A folk healer like Agnis trod a fine line between being someone people called upon when they needed help and someone they blamed when misfortune struck (21:30) So says Lucy Worsley, the joint chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces in the UK and also the host of a variety of recent TV shows on British […]
continue readingÉpater les Bourgeoise…?
I do no speak or read French. Many years ago, however, in undergraduate school, I had a professor of English literature who was inordinately fond of the French phrase épater les bourgeoise—as he would translate it on a regular basis, “to shock the ordinary human being out of his [or her] lethargy.” That is, there […]
continue readingIdentity in Inter-Korean Politics
Jacob Inglis is a junior from Huntsville, Alabama majoring in International Studies and minoring in Korean, Asian Studies, and the Randall Research Scholars Program with an interest in Inter-Korean politics and diplomacy. The world watched over the past year as war on the Korean Peninsula, an inevitable outcome according to North Korea, seemed poised to […]
continue readingC.R.A.Z.Y: An REL 360 Response
Ashley Eggert is a junior from Peoria, IL majoring in Religious Studies and on the Pre-Med track. The following blog post was written for REL 360: Popular Culture/Humanities.
continue readingLegitimacy of Classification at Standing Rock
Anastasiya Titarenko is a junior majoring in Religious Studies. She has spent the fall semester interning for a non-profit in Wellington, New Zealand. Classification matters. In North Dakota, it arguably permits the violation of one’s First Amendment rights. The First Amendment states that: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting […]
continue readingWarm and Cozy Facts
What do you do when approaching an intersection and you see this sign? Well…, do you read Japanese?
continue readingTo God Be The Glory Brake Bands and Clutch
Anastasiya Titarenko is a rising Junior pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Religious Studies and minoring in Educational Studies. She is currently living in Accra, Ghana, and will be spending the next six months traveling to Ukraine, Italy, and New Zealand. On my first day in Ghana, I passed by In Jesus Name Amen Look Good Shop. I […]
continue readingBeyond “Belief”
There was a time when I preferred to say “beliefs, behaviors, and institutions” as my way of complicating the philosophically idealist presumptions that drive our use of the word “belief” in the study of religion — a word we often use to make sense of what people, like those pictured above, are doing. But I […]
continue readingWhat Does it Really Mean to be ‘Mentally Ill’?
Sarah Sawyer is a senior at the University of Alabama studying International Relations and Chinese. She spends her ‘free time’ studying and wondering if Publix will have a sale on its wine anytime soon. She wrote this post for Dr. Ramey’s class, REL 321: Religion and Identity in South Asia. “Many people feel ashamed because our society places […]
continue readingThe Category Religion — Twenty Years Later
I’ve got a review essay coming out in 2015 in Numen (issue 62/1) that I just proofed. It’s on recent works concerned with the category religion. It was interesting to write, since it’s been twenty years since I wrote a similar essay on the category religion in scholarship.
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