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Religious Studies Assistant Professor Rahel Fischbach won the Charles Center Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentorship Award!
Religious Studies News
This past summer, William and Mary alum and visiting Religious Studies professor Maggie Fraser Kirsh was interviewed by NPR on her current book project.
The Department of Religious Studies is excited to share an upcoming Study Abroad opportunity in Goa, India for Summer 2027. The program is directed by Professor Mark McLaughlin of the W&M Religious Studies Department and runs from May 28 to July 3.
Beginning this fall, students can pursue a new major in contemplative studies, an interdisciplinary program that combines religious studies, psychology, neuroscience and experiential learning.
On April 29, students, faculty, and Williamsburg community members gathered in Tucker Hall to hear Dr. Paul Finkelman, Visiting Professor at the University of Toledo College of Law, delivered a lecture titled ‘The Ten Commandments, the American South, and Southern Jews: Is the Ten Commandments Really the “Moral Foundation” of American Law’?
On April 19, the William and Mary Religious Studies department was pleased to welcome Dr. Ahmad Greene-Hayes for a presentation on his book Underworld Work: Black Atlantic Religion Making in Jim Crow New Orleans.
Anyone, student faculty or staff that has encountered Kathy Fisher Michaels, ’26 in her time at W&M could tell you she is a force. She is a Religious Studies graduate and transfer student that has taken on the department and the undergraduate college of Arts and Sciences with energy and enthusiasm. We met up for coffee and Kathy told me about her life and the lead-up to being at William & Mary as a student in her 70’s.
On March 5, Professor Annie Blazer's new book, American Culture through Religion and Sport, was published. Her book is modeled after her religious studies course, “Religion and Sport in the US” and details the intersections of these two topics while introducing various religious traditions that exist within the United States.
On October 22, Dr. Harold Roth delivered a lecture titled “Contemplative Studies and the Liberal Arts Education: How Contemplative Studies Programs Can Meet the Challenges of a Liberal Arts Education in Stressful Times.”
On March 26, Professor Rahel Fischbach delivered a lecture drawn from her forthcoming book, Between God and History: Politics of Modern Muslim Qurʾānic Hermeneutics
What have the Religious Studies faculty been up to? Read on to learn about their recent work and what they're looking forward to this year.
Though William & Mary undergraduates often pursue summer internships with specific goals in mind, perhaps the greatest benefits of gaining hands-on experience in a potential career field are the zigs, zags, and unexpected life lessons that inevitably arise.
Former W&M faculty John Morreall and Tamara Sonn have released a comprehensive survey of the study of religion worldwide, from ancient indigenous traditions to today's religious nationalism.
Piero Capelli, Professor of Hebrew in the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, visited William & Mary to deliver the annual Milton & Shirley G. Salasky Lecture on April 23, 2024.
Experts Arnon Degani and Yossi Klein Halevi were invited by the Judaic Studies Program to present for the Scholarly Perspective Speaker Series. The series, sponsored by the Reves Center for International Studies and Arts & Sciences, set in motion informed conversations among William & Mary students, faculty, and staff about Gaza, Israel, Palestine, and the wider Middle East.
The Religious Studies Department selected Mark K. Bauman to present the William & Sue Anne Bengal Lecture this spring. His lecture discussed several highlights of the conversation on Southern Jewishness among scholars in the United States by challenging the question “What makes Southern Jews different?”.
What have the Religious Studies faculty been up to? Read on to learn about their recent work and what they're looking forward to in the new year.
On November 15th, Professor Laura McTighe delivered the second lecture in the two-part “Race & Religion” Speaker Series. Dr. McTighe, an Assistant Professor at Florida State University, brings over two decades of experience in partnering with grassroots communities. Her community-engaged scholarship focuses on utilizing religion to build more survivable worlds outside traditional institutions.
On November 1st, 2023, Dr. Abdulbasit Kassim delivered the first lecture in the two-part Race & Religion Speaker Series co-sponsored by the Religious Studies Department and Program in Africana Studies. Dr. Kassim is an interdisciplinary historian engaged with the histories and cultures of Muslim societies in West Africa and the African Diaspora. His lecture examined the persistence of proslavery thought through juridical and religious corpuses.
On October 17, 2023, Dr. Bharat Ranganathan delivered the annual Hans Tiefel Lecture on Religion and Ethics. Dr. Ranganathan is the Rabbi Sidney and Jane Brooks Assistant Professor of Social Justice and Religion at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In his lecture, Dr. Ranganathan identified some of the moral, political, and religious dimensions of severe poverty and presented various ways to respond to poverty.
Caroline Leibowitz ’24 and Isabel Pereira-Lopez ’24 wish to understand the unexplainable, to travel down the roads that make the rest of us shudder with fright. They are currently working on separate research projects focused on the historical past and present of witchcraft.
The Religious Studies department is honored to present Dr. Andrew Tobolowsky, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at William & Mary, who has been awarded the Robert & Sarah Boyd Distinguished Associate Professorship for 2023-2026.
This year, Religious Studies Faculty were awarded several prestigious research fellowships and grants. The wide array of projects and accolades attest to the inherent interdisciplinary nature and continued necessity of Religious Studies and the Humanities in academia.
Milton & Shirley Salasky Lecture: "Where are David and Solomon Buried?"
On Monday, November 7th, Dr. Michael Berkowitz gave a lecture in the Great Hall of the Wren Building on “New Approaches to American Jews and Moviemaking during WWII”. Dr. Berkowitz particularly discussed the role of Leo Rosten and his position as head of the motion picture division of the U.S. Office of Facts and Figures.