Department News
Graduate Students Win Research Prizes
The Graduate Group in Religious Studies is pleased to announce the recipients of several annual prizes.
Kirby Sokolow Receives Dissertation Research Award
PhD Candidate Kirby Sokolow has received a Dissertation Research Award in support of her archival and oral historical research for her dissertation, “Buddhist Exceptionalism Behind Bars: Transformi
Claire Elliot Receives Hopkinson Fellowship
PhD student Claire Elliot was recently selected as a recipient of the Hopkinson Fellowship.
Hallie Swanson Appointed as Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography
PhD Candidate Hallie Nell Swanson has been appointed as a Junior Fellow of the Andrew W.
Angela Xia Receives Postdoctoral Fellowship at Notre Dame's Cushwa Center
PhD Candidate Angela Xia has recently accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at Notre Dame's Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism.
Hallie Nell Swanson Receives Cheng-Harrell Graduate Internship at NMAA
PhD Candidate Hallie Nell Swanson was selec
Congrats to Prof. Durmaz & Prof.Schaefer!
Prof. Durmaz and Prof. Schaefer were both named finalists in the 2023 AAR Book Awards! Prof.
In Memoriam: Emeritus Professor Stephen Dunning
Stephen Northrop Dunning, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences, passed away on January 6th, 2024. He was 82.
PhD Student Hallie Nell Swanson Named BSA's first "D.F. McKenzie New Scholar"
PhD Student Hallie Nell Swanson has been selected as the Bibliographical Society of America's first D. F.
With particular strengths in the study of Christianity, Judaism, American religions, Islam, secularism, Buddhism, and other Asian religions, the Department of Religious Studies emphasizes descriptive, historical, and theoretical approaches to the study of religion.
Upcoming Events
Teaching Polarizing Topics: CETLI Teaching Workshop
Anthea Butler, Religious Studies
Abducting Religion: Rape and the Colonial Creation of Buddhist Sexuality in Burma
RELS Colloquium/TRAP Faculty Working Group Works-in-Progress Session
Alicia Turner, York University
Burmese Buddhist Exceptionalism and the Violence of Religious Tolerance
CEAS/TRAP Faculty Working Group Public Lecture
Alicia Turner, York University
Faculty Bookshelf
Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin
In Wild Experiment, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the conventional wisdom that feeling and thinking are separate.
Print and the Urdu Public: Muslims, Newspapers, and Urban Life in Colonial India
Published by Oxford University Press
Song and Story in Biblical Narrative: The History of a Literary Convention in Ancient Israel
This book examines a literary form within the Bible that has slipped through the cracks of modern scholarship: the mixing of song and story in biblical narrative.
Wayward Distractions: Ornament, Emotion, Zombies and the Study of Buddhism in Thailand
When more than 93 per cent of the citizens of one country profess a single religion, as Thais do Buddhism, and when that religion is deeply integrated into national institutions and ideologies, it
Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words: Histories of Buddhist Monastic Education in Laos and Thailand
Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words examines modern and premodern Buddhist monastic education traditions in Laos and Thailand.
White Evangelical Racism
In this clear-eyed, hard-hitting chronicle of American religion and politics, Anthea Butler answers that racism is at the core of conservative evangelical activism and power.
Wayward Distractions: Ornament, Emotion, Zombies and the Study of Buddhism in Thailand
When more than 93 per cent of the citizens of one country profess a single religion, as Thais do Buddhism, and when that religion is deeply integrated into national institutions and ideologies, it
The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk: Practicing Buddhism in Modern Thailand
Stories centering on the lovelorn ghost (Mae Nak) and the magical monk (Somdet To) are central to Thai Buddhism.
The Origin of the Jews
The Jews have one of the longest continuously recorded histories of any people in the world, but what do we actually know about their origins?
The FBI and Religion
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has had a long and tortuous relationship with religion over almost the entirety of its existence.
Islam
Islam is a concise and readable survey of the history of Islam from the birth of Muhammad in seventh century Arabia to the differing situations of Muslims throughout today's world.
Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan
Religious freedom is a founding tenet of the United States, and it has frequently been used to justify policies towards other nations.