Expertise Areas
Faculty expertise in Religious Studies, supported by faculty in other departments, clusters in four general areas although most students will work on a topic that involves several of the areas. For more information, follow the link in each expertise area from the list below:
• Islamic and Judaic Multi-disciplinary Studies
• Religion in Asia
• Religion, Ethics, and Society
• Religion in Europe and the Americas
Islamic and Judaic Multi-disciplinary Studies
Islamic and Judaic Studies and Islamic and Middle Eastern Expertise Clusters consist of professors with significant teaching and research interests in the broadly-defined area of Islamic studies, Judaic Studies, Arab Studies, and/or Near Eastern Studies.
• Islamic Studies
• Judaic Studies
• Arab Studies
• Near Eastern Studies
Faculty:
Ahmed E. Souaiaia (Religious Studies; Islamic Studies, Religion and Politics, Law and Jurisprudence; Middle Eastern studies)
Jay Holstein (Religious Studies; Judaic Studies, the Hebrew Bible, Lower and Higher Criticism, and medieval Jewish philosophy)
Paul Dilley (Religious Studies/Classics;
Ancient Mediterranean Religions)
Robert Cargill (Religious Studies/Classics; Second Temple Judaism)
Meriam Belli (History; history of the modern Middle East, identities in the Middle East)
John Reitz (Law; Comparative Law, Islamic Jurisprudence)
Adrien Wing (Law; Law in the Modern Muslim World, Constitutional Law, Human Rights)
David Stern (Philosophy; Wittgenstein, Heidegger, History of 20th Century Philosophy, Jewish Identities)
Ali Hasan (Philosophy; ethical theory, moral epistemology, and the ethics of belief; history of Islamic philosophy)
Katherine H. Tachau (History; Medieval European Intellectual History: Medieval Science, Philosophy, Theology)
Elizabeth Heineman (History; Holocaust)
Elke E. Stockreiter (History; sub-Saharan African history)
Denes Gazsi (Dept. of French and Italian; Arabic Studies, Persian Studies)
Marie Krüger (English; African & Diasporic Literatures & Film; Post-Colonial Studies; Gender & Sexuality)
Priya Kumar (English; Post-Colonial Literature)
Claire Fox (English; Cultural Studies, Transnational / Postcolonial and Modernist Studies)
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Religion in Asia
This expertise area consists of professors with significant teaching and research interests in topics such as:
• East Asian Buddhism (China and Japan)
• Daoism and Chinese Religions
• Hinduism
• New religions
• Religion and healing
• Religion in Modern Japan
• South Asian religion
• Transnational and diasporic religion
• Vedic thought and religion
Faculty:
Fred Smith (Religious Studies; Indian religions)
Melissa Curley (Religious Studies; religion in Japan
Morten Schlütter (Religious Studies; Buddhism, Chinese religion)
James Duerlinger (Philosophy; Buddhist philosophy, Aristotle)
Paul Greenough (History; South Asian environmental history)
Philip Lutgendorf (Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures; South Asian popular culture and storytelling, popular Hindi cinema - click here for his website, epic traditions, pre-modern Hindi poetry)
Meena Khandelwal (Anthropology and Women's Studies; South Asian anthropology, Hindu family life and religious renunciation, diaspora and transnational migration)
Scott Schnell (Anthropology; Japan, Okinawa, East Asia, ecology, ritual and performance, politics and representation, historical ethnography, religion, social organization and conflict)
Stephen Vlastos (History; modern Japanese history)
Jennifer Feeley (Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures; modern Chinese literature)
Maureen Robertson (Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures; Chinese and Comparative Literature)
Priya Kumar (English; Post-Colonial Literature)
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Religion, Ethics, and Society
This expertise area consist of professors with significant teaching and research interests that can support students who want to do work in areas such as:
• Religion, health, and healing
• Religion, human dignity, and human rights
• Religion and social change
• Religion, conflict, and violence
• Religion, gender, and sexuality
• Religious ethics
Faculty:
Diana Fritz Cates (Religious Studies; religious ethics, bioethics, sexual ethics)
Michelene Pesantubbee (Religious Studies; American Indian environmentalism, Native American women, religion and violence in America)
Richard Brent Turner (Religious Studies and African American Studies; Islam in America, African Religions)
Melissa Curley (Religious Studies; Japanese religion, religion and gender in Japan)
Morten Schlütter (Religious Studies; Buddhism, Chinese religion)
Raymond Mentzer (Religious Studies; religion and culture, reformation studies)
Shelton Stromquist (History; U.S. labor and social history)
Elizabeth Heineman (History; Holocaust)
Sonia Ryang (Anthropology and International Studies; vulnerable populations, politics and ideology, diaspora, identity, love)
Diane Jeske (Philosophy; ethical theory, the history of ethics, moral psychology and epistemology, political philosophy)
Evan Fales (Philosophy; essences, identity, and philosophy of religion)
John Peters (Communication Studies; media studies)
Mary Trachsel (Rhetoric; relational ethics, feminist pedagogy, the attribution of “personhood” to nonhuman creatures)
John Finamore (Classics; Greek and Roman Philosophy)
Doris Witt (English; 20th Century African-American Literature, food/cultural studies, legal/cultural studies)
Leslie Schwalm (History; Slavery, Civil War, & Reconstruction Women's & African-American History, Southern History)
Jennifer Glass (Sociology; work and family life, gender stratification, and mental health)
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Religion in Europe and the Americas
This expertise area involves professors with significant teaching and research interests in topics such as:
• African-American religious history
• American Religions
• Early modern Christianity
• Holocaust studies
• Islam in the United States
• Native American Women and religion
• New Religious movements in the West
• Reformation studies
• Religion and popular culture
• Religion and the arts
• Classic Greek and Roman philosophy and religion
• Medieval and modern Christian philosophy
Faculty:
Raymond Mentzer (Religious Studies; history of Christianity)
Richard Brent Turner (Religious Studies and African American Studies; Islam in America, African Religions)
Diana Fritz Cates (Religious Studies; history of western religious thought and ethics; comparative religious ethics)
Michelene Pesantubbee (Religious Studies; Native American religious traditions, new religious movements, religion and violence in America)
Melissa Curley (Religious Studies; new Japanese religions in the USA)
Jay Holstein (Religious Studies and Judaic Studies; the Hebrew Bible, Lower and Higher Criticism, and medieval Jewish philosophy)
John Finamore (Classics; Greek and Roman Philosophy)
Mary Depew (Classics; Classical and Hellenistic periods, Greek religion and society, and Greek literature)
Carin Green (Classics; Roman religion)
James Duerlinger (Philosophy; Buddhist philosophy, Aristotle)
Kathleen Kamerick (History; Medieval & Early Modern European History, History of the Book, Women's History)
Evan Fales (Philosophy; essences, identity, and philosophy of religion)
Ali Hasan (Philosophy; ethical theory, moral epistemology, and the ethics of belief; history of Islamic philosophy)
John Peters (Communication Studies; intellectual history of communication)
Lori Branch (English; 17th/18th-c. British literature; secularism; literary theory, theology, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity)
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