Religious Studies News
Though William & Mary undergraduates often pursue summer internships with specific goals in mind, perhaps the greatest benefits of gaining hands-on experience in a potential career field are the zigs, zags, and unexpected life lessons that inevitably arise.
Former W&M faculty John Morreall and Tamara Sonn have released a comprehensive survey of the study of religion worldwide, from ancient indigenous traditions to today's religious nationalism.
Piero Capelli, Professor of Hebrew in the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, visited William & Mary to deliver the annual Milton & Shirley G. Salasky Lecture on April 23, 2024.
Experts Arnon Degani and Yossi Klein Halevi were invited by the Judaic Studies Program to present for the Scholarly Perspective Speaker Series. The series, sponsored by the Reves Center for International Studies and Arts & Sciences, set in motion informed conversations among William & Mary students, faculty, and staff about Gaza, Israel, Palestine, and the wider Middle East.
The Religious Studies Department selected Mark K. Bauman to present the William & Sue Anne Bengal Lecture this spring. His lecture discussed several highlights of the conversation on Southern Jewishness among scholars in the United States by challenging the question “What makes Southern Jews different?”.
What have the Religious Studies faculty been up to? Read on to learn about their recent work and what they're looking forward to in the new year.
On November 15th, Professor Laura McTighe delivered the second lecture in the two-part “Race & Religion” Speaker Series. Dr. McTighe, an Assistant Professor at Florida State University, brings over two decades of experience in partnering with grassroots communities. Her community-engaged scholarship focuses on utilizing religion to build more survivable worlds outside traditional institutions.
On November 1st, 2023, Dr. Abdulbasit Kassim delivered the first lecture in the two-part Race & Religion Speaker Series co-sponsored by the Religious Studies Department and Program in Africana Studies. Dr. Kassim is an interdisciplinary historian engaged with the histories and cultures of Muslim societies in West Africa and the African Diaspora. His lecture examined the persistence of proslavery thought through juridical and religious corpuses.
On October 17, 2023, Dr. Bharat Ranganathan delivered the annual Hans Tiefel Lecture on Religion and Ethics. Dr. Ranganathan is the Rabbi Sidney and Jane Brooks Assistant Professor of Social Justice and Religion at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In his lecture, Dr. Ranganathan identified some of the moral, political, and religious dimensions of severe poverty and presented various ways to respond to poverty.
Caroline Leibowitz ’24 and Isabel Pereira-Lopez ’24 wish to understand the unexplainable, to travel down the roads that make the rest of us shudder with fright. They are currently working on separate research projects focused on the historical past and present of witchcraft.
The Religious Studies department is honored to present Dr. Andrew Tobolowsky, associate professor of religious studies at William & Mary, who has been awarded the Robert & Sarah Boyd Distinguished Associate Professorship for 2023-2026.
This year, Religious Studies Faculty were awarded several prestigious research fellowships and grants. The wide array of projects and accolades attest to the inherent interdisciplinary nature and continued necessity of Religious Studies and the Humanities in academia.
Milton & Shirley Salasky Lecture: "Where are David and Solomon Buried?"
On Monday, November 7th, Dr. Michael Berkowitz gave a lecture in the Great Hall of the Wren Building on “New Approaches to American Jews and Moviemaking during WWII”. Dr. Berkowitz particularly discussed the role of Leo Rosten and his position as head of the motion picture division of the U.S. Office of Facts and Figures.
