When we announced the American Examples program, funded by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, we were super excited about the three workshops we would be offering in 2020. We were able to hold one of them in person in early March. Then the world changed, and, with it, our plans. Many of the REL faculty pitched in late in the spring and into the early summer to adapt to our new COVID reality by hosting a series of […]
Read More from American Examples: Adapting to a Fall 2020 and Beyond
I have the good fortune to have been granted a sabbatical this semester. But what does that mean? What should I do? I looked up the word “sabbatical” in the Oxford English Dictionary and found a number of definitions. […]
American Examples, the program for early-career scholars of religion in America funded by the Luce Foundation, is proud to announce a new publication relationship with the University of Alabama Press. UAP will be publishing an anthology of research essays from each of the American Examples cohorts beginning with the first AE cohort that met in spring of 2019. The first anthology, titled American Examples: A New Conversation About Religion, will be published in the summer of 2021. We are very […]
We are very pleased to announce that, in consultation with the REL Graduate Committee as well as Prof. Mike Altman, who heads up our American Examples workshop, Jack Bernardi has been named as our next American Examples Graduate Fellow. Jack earned a B.S. in Pure Mathematics in 2017 and is now nearing the end of his first year in REL’s M.A. program. His research interests are wide, but focused around issues of apocalyptic narratives and climate change. Throughout 2019-20 he […]
It’s here. Well, almost. The papers have been read. The mentors have met and brainstormed. The plane tickets and hotels are booked. The restaurant reservations are made. This week 9 new participants in the American Examples program, funded graciously by the Henry Luce Foundation, will arrive in Tuscaloosa for a weekend of discussion and collaboration on innovative new research into things people call religion in places people call America. We have a lot going on this week. […]
Read More from It’s finally here! It’s American Examples week!
Some snazzy new American Examples mugs have started appearing on social media. Thrilled to be joining the #AmericanExamples2020 program at University of Alabama next year! Can’t wait to talk teaching, research and public scholarship with an awesome cohort of scholars. Thanks to @StudyReligion @MichaelJAltman and @reliunc ! pic.twitter.com/Nfdz4KnYFx — Dr. Brook Wilensky-Lanford (@modmyth) November 5, 2019 A good day w/ this arriving in my mailbox. I’m thrilled to be part of the #AmericanExamples2020 cohort @StudyReligion. Looking forward to visiting Alabama, workshopping […]
Samah Choudhury is a PhD candidate at UNC Chapel Hill. Her dissertation focuses on humor and Islam in America, looking specifically how American Muslim comedians utilize humor as a mode of self-constructing and then articulating “Islam” for an American public. Her larger research interests pertain to critical race theory, secularism and the state, and gender/queer theory. She holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in Political Science and an A.M. from Harvard University in Middle Eastern Studies. We asked her to explain what she gained […]
Read More from American Examples: “An ideal environment for workshopping a research paper.”
Richard Kent Evans (PhD in North American Religions from Temple University, 2018) has written his first book, titled MOVE: An American Religion, which is a religious history of MOVE. He is currently working on a history of “religious madness” from the late seventeenth century to the present. He currently teaches at The College of New Jersey and is a Research Associate at Haverford College. We asked him to explain what he gained from his participation in the first American Examples workshop last year. American Examples was […]
Read More from American Examples: “An incubator for the next generation of scholars.”
Travis Cooper holds a double PhD in Religious Studies and Anthropology and lectures at Butler University. His dissertation project, “The Digital Evangelicals: Contesting Authority and Authenticity after the New Media Turn,” examined religious boundary maintenance strategies in the era of social media. His current research focuses on the various social architectures that structure everyday American life-worlds, rituals, and traditions—systems ranging from media ideologies and print culture to the ideologies of urban design and the built environment. An ethnographer of the American Midwest, […]
Read More from American Examples: “An intriguing experimental workshop.”
Prea Persaud (B.A. from Rollins College, M.A. from Syracuse University, Doctoral Candidate at the University of Florida) is a Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte where her teaching focuses on Hinduism. In addition to teaching classes on Hinduism and the Hindu diaspora, she also teaches classes on the Caribbean. She is interested in global Hinduism, religion in the Americas (inclusive of the Caribbean), and issues concerning race, identity, and post-colonialism. […]
Read More from American Examples: What Did You Gain From Being Part of AE?