Religious Studies Faculty Updates January 2022
Religious Studies News
On Monday night in the Tucker Theater, Dr. Nicole C. Kirk gave a talk about American religion and the circus in the early twentieth century. While Protestant churches opposed the “questionable moral activities” associated with the circus, performers and workers cultivated a rich spiritual life all their own.
Barbette Spaeth, professor of classical studies at William & Mary, teaches and researches in the areas of ancient religion and magic. Her classes are quite popular and draw a cross-section of students across all disciplines and systems of values and beliefs.
The Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture (OI) will be doing its part to support humanities posts for underemployed scholars through a new fellowship program aimed at non-tenure-eligible scholars who have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 global pandemic.
William & Mary will mark the end of the 2020-21 academic year with a celebration unlike any in its 328-year history.
Faraz Sheikh, assistant professor of religious studies at William & Mary, has published a new book, “Forging Ideal Muslim Subjects: Discursive Practices, Subject Formation, & Muslim Ethic,” which discusses the forms a religiously-informed, ethical Muslim life can take.
When the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for the first coronavirus vaccine, Operation Warp Speed’s distribution plans sprang into action — and so did two William & Mary alumni.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies, Prof. Kirsh speaks to Ellie Kurlander of Flat Hat Magazine about her research and career as a historian and educator
Minnesota Nice is about Lucy and Cumar—two teenagers who represent radically different corners of the same small town outside Minneapolis.
Patrick Abboud ’20 is looking at his world through new eyes this spring.
Jessica Johnson, visiting assistant professor of religious studies at William & Mary, has covered quite a bit in her two courses this spring: new religious movements in America and a new one — gender, sexuality and religion in America.
Dr. Joseph Blankholm of UC-Riverside spoke at W&M Feb 26th. Being secular does not always mean being nonreligious. Deconverting from Judaism, for instance, does not simply unmark a person as Jewish, which remains a cultural or ethnic identity even after rejecting religion. Like secular Jews, ex-Muslims face unique challenges, and being betwixt and between is awkward. These secular misfits are creating new and important ways of being secular and religious that are not properly either. Bursting the seams of these categories, they help us see clearly their construction.
Merging the grueling physical and competitive aspects of sports with their religious faith makes athletics the perfect arena in some respects for evangelical Christians, contends William & Mary Associate Professor of Religious Studies Annie Blazer.
The following books by William & Mary faculty members were published in 2019.
Professor Jenkins spoke at the Religious Studies brown bag lecture series about her ethnographic research, exploring the experiences of parents and young adult children who walk the Camino de Santiago in northwest Spain. She shared stories of families who invest in the Camino as a practice for building intimacy.
David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University, gave a lecture drawing from material in his recent book, Moral Leadership for a Divided Age.
An introduction to Visiting Assistant Professor Semiha Topal
Profile of Visiting Assistant Professor Jessica Johnson
Shalin Shah '19 and his twin brother, Shivan, completed their college degrees in the last four years while managing major health crises suffered by both of their parents.
George Greenia has garnered a prestigious international award. In June he will travel to Mexico to receive the 2019 International Prize Grupo Compostela–Xunta de Galicia.
William & Mary Classical Studies Professor Vassiliki Panoussi’s new book explores the traditional, and not so traditional, ways that women held power in the patriarchal society of ancient Rome.
Students, faculty and staff, and members of the community flooded the Chesapeake rooms in the Sadler Center on March 14 to watch the annual Raft Debate in which three professors, deserted on an imaginary island, represented their disciplines in an battle for a single spot on an imaginary raft.
The 2019 Raft Debate, a much beloved William & Mary tradition, will be held at the Sadler Center in Chesapeake ABC, on March 14 at 6:30 p.m.
SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies in London has invited Professor Mark McLaughin to present his lecture, "Samadhi Burial and the Continued Presence of the Realized Yogin," on Wednesday, March 6th, 2019.
Florence “Flo” Glynn '19 will receive the 2019 James Monroe Prize in Civic Leadership.
Find out about the exciting research projects of our students in RELG 391: Theory and Method in the Study of Religion
A William & Mary student is expected to be featured on NBC’s TODAY show as part of its weeklong series “Faithful.”
Annie Blazer, associate professor of religious studies at William & Mary, spent her research leave embedding herself in religious communities in her own neighborhood of Richmond's East End.
Lucy Greenman '22, a 1693 Scholar, has found a warm, respectful reception at William & Mary for her Jewish religion and her music.
Religious Studies major Florence Glynn '19 works to help design a new course on "spirituality."
President Katherine Rowe presided over The Future of Knowledge Tuesday, part of an ongoing effort by the new president to gather feedback from the William & Mary community around three themes: the future of knowledge, the future of work and the future of service.
The Tack Faculty Lecture on Oct. 9 will be delivered by Anne Rasmussen, professor of music and ethnomusicology and the Bickers Professor of Middle Eastern studies at William & Mary. She'll strip away the many misconceptions Westerners hold about music, women and the Muslim world.
Professor Blazer presents her exciting new research at the International Society for Media, Religion, and Culture meeting in April 2019.
Two Myers-Stern Scholarship winners describe their time studying in Israel.
Kathryn R. Eckler '19 explored the role that religion plays in the considerations of refugees and of the people of host countries.
Maureen Fitzgerald, associate professor of religious studies at William & Mary, expanded her research on American religious nationalisms in response to current events and her students' interest in religious liberty in U.S. politics.
Alexander Angelov, Associate Professor of Religious Studies won the 2018 Alumni Fellowship Award.
These days Travis Harris is a Ph.D. candidate in American studies at William & Mary, researching in Africana studies at the intersection of religion and hip-hop.
William & Mary students toured Holocaust sites this summer to look at the Third Reich, national socialism and the Jewish people in Germany and Prague through a modern lens.
