It’s that time of the year again, that’s right, A Grad’s Tale: There and Back Again is coming up! This series welcomes back UA graduates who have majored in Religious Studies to learn how the major has benefited them in post-graduate life. This semester’s installment is this coming Thursday, February 4th with Lexi Poston (with Prof. Jacobs interviewing her!), so be sure to join us in the Anderson Room (302) of the Ferguson Center at 7:00pm! […]
Category: Public Events
Posts in this category discuss the Department’s various public events — whether announcing them, providing an excerpt from a speaker’s talk, or commenting on their significance and application.
We’re kicking off RSSA Coffee Breaks
You’ve probably heard by now that RSSA is starting a new monthly event–Coffee Breaks! The first Tuesday of every month, the Department will provide coffee in the lounge (Manly 200) for all to enjoy from 1:30-3:00pm. So come by between classes, have a cup, and chat with your classmates and professors. A little birdy told me some donuts might even make an appearance… The first Coffee Break is this coming Tuesday, February 2nd. We hope to see you all there! […]
Classroom to Conference: REL Majors Presenting Their Research
REL is very happy to announce that two of our students have been accepted to present their research at the Southeastern regional meeting of the American Academy of Religion in March. Jared Powell will be presenting a paper titled “And the Beat Goes On: Imaginings and Retellings of Han Shan by Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac.” The conference paper began as a project in Dr. Ramey‘s REL 419: Tales From Asia course. In the paper, he analyzes the ways in which […]
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Halleluja! REL Movie Nights are back!
REL 360–our one credit course–is hosting its first movie night of the spring semester. We will be showing Halleluja by King Vidor. The movie–released in 1929 and the first to attempt to portray a non-stereotypical view of African American life–follows Zeke, the young male protagonist, as he breaks away from a life of sharecropping to become a minister, only to throw away his new lifestyle in order to reconnect with an old flame, and this is where the trouble truly starts. […]
Start 2016 Off Right With #LoungeTweets
The Spring semester begins this week and we want to start the new semester and the new year off with a bang! So, we’re brining back Live Tweets from the Lounge, that wonderful event where a faculty member sits in our student lounge and sends out tweets to you, our students and friends. This time, Prof. Nathan Loewen will be the one behind the keyboard bringing you hot takes from the lounge at 2pm on Thursday January 14th. Don’t miss it. […]
A Glimpse into Academia: My Conference Experience in Atlanta, Georgia
Savannah Finver is currently a senior at St. Thomas Aquinas College. She is double-majoring in English and Philosophy/Religious Studies. In the future, she hopes to pursue a graduate degree in Religious Studies. Her interests lie in discourse and ideology studies, with emphasis on religions in the Americas. She enjoys reading, writing, and engaging her friends in philosophical debate. From November 19 to November 23, 2015, I had the privilege of traveling to Atlanta, Georgia with my advisor, Dr. Craig Martin, […]
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Marketing and the Academic Study of Religion
What connects red lipstick, racecars, and health care? The study of religion, of course! (Well, sort of.) Khara Cole, a 2013 graduate with a double major in Religious Studies and Public Relations, has found the skills that she developed in Religious Studies particularly important, as she designs products and their implementation for a health insurance company. She returned to campus last week to talk about her experiences working in the corporate world. The tasks of writing persuasive business proposals and […]
REL 360 Showing Kumare: The True Story of a False Prophet
In this fourth and final installment of REL 360‘s semester-long movie screenings, we’ll be following American filmmaker Vikram Gandhi as he enacts a social experiment in the hopes of revealing the irrationality of blind faith. Impersonating an Indian guru, he travels through Arizona gathering followers from all walks of life. Though designed to exhibit the absurdity of blind faith, his experiment may reveal greater spiritual truths than he had set out to unearth. In order to learn what he discovers about human nature, you’ll […]
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An Interview with Dr. Jolyon Thomas Part 2
The conclusion to our interview with Dr. Jolyon Thomas, our third Day Lecturer, is now ready! Don’t miss this final installment, where he discusses his current projects and gives insight on where he feels the field of religious studies in pop. culture is going. A Few Moments with Jolyon Thomas Part 2 from UA Religious Studies. If you missed the first part of the interview, you can catch it here. Stay tuned for Dr. Thomas’ Day Lecture, coming soon! […]
An Interview with Dr. Jolyon Thomas Part 1
Last month the REL film crew met up for a quick chat with Dr. Jolyon Thomas, the third speaker in our annual Day Lecture. The video from this interview is now up and ready to go, so be sure to check it out and learn more about Dr. Thomas’s background, his career, and how his interest in Japanese pop culture began! A Few Moments with Jolyon Thomas from UA Religious Studies. Ready for Part 2? You can find it here. Stay tuned for […]