SPRING 2011 The Department of Religion at

Inside this issue

Greetings from the chair In Memoriam: Dear Friends, Charles Wellborn 2 I am pleased to be able to invite you to read and share Faculty in Focus the recreated Religion Department Newsletter. The depart- 3 ment has been exceptionally lively over the past few years, Undergraduate with lectures, symposia, program innovations, awards, new faces, and many achievements and stories that reflect the sparkling intellectual and social life here in Dodd Hall. We will In Action 6 be reporting on these developments in this newsletter and those to come, on a planned schedule of two issues per year. We are eager to renew contacts with alumni, to make new Grad Student Spotlight friends, and to give stronger shape to the community of all of those who have been associ- 8 ated with the department over the last forty-six years. We would be delighted to hear from Graduate you, and we hope that you will stop in to see us when you are in town. The annual Graduate Student Symposium would be a good occasion for a visit, as would the special lectures that Student Symposium 10 are held periodically throughout the year. Inside you will find information on our Religion Club facebook page and other kinds of connections that we hope you will explore. We look forward to hearing from you! Grad students Shannon John Corrigan Dunn and Rosemary Lucius Moody Bristol Distinguished Professor Kellison received the 2009 Elisabeth Schüssler Chair, Religion Department Fiorenza New Scholar’s Award. page 8

Philosophy (REP), and Religions of Western Department Launches New Graduate Area in Antiquity (RWA). And, of course, there are clear and obvious connections with a number of units History and Ethnography of Religions throughout the university, such as Asian Studies, he addition of new faculty in Islam, to inaugurate a new field of study called “History Middle Eastern Studies, Women’s Studies, Art TChristianity, and African Religions and Ethnography of Religions” (HER). This area History, and Anthropology. has provided an exciting opportunity for the offers MA and PhD students the opportunity The presence of three prominent scholars of department to reconfigure one of the major to study a broad range of religious and cultural Asian Religions means that the department will components of its graduate curriculum. For al- traditions using a variety of methodological ap- continue to have a high national and internation- most twenty years, the study of the religions of proaches. al profile in this area and to attract graduate stu- South and East Asia has been one of the four The interdisciplinary character of the new dents from around the world who want to study major fields of the FSU graduate program. In field of study can be immediately recognized with them. Bryan Cuevas, the Religion Depart- Fall 2009 Professors Bryan Cuevas (Tibetan by the diversity of the training and interests of ment’s Director of Graduate Studies, specializes and Himalayan Buddhism), Kathleen Erndl the faculty members directing it. The oppor- in Tibetan religion, history, and culture and has (South Asian Religions), and Jimmy Yu (Re- tunity for crossing disciplinary boundaries is been widely recognized as a leader in his field ligions of China) joined forces with Professors expanded even more because the area can draw since the publication of his first book, The Hidden François Dupuigrenet Desroussilles (Medieval on the expertise of the faculty in the other three History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Oxford). and Early Modern Christianity), Adam Gaiser departmental areas of graduate study - American Kathleen (Islam), and Joseph Hellweg (African Religions) Religious History (ARH), Religion, Ethics, and Erndl began continued on page 11 Recent Endowments Lectures The Charles Wellborn Lecture in American Religious History: John F. Priest Professorship of Religion, Daniel Walker Howe, Oxford University and University of Cali- endowed by Gloria Priest in honor of her fornia, Los Angeles, “What God Hath Wrought: The Transfor- husband, who was a distinguished member mation of America, 1815-1848,” Jan 21, 2010. of the department from 1968 to his retire- ment in 1996. Bryan Cuevas was named Keynote Address for the Ninth Annual Graduate Symposium: Priest Professor in 2009. Bernadette Brooten, Brandeis University, “Beyond Slavery: Over- coming Its Religious and Sexual Legacies,” Feb 19, 2010.

The Sheng Yen Educational Foundation Professorship of Chi- The Tessa J. Bartholomeusz Lecture in Religion:Luis Gomez, nese Buddhism University of Michigan, “Distorted Views: Buddhism with a ‘Self’? The Inversion of Traditional Categories in the [Mahayana] Sheng Yen Educational Foundation Graduate Fellowships Mahaparinirvana Maha Sutra,” March 13, 2010.

The Jason Driver Graduate Scholarship The Lucius Moody Bristol Lecture in Social Ethics:Richard Miller, Indiana University, “Religion, Public Reason, and the The Chair’s Fund endowed by Gloria Priest, Robert Spivey, and Morality of Democratic Authority,” Oct. 12, 2010. Walter Moore. Jonathan Chan, Hong Kong Baptist University, “Law and Mo- The Charles Wellborn Lecture in American Religious History. rality: A Confucian Perspective on Freedom of Expression,” Oct. The first Wellborn lecture was given by Daniel Walker Howe, 23, 2010. January 21, 2010 (see “In Memoriam: Charles Wellborn” below). Michael Pasquier, Louisiana State University, “Standard Lives: Visualizing Oil and Religion in Louisiana,” Nov. 10, 2010.

