CLASS OF 2008-2009
Front Row: Jennifer Montini, Natasha Rorrer, Aimee Ways
Second Row: Christina Frisch, Amanda Edgerton, Louise Doire, June McDaniel, John Huddlestun
Third Row: Theodore Grafton, Elijah Siegler, Katie Browne, Robert Graham, Matthew Casey, Lee Irwin, Eric Thomas
Graduates not shown: Sarah Anderson, Maxwell Gustaitis, Sarah Lynch, Katharine Revels, Barbara Rowland,
Professors not shown: Zeff Bjerken, Margaret Cormack
2008-2009 Alunmi News
Katie Browne received the Outstanding Student and Honors Award from the Religious Studies Department. Katie also received the School of Humanities & Social Sciences “Scholars" Award.
Matthew Casey and Jennifer Montini received the “Outstanding Student” award from the Religious
Studies Department.
More Alumni News
2008-2009 Department News
This year we graduated 13 more Religious Studies majors and had a very lovely reception and awards ceremony following the graduation ceremony. All the graduates were excited and glad to have a place to sit down (we used the Jeremy Vann Memorial room in the new Education Center, by the way, Jeremy Vann was also a religion major at the College). Lots of parents showed up and everyone stayed quite a while, sitting at big round tables and drinking and eating. It’s always good to see the happiness of the graduates but also a bit sad to see them go. Matt Casey received an Outstanding Student Awards as did Jennifer Montini, as did Katie Browne who in addition also received the Department Honors Awardand the SHSS Scholars Award. Katie is off to join the Peace Core and Matt was accepted into the Master’s program in Religious Studies at the University of California.
RELS faculty taught 50 RELS courses this last year including two Honors courses, one Asian Studies course, one Freshman Seminar, and four tutorials. Department faculty continued to teach an international and global curriculum. Courses taught covered religious traditions in America (American Religions, African American Religions), Europe (Christianity, Western Esotericism, Religions of Scandinavia), the Middle East (Hebrew Bible, New Testament), as well the history of Asian religions in India, China, and Japan (Buddhism, Sacred Texts of the East, Values and Traditions in Asian Civilization). Subjects ranged over diverse topics such as feminism and religion, shamanism, pilgrimage, communitarianism, comparative ethics, religion and film, comparative mysticism, new religious movements, as well as multidisciplinary theory and method. We currently have 57 declared majors and 22 declared minors, reflecting the general trend to average about 55 majors. So the program continues to grow and to maintain a healthy number of majors and minors.
RELS faculty collectively published one book (Irwin, on the history of Native American prophecy); one translated book (Elijah Siegler) in Spanish; five peer-reviewed articles in academic journals; three articles as chapters in books; two book reviews; a forum article, a research report, and two contributions to the on-line Sufi International Seven Pillars of Wisdom journal. In terms of additional editorial activity, department faculty reviewed eight book length manuscripts, and created one encyclopedic word list (Irwin, on Western Esotericism). In terms of conference presentations, faculty gave sixteen invited lectures, including invited presentations at Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany (McDaniel), one at the Medieval Center for the Westjords, Iceland (Cormack), one at University of California, San Diego (Huddlestun), and one at Williams College, Massachusetts (Irwin). Faculty also gave numerous local presentations in the Charleston area. Zeff Bjerken and Elijah Siegler received a William Murray International Travel grant with supplemental funds from HSS for Zeff for their joint project of setting up a summer travel program in northern India and Margaret Cormack received additional funds for research on her medieval Saints database.
Faculty brought to campus Dr. James Miller, Queens University (“Towards an Ecologically Sustainable Future: The Role of Religion in 21st Century China”); Dr. Brent Plate, Hamilton College (“Blasphemous Events”); Dr. Andre Znamenski, University of Memphis (“Quest for the Ancient Future: Neoshamanism in the Modern West”); and Prof. Helmut Flachenecker, University of Wurzburg to lecture on “Memories of Foreign Monks”. We also co-sponsored with the Philosophy department Christopher Preston, University of Montana (reading from his new book Saving Creation: Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston III). We also sponsored last summer an international conference (Association for the Study of Esotericism, May 29-June1, 2008) which attracted an attendance of over 100 with 58 scholarly presentations, two key note addresses, and two live performances. Three department faculty gave presentations and presided over at least one session at this event (Lee Irwin, June McDaniel, and Eric Thomas) and Elijah Siegler also presided over several sessions. Scholars attended from countries as diverse as Africa, Canada, Mexico, England, Europe, Israel and Australia.
Louise Doire also was appointed in fall of 2008 in a permanent faculty line and we all celebrated her becoming a roster faculty member. Louise continues to draw many students into the program through her courses. Elijah Siegler mentored a very engaging 499 thesis by Katie Brown on “Religion and the Presidential Election: From Accusations of Atheism to Proclamations of the Born-Again" which she also gave at the regional SECSOR conference at the University of North Carolina. A short version of her paper was accepted for publication in Chrestomathy; this will be her second publication in that journal, an exceptional accomplishment. Zeff Bjerken and Elijah Siegler both organized a Summer Abroad course in northern India and 12 students took the plunge and went to do some fieldwork and on the ground learning in India. Meanwhile, the department continues to work with ease and fluidity, due to the outstanding efforts of Ms Renee Jones, our exceptional Administrative Assistant. Best wishes to all!
Contact Us
If you are a graduate of our Department, whether a major or a minor, and wish to update us on what you are doing, provide us with a current mailing or email address, or simply tell us about your time in the Department, then please send us an email (jonesrr@cofc.edu).
Donate
You can now donate ONLINE directly to the
Religious Studies Fund.
To make an online donation to the Religious
Studies Fund (R434), visit http://ia.cofc.edu/, select “Make an Online Donation”, when asked
for a designation, select “Other” in the designation
section and indicate you want to contribute
to the Religious Studies Fund (R434) in the
Comments section.
Please contact Kristin Romness if you have any
questions or prefer to call in or mail in your contribution
to the Religious Studies Fund. You
can reach Kristin by phone at 843-953-0781 or
email at romnessk@cofc.edu.
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