Department News
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.
Grad Coordinator Katelyn Stoler Receives Staff Recognition Award
RELS Graduate Coordinator Katelyn Stoler has just received the 2023 Silver Level Staff Recognition Award from the School of Arts and Sciences. Way to go, Kate!
PhD Student Julio Nascimento Named 2023–24 Graduate Fellow in Korean Studies
PhD student Julio Nascimento has received the 2023–24 Graduate Fellow Award from the Kim Center for Korean Stud
Emeritus Professor Robert Kraft (1934–2023)
We are sad to report that the Berg Professor of Religious Studies, Emeritus
Professor Schaefer's Book Wins Prize from International Society for Science and Religion
Professor Schaefer's Wild Experiment has received a book prize from the
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
What Not to Do: Anti-Lessons for Ethnographic Fieldwork
RELS Colloquium/TRAP Faculty Working Group Ethnography Workshop
Sara Swenson, Dartmouth College
An Uncouth Monk: The Moral Aesthetics of Buddhist Para-Charisma
CEAS/RELS/TRAP Faculty Working Group Joint Lecture on Southeast Asian Religions
Sara A. Swenson, Dartmouth College
"The Vicissitudes of Divine Desire: Mind, Pain, and Discernment in Chinese Charismatic Christianity and Spirit Mediumship"
Center for East Asian Studies Humanities Colloquium
Emily Ng (Penn)
Faculty Bookshelf
Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on Women Whom Jesus Met
Bi-lingual in Syriac and English. Published by Gorgias Press.
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.
Religion and the Self in Antiquity
Many recent studies have argued that the self is a modern invention, a concept developed in the last three centuries.
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.
Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified World
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC), an African American Pentecostal denomination founded in 1896, has become the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States today.
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.
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
Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin
In Wild Experiment, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the conventional wisdom that feeling and thinking are separate.
Muslims Against the Muslim League: Critiques of the Idea of Pakistan
An anthology of essays, edited by Ali Usman Qasmi and Megan Eaton Robb, exploring Muslim criticism of the founding of Pakistan.
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.
Light Upon Light
Light upon Light: Essays in Islamic Thought and History in Honor of Gerhard Bowering brings together studies that explore the richness of Islamic intellectual life in the pre-modern period