Tessa J. Bartholomeusz Lecture and Keynote Address for Tenth Annual Graduate Symposium: “‘Spiritual Exercise’ and In Memoriam: Charles the Interpretation of Buddhist Philosophy in India,” Matthew Kapstein, and École Pratique des Hautes Wellborn (1924-2009) Études, Paris, Feb. 18, 2011. e are saddened to report Wthe death of Charles Wellborn, who died Oct. 1, 2009. Charles began teaching in the Reli- gion Department in 1965, the first year it became an independent de- partment. He was a decorated World for an updated list, visit religion.fsu.edu War II veteran who had been a mem- ber of the ski patrol stationed in Italy. He had a national reputation as a Southern Baptist preacher from the time of clopedic knowledge of theatre was one of the The Department his youth and became the senior pastor of the primary reasons he was chosen to head the of Religion prominent Seventh and James Baptist Church FSU London program, beginning in 1976 in Waco, Texas, where he successfully led the until his retirement in 1990. He published at The Florida State University fight for desegregation. Charles received his seven books and over a hundred articles and PhD from Duke in 1964, where he began essays. With Leo Sandon and George Bedell his work on Walter Lippmann, which led to of the Religion Department, he wrote Reli- Newsletter his 1969 book, Twentieth Century Pilgrimage: gion in America, a popular survey, which was Spring 2011 Walter Lippmann and the Public Philosophy. first published in 1975. His last book, Grits, While at FSU, he was an award-winning Grace, and Goodness, a collection of his essays, teacher, who taught a variety of courses in- was published in 2003 by Smith and Helwys. Editor cluding Religion and Ethics, Religion in the In 2008, he established in the FSU Religion David Levenson United States, and Religion and Drama. He Department the Charles Wellborn Lecture in was also an accomplished actor, whose ency- American Religious History. Design Wil Oakes

2 The Florida State University dam Gaiser joined the department in Athe fall of 2006 as a specialist on Islam. He has taught classes in the area at every level of Faculty in Focus: the curriculum. In addition to teaching “Islamic Tradition,” which had been taught in the depart- Adam Gaiser ment by Professor John Kelsay for almost twenty years, he has developed courses in “Islam in the Modern World,” “Islam in North America,” “Muhammad and the Qur’an,” “Shiite Islam,” and “Islamic Mysticism.” A native of Fairfax, Virginia, Gaiser was a Comparative Religion major at the College of William and Mary. He also continued his study of Russian, which he began in high school, with a semester abroad in St. Petersburg. During that semester, on a trip to Samarkand and Bukhara (Uzbekestan), he decided to focus on the study of Islam. Returning to William and Mary, he began the study of Arabic and the Middle East. Between college and graduate school, Gaiser im- proved his command of Arabic and knowledge of the Middle East while volunteering at a school in Jerusalem. In his PhD program at the , where he focused on Islamic Studies within the area of History of Religions, Gaiser worked closely with Prof. Aziz Sachedina, one of the world’s foremost experts on Shiite Islam, who had also been a co-director of Professor Kelsay’s dissertation. He had the opportunity to continue Gaiser at the courtyard of the Alcázar of Seville, a royal palace in Seville, Spain. his study of Arabic for two summers in Jordan and to do dissertation research in Amman for a ditions, published by Oxford University Press in NEH’s summer institute on “Cultural Hybridi- year on a Fulbright-Hays dissertation fellowship. 2010, traces the elaboration of Ibadi conceptions ties: Christians, Muslims and Jews in the Medieval Gaiser’s research focuses on the Ibadiyya, a of leadership in the early and medieval periods. Mediterranean.” While in Spain, he also had the non-Sunni and non-Shiite interpretation of Islam, Gaiser’s current research examines early Kharijite opportunity to travel to Cordoba, Granada, and whose contemporary adherents may be found to- and Ibadi martyrdom narratives. Seville, as well to the Basque Country, the family day in Oman and parts of North and East Africa. Recent travels have taken Gaiser to Oman, home of his wife, Professor Carolina Gonzalez of His new book, Muslims, Scholars, Soldiers: The a major center for the study of Ibadi Islam, and the FSU Department of Modern Languages. Origin and Elaboration of the Ibadi Imamate Tra- to Barcelona, Spain, where he participated in the

ris (Indiana University Press, 2010), Religion in to this research: “The ‘Calf’s Nipple’ (Be’u America: An Historical Account of the Develop- bum) of Ju Mipam (‘Ju Mi pham): A Hand- ment of American Religious Life (8th edition), book of Tibetan Ritual Magic,” in Tibetan Rit- Faculty ual co-authored with Winthrop Hudson (Pearson, , edited by José I. Cabezón (Oxford, 2010), 2010), and Jews, Christians, Muslims (2nd edi- and “Illustrations of Human Effigies in Tibetan tion), co-authored with Frederick Denny, Car- Ritual Texts: With Remarks on Specific Ana- News los Eire, and Martin Jaffee (Pearson, 2011). tomical Figures and Their Possible Iconograph- His edited volume on Religion and Space in the ic Source,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Atlantic World will be published in the coming (vol. 21, no. 1, 2011). He continues to serve as year. Book Review Editor for The Journal of the Inter- national Association of Tibetan Studies and was Bryan Cuevas is currently working on a book recently appointed to the editorial board of the on the history of Tibetan sorcery and the politi- Journal of the American Academy of Religion. He John Corrigan has recently published Religious cal uses of ritual magic in the centuries leading will be promoted to full professor in Fall 2011. Intolerance in America: A Documentary History, up to and immediately following the establish- co-authored with Lynn Neal (University of ment of the office of Dalai Lama and the for- Matthew Day continues to serve as Editor of North Carolina Press, 2010), Religion in Ameri- mation of a centralized Tibetan state. He began Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. He can History, co-edited with Amanda Porterfield this project while a Member in Residence in also continues to annoy the field’s Establishment (Blackwell, 2010), The Spatial Humanities: GIS the School of Historical Studies at the Institute whenever he gets a chance--whether in print and the Future of Humanities Scholarship, co-ed- for Advanced Study in Princeton (2007-2008). or in per- itoed with David Bodenhamer and Trevor Har- This year he has published two articles relevant son. He continued on next page

Spring 2011 • Religion Department 3 will spend the summer in Maine with his wife Sarah Irving is working on her second book, conference on “Sport History as U.S. Cultural and sons, working on a book manuscript in the Science, Religion, and the Atlantic Republic of History” in Tutzing, Germany. In March she morning and sailing in the afternoon. Letters. She presented part of her work on the will present an invited paper at a conference book at the Harvard Atlantic History Work- on secularization at the German Historical In- François Dupuigrenet Desroussilles pub- shop in April, 2010. She and her husband John stitute in Washington, D.C. She won a Uni- lished a French edition of Augustine’s Solilo- just had their first child, Madeleine Irving- versity Teaching Award for 2009/2010 and is quies (Rivages, 2010), which included material Stonebraker, this January. developing a new class on sport and religion for he developed for his FSU course on “The Soul fall semester 2011. and the Self.” His research on the French sourc- Aline Kalbian was appointed to the Florida es of the illustration of the 1539 Great Bible Department of Health’s Bioethics Working David Levenson is working with Thomas Mar- will be published in Church History in 2011. Group in 2010. The eight-member group met tin of Holy Cross on several subjects connected He is currently working on Book of Kings, King throughout the year to evaluate and discuss the with Josephus’ Jewish War. In addition to work- of Books: French and English Sovereigns and the ethics of emergency preparedness for pandemic ing on a translation and commentary for book Bible for Palgrave Press. influenza. In July 2011, she and Martin Kavka six of the work, which will appear in the new will become co-editors of the Journal of Reli- Josephus series being published by Brill, they Kathleen Erndl gave two presentations at the gious Ethics. She continues to work on a book are completing an article on the early modern AAR in 2010: “‘When a Woman Becomes about bioethics and contraception. editions of the ancient Latin translation of Jo- Chandika’: Justice, Violence, and the Feminine sephus’ works, and collating manuscripts for a in Popular Hindi Film” and “The Scholarly Martin Kavka published “Screening The Can- critical edition of the Latin translation of book Contributions of Rita Gross from the View- on, or on Levinas and Medieval Jewish Philoso- six of The Jewish War. He also continues to serve point of a Former Student.” She is completing phy,” in New Approaches to Jewish Philosophy on the Society of Biblical Literature Taskforce a book on Hindu women’s possession practices (eds. Elliot R. Wolfson and Aaron Hughes; on Teaching about the Bible in Public Schools. and is also doing research and teaching a course Indiana University Press, 2010) and put the on religious themes in Bollywood films. finishing touches on The Cambridge History Amanda Porterfield was buried in her study of Jewish Philosophy: The Modern Era, which for a year working on a new book, tentatively Adam Gaiser’s first book, Muslims, Scholars, he co-edited with David Novak and Zachary titled Doubt In Early America: Religion, Politics, Soldiers: The Origin and Elaboration of the Ibadi Braiterman. In 2010 he presented papers at the and Suspicion. The book tells how religious Imamate Traditions, was published in 2010 annual meetings of the American Academy of skepticism was stifled in the early republic and with Oxford University Press. He spent the Religion, the Association for Jewish Studies, charts the emergence of a symbiotic relation- summer of 2010 in Spain at an NEH Summer the Society of Christian Ethics, and the North ship between laissez-faire politics and evangeli- Institute on “Cultural Hybridities: Christians, American Levinas Society, and gave an invited cal religion. Now back to life in the classroom, Muslims & Jews in the Medieval Mediterra- talk at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem. The she reports that “she is happy working with nean,” where he worked on early Ibadi connec- FSU course he designed on religion and fan- amazing cadres of spectacular students.” tions to Umayyad Spain. He is currently do- tasy literature, inaugurated in 2008, regularly ing research on early Kharijite and Ibadi shurat enrolls over 250 students a semester. The course Over the past couple of years, Sumner B. Twiss (martyr) narratives. he developed entitled “What Is Religion?” will has published a number of articles on such be required of all majors beginning next year. subjects as Confucianism and human rights, Matthew Goff published a volume of essays, religious intolerance, the moral psychology of The Other in Second Temple Judaism: Essays in Nicole Kelley is working on a book provi- perpetrators of atrocity, and global ethics and Honor of John Collins (Eerdmans, 2011), which sionally entitled The Church Body: Deformity human rights. He has delivered lectures in he co-edited with Daniel Harlow, Joel Kamin- and Disability in Ancient Christianity. In May Nairobi (on global ethics), Harvard (on Roger sky, and Karina Martin Hogan. He is currently 2011 she will present a paper entitled “‘The one Williams), Nishan, China (comparing Chris- finishing a commentary on 4QInstruction, whom the Lord loves, he cures’: Lame Bodies tian and Confucian influences on the Univer- which will be published by the Society of Bibli- and Healing Power in Early Christian Texts” at sal Declaration on Human Rights), and Hong cal Literature. an international conference sponsored by the Kong (on just war in classical Confucianism). University of Cologne. She will be promoted He continues to serve as co-editor of the Jour- Joseph Hellweg was a Fulbright Fellow at the to associate professor with tenure in Fall 2011. nal of Religious Ethics and is an active member University of Kankan in Guinea and the Uni- of a Hong Kong Baptist University project on versity of Bamako in Mali during 2008-2010. John Kelsay is now serving as Associate Dean Chinese ethics of war and peace. He is working During that time, he returned for a month to of Arts and Sciences. One focus of this posi- to complete a co-authored book on the practice northwestern Côte d’Ivoire, the site of his pre- tion involves directing a newly established FSU of global ethics and a co-edited volume on reli- vious research. In May 2011, the University of Center for Humanities and Society. He also gious ethics, human rights, and public policy. Chicago Press will release his book based on his continues to teach and write in the area of reli- research in Côte d’Ivoire, HuntingDRAFT the Ethical gious ethics and is working on a book currently Jimmy Yu’s first book, Sanctity and Self-Inflict- State: The Benkadi Movement of Côte d’Ivoire. entitled The Just War Idea. ed Violence in Chinese Religions: Bodily Practices While in Guinea and Mali, Hellweg began in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries China, new research on the N’ko alphabet invented by Amy Koehlinger is working on a book for has been accepted for publication by Oxford a Guinean man in 1949 for writing the West Princeton University Press exploring the role University Press. He also helped to secure a gift African Mandenkan language. The language is that the sport of boxing played in the gender from the Sheng Yen Education Foundation in particularly used by healers in Guinea, Mali, identities of American Catholic men. She was Taiwan to FSU to establish a permanent profes- and Côte d’Ivoire for recording medicinal plant awarded sabbatical leave for spring 2012 to sorship in the Department of Religion and to remedies. complete the book manuscript. In February provide funding support for graduate students 2011 she presented a paper on “The Goods, doing research on Chinese Buddhism. He is the Guts, and the Gab: Understanding Alterna- currently working on a monograph on the con- tive Catholic Masculinity through Boxing” at a struction of modern Chinese Buddhism.

