Greetings from the Chair

Greetings from the new Chair of Religious Studies:

After ten years guiding our department through some impressive growth and other big changes, Marc Raphael has stepped down as Chair of our department. I always admired his organization and his open style of leadership, and I’ll emulate these as I take over. Tamara Cooper, our Business Manager, does a masterful job with such things as course scheduling, handling student crises, departmental paperwork, and our ever-dwindling budget. It’s reassuring to know that she’ll be down the hall to answer my questions.

Two Visiting Professors from last year—Daniel Washburn and Jacob Goodson—have returned for a second year, and they’ll add a lot to our course lineup. To give you a taste, Prof. Washburn is doing a freshman seminar called “Science Fiction and the Human Condition” and Prof. Goodson one called “The Quest for Perfection in American Sports.” We’ll also offer our standard courses in the Western and Eastern religious traditions, along with Prof. Kevin Vose’s new version of the Theory and Method course. Befitting the times we live in, Prof. Julie Galambush is doing a Special Topics course on “Violence, War and Peace” and Prof. Goodson a course on “Warfare and Ethics.” To put everything in perspective, I’m doing “Comedy, Tragedy, and Religion.” If you visit the campus this year, you might want to sit in on one of these.

Less visible are all the research and writing projects faculty are engaged in. You can get some idea of those in the following pages. Our students, too, will be hard at work on Independent Studies and Honors Theses.

All of this activity is supported by the State of Virginia, of course, but less and less with each passing year. The last number I heard for the state’s contribution to our budget was 14%. There have been no salary increases in three years, and our operating budget has been cut repeatedly. To keep going, our department has increasingly depended on gifts from alums and friends. Those make possible the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Judaic Studies, the Hans O. Tiefel annual Lecture in Religious Ethics, and other events for students and faculty. For all gifts large and small, we’re grateful.

Cordially,

John Morreall (pronounced MOR-EL)
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies