Derek Buyan is a scholar of religion, ethics, and politics whose research focuses on the role norms, values, and beliefs play in political constituting polities, particularly in religiously plural, democratic societies. He received his Ph.D. in Religious Ethics from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 2021. His dissertation is entitled We Believe These Truths: American Democracy’s Humanistic Political Ethic of Belief and it explores key normative and psychological dimensions of American democracy. It argues that the tradition of American democracy requires a certain set of humanistic beliefs and that this belief-requirement plays a crucial role in its ability to mediate between different normative worldviews, including those of the diverse religions in American society. His other areas of interest include religious and theological ethics, religion and politics, race and theories of justice, human rights, Catholic Social Thought, religion and movements for social change, and the ethics of the study of religion.