4 The Florida State University Faculty Awards Book Awards National Endowment for the Nicole Kelley “The Church Body: Defor- Humanities mity and Disability in Early Christianity.” Amy Koehlinger won the 2009 Eric Hoffer Prize, Culture Category, for The New Nuns: John Corrigan, Co-PI, “New Tools for the Jimmy Yu, “The Formation of a New Chan Racial Justice and Religious Reform in the Humanities: Visualizing Complex Spatial Buddhism: The Life’s Work of Venerable 1960’s (Harvard, 2007). Data” (2010) ($225,000), and Digital Hu- Sheng Yen.” manities Start-Up Grant (2007) ($30,000). Sarah Irving won the Royal Society of 2010-2011 Council on Research Literature and Jerwood Award for Non-Fic- FSU Arts and Humanities Program and Creativity Awards tion for Natural Science and the Origins of the Enhancement Grant British Empire (Pickering and Chatto, 2008). Bryan Cuevas, “Magical Warfare in Bud- dhist Tibet.” Martin Kavka won the Jordan Schnitzer John Corrigan, “Religion in the Atlantic Book Award for Jewish Messianism and the World: Space, GIS, and Representation” (2008) ($39,000). Matthew Day, “The Bourgeois Order of History of Philosophy (Cambridge, 2008). Things: ‘Religion,’ Capitalism and the Taxo- nomic Imagination.” Fulbright Fellowship 2009-2010 Council on Research and Creativity Awards Amy Koehlinger, “Rosaries and Rope Joseph Hellweg for research and teaching in Burns: Boxing and Manhood in American Guinea, West Africa (2009-2010). Matthew Goff, “Two Book Projects: Giants Catholicism, 1890-1970.” in Ancient Judaism and Ancient Wisdom 2009 Undergraduate from the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Teaching Award Sarah Irving, “How Science Became Useful: Amy Koehlinger Protestantism & the British Atlantic Origins of Modern Science.”

Faculty Publications

Oxford University Press published Adam Wiley-Blackwell published Religion Gaiser’s Muslims, Scholars, Soldiers: The Origin in American History (2010), edited by and Elaboration of the Ibadi Imamate Traditions John Corrigan and Amanda Porter- (2010). field.

Rivages published Augustin: Soliloques UNC Press published Religious Intolerance in suivi de Lettres intimes, introduction America (2010), edited by John Corrigan and by François Dupuigrenet Desrous- Lynn S. Neal. silles (2010).

Fordham University Press published Saintly Press published Influence: Edith Wyschogrod and the Possibili- John Kelsay’s book Arguing the Just ties of Philosophy of Religion (2009), edited by War in Islam (2009). Martin Kavka .

