Voyant Tools allows you to read web pages. Voyant helps you do analysis of sites, too. The kind of reading done by Voyant might be called “scraping,” which covers activities such as text analysis, statistical analysis and data mining. In order words, Voyant may help you pull things out from a site more quickly than […]
continue readingA Safe Haven in A River Runs Through It
Jessica Ramsey is a junior studying Journalism at the University of Alabama. The following blog post was written for REL 360: Popular Culture/Humanities. In the second class meeting of REL 360, we viewed A River Runs Through It. This movie is about two sons of a stern minister, one son is reserved and the other […]
continue readingRepo Man Analysis
Klaudio Martini Bardhoku is a freshman Finance major from New Jersey. The following blog post was written for REL 360: Popular Culture/Humanities.
continue readingOn the Problem With Reproducing Ourselves
It’s long past when faculty in doctoral degree-granting schools in our field need to start reconsidering what it is that we’re doing in graduate education. I’m hardly the first to say that, I know.
continue readingComing Attractions: REL 490 Capstone Senior Seminar
REL 490 is the Department’s senior seminar, that’s offered each Spring. Required of all majors, its topic regularly changes as does the professor who offers it. The goal of the course is to offer some sort of test case or example that can provide an opportunity for students with wide interests to mull over the […]
continue readingWhat Counts as Buddhist? Jazz, Anime, and Modernities
The MacArthur Foundation recently announced the 2017 recipients of its so-called “genius” grants, a five-year fellowship of $625,000 awarded to individuals of “extraordinary originality and dedication.” Among them was a composer and musician Tyshawn Sorey, who is “defying distinctions between genres, composition, and improvisation in a singular expression of contemporary music,” according to the Foundation’s […]
continue readingDamned if You Zoo, Damned if You Don’t: Mignolo and the Philosophy of Religion
While the future and composition of the philosophy of religion is being challenged by several authors, I’ll wager that few are daring to teach its topics differently in their 100-level courses. For Labor Day weekend (2017), I was at Drake University for a meeting of the seminar on the Global Critical Philosophy of Religion. Where […]
continue readingHow to Be Curious
Among my courses this Fall semester — starting in a little over a week — is one on theories of religion; in one way or another I’ve taught elements of a course like this many times (in fact, my intro course even touches on some of these topics), but rarely in a seminar devoted to […]
continue readingInventing Something New: A Public Digital Religious Studies
It’s getting closer and closer to a new academic year. This year we’re starting something new in the Department, our MA in Religion in Culture. That means new(ish) students. That means new classes too. I’m excited for the new semester because I get to teach the first version of our MA course REL 502: Public […]
continue reading“Yes, and I’ve Met His Dog”: A Student Report from the Regional AAR
Parker Evans is junior studying English and Religious Studies. He spends most of his time drinking coffee and making reading lists when he should be reading. The regional AAR, or SECSOR, was a fantastic chance for a professionalizing experience. Sierra Lawson, another REL major, and I arrived late in the afternoon, and between checking into […]
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