Department News
Prof. Butler Awarded Major Grant from Luce Foundation
The department is delighted to announce that Prof. Anthea Butler has been awarded a major grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, along with Profs.
Spring 2021 Lecture Series: Jews, Race, and Religion
The Herbert D.
Abdul Manan Bhat reviews Ali Khan Mahmudabad at the Marginalia Review of Books
PhD student Abdul Manan Bhat recently published a review of Ali Khan Mahmudabad's Poetry of Belonging: Muslim Imaginings of India, 1850–1950 for the Ma
Professor Butler Speaks on Black-Jewish Relations in the Civil Rights Movement
At a recent Katz Center event hosted by Professor Steven Weitzman, Department Chair Anthea Butler spoke on Black-Jewish relations
Dr. Andrew Hudson Appointed Louisville Institute Fellow and Associate Director at Wabash Center
The department is delighted to congratulate alumnus Dr. Andrew Hudson, who has been appointed Associate Director at the Wabash Center as a Louisville Institute Fellow! Dr.
Prof. Jolyon Baraka Thomas Wins AAR Book Award
The department extends its congratulations to Prof.
PhD Candidate Gabriel Raeburn Receives Dissertation Grant
PhD Candidate Gabriel Raeburn has received the 2020 Dissertation Grant from the National Institute of Social Sciences.
Prof. Thomas Hosts Book Discussion, "Christian Sorcerers on Trial"
On 9/24/2020, Professor Thomas hosted a discussion of the new translation and critical edition "Christian Sorcerers on Trial: Records of the 1827 Osaka Incident," by Fumiko Miyazaki, Kate Wildman N
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
Book Celebration: Jolyon Baraka Thomas, Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan
Jolyon Thomas, University of Pennsylvania
Is the Talmud Racist?
Mira Wasserman, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, & Steve Weitzman, University of Pennsylvania
Zakhor: Alex Haley’s Roots, Scriptures, and the Race for America
Richard Newton, University of Alabama
Faculty Bookshelf
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on Women Whom Jesus Met
Bi-lingual in Syriac and English. Published by Gorgias Press.
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.