Spring 2011 • Religion Department 5 Undergraduate in Action: Stefani Mead

tefani Mead, a senior religion major and Orlando native, Sis combining her interests in social action and the study of religion by writing a thesis with Prof. Aline Kalbian on the topic of social justice and public health. The thesis examines the religious themes present in some recent models of public health equity, fo- cusing especially on Paul Farmer, a leader in public health, whose work is greatly influenced by Catholic Liberation Theology. Stefani’s interest in this topic grew out of her involvement with the FSU chapter of GlobeMed, a network of university students which partners with grassroots organizations around the world to improve the health of the impoverished. FSU GlobeMed raises money to help their partner, the Alternative the staff of A.R.M. and learn more about their women without offending the men who were for Rural Movement (A.R.M.) located in specific needs. According to Stefani, her Re- present. At night we would sit outside and Orissa, India. Their contributions have as- ligion Department courses “have helped to talk with our hosts, often about religion. It sisted in the purchase of mobile health clinics shape how to view the world,” and her work was really helpful knowing some of the basics, to help with STI and HIV cases, improving with Prof. Kathleen Erndl in particular made and our hosts seemed to appreciate it too.” maternal health, and reducing child mortality. it easier for her to bond faster with her hosts. After completing her BA in Religion, Ste- This past summer, as president of FSU She reports that she “also emailed Dr. Erndl a fani plans to pursue a second degree in dietet- GlobeMed, Stefani had the opportunity to couple of times when I was in India for advice ics and then go on to graduate work in nutri- spend several weeks in Orissa, India, to meet on how to approach certain topics with the tion and public health. Religion Club Update n addition to the ever increasing num- gion of the Month” series, and participation in Iber of religion majors (currently at a number of events of religious significance on around 150), the reestablishment of the Re- campus and throughout the community. ligion Club two years ago is a clear sign of a Information about Religion Club activi- hightened interest in the study of religion ties is quickly disseminated by its very active among FSU undergraduates. The goal of the Facebook site. Find out more at http://religion. student organization is to promote the study of fsu.edu/undergraduate_religion_club.html. religion at FSU by sponsoring films, lectures, and visits to area sites of interest. Under the leadership of Daniel Wise last Spring and Leah Top: Prof. Matthew Goff talks with (L to R) Justin DeBerry, Leah Wise, and Matt Schnitzlein. Wise this fall, the group organized a diverse program that included a film series with six Bottom: Religion Club President Leah Wise screenings in the spring and three in the fall, with (L to R) Club Vice-President Adam Cush- a discussion of Paganism in the group’s “Reli- ing, Club Treasurer Aaron Richard, Department Office Manager Susan Minnerly, Strozier Librar- ian Ted Chaffin, Professor Joseph Hellweg, and 6 The Florida State University Club Secretary Alexis Feenstra. Undergraduate Awards and Honors Betty Phifer Award Bioethics Through Twilight of the Golds” Bess Ward Honors Travel (directed by Aline Kalbian) Scholarship Action: Heather Kantrowitz, 2009; Brynne McKin- non Spring 2009 , 2010 Spring 2009: Carly Nasehi Spring 2011: Savannah Groenendyke Stephanie Brehm Academic Achievement Award , “Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert: Exposing Religious Incongruity” Graduation Honors 2010 Stephanie Brehm, Laura Guidry-Grimes, (directed by Amanda Porterfield) Andrew Pietrylo, 2009; Daniel Wise, 2010 Crystal (Dawn) Betts-Green, “Visions of Summa Cum Laude Womanhood: Submission, Purity, and Femi- Daniel Wise Arts and Science Travel Award ninity in Modern Evangelical Movements” Taylor Cyr (directed by Kathleen Erndl) Roberto De La Noval, 2010 Magna Cum Laude Spring 2010 Lauren Cosgrove Dean of Students Dean’s Cup Natasha Kaminsky Kathyrn-Joyce Thorn Lauren Lussier Award , “Love in the Philo- sophical Theology of Jean-Luc Marion” Kathryn-Joyce Thorn (directed by Martin Kavka) Clarissa Wray Heather Kantrowitz, 2009 Allison Spingler Fall 2010 Cum Laude onors heses BA H T Jessica Cuddy Adam Cushing, “A Source-Critical Approach Michael Hopkins to Daniel 7 and an Analysis of Possible Influ- Summer 2008 Brynne MacKinnon ences upon its Throne-vision” (directed by Anna Masi Matthew Goff) Laura Guidry-Grimes, “The Other Side of Sebastian Novas the Magic Fire: An Exploration of Jewish

Recent Graduates Spring 2010 Brynne MacKinnon Samuel Friedman Colloquium for Majors Jessica McBride Christopher Gosier Natalie Aleman Anna Masi Audriana Hubbard Traci Alexander Sadie Molinet Jenna Reimers Michel Causey Lawrence Murphy John Calvaliere Meghan Murray Fall 2010 Lauren Cosgrove Alison Slusarczyk Bradley Crocker Nicole Stevens Susan Biggs Jessica Cuddy Kathryn-Joyce Thorn Taylor Cyr Hilary Cunkle Faith VanBuskirk John Fraites Ashley Douglas Daniel Wise Audriana Hubbard Timothy Douglass Clarissa Wray Chelsea Levine Brian Garrity Chase Lurding Hiba George Summer 2010 Jonathan Nuckols Kendall Green Martin Kavka meets with his fall semester class, Allison Spingler entitled “What is Religion?” The faculty voted this year Michael Hopkins Keven Allen, Jr. Gary Thacker to make this a required course for all religion majors. Natasha Kaminsky Jamekia Anderson Cameron Ward Jason Knott Jonathan Brand Jennifer Lamoureux Sebastian Novas Lauren Lussier Brett Roof

Spring 2011 • Religion Department 7 Graduate Student Spotlight: FSU students win ShannonDunn Prestigious Award at the American RosemaryKellison Academy of Religion osemary& Kellison and Shannon Claremont School of Theology and a BA in dominance. RDunn received the Elisabeth Religion from the University of Puget Sound. Rosemary has a BA in Comparative Schüssler Fiorenza New Scholars Award for At FSU she has taught courses in “Religious Studies from Ohio State Univesity and an their article, “At the Intersection of Scripture Ethics and Moral Problems” and “Gender and MA in Religion from FSU. She has taught and Law: Qur’an 4:34 and Violence Against Religion” and is currently teaching “Christian “Religious Ethics and Moral Problems” and Women.” The award was presented at the Tradition.” In 2007 she won the best graduate “World Religions.” In 2009 she also won 2009 Annual Meeting of the American student paper award at the annual meeting of the SECSOR best graduate student paper Academy of Religion. The award-winning the Southeast Commission for the Study of award for her paper, “Religion/State as a article was published in the Fall 2010 Religion (SECSOR) for her paper, “Veiled Discourse of Dissent: Moses Mendelssohn volume of The Journal of Feminist Studies in Contradictions: Feminist Philosophy and the in Response to McCutcheon and Fitzgerald.” Religion, which awards the prize annually to Foulard Debate.” Her dissertation, tentatively Rosemary has completed her doctoral exams new scholars who do outstanding feminist titled, “Gender Justice in a Post-Secular Age? and is currently working on her dissertation research in the field. Domestic Violence, Islamic Sharia, and the prospectus. The article addresses the relationship Liberal Legal Paradigm,” between the body of literature called tafsir, examines the or Qur’anic interpretation, and Islamic legal relationship theory (sharia) on the topic of domestic between violence. Qur’an 4:34, interpreted literally, domestic permits a husband to beat his wife. The authors violence and attempt to answer two related questions: other forms first, how do Muslims reconcile verses from of social the Qur’an with social norms, or individual consciences, that are in conflict with them? Second, how do legal norms reflect changing views about gender and family, on the one hand, and intellectual trends about history and the interpretability of the Qur’an, on the other? Rosemary and Shannon are Religion PhD candidates in the Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy track. They originally collaborated on this project for a class on the Qur’an, which they took with Professor Adam Gaiser, and presented an early version of their research at the 2009 FSU Religion Graduate Student Symposium. Shannon entered the PhD program after receiving a master’s degree at the

