Religion in Culture – Page 78 – Studying Religion in Culture

13th Annual Aronov Lecture with Dr. Shaul Magid

February 18, 2015 by admin

Dr. Shaul Magid of Indiana University, Bloomington, this year’s Aronov Lecturer. Named after the late Aaron Aronov–the founder of Aronov Realty for whom the Department’s endowed chair in Judaic studies is also named–the annual Aronov Lecture series was established in 2002. This year’s event will feature Dr. Shaul Magid (Indiana University, Bloomington) presenting his lecture “After Multiculturalism: Postethnicity and the Future of Judaism in America.” […]

Terrorism or Trauma?

February 18, 2015 by admin

Alyssa MacDougall, who earned an undergraduate degree in the study of religion and philosophy at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick, is now a master’s student in media studies at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Her thesis research is focused on the effects of framing of Muslims in the western media. If you’re interested in her musings about her two cats, religion, media and graduate life, you can find her on twitter under the handle @alyssamacd. […]

Classifying Classification in the Study of Religion

February 17, 2015 by Russell McCutcheon

So ends the late Charles J. Adams‘s classic entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica on the topic of “Classification of Religions.” Or consider the Encyclopedia of Religion‘s own entry on the same topic (not updated in the second edition), this time written by the late Harry B. Partin — which concludes as follows: […]

Carry On, They’re Just Misfits

February 14, 2015 by Russell McCutcheon

Did you catch this Canadian news story today? I’ve heard it discussed on the radio all morning, during each half hour news update, and what’s curious is how National Public Radio’s report just phrased it: according to investigators, it was the plan of “a group of murderous misfits, not Islamic terrorists,” as the newsreader just said. […]

Rethinking World Religions with Dr. Ramey

February 13, 2015 by admin

Have you heard of our REL 102: Religions of the World course? Well, Dr. Ramey teaches it each fall, and in it he puts his own spin on the typical World Religions discourse. Watch the video below as Dr. Rollens asks him a few questions about the class and his approach to the material. […]

A New Series Kicks Off: Grad Tales Extra

February 12, 2015 by admin

Zac Parker graduated with a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Alabama in 2011. Here he helps us kick off our new, ongoing series, Grad Tales Extra, in which grads not able to join us on campus, to discuss the relevance of their degree, can drop us a line instead, to update us on what they’ve done since leaving Manly Hall. During the year following graduation, I spent many months traveling, camping, and backpacking around the country, taking […]

There’s a New Kid in Town

February 11, 2015 by admin

Dr. Nathan Loewen, one of the department’s newest faculty members, sat down with the REL film team for a short interview. Everybody’s talking ’bout the new kid in town, so watch the video to get in the loop! For another, more lengthy Q&A, click here. Dr. Nathan Loewen, the New Kid in Town from UA Religious Studies. […]

Rigor on the Line

February 10, 2015 by Nathan Loewen

The other day, Jesse Stommel tweeted about public work not being counted for tenure, and that the qualifications for awarding tenure should be changed. I was told recently, "your public work doesn't count for tenure." I find myself more compelled to change tenure than my work. — Jesse Stommel (@Jessifer) January 30, 2015 The conversation of tweets that followed included an elaboration, stating that we need to “think more broadly about the locations of scholarship. Public, open-access should be seen as rigorous.” […]

Charlie and Us: Religious Violence and the History of Religions

February 6, 2015 by Russell McCutcheon

The following guest post is an English translation of the editorial from the current issue of Asdiwal (vol. 9 [2014]), reproduced here with the kind permission of the journal. It is currently among the very few systematic statements on this topic from within our field and therefore deserves to be read and discussed more widely in North America. Learn more about this academic periodical in the study of religion, published in Geneva, Switzerland, here. As we were preparing this edition […]

Changing Minds by Changing Situations

February 5, 2015 by Russell McCutcheon

https://twitter.com/elnathan/status/561822765402324994 You surely can’t have missed news on the current (and worsening) outbreak of measles in the US. Apart from providing us with an opportunity to mull over the self-interested inconsistencies in our coverage of, and responses to, various health crises that affect others throughout the world (as so nicely evidenced by the Tweet above) and while also allowing us an insight into how individualism can function (whereby it is made clear by some that their right to protect their […]

Studying Religion in Culture

Ongoing Discussions at the University of Alabama

Category: Religion in Culture