Christopher Hurt is an REL alum who works in Los Angeles. He is best known for his work with the rock ‘n’ roll group, Jamestown Pagans. Have you ever seen Inquisición (film, 1977)? If you’re a lover of period-piece horror movies, like I am, then you’ll want to check it out. Mondo Macabro has a […]
continue readingUA Trustees To Study Building Names
If you’ve been following the news then you likely saw that three historic plaques honoring UA’s contributions to the Confederacy, each put up around the time of WWI, were removed just the other day, along with the large boulder in front of Gorgas Library that served as one of those plaques’ homes. For those who […]
continue readingThe Department of Religious Studies — Early Times, Part 1
The following reminiscence about the Department’s history, written by the late Patrick Green, onetime Chair of REL, was commissioned for and printed in our Spring 2004 newsletter. It is re-posted here in its original form. It began with a man on a motorcycle, smoking a cigar. Joe Bettis, a recently minted Ph.D. from Princeton, was […]
continue readingPublic Humanities and The US Constitution
After much deliberation and contemplation, I have (slightly) narrowed my academic interests in intention and origin to focus specifically on the interpretation of the US Constitution. I remain at the tip of the research iceberg but recently stumbled upon a public/digital humanities project that tries to translate the constitution into a more accessible and informative […]
continue readingCulture on the Edge: An Origin Story
Last week, Professors Steven Ramey and Vaia Touna sat down to discuss their involvement with the Culture on the Edge research group and blog, along with their two book series. Though the discussion was intended to focus on Prof. Touna’s recent addition to the published series, it naturally led to a conversation on the implications of […]
continue reading#RELHomecoming 2018
This weekend marked REL’s first homecoming bash on the balcony — we sent out invites to all alums for whom we have good mailing addresses and made sure our current majors & minors were in the loop. Our Alumni Liaison committee members were all there, as well as many faculty and staff members. The result? […]
continue readingGrad Tales is Back
Back in the 2013-14 school year we started a new series, Grad Tales, aimed to bring REL grads back to campus to meet with current students — likely students in our 100-level courses who major in everything from engineering and business to social work and nursing. Knowing how many students aren’t sure what they’re going […]
continue reading‘Meaning’ Given to Objects in Museums
Ellie Ellie Cochran is a soon-to-be junior from Atlanta, Georgia, majoring in Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. The following was written for REL 360: Popular Culture/Public Humanities.
continue readingHistory, Identity, and Memory: The ‘Melting Pot’ is Bubbling Over!
The recent flap over the January 27, 2017, official White House Press Release of President Trump’s Statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day and its egregious omission of the primary victims of the Nazi genocide—the Jews—instead identifying and honoring “the [unnamed and unreferenced] victims, survivors, and heroes” beggars logic. Coming as it did on the heels […]
continue readingCant Live With It, Can’t Live Without It
The other day on Facebook, over at the Religious Studies Project‘s page, two posts went up, within a few hours of each other, that made for an interesting (if unintended) juxtaposition. The first is pictured above (click it to read the article), and the second is pictured below.
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