Department News
Congratulations to Dr. Abdul Manan Bhat and Dr. Hallie Swanson!
The Graduate Group in Religious Studies is delighted to announce two successful doctoral defenses over the past week.
The Scopes Trial at 100 in the Penn Gazette
The Pennsylvania Gazette has written up the department's Spring Boardman Symposium, "The Scopes Trial at 100." Penn graduate Mary A
PhD Candidate Kirby Sokolow Receives Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Research Fellowship
PhD candidate Kirby Sokolow was recently ann
Professor Thomas's "Religion of Anime" Featured in Omnia
Professor Thomas's course, "The Religion of Anime," got a brief writeup in the "Three Questions" column in Omnia.
Professor McDaniel's "Existential Despair" Featured in the Penn Gazette
Professor McDaniel's course "Existential Despair" was featured in the Penn Gazette. Here's an excerpt:
Graduate and Undergraduate Prizes at the Year-End Reception
The Department of Religious Studies acknowledged the accomplishments of several students at our year-end reception on Thursday, May 1, 2025.
Professor Elias Named Chair of Penn Press Editorial Board
Jamal J. Elias, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of the Humanities, has been named the Chair of the Penn Press Editorial Board.
PhD Candidate Hallie Swanson Receives the Stallybrass Prize
Hallie Swanson has just received word that she has won Penn's Stallybrass Prize!
Congratulations to Dr. Jeremy Steinberg!
The Graduate Group in Religious Studies is delighted to congratulate Dr.
Sam Herrmann Wins Dissertation Research Award!
The Religious Studies Graduate Group is very happy to announce that PhD Candidate Sam Herrmann has received a Dissertation Research Award from the Graduate Division of Arts and Sciences!
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.
Faculty Bookshelf
Cosmologies and Biologies: Illuminated Siamese Manuscripts of Death, Time and the Body
A beautifully illustrated study of rare and unique Siamese manuscripts.
Wisdom as a Way of Life: Theravada Buddhism Reimagined
This wide-ranging and powerful book argues that Theravāda Buddhism provides ways of thinking about the self that can reinvigorate the humanities and offer broader insights into how to learn and how
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.
Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin
In Wild Experiment, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the conventional wisdom that feeling and thinking are separate.
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 New Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions
Edited by Matthew D. McMullen and Jolyon Baraka Thomas
Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom
Tradition has it that King Solomon knew everything there was to know—the mysteries of nature, of love, of God himself—but what do we know of him?
The Throne Carrier of God: The Life and Thought of ‘Ala’ ad-dawla as-Simnani
This book constitutes a comprehensive investigation of the life and teachings of one of the most famous Sufis of the Iranian world.
Drawing on Tradition: Manga, Anime, and Religion in Contemporary Japan
Drawing on Tradition examines religious aspects of the culture of manga and anime production and consumption through a methodological synthesis of narrative and visual analysis, history, a
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?
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.
