Last Friday, April 5, was Honors Day at UA, meaning the annual REL Honors reception on the balcony of Presidents Hall. Whether you want to relive the thrills or see all that you missed, here are a few photos of the action that day. Prof. Steven Ramey, department chair in REL, welcomed friends, family, students, and faculty and kicked off Honors Day, describing it as one of his favorite days of the academic year. Prof. Richard Newton, REL Undergraduate Director, and Prof. Edith Szanto, REL Undergraduate Advisor, presented Silverstein Scholars with a book and their award. Pictured here are Tay ..read more

Katherine Hartley is a senior finishing up her final semester within the Religious Studies department and New College. She hales from Pace, Florida, and has served as a Resident Advisor in Paty Hall while also succeeding as a scholar. Although she recently joined our department, she has accomplished some amazing things utilizing the skills of a Religious Studies scholar. New College is a specifically interdisciplinary program where Katherine has been able to pick and choose specific classes that interest her and will eventually help her reach her final objective, where she is specifically foc ..read more

The Department of Religious Studies is thrilled to announce that two new faculty will be joining us in the Fall 2024 semester. Jeff Turner, who currently is an instructor at Utah Valley University, will be contributing to our projects and courses in the REL Digital Lab, among other areas. He has worked on a variety of Digital Humanities projects at the University of Utah during his doctoral work. His research analyzes the use of exclusionary mechanisms in US immigration law, particularly in relation to the category of polygamy, and the ways those mechanisms extended beyond the groups initiall ..read more

by Taylor Lech, a Religious Studies and Political Science double major At the end of last semester, I was a Political Science student who needed 17 more credits to graduate and had already taken the courses necessary to finish my degree. Finally, I had room in my schedule to take my education down a different path that sparked my interest, and I craved direction. I went to Dr. Edith Szanto’s office in Presidents Hall, ready to fight my case to add a Religious Studies minor onto my degree; I did the math and knew it could work with some convincing. To my surprise, I was greeted with open arms ..read more

What happens when a Criminology and Criminal Justice major takes a Religious Studies class? Well, for Drake Jones, a new major and new perspectives were in store. Drake, one of our majors expecting to graduate this fall (and a trombone player in the Million Dollar Band), came to REL for Dr. Richard Newton’s African Diaspora class in the Spring of 2023. With this class, he contributed significantly to the ongoing effort to digitize and analyze data related to the Decoding Diaspora project. He specifically worked on the historical limits of identity and race classifications. The next semester ..read more

Maj. Rhodes Berry near his home in Germany Within the study of religion undergrads are told that you can apply “these skills” anywhere, but what exactly are these skills? Maj. Rhodes Berry, an alumni of our department was able to apply the reading, writing and critical thinking skills learned in his undergrad to his work in law school and now in his profession. Maj. Berry graduated in 2010 from the University of Alabama with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in English. He always enjoyed reading and philosophy so Religious Studies naturally drew him in when he first came to college. Wh ..read more

Helping international exchange students adjust to an American context requires a wide range of skills. Logistical challenges, including advising students from different educational systems and cultural backgrounds, combine with the educational goals of engaging students in the negotiation of cultural differences. For Sonya Harwood-Johnson, who currently works in UA’s Office of International Student and Scholar Services, completing her MA in Religion in Culture has been instrumental to meet these challenges. Sonya—who graduated with the MA in 2022—came to Alabama from Grimes, Iowa. She earned ..read more

Most, if not all, people have ideas about something. These ideas can be minuscule and seemingly unimportant, but if an idea is grown in a supportive environment, it can develop into a question which, with some further research, can turn into a short paper. Continued cultivation can grow that original idea into a research essay and an opportunity to present your own research in a national conference as an undergraduate. This is the progression for Carter Sheldon, a senior religious studies major at the University of Alabama with a minor in history. Carter is originally from Grayson, Georgia a ..read more

That question seems like it should have a clear answer, as we often assume that an ethnic or national identification is an obvious fact. An NPR news feature recently, though, emphasized the complicated nature of national identity in Taiwan, clearly demonstrating the constructed nature of national identity there. Thus, the context of Taiwan becomes a useful example of the dynamics of the constructed of any national identity, a point many scholars have highlighted for decades. This question of Taiwanese identity has gained attention because of current geopolitical issues and the ways that the c ..read more

by Lauren Thompson. On the 6th of October I was among a group of MA students who observed the Fall 2023 American Examples Public Humanities workshop. “AE” is a department initiative lead by Prof. Altman, who along with Profs. Newton and Loewen met with eight scholars from across North America gathered at the Presidents Hall. The scholars were invited to workshop how their own research interests might translate into public humanities projects. Overall, AE aims to give early career scholars some much needed time and space for human-to-human conversations about their profession, their research ..read more