It’s the time of year when students are considering applying to graduate school, and we hope that those thinking about earning an M.A. in the study of religion consider the University of Alabama. Our graduate program began four years ago and we’ve so far graduated seven students and they’re all putting their degrees to good […]
continue readingYou’re a Historian; Get the Memo?
Prof. Newton shares how a little bit about his approach to helping students consider historiography. His memo assignment reminds students that they have a substantial role in writing the history they are studying. It’s a simple assignment that is useful for the novice and professional historian alike.
continue readingMining Futures for the Philosophy of Religion: What to Do with 80,000 or so Journal Articles
By Nathan Loewen and Jackson Foster We have some questions. Given its conventional focus on topics and problems specific to Western Christianity, how might the philosophy of religion enter the 21st century, globalized world? How may researchers build bridges from those conventional approaches towards other topics and problems? Steven Dawson’s essay reviews some conventional approaches […]
continue readingThe Science of Religion–A Work in Progress
Prof. Richard Newton reports on a discussion topic from his graduate seminar on the history of religious studies. His students have been talking about the backstory of debates on definition as it pertains to religious studies. This week, students read a little bit from the nineteenth century Dutch scholars, Cornelis P. Tiele. In my History […]
continue readingThe Bible in Culture: Reading and Writing with Zines
Prof. Newton discusses the origin of a creative student research project that he used to end his Introduction to New Testament course. Learn more about studying the Bible in Culture in the first, second, and third entries in this series.
continue readingAn Introduction to Studying the Bible in Culture
Prof. Newton reflects on his approach to teaching the Bible in a public university. Study religion and find out about the Bible in Culture here on the blog over the next few days.
continue readingAlways Look at Who’s Talking
As the AAR presents its newly drafted Religious Literacy Guidelines, Sierra Lawson (BA ’17, MA ’19) and Prof. Steven Ramey return to their research on the implications of classification to raise important questions about the politics and consequences of such a framing. Religious literacy, which typically refers to knowledge about religions, differences between religions, and […]
continue readingUsing PH and PRS to Understand Religion and the Civil Rights Movement
I have always been fascinated with the relationship religion had with the civil rights movement. Some significant leaders of the movement were apart of religious groups as pastors. I want to understand why this occurred so frequently within the civil rights movement. But, I also want to pull back the metaphoric curtain and look at […]
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 readingPower and Perfect Pictures
This post is part of a series that originated out of a photo essay assignment in Dr. Simmons’s Interim “Religion and Pop Culture” course that asked students to apply discussion themes to everyday objects or experiences. When I was younger and more naive, I thought the future would have flying cars, cured diseases, and immortal […]
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