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“If I get free”:

On Black religion, deconstruction, and digital media

LaRisa Anderson-horne

 

Date: Thursday, November 13, 2025

Time: 3:00 - 4:15 PM

Location: Edna Anderson-Taylor Communication Institute, LNCO 2910

 

 

About the Talk:

When you read the latest survey data about a rising group of non-religious individuals, often called “nones”, you hardly learn that these are former adherents deconverting. More importantly, we rarely hear from Black people who have particular social, personal, and political reasons for disaffiliating from their religious traditions. In this talk, Dr. Anderson-Horne examines the transformation of Black religious practices within the digital religious deconstruction movement. She discusses how Black content creators and podcasts hosted by or featuring Black guests illustrate the relationship between race, religion, and technology. Black religious deconstruction is not digital by accident, but a demonstration of the ways decolonial and progressive activism must also challenge (religious) technoculture. 
LaRisa Anderson-Horne Headshot

About the Speaker

Dr. Anderson-Horne is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah studying religion, media, and technology. She is a transdisciplinary qualitative researcher, Ronald E. McNair scholar, and 2025 cohort member of the Mellon grant funded DISCO affiliate network. Her previous research includes live-stream technology use in churches and live-streamed sermons immediately following the murder of George Floyd. Most recently, she completed her dissertation on digital religious deconstruction.

 

Date: Thursday, November 13, 2025

Time: 3:00 - 4:15 PM

Location: Edna Anderson-Taylor Communication Institute, LNCO 2910

 

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Last Updated: 11/10/25