Department News
Information Session for Prospective Doctoral Students Recording Now Up!
Did you miss our information session for prospective doctoral students with graduate chair Prof. Schaefer and graduate coordinator Katelyn Stoler on Oct. 13? Check out the recording here!
Alumnus Abdul Manan Bhat Launches Web Series
Dr. Abdul Manan Bhat (PhD 2025) has launched Preface, a new YouTube series dedicated to discussing "thorny issues regarding literature, culture, and politics."
Kirby Sokolow Publishes "Buddhist Exceptionalism behind Bars" in Pacific World
PhD candidate Kirby Sokolow has just publish
Information Session for Prospective Doctoral Students Announced!
All prospective applicants to the RELS doctoral program are warmly invited to join this information session hosted by graduate chair Prof. Donovan Schaefer and graduate coordinator Ms.
Donovan Schaefer awarded SAS Weiler Fellowship
Donovan Schaefer awarded SAS Weiler Fellowship for the 2025-2026 Academic Year in recognition of the excellence he has exhibited in research and teaching.
Congratulations to RELS BA grad Gabriella Raffetto!
Recent Religious Studies BA graduate Gabriella Raffetto has debuted her new play "Skeletons" at the New York Theater Festival. Congratulations, Gabriella!
Dr. Hallie Swanson Appointed as Lecturer at NYU-London!
The Graduate Group in Religious Studies is delighted to announce that Dr.
Claire Elliot Receives Fulbright Award!
The Graduate Group in Religious Studies is delighted to announce that doctoral candidate Claire Elliott has received a Fulbright award for 2025-2026!
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
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
Profs & Pints Baltimore: Horror in the East with Professor Justin McDaniel
Professor Justin McDaniel
PSCO Talk
Ellen Muehlberger, University of Michigan (via Zoom)
Moving Up the Cosmic Pole: Strategies for Legitimating Religious Authority in Buddhist Texts
RELS Colloquium
Ralph Craig (Whitman)
Faculty Bookshelf
Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan
Co-winner of the 2020 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion (Analytical-Descriptive Studies) from the American Academy of Religion
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.
Architects of Buddhist Leisure: Socially Disengaged Buddhism in Asia’s Museum, Monuments, and Amusement Parks
Buddhism, often described as an austere religion that condemns desire, promotes denial, and idealizes the contemplative life, actually has a thriving leisure culture in Asia.
The New Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions
Edited by Matthew D. McMullen and Jolyon Baraka Thomas
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.
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.
Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin
In Wild Experiment, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the conventional wisdom that feeling and thinking are separate.
Death before Dying: The Sufi Poems of Sultan Bahu
These 115 poems introduce readers in English to Sultan Bahu (d. 1691), a Sufi mystical poet who continues to be one of the most beloved writers in Punjabi.
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
Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on Women Whom Jesus Met
Bi-lingual in Syriac and English. Published by Gorgias Press.
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
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 p