Congrats to Our M.A. Graduates

Graduation picture of students from the 1930sIt’s certainly been an odd end to the Spring 2020 semester, what with universities across the country and around the world moving to remote instruction; that means that there was an abrupt end to meeting in-person with classes, so we’ve not had our Honors Day, when we traditionally recognize our students’ accomplishments.

Although we posted an Honors Day video, in place of our longstanding tradition of meeting together on the balcony, we’d also like to highlight the fine work carried out by our current class of graduating M.A. students, the third group that has graduated from the degree.

Caity Bell

Caity earned her B.A. at UA with double majors in Anthropology and Religious Studies, and was admitted to our M.A. in the Fall of 2018. Working with Prof. Ramey as her supervisor, she also took advantage of internship opportunities (at Alabama Heritage magazine and the University of Alabama Press) as well as UA’s Museum Studies certificate; Caity was also a longtime student worker in our main office (where, among other things, she made a variety of REL movies and helped on the blog). Caity was the recipient of our annual Goodwyn Award and she will be working in northeast Alabama as an archivist for local museums and historical societies.

Savannah Finver

Savannah came to UA in the Fall of 2018 for her M.A., moving to Alabama from the northeast, where she had earned her B.A. in 2016 at St. Thomas Aquinas College in New York, studying English Literature and Religious Studies. Her M.A. work, under the direction of Prof. Touna, has focused on how new religious movements are understood by dominant groups, such as how the category cult has been used in scholarship and popular media. As of the coming Fall semester she will be at Ohio State University, where she will begin her Ph.D. in the Department of Comparative Studies.

Matt McCullough

Working with Prof. Trost as his supervisor, Matt started the M.A. in the Spring of 2018, having completed his B.A. (also here at UA) a semester early. His interests throughout his graduate degree have consistently focused on issues in religion and contemporary US politics and law; Matt has also regularly worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant to Prof. Trost in our Introduction to the New Testament, directing online discussion groups. After graduation Matt aims to work toward a career in teaching, possibly specializing in secondary education.

Keeley also earned her B.A. at UA in 2018, studying Religious Studies and also as a member of the Honors College. Writing a thesis under the direction of Prof. Altman, she studied the links between modern ideas of the conscience and social governance, as evidenced in early American history. She was also our inaugural American Examples Fellow, assisting with organizing and hosting the Department’s grant from the Luce Foundation. Keeley heads even further south for the coming semester, where she will be starting the Ph.D. program in Religious Studies at Florida State University,

We’re very proud of each of our grads’ accomplishments and look forward
to hearing their future news as they each tackle new challenges.