As you finish up writing essays for the Fall semester (well, since it’s only Monday of exam week, maybe we should instead say: as you consider starting to write essays to finish up the Fall semester…), keep in mind that Prof. Bagger is once again organizing REL’s 5th annual Honors Research Symposium in the Spring. You’ll need to talk to an REL prof, perhaps the person for whom you’re writing that essay, and ensure that they’re game to help you […]
The last week of classes for the Fall semester is here, and my REL 100 students have some group projects to present in class, on Tuesday and Thursday. The assignment: dramatize one of the questions/answers in Religion in 5 Minutes. It has to be a video that can be shown in class and on which every worked in some way, it can have only two speaking parts, must be less than 3 minutes long, have credits and a narrative arc […]
Well, it’s that time of year again — when many of the REL faculty head off to attend annual scholarly meetings, to read papers or respond at panels where new work in the field is being presented or reviewed. They’ll also be meeting with publishers, hatching plans with collaborators and co-editors, getting lost in the surprisingly large book display, and generally trying to figure out a good place to meet someone for dinner, just as several thousand other people also […]
Recently, a friend brought to my attention a 2015 article, by Amy Hollywood, published in Revista de Estudios Sociales, that takes issue with my work. The essay turns out to be an excerpt from what was then her forthcoming collection of essays (published in 2016). Although none of my work is cited in the essay (perhaps it’s cited in her book?), in two footnotes I’m mentioned as being among a group who are problematic in their approach to the study […]
REL had its inaugural faculty book event last night, at Ernest & Hadley Booksellers, here in downtown Tuscaloosa. […]
It’s long past when faculty in doctoral degree-granting schools in our field need to start reconsidering what it is that we’re doing in graduate education. I’m hardly the first to say that, I know. […]
Looking for a quick example of the problem of elevating folk terms to work as if they’re cross-culturally comparative categories? Then look no further than the US’s tax code — in particular the guide for filings by churches and religious organizations […]
The following exchange between Prof. Russell McCutcheon and Sierra Lawson, a graduate student in our MA program, reflects on the recent meeting of REL’s monthly journal reading group, part of our Religion in Culture MA. Russell: Sierra, in your undergrad here at UA you did a double major in Anthropology and Religious Studies, and I know that you have an interest in medical anthropology. So presumably that helped direct your choice of this article for our journal group (written by […]
Read More from The REL Journal Group: Health or Perceived Health Benefits
On social media yesterday a variety of people posted a link to a recent First Things blog post by a theology professor at Nortre Dame who made the argument that religions other than Christianity do not have theologies. For although “[n]on-Christian piety is real and profound,” or so she claims, she defines the term theology in such a way, taking into account it’s so-called pre-modern usage, as to exclude anyone but Christians from having it. She writes: Non-Christian piety is […]
We’re very pleased to announce that Dr. Elijah Siegler, of the College of Charleston, will be our 2017-18 Day Lecturer. The date for the event is still to be set, but we anticipate it being early in the Spring 2018 semester and we’re looking forward to Dr. Siegler being on campus for a couple days, visiting classes and meeting with students and faculty. In his public lecture, Dr, Siegler will be speaking on what a scholar of religion might have […]