Join us for UCSB Library's Inaugural Kenneth Karmiole Annual Lecture series in Religion in American Life featuring Dr. J. Gordon Melton. In 1968, Melton founded the Institute for the Study of American Religion and then donated the research library to UC Santa Barbara in 1985 providing the foundation for the American Religion Collection. Melton will shed light on the origin of the collection and how his encounter with the psychic/metaphysical world influenced its development and curatorial direction.

About the Speaker
Dr. J. Gordon Melton became Distinguished Professor of American Religious History at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies in Religion (ISR) in 2011 and directs the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Woodway, Texas. Since joining ISR, he has led joint projects, including a census of American Buddhist and Hindu communities (2010, updated 2019) and a church congregation survey in McLennan County, Texas; Whatcom County, Washington; and Richmond, Virginia. For two decades, he has also monitored the evolving church landscape in China.
About the Series
The Kenneth Karmiole Annual Lecture Series on Religion in American Life is an endowed fund established by Kenneth Karmiole in support of an annual public lecture series related to the research, scholarship and collection materials within the UC Santa Barbara Library’s American Religions Collection (ARC).