
Jacob Barrett
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2022
Advisor: Russell T. McCutcheon
Jacob is originally from Colorado Springs, CO and completed his B.A. in Philosophy & Religion from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2020. He successfully completed the Religion in Culture M.A. program at the University of Alabama in 2022 and is pursuing a PhD from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests are grounded in questions about religion and governance, law, and the state through contemporary examples from American politics. More specifically, he looks at issues of religious freedom and how notions of “sincere belief” play out through the courts while drawing on social theory and making use of the computational analysis. He is also the Media and Communications Coordinator for the North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR).
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Caity Bell
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2020
Advisor: Steven Ramey

Jack Bernardi
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2021
Advisor: K. Merinda Simmons

Joseph DeFrank
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2022
Advisor: Michael J. Altman
Joseph DeFrank from Canton, GA, completed the M.A. in Religion in Culture at the University of Alabama in May 2022. He also graduated in the Spring of 2020 with a B.S. in History and a B.A. in Religious Studies from Young Harris College. An Irish-American scholar for an academic year at Queen’s University of Belfast, some of his main interests include the study of religion in the United States, new religious movements, and what the future of “religion” might be.
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Savannah Finver
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2020
Advisor: Vaia Touna

Morgan Sadie Frick
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2021
Advisor: Russell T. McCutcheon

Emma Gibson
MA
Graduation Year: 2019
Advisor: Nathan R. B. Loewen
Emma Gibson is from Charleston, SC, and graduated from Furman University in 2017 with a B.A. in Philosophy. Her interest in religious studies led her to the M.A. program at Alabama where she was able to combine her philosophical background to the critical study of religion. She defended her thesis, “Reorienting Phenomenological Method for the Critical Study of Religion,” and completed her M.A. in Spring of 2019. While working on her thesis, Emma was drawn to the idea of applying phenomenology and critical theory to fields outside of the humanities. She is now a student at Clemson University where she is pursuing a Master’s in Architecture.
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Sarah Griswold
MA
Graduation Year: 2018
Advisor: Michael J. Altman

Allison Isidore
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2021
Advisor: Richard Newton

Sierra Lawson
MA
Graduation Year: 2019
Advisor: Russell T. McCutcheon
Sierra is from Wyoming and completed her B.A. in anthropology, religious studies, and Spanish at The University of Alabama and, in 2019, successfully completed the M.A. in Religious Studies, also at UA. She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is based in the Religion and Culture track with a focus on social theory. In her studies, Sierra analyzes the discourses that narrate apparitions of the Virgin Mary with specific interests in the history of the Iberian peninsula and colonial Latin America. She also provides service to professional organizations in her field in the form of website management and digital curation.
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Matt McCullough
MA
Graduation Year: 2020
Advisor: Theodore Louis Trost

Keeley McMurray
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2020
Advisor: Michael J. Altman

Peyton Mitzel
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2022
Advisor: Steven Ramey
Peyton Mitzel graduated from Temple University in 2020 with a B.A. in English and Religion and completed the M.A. in Religion in Culture at the University of Alabama in May 2022. Peyton finds the relationship between literary theory and the study of religion fascinating, while also having an interest in their connection to philosophy.

Jeremee Nute
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2021
Advisor: Steven Ramey

Marco Pflanzen
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2022
Advisor: K. Merinda Simmons
Marco Pflanzen is from Ashburn, VA, and completed the M.A. in Religion in Culture in May 2022. They graduated from Shenandoah University in 2020 with a B.M. in Violin Performance and a Minor in Religious Studies. Their current research primarily focuses on considering the relationship between sex and secularism and its impact on economic, social, and political structures in the United States. They also enjoy researching within the disciplines of feminist and queer theory, critical race theory, crip theory, and musicology.
Marco was awarded an A&S Dean’s Merit award for both years of their M.A. at UA.
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Judah Siekkinen
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2022
Advisor: Steven Ramey
Judah graduated from Youngstown State University with a B.A. in Religious Studies & Geography. At the University of Alabama, he completed the M.A. in Religion in Culture in May 2022. He is interested in nationalism, feminism, mysticism, and pop culture as well as questions of accessibility and opportunity in higher education.
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Emma Welch
MA (Religious Studies)
Graduation Year: 2022
Advisor: Russell T. McCutcheon
Emma Welch, originally from Toney, AL, completed the M.A. in Religion in Culture at the University of Alabama in May 2022 after graduating in May of 2020 with a B.A. in Religion from Samford University. Her interests include religion’s relationship to violence as well as how the theologies of marginalized groups are shaped by their situation. She was a runner-up for Theta Alpha Kappa’s 2020 Clark Award (for best undergraduate essay). She is pursuing further graduate work at Vanderbilt University.
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