Department News
Claire Elliot wins the annual Khyentse Foundation Award for Excellence in Buddhist Studies
Claire Elliot graduated with her Masters in Asian studies from Cornell University in 2020, where she studied Thai, Pali, and Sinhala.
RELS Students Receive Prizes and Awards
RELS celebrated the accomplishments of many students and faculty at an end-of-year celebration held on Thursday, April 27th.
PhD Candidate Kirby Sokolow Selected as 2023–24 Wolf Humanities Center Graduate Fellow
PhD Candidate Kirby Sokolow has been selecte
PhD Candidate Jeremy Steinberg Named 2023–24 Graduate Fellow for Teaching Excellence
PhD Candidate Jeremy Steinberg has been s
PhD Candidates Hallie Swanson and Kirby Sokolow Receive Dissertation Research Awards
PhD candidates Hallie Swanson and
Professor Robb publishes in the American Historical Review
RELS Assistant Professor Megan Eaton Robb has published a new article in the American Historical Review titled "
RELS PhD Candidate Max Johnson Dugan Writes on Muslim Fish Sandwiches for the Inquirer
PhD Candidate Max Johnson Dugan has published a piece on Muslim fish hoagies in the Philadelphia Inq
Hallie Swanson Receives Grants from AIIS and AIBS
PhD Candidate Hallie Swanson has received r
Professor Durmaz Publishes "Stories between Christianity and Islam"
Professor Durmaz has published her monograph, Stories between Christianity and Islam: Saints, Memory, and Cultural Exchange in Late Antiquity and Beyond.
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
Colloquium: "Gods in the Making: Spirit Mediums and the Consecration of Deity Statues in Contemporary Taiwan"
Aaron K. Reich (St. Joseph's University)
Colloquium: Seema Golestaneh, Title TBA
Seema Golestaneh (Cornell University)
Colloquium: Sarit Kattan Gribetz, Title TBA
Sarit Kattan Gribetz
Faculty Bookshelf
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.
Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words: Histories of Buddhist Monastic Education in Laos and Thailand
Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words examines modern and premodern Buddhist monastic education traditions in Laos and Thailand.
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.
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.
Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on Women Whom Jesus Met
Bi-lingual in Syriac and English. Published by Gorgias Press.
Key Themes for the Study of Islam
Key Themes for the Study of Islam examines the central themes and concepts indispensable to an informed understanding of Islamic religion and society.
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.
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?
Feeling Modern: The History of the Emotions in South Asia
A special issue of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, co-edited by Megan Robb with Elizabeth Chatterjee (Queen Mary, London) and Sneha Krishnan (Oxford).
