World Religions
Phone: (319) 273-2507
Email: michael.graziano@uni.edu

Education: Ph.D., Religion, Florida State University
Research and Teaching Interests: Religion and Law, Religion and Education, Religion and National Security, Theory and Method in the Study of Religion

Dr. Michael Graziano specializes in the relationship between law, education, and national security in American religion. As a scholar of American religion, he approaches the study of religion as an opportunity to examine how people make transcendent claims to authority, and how these claims influence larger systems of meaning in society. In this way, the relationship between religion and the law makes for a natural area of inquiry: both are facets of human society where people encounter and challenge the frameworks that shape their world. Legal systems shape our everyday lives, from informal community norms about what is right and wrong to formal, complex codes enforced by the state. His research investigates US government efforts to shape and secure American ideas about religion, especially when those ideas are found in the classroom or the courtroom.  

Errands in the Wilderness book screen shotA passion for religious literacy links Michael’s research and teaching. On campus, he has developed classes like “Religion and the Public Schools” to help prepare UNI’s future teachers for the classrooms of tomorrow. In the Cedar Falls-Waterloo community, he leads the Iowa Religious Literacy (IRL) project, is a K-12 teacher professional development series elevating religious literacy in Iowa’s public schools. IRL’s goal is to better prepare teachers to work with religion “in real life,” which doubles as an acronym for the program. Engaging educators with academic religious studies, IRL will empower them to teach and talk about religion in a constitutionally sound, intellectually stimulating manner, promoting positive social and academic outcomes for students. Supported by a national grant from the Whiting Foundation, the project will explore both religion’s importance as an element of diversity in the classroom as well as how to teach about religion professionally with tools and strategies to navigate everyday classroom challenges.

Michael’s interest in religious literacy extends to my research program, especially to questions about how the U.S. government has used knowledge about religion to advance its goals. His recently published book, Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors: Religion and the History of the CIA (University of Chicago Press, 2021) considers how the U.S. intelligence community advanced foreign policy goals by learning about and operationalizing religious knowledge. Between World War II and the Iranian Revolution, American intelligence officers drew on the academic study of world religions to alter how Americans thought about religion at home and abroad, leading to new national security strategies and modes of thinking about America as a religiously diverse nation. Consequently, American intelligence officers selectively encouraged religious literacy in order to further national security.