Religion, Morality, and the American Presidency: The West Wing at 30

Edited by Ilaria W. Biano

Deadline: September 30, 2026

Premiering in 1999, The West Wing quickly became one of the most influential television portrayals of American political life. Through its depiction of the Bartlet administration, the series offered a powerful narrative of the presidency as a site of moral deliberation, civic responsibility, and public leadership. The show remains a significant reference point in discussions of political authority, democratic institutions, and the ethical responsibilities of governance. Over the past two decades, The West Wing has attracted substantial scholarly attention. Existing studies have examined the series in relation to presidential leadership, political rhetoric, civic pedagogy, and the cultural representation of American democracy. Scholars have explored its liberal political imagination, its engagement with contemporary policy debates, and its role in shaping public understandings of the presidency.

Within this scholarship, however, questions of religion, moral conscience, and civil religion often appear as important but dispersed elements within broader analyses. The religious dimensions of the series—ranging from President Bartlet’s Catholicism to the use of biblical language in political rhetoric, from debates over bioethics and the death penalty to the representation of Islam and religious pluralism—have been addressed in individual studies but have not yet served as the organizing focus of a collective scholarly volume.

Marking the thirtieth anniversary of the series’ premiere in 2029, this volume proposes to revisit The West Wing through the lens of religion, morality, and public ethics. It aims to bring into dialogue interdisciplinary perspectives on how the series stages questions of faith, conscience, civil religion, and ethical leadership within the context of American democratic governance.

Contributions are invited from scholars working across a range of fields, including religious studies, political theology, moral philosophy, American studies, and television and media studies.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

Faith, conscience, and the Bartlet presidency

• President Bartlet’s Catholicism and the role of personal faith in political decision-making

• Moral conscience, confession, and ethical conflict in the series

• The relationship between religious identity and presidential authority

Civil religion and national ritual

• The presidency as a site of American civil religion

• Religious language, scripture, and biblical rhetoric in political speech

• Public mourning, national crisis, and the ritualization of political authority

Religion, pluralism, and the culture wars

• Religion and the politics of sexuality, abortion, and bioethics

• Religious pluralism and the representation of different faith traditions

• The negotiation of religion in the American public sphere

Religion, crisis, and the post-9/11 context

• The West Wing and the cultural mediation of terrorism and national trauma

• Islam, security, and political pedagogy in the series

• Religion, war, and the moral framing of political violence

Moral leadership and public ethics

• Ethical dilemmas of executive power and political responsibility

• Justice, punishment, and the death penalty

• Moral rhetoric and the construction of presidential authority

Revisiting The West Wing

• The cultural legacy of the series in American political discourse

• The West Wing and changing imaginaries of political leadership

• Rewatching the series in the context of contemporary political culture

Submission Guidelines

Please send an abstract of no more than 500 words, accompanied by a short biographical note (up to 300 words).

Proposals are due by September 30, 2026.

Please send submissions and inquiries to westwing.religion@gmail.com