A little while back, we asked our first year M.A. students to tell us what they were working on — you know, what they were reading, something about their classes, or other things that they were doing that were related to their degree. It was at the height of the pandemic here in the US, so, whether in their bubbles or out in the fresh air with classmates, they got to work and did a little filming, sending us the […]
Category: Relevance of Humanities
Posts in this category discuss the wider relevance of those tools, methods, and disciplines often grouped together and called the Humanities.
Announcing the RELdl
There’s some renovations starting to happen in REL this summer — we’re transforming the Department library into an REL digital lab (RELdl) that Prof. Jeri Wieringa (who joined REL a year ago and who works directly in this area) will direct and under whose auspices all digital work in REL can take place. […]
New MA Students Coming to REL
We’re very pleased to announce that we have three incoming MA students, all beginning Fall 2021, and who are joining 10 students already in the program. Those new students are (top left, going counterclockwise): Katie Johnson, Ciara Eichhorst, and Phoebe Duke-Mosier; you can learn more about their interests and backgrounds by visiting our grad student directory. We’re also very pleased that all 12 of the full-time students in our graduate program will each be fully funded for 2021-22, from receiving […]
Doing Theory
Often in the study of religion you’ll hear people saying things like “I don’t do theory” (yes, there’s often an emphasis on the verb, akin to saying “I don’t do [insert something with which you disagree or dislike]) or maybe you’ll come across a conversation on when to introduce theory to undergraduate students — right from their first course or, fearing that will alienate them from the field, only doing so later, “once they’ve already got the basics,” as some […]
Can We Analyze Trumpism as a Millenarian Movement?
Elizabeth Tagg is a graduating senior in the Department of Religious Studies, writing a thesis on apocalyptic rhetoric in the age of Trump. Donald Trump built his reputation as a political outsider who could “drain the swamp,” fix a broken system, and make America great again. Indeed, in his 2016 RNC speech, he declared that “[he] alone could fix it.” Many believed him, and many still do. For example, when the pandemic and instructions to quarantine were in full swing, […]
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Faculty and Staff Honors 2021
Honors Day, last week, is an annual opportunity not just to celebrate student successes but also to recognize REL faculty and staff accomplishments. But, given our continued concern for hosting in-person events, we again relied on a video, created once again by Prof. Richard Newton (with the help of a variety of faculty), to celebrate another year — one full of challenges, to be sure, but one in which we saw the members of the Department going above and beyond […]
Honors Day 2021
Equivalent Categories and Where to Find Them
Jeremee Nute is a graduating M.A. student in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. He is originally from Missouri, where he earned his B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy from Missouri Western State University. Scholars who research cultures outside of Europe and North America often try to find categories that correspond to “religion,” such as those who study Ancient China. For example, one analog that is sometimes proposed by these scholars is Zōngjiào (宗教), said to be […]
We Really Can’t Afford to Go Back to Normal
A few weeks ago, after emailing a representative of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), it became apparent to me that the Fall conference-going season in our field will be moving forward as the usual in-person meetings instead of the hybrid format that, in the light of a year living with COVID-19, I had assumed would be offered. It’s now becoming apparent to others as well, with an online petition now circulating, addressed to the leadership of the Society of […]
Careers with Khara — An Annual REL Workshop
REL alum, Khara Cole (2013, with a double major in REL and Public Relations), now the Marketing Director at American Exchange (pictured above, left, at our February 2018 workshop) is once again offering a careers workshop for REL students (all majors and minors in the Department as well as grad students) — but it’s virtual this time. We’ll be talking about preparing a resume and tips on doing a job search & interviewing. Wednesday, March 24 @ 7:00 p.m. And […]