Study Religion Podcast: Episode 8 Guests

The latest episode of the REL podcast, Study Religion, is now available wherever you get your podcasts. This episode gives a glimpse into the guests we have had visit the department this past spring. Every year our department welcomes guests who come and give lectures or visit with faculty and students. This past semester we had two excellent guests visit the department as part of our lecture series. First, Dr. Elijah Siegler was our Zachary Day Memorial Lecturer and gave an […]

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MA Students Taking Over the Study Religion Podcast

Our podcast has been taken over. For the latest episode of Study Religion, we’ve turned it over to our MA students–Emma Gibson, Sarah Griswold, and Sierra Lawson. This Fall these students were all part of our MA foundations course REL 502: Religious Studies and Public Humanities. In the course the students learned to use digital tools and our field’s main professional organization, the American Academy of Religion (AAR) served all semester as the example on which they applied these tools […]

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Why We Use Slack in the MA in Religion in Culture

Have you ever heard of Slack? I first heard about it in an ad on one of my favorite podcasts. It’s a group messaging app that allows to build a closed “workspace” where a team of people can send messages, share files, and communicate. It can even assign your office Secret Santas for you. But here in the Department of Religious Studies, we’re using Slack to communicate across our new MA program in Religion in Culture. Part of our new […]

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The AAR Conference Stories Project

As part of our REL 502 Religionus Studies and Public Humanities foundations course, our graduate students are putting together a collection of stories about people’s experiences at the annual American Academy of Religion national meeting. The AAR is more than an academic conference, it’s also a social and cultural event and we want to try and capture the aspects of the meeting that don’t show up on the conference program. We will take the best stories we can gather and use […]

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The Study Religion Podcast is BACK!

The first episode of our department podcast, Study Religion, for the new school year is all about, well, firsts. I talk to our first cohort of graduate students in the new Religion in Culture MA program about being the first students in a new program and how the first semester is going. Next I sit down with Prof. Vaia Touna to talk about a big first in her career: her first book. We also talk about how societies use the […]

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Inventing Something New: A Public Digital Religious Studies

It’s getting closer and closer to a new academic year. This year we’re starting something new in the Department, our MA in Religion in Culture. That means new(ish) students. That means new classes too. I’m excited for the new semester because I get to teach the first version of our MA course REL 502: Public Humanities and Religious Studies. It’s all so new! But seriously, it’s all so new! It’s not just a new class in a new degree program. The […]

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Profs. Simmons and Altman Talk About the New MA Degree

Have you heard about the Religions Studies Project? It’s a great website and podcast based out of the United Kingdom. This week they are featuring a podcast episode with Profs. Mike Altman and Merinda Simmons all about our new Religion in Culture master’s degree program. Give it a listen and learn about our new program. We’re still accepting applications!   […]

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Study Religion: The Podcast Episode 2 “Turkey Ritual”

In this episode we think about the ways we categorize things as religion. The show begins with the ritual life of turkeys and what that tells us about the category “religion.” Then a few REL majors show us how the category “sacrifice” is all around us. Finally, host Michael Altman talks with Dr. Megan Goodwin (@mpgphd) about the new CNN show Believer and how religious studies can find a broader public audience. […]

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We Have a Podcast

We love to talk about religious studies here in the Department. We love to talk about religious studies so much that we decided we should record some of it. That’s why we are happy to announce the launch of our new podcast: Study Religion. The podcast will bring those outside our campus into the conversations we are having on the balconies and inside the offices of Manly Hall. It will provide a venue for students to talk about and showcase […]

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