Department News
Jeremy Steinberg Publishes Article in Judaica
Jeremy Steinberg, doctoral candidate in RELS, has just published a new journal article in Judaica: Neue Digitale Folge
Dr. Angela Xia Interviewed about Her Research
Dr. Angela Xia, former doctoral student and now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Notre Dame, has been interviewed by the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism.
Congratulations to Dr. Max Dugan!
Max Dugan successfully passed the defense of his doctoral dissertation “Feeling Authentically Islamic: Halal Consumption, Islamic Traditions, and Material Religion in a Gentrify
Professor Schaefer's "Sacred Stuff" Gets Coverage in Penn Today
Professor Schaefer took members of his Penn Global Seminar, "Sacred Stuff," on a tour of the UK to sites such as churches and stone circles.
Congratulations to Dr. Angela Xia!
On July 10, Angela Xia successfully defended her dissertation, "The Rest of Life: Old Age and the Politics of Care in the United States, 1946-1981." The newly minted Dr.
Congratulations to Dr. Ali Noori
Ali Noori successfully defended his dissertation, "Pious Praise Poetry: Emotions, Piety, and the Making of Medieval Islamic Subject," on June 27th, 2024.
Jeremy Steinberg Named 2024–25 Wolf Humanities Center Doctoral Fellow
PhD Candidate Jeremy Steinberg has been named the Wolf Humanities Center Doctoral Fellow for the 2024–25 academic year. He will participate in a series of workshops on the theme of "Keywords."
Graduate Students Win Research Prizes
The Graduate Group in Religious Studies is pleased to announce the recipients of several annual prizes.
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.
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
A Body of Knowledge: Reperformance and Embodiment as Rigorous Historical Method
RELS Colloquium
Lauren Mancia (Brooklyn College/Grad Center at CUNY)
Wehshat: Or, the Poetry and Ethics of Living with the Unbearable.
RELS Colloquium
Anand Vivek Taneja (Vanderbilt)
Premeditated Indifference
American Lectures in the History of Religions
Emilie M. Townes, Boston University School of Theology
Faculty Bookshelf
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?
Print and the Urdu Public: Muslims, Newspapers, and Urban Life in Colonial India
Published by Oxford University Press
Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified World
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC), an African American Pentecostal denomination founded in 1896, has become the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States today.
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.
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).
On Wings of Diesel: Trucks, Identity, and Culture in Pakistan
Illustrated with beautiful colour photos throughout, On Wings of Diesel takes us on a journey through the fascinating world of Pakistani truck decoration.
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.
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.
The New Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions
Edited by Matthew D. McMullen and Jolyon Baraka Thomas
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.
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.
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.