Dunn (left) and Kellison (right) with Elisa- beth Schüssler Fiorenza at the 2009 AAR Meeting.

8 The Florida State University Journal of the American Academy of Religion 78/1 Graduate Student Awards, (2010). Tamara Marks, “Kierkegaard’s ‘New Argument’ Publications, and Placements for Immortality,” Journal of Religious Ethics 38 Awards Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Studies, (2010). Brigham Young University, 2010-2011. Kathleen Hladky Chris Blythe, Best Article Award, John Whitmer , “‘I Double-Dog Dare you in Historical Association, 2010, for “The Church Shawntel Ensminger, P.E.O. Scholar Award, Jesus’ Name!’: Claiming Christian Wealth and Religion Com- in the Days of Alpheus Cutler: New Insights into 2009-2010. the American Prosperity Gospel,” pass Nineteenth-century Cutlerite Ecclesiology.” (2010). Publications ecent lacements Rosemary Kellison and Shannon Dunn, Elisa- R P beth Schüssler Fiorenza New Scholars Award for Brooke Sherrard, “‘Palestine Sits in Sackcloth Katie Hladky “At the Intersection of Scripture and Law: Qur’an and Ashes’: Reading Mark Twain’s The Inno- (American Religious History, 4:34 and Violence Against Women” (2010). cents Abroad as a Protestant Holy Land Narra- Ph.D. expected 2011), Assistant Professor, Col- tive,” Religion and the Arts 15 (2011). lege of Charleston. Emily Clark, Roger Rollin Award for best paper Nahed Artoul-Zehr in American Studies at the 2010 Popular Cul- Daniel C. Dillard, “‘God will put a hook into , (Religion, Ethics, and ture Association/American Culture Association that man’s jaws, so that he cannot preach’”: Re- Philosophy, Ph.D. expected 2011), Minerva Re- in the South Meeting for “The Romanticized ligious Intolerance and the American Transcen- search Fellow, Naval War College. Nostalgia of New Orleans Prostitution.” dentalists,” Hindsight History Journal 4 (2010). Matthew Hagele, (Religion, Ethics, and Philoso- Brooke Sherrard, Southeastern Council on the Joshua Fleer, “The Church of Detroit Baseball: phy, Ph.D. expected 2011), Instructor, Kirkwood Study of Religion Best Graduate Student Paper American Civil Religion and Willie Horton at Community College. Award, 2010, for “‘The Compulsion of Geopoli- Comerica Park,” in The Politics of Baseball: Essays Todd Brenneman tics’: The Shift from Multiculturalism to Jewish on the Pastime and Power at Home and Abroad, (American Religious History Nationalism in the Popular Writings of Ameri- edited by Ron Briley (McFarland, 2010). 2010), Lecturer, University of Central Florida. can Biblical Archaeologist Nelson Glueck.” Shaun Horton, “Of Pastors and Petticoats: Hu- Joseph Williams (American Religious History Rosemary Kellison, Southeastern Council on mor and Authority in Puritan New England,” 2010), Assistant Professor, Rutgers University. the Study of Religion Best Graduate Student The New England Quarterly 82, no. 4 (December Elizabeth Barre Paper Award, 2009, for “Religion/State as a 1, 2009). (Religion, Ethics, and Phi- Discourse of Dissent: Moses Mendelssohn in losophy 2010), Assistant Professor, Marymount Response to McCutcheon and Fitzgerald.” Rosemary B. Kellison, “Connections, Confu- Manhattan College. sions, Colonialism and the Construction of Re- Janet Rumfelt Michael Graziano, 2010 Kingsbury Writing ligion: Making Sense of Fitzgerald’s Discourse on (Religion Ethics, and Philosophy Award. Civility and Barbarity,” Method & Theory in the 2009), Lecturer, University of Colorado. Study of Religion 21.3 (2009). Thomas Neal Rachel Grossman, currently a MA student in (Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy the American Religious History area, won the Rosemary Kellison and Shannon Dunn, “At 2009), Director, St. Joseph Educational Center. Best Undergraduate paper award at the 2010 the Intersection of Scripture and Law: Qur’an Michael Pasquier SECSOR Annual Meeting last spring. 4:34 and Violence Against Women,” Journal of (American Religious History Feminist Studies in Religion 26.2 (Fall 2010). 2008), Assistant Professor, Louisiana State Uni- Fellowships versity. Michael Gueno, “Religion in the Practice of Kelly Baker Kate Temoney, Delores A. Auzenne Fellowship Daily Life,” Religion in the Practice of Daily Life, (American Religious History 2008), vol. 1, part 1: “Regional Histories of Religions Lecturer, University of Tennessee. Brooke Sherrard, Library Resident Research in the Practice of Daily Life,” ed. Richard Hecht Jordan Smith Fellowship from the American Philosophical and Vince Biondo (Greenwood Press, 2010). (Religions of Western Antiquity Society. University Fellowships (2009/2010 and 2008), Lecturer, University of Iowa. 2010/2011). Emily Clark, “Of Catholics, Commies, and the Anti-Christ: Mapping American Social Borders Howell Williams (American Religious History Cara Burnidge, KONIAG Education Founda- Through Cold War Comic Books,” The Journal 2007), Relationship Manager, Learning House. tion Scholarship, 2010. of Religion and Popular Culture (Fall 2009). Dawn Hutchinson (American Religious History Diana Bell, Center for the Advancement of Hu- Chris Blythe, “Sophisticated Dissent: Charles 2007), Assistant Professor, Christopher Newport man Rights Grant, 2010. B. Thompson’s Inspired Enoch, A Case Study University. in Scriptural Rivalry and Narrative Theology in Kevin Vaccarella Barton Price, King V. Hostick Award of the Il- Nineteenth-century Mormon Sects,” Restoration (Religions of Western Antiq- linois State Historical Society and Lynn E. May, Studies Journal 11 (2010). uity 2007), Assistant Professor, John Tyler Com- Jr. Scholarship for work at Southern Baptist munity College. Historical Library and Archives, 2010. Shannon Dunn, “The Female Martyr and the Politics of Death: An Examination of the Martyr Arthur Remillard (American Religious History Chris Blythe, Hugh B. Nibley Fellowship, Discourses of Vibia Perpetua and Wafa Idrisan,” 2007), Assistant Professor, St. Francis College.

