In a 2001 episode of the West Wing, the fictional Organization of Cartographers for Social

Equality tries to convince the White House staff to change the world map required in all public
school classrooms. These cartographers prefer the Peters-Gall Projection rather than the current,
and more common, Mercator Projection map.
1
As the cartographers make their case, they
compare and contrast the two world maps side-by-side, revealing wildly different representations
of not only where each continent is located but also their relative sizes. Despite press secretary
C.J. Creggs confusion with where nations are really located, the cartographers suggest using
maps that place the northern hemisphere on the bottom of the map rather than the top. Yeah, but
you cant do that, Cregg says. Why?, they ask. Because its freaking me out.
In a university classroom, I consider myself to be a mentor and guide for students as we
explore a variety of topics together. Through both my research and teaching, I seek to unsettle
what appears natural and true, including individual cultural identities and nation-state
boundaries. My current Religions of the World class, for instance, is organized chronologically,
rather than thematically by tradition, to demonstrate the formation of our mental maps for each
religious tradition. This historical approach to religion allows me to trace the expansion and
collapse of people groups and empires to illustrate the social construction of both state and
religious institutions.
Much like with my research on liberal internationalism, this course demonstrates how
nationalism shapes its citizens understanding of themselves and the rest of the world. As Cregg
revealed in the West Wing episode, her sense of the world was lost when the placement of
nations in relation to each other changed. By unsettling students mental maps of both the(ir)
world and religion, I see myself demonstrating to students, through images, texts, sounds,
and even tastes, what J.Z. Smith referred to as the variety of attempts to map, construct, and
inhabit such positions of power through the use of myths, rituals, and experiences of
transformation.
2

In this way, knowledge of history and religion are not separate areas of study for me, but
constitutive elements that contribute to helping students understand the imagined communities
around them. I see both fields as deeply rooted in the process of textual and cultural
interpretation, formulating narratives that are socially constructed and re-constructed over time.
Histories and ideologies (both individual or institutional) work together to construct material and
immaterial realities found in mental and physical maps. In my classroom, students learn how to
recognize the maps that shape their perceptions of the world, to compare mental maps through
historical method, and to engage in critical analysis of information in front of them. As an
interdisciplinary researcher and teacher, I do not isolate one method from another, but illustrate
how multiple influences shape what we know about the world and our place in it. By unsettling
what seems natural and true, I invite students to reconsider what they previously knew while also
providing the tools and direction necessary to navigate the imagined communities in their own
mental maps.

1
Somebodys Going to Emergency, Somebodys Going to Jail, West Wing, Season 2, Episode 16, Directed by
Jessica Yu, Written by Paul Redford and Aaron Sorkin, aired February 26, 2001, National Broadcasting Company.
2
J.Z. Smith, Map is Not Territory: Studies in the History of Religions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993),
291.
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