Department News
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.
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!
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
"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)
CETLI Teaching Workshop: Teaching Outside of the Tenure Track
Steve Weitzman (Katz Center & Religious Studies); Natalie Dohrmann (Katz Center & Religious Studies); Anne Albert (Katz Center & History)
Barbara Ambros, Feeling Cross-species Kinship in Edo-Period Morality Books: Excessive Affect and the Ethic of Refraining from Killing and Releasing Life
RELS Colloquium/TRAP Faculty Working Group Lecture
Barbara Ambros, UNC-Chapel Hill
Faculty Bookshelf
The Evolution of Affect Theory: The Humanities, the Sciences, and the Study of Power
Across the humanities, a set of interrelated concepts - excess, becoming, the event - have gained purchase as analytical tools for thinking about power.
Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin
In Wild Experiment, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the conventional wisdom that feeling and thinking are separate.
Buddhist Narrative in Asia and Beyond
Publication of the proceedings of the conference "Buddhist Narrative in Asia and Beyond" at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, August 2010, edited by Peter Skilling & Justin McDaniel.
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
Print and the Urdu Public: Muslims, Newspapers, and Urban Life in Colonial India
Published by Oxford University Press
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.
Alef is for Allah: Childhood Emotion and Visual Culture in Islamic Societies
Alef Is for Allah is the first groundbreaking study of the emotional space occupied by children in modern Islamic societies.
From Mulberry Leaves to Silk Scrolls: New Approaches to the Study of Asian Manuscript Traditions
From Mulberry Leaves to Silk Scrolls is a multidisciplinary consideration of Asian manuscripts.
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.
Surviving Sacrilege: Cultural Persistence in Jewish Antiquity
In a world of relentless and often violent change, what does it take for a culture to survive?
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.