Spring 2011 • Religion Department 9 Annual Graduate Student Symposium he Ninth Annual Graduate Student and faculty - provided support for the symposium. TSymposium was held February 19-21, Special thanks are due to symposium director Jenny 2010, on the theme, “Sects and Sexuality: Issues of Collins-Elliott, a PhD student in Religions of Division and Diversity.” Thirty-nine papers were Western Antiquity, the graduate student committees presented by students representing eighteen different who worked so hard on all facets of the planning and institutions from every region of the country - from execution of the event, Prof. Sarah Irving, faculty Baylor to Buffalo and from Harvard to Hawaii. Ten advisor, and the FSU Religion faculty members who professors from the FSU Religion Department and responded to the papers. Professor Kathyrn Lofton from the departments of American Studies and Religion at Yale provided The Tenth Annual Symposium on the theme, responses to the student papers. The opening keynote “Discourses of Ritual and Power,” will take place address was given by Bernadette Brooten, the Kraft- February 18-20, 2011. Emily Clark, a PhD student Hiatt Professor of Christian Studies at Brandeis, on in American Religious History, is the director and the topic, “Beyond Slavery: Overcoming Its Religious Prof. Jimmy Yu, the faculty advisor. Once again there and Sexual Legacies.” Kathleen Erndl of the FSU will be participation from students from across the Religion Department delivered the closing keynote country with over forty papers scheduled to be given. on “Sex and Sensibility: Interrogating Gender and This year’s keynote speaker will be Professor Matthew Values in Bollywood Cinema.” In addition to the Kapstein of the University of Chicago and director sessions devoted to student papers, there was a of studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études. roundtable discussion on “Incorporating Gender into His address, which also serves as this year’s Tessa J. Top (L to R): Stephanie Brehm with Professors Your Scholarship,” featuring Professors Brooten and Bartholomeusz lecture, is entitled “‘Spiritual Exercise’ Kathyrn Lofton and Martin Kavka. Lofton along with Professor Nicole Kelley from the and the Interpretation of Buddhist Philosophy in Bottom (clockwise from top): Jason Leto, Brooke FSU Religion Department. The winner of the Leo India.” There will be two roundtable discussions on Sherrard, Kathleen Hladky, Shawntel Ensminger, and F. Sandon Award for the best paper went to Mike the topics, “What the Foucault Do We Do Now?: Monica Reed. Nesius of the FSU Geography Department. As in The Power of Authority in Religious Studies,” and past years, the entire department - staff, students, “Life After Grad School: Post-Grad Prospects.” Recent MA and PhD Recipients Spring 2009 Summer 2009 Spring 2010

Sonya Cronin - PhD Elizabeth Barre - PhD Frank Pittenger - MA “Raymond Brown, ‘The Jews,’ and the Gospel “Reconciled to Liberty : Catholics, Muslims, “Text as Tabernacle : Agrarians, New Critics, of John” (directed by David Levenson) and the Possibility of Overlapping Consensus” and the Tactical Diffusion of Protestant Herme- (directed by John Kelsay) neutics in the Pre-War South” (directed by John John Koyles - PhD Corrigan) “The Trace of the Face in the Politics of Jesus: Janet Rumfelt - PhD Experimental Comparisons Between the Work “Idolatry, Magic, and Poetic Subjectivity : Kirk Essary - MA of John Howard Yoder and Emmanuel Levinas” Breaking the Spell of Metaphysics in Jewish Julia Fortune - MA (directed by John Kelsay and Martin Kavka) and Christian Postliberal Thought” (directed by Dana Oines - MA Martin Kavka) Kathyrn Stotts - MA Thomas Neal - PhD “Return to Carmel : The Construction of a Dis- Lauren Gray - MA Summer 2010 calced Identity in John of the Cross” (directed by John Corrigan) Fall 2009 Louis See - MA Jonathan Shea - MA Cara Burnidge - MA Todd Brenneman - PhD “Charles M. Sheldon and the Heart of the So- “Traveling Light: Max Lucado and the Power Fall 2010 cial Gospel Movement” (directed by Amanda of Sentimentality in American Evangelicalism” Porterfield) (directed by Amanda Porterfield) Michael Gueno - PhD “Among the Pueblos: The Religious Lives of LaBron Chance - MA Christy Flanagan - PhD Franciscan Missionaries, Pueblo Revolutionar- Jennifer Collins - MA “The Paradox of Feuerbach : Luther and Reli- ies, and the Colony of Nuevo Mexico, 1539- Rosemary Kellison - MA gious Naturalism” (directed by John Kelsay) 1722” (directed by John Corrigan) Colin Womack - MA

