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John Francis Burke
University of St. Thomas
3800 Montrose Boulevard
Houston, Texas 77006-4696
Telephone: 713.525.3814
Fax: 713.525.2125
jfburke@basil.stthom.edu
John Francis Burke is a political theorist who focuses on the challenges posed to democracy by multiculturalism in the U.S. Southwest. The author of Mestizo Democracy: The Politics of Crossing Borders (2002) and several articles on the subject, he has been engaged for over a decade in fostering interchange between Houston's diverse cultural, linguistic, and racial groups, especially in religious communities.
Presentations
Mestizo Democracy: Cultivating Unity in Diversity
The contemporary debate over multiculturalism in the United States tends to stress either assimilation (“unity through uniformity”) or separatism (“sheer diversity”). This presentation argues that the Mexican-American experience of mestizaje—a dynamic integration of cultures, languages, and races—offers a more hopeful heritage and guide for cultivating “unity in diversity” in the United States of the twenty-first century.
Speaker: Dr. John Francis Burke
The Impact of Popular Religion on U.S. Culture, Politics, and Spirituality
This presentation considers how popular religion—the mixing of African, Christian, and indigenous spiritualities commonplace in Mesoamerican and the Caribbean—is transforming the way we consider religious and cultural identity in the U.S. Southwest. Musical selections will be interspersed throughout the presentation to enable the audience to experience this aesthetic flor y canto (flower and song) spirituality. In turn, the implications of popular religion for U.S. culture and politics in the twenty-first century will be projected.