Thomas Tweed

Welch Professor of American Studies
Professor of History
American Studies

Research Interests

Religion and Race in American History

Related Courses Taught

Religion in America; Buddhism and American Culture

Biography

Thomas A. Tweed is the Harold and Martha Welch Professor of American Studies and Professor of History. He is also Faculty Fellow in the Institute of Latino Studies, the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Tweed's research, which includes seven books, has been supported by grants and fellowships, including three from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He edited Retelling U.S. Religious History and co-edited Asian Religions in America: A Documentary History, which Choice named an "outstanding academic book." He also wrote The American Encounter with Buddhism, 1844-1912 and Our Lady of the Exile: Diasporic Religion at a Cuban Catholic Shrine in Miami, which won the American Academy of Religion's book award. Tweed's Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion was published in 2006, and "America's Church": The National Shrine and Catholic Presence in the Nation's Capital, which appeared in 2011, also received the AAR's book award for historical studies. He published Religion: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press) in 2020. Tweed served as president of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the largest professional organization for scholars of religion, and he is now writing a history of religion in America.