10 The Florida State University “History and Ethnography of is further enhanced by the contributions of HER puigrenet Desroussilles was recruited by FSU Religions,” continued from page 1 faculty Hellweg, who studies Islam in Africa, and to be one of the senior figures in the interdis- Erndl, who provides expertise in Islam in India ciplinary program in the History of Text Tech- teaching Hinduism and South Asian Religions and Hindu-Muslim relations. nologies (HoTT). His expertise in the study of a at FSU in 1993, the same year she published her The two most recent members of the depart- wide range of literary, historical, and philosophi- groundbreaking study Victory to the Mother: The ment expand the scope of History and Ethnog- cal texts from medieval and early modern Eu- Hindu Goddess of Northwest India in Myth, Ritual raphy of Religions by adding coverage of two rope makes him an invaluable resource for the and Symbol (Oxford). Jimmy Yu, an expert on areas that have not been represented in the de- department and university. With Dupuigrenet Chinese Buddhism, is the most recent addition partment for a number of years. Desroussilles’ work on the book as a religious to the Asian Religions faculty and already has Joseph Hellweg brings to the program a and cultural object in medieval and early mod- attracted a considerable following among un- much needed focus on religions of Africa along ern Europe, Cuevas’ internationally recognized dergraduates and graduate students. His book, with his training as a cultural anthropologist and expertise on the book in Tibet, and Yu’s focus Sanctity and Self-Inflicted Violence in Chinese extensive fieldwork experience in West Africa. on the book in medieval China, FSU becomes Religions: Bodily Practices in Sixteenth and Sev- For three years, Hellweg lived in a Muslim re- a national leader in this area among religion de- enteenth Centuries China, has been accepted for gion of Côte d’Ivoire, where he participated in partments in the United States. publication by Oxford University Press. the rituals of a group of initiated hunters, who The study of Christianity in the HER pro- Extensive language training is essential for call themselves dozos, and studied their role in gram provides another example of the close in- the study of Asian Religions, and graduate stu- the wider society. This research provided the teraction between HER and the other graduate dents have the opportunity to study Sanskrit basis for his forthcoming book from University areas in the department. Students focusing on texts with Professor Erndl, Tibetan texts with of Chicago Press, Hunting the Ethical State: The the Christian tradition do much of their work Professor Cuevas, and Chinese texts with Pro- Benkadi Movement of Côte d’Ivoire. His course on with faculty in ARH, REP, and RWA. At the fessor Yu. Many have also received grants to do Ethnographic Field Methods, which he is teach- same time, Dupuigrenet Desroussilles makes im- intensive language courses at the elementary and ing this semester, provides essential training for portant contributions to other areas. His course intermediate level at centers in the United States HER graduate students. Students doing ethno- on “The Bible in the Medieval World” provides and abroad. graphic research also have the advantage of work- an opportunity for RWA students to study the HER is also a natural home for graduate ing with Kathleen Erndl, whose ethnographic history of biblical interpretation, and his course students specializing in Islam. They work closely research on Hindu women’s religious practices on “The Soul and the Self” covers an area of in- with Adam Gaiser (see Faculty in Focus) who in North India has been supported by a Gug- terest to many students in REP. offers regular graduate seminars on such topics genheim fellowship, and Amy Koehlinger from In only its second year as a graduate field as “Muhammad and the Qur’an,” “Shiite Islam,” the departmental ARH faculty, the author of the of study, it is already obvious that History and “Islamic Mysticism,” and “Islam in North Amer- award-winning The New Nuns: Racial Justice and Ethnography of Religions has become a vibrant ica.” They also have the opportunity to study with Religious Reform in the 1960s (Harvard), whose interdisciplinary program built on the strong John Kelsay from the departmental REP faculty, work applies ethnographic methods to the study foundation provided by the study of Asian Re- one of the world’s leading authorities on war and of American Catholic culture and religion. ligions at FSU. Its six faculty have developed the Islamic tradition, whose books on Islam and HER students whose primary focus is the a program that not only offers broad and deep War (Westminster/John Knox) and Arguing the Christian tradition work closely with François training for the twelve graduate students in the Just War in Islam (Harvard) are essential reading Dupuigrenet Desroussilles, who specializes in area, but that has also created an integral con- in a field where new books on the subject seem medieval and early modern Christianity. One nection with each of the other three departmen- to appear every day. Kelsay has taught Islam at of the world’s leading authorities on the his- tal fields of study. all levels of the curriculum and directed graduate tory of the book, he served for seventeen years For more information about all of our gradu- students focusing on Islam from a Comparative as the curator of rare books at the Bibliothèque ate programs, please visit the department web- Religious Ethics perspective since he came to the Nationale and for five years as the director of site: http://religion.fsu.edu/graduate.html. department in 1987. The study of Islam at FSU the French national school for librarians. Du-

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