The REL film crew just caught up with the officers of the Religious Studies Student Association to learn what the club is all about. Watch the video to see what they had to say–trust us, you don’t want to miss out on the fun events going on around here! RSSA Student Video from UA Religious Studies. […]
Month: March 2016
REL Majors Present Research at the 2016 UCRA Conference
Wednesday is the 2016 UA Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity Conference (UCRA) and we are proud to have 3 REL majors presenting their research this year: Aubrey (Liz) Long, Sarah Griswold, and Sierra Lawson. Here are their abstracts: The full program for the conference is available here. Great work! […]
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Democracy is Risky
A couple years ago I gave a talk at Lehigh University (a lecture that became chapter 8 in a book I published not long after). The topic was on my frustration with how scholars of religion — because they define their object of study as a universally present and deeply meaningful human impulse — often assume their research is always relevant. As evidence I drew on a recent national conference where scholars of religion were encouraged to think about how […]
Join Us for the 2016 Aronov Lecture Tomorrow at 7pm: “Democracy in Black — The Value Gap”
Our annual Aronov Lecture will be held tomorrow night at 7pm in Lloyd Hall room 38. We are very pleased to welcome Eddie S. Glaude from Princeton University. His lecture is titled “Democracy in Black — The Value Gap.” You can find out more about Prof. Glaude’s work in this recent Salon interview about his newest book, Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul. And be sure to follow the conversation, comments, questions, and live-tweeting of the Aronov lecture […]
“I belong to no religion. My religion is love”: Sufism, Religious Studies, and Love
By now you’ve probably heard about the theme for next year’s American Academy of Religion (AAR) annual meeting, revolutionary love, and the controversy surrounding it. Some of my colleagues, Russell McCutcheon and Merinda Simmons, have written about it, and the Bulletin for the Study of Religion is posting a series of responses. Revolutionary love, or any kind of love, has not been considered the purview or state of being of all people. Scholars have played an important role in using […]
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The Teacher Who Went on to Facebook and Came Back with an Insight
By Kim Davis Kim earned her B.A. in Religious Studies and French from the University of Alabama in 2003. She went on to earn her Masters in French Linguistics and Literature in 2007 and a Masters in Secondary Language Pedagogy in 2010, both from UA. Kim now teaches French and Mythology at Tuscaloosa County High School. The other morning I logged onto Facebook for some mindless scrolling while I drank my morning coffee. A post by Craig Martin from Culture […]
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Check Out All of Our Class Blogs
Did you notice the new tab on the menu at the top of our blog? That one up there that says “Class Blogs?” Well, many of our classes in REL use blogs so students can use their critical thinking skills in public. That new “Class Blogs” tab takes you to page where you can find all of our class blogs from this year’s REL 490 course to an Honors History of Religions in America course in Spring 2014. Check out […]
Jason C. Bivins Will Be Our 2016 Day Lecturer
We are happy to announce that Jason C. Bivins, Professor of Religious Studies at North Carolina State University, will be our 2016 Day Lecturer this coming fall. Prof. Bivins is a specialist in religion and American culture with a focus on the intersection of religion and politics in the United States after 1900. Most recently, he is the author of Spirits Rejoice! Jazz and American Religion, where he explores the relationship between American religion and American music, and the places where religion and jazz […]
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10 Tips for Attending an Academic Conference from REL Majors
This past weekend a group of REL faculty and majors traveled down I-20 to Atlanta to attend the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion (SECSOR), the regional meeting of the American Academy of Religion. Through the magic of Twitter, here is a list of tips for the next time you attend an academic conference. […]
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“But as a businessman, there are things you do for business…”
If you’re interested in how people use rhetoric or how they divide and classify social space in order to make a more persuasive image of the world that’s conducive to their interests, then give a listen to this interview that aired yesterday morning. (Or click here if the player doesn’t load properly.) […]
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