Summer 2024 Newsletter

Dear Alumni, Friends, and Supporters,

This past year we witnessed more acutely than ever how critical is the study of religion for public understanding and how important are public universities in sustaining that study. At UVA Religious Studies our faculty, students, and alums worked more creatively than ever to shape curiosity, criticism, and exchange across difference. You are receiving our annual newsletter because you are part of that unique intellectual community. No other institution teaches as many traditions and geographies through as many perspectives. Collectively we embody a fragile proposition: that understanding religion is essential to informed participation in democracy and that democratic commitments to pluralism can inform how religion is studied.

In this newsletter you will read about new energy from our students, new research initiatives, new faculty hires and promotions, and the work of our alumni council. Amid challenges to religious studies departments across the country, you can also read about student enrollments, faculty grants, and alumni gifts. And there is an announcement of upcoming lectures to which you are specially invited.

Over the past year we have taken steps to increase opportunities for alumni involvement. You will find listed in the newsletter the names of our alumni council; feel free to reach out to them as your representatives. Council members have helped us organize several career panels for current students in which alumni talked with students about their path from a Religious Studies degree into their current work.

Our next online Alumni Seminar, from our special series designed exclusively for alumni and supporters, is "Hidden in Plain Sight: 'Apocryphal' Christian Traditions and the Bible". It will be held on September 10th at 7 pm EST; register to hear from internationally recognized scholar Janet Spittler.

Many of these enhancements in student life and alumni engagement were made possible by an uptick in donations so at the end of the newsletter we recognize by name all our supporters. (Let me know if you made a gift and your name does not appear!) It was only because of gifts from supporters that we were, for example, able to send two students to present at a national undergraduate research conference, continue funding our undergraduate fellows program, and host a monthly faculty/grad research lunch. You can make a gift here.

If you have ideas for other ways we can stay connected or have an interest in some particular part of our work, don't hesitate to reach out to me directly.

Yours,
Willis

Willis Jenkins (PhD '06)
John Allen Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics
Chair, Religious Studies

Student Program News

Undergraduate Peer Advisors Program
Our Peer Advisors completed its third year with more energy than ever. Undergraduate fellows are funded by the department to act as peer advisors and representatives of the department. They answer questions from potential majors and serve as trusted interlocutors with faculty. They have helped us develop programs and curricula that best meet student interests and needs. We were lucky last year to have exemplary leadership from Susanna Kharatyan ('25) and Jonathan Rivers ('24). Jonathan offered the undergraduate address in our May Diploma Award Ceremony.

College Highlights Two Religious Studies Majors
Every spring, the College draws attention to a number of exceptional, soon-to-be graduates. Among Class of '24 graduates specially singled out by the College were two Religious Studies majors. Audrey Cruey was recognized for her track record of public service, which paved the way for her acceptance into the Peace Corps. The importance she places on the liberal arts was underscored, as well as the role of the Distinguished Major program in her personal and academic formation. Jonathan Rivers (also our '24 Peer Advisor) opted not to transfer to the McIntire School, arguing that pursuing a double-major in the College has provided unusual intellectual breadth for his business career. While at UVA, Jonathan served as finance director for the Business Ethics Society and helped establish an investment club that has already created a substantial scholarship fund. He hopes to draw on such experiences, as well as his double major in Environmental Sciences to utilize business to help build a more sustainable future.

Undergraduate "Sacred and Profane Society"
On their own idea and initiative, Religious Studies undergraduates proposed and won Student Council funding for a new student organization devoted to interest in the study of religion. They have also begun their own Religious Studies newsletter.

National Undergraduate Religious Studies Symposium
With generous alumni support, in the Spring of 2024 we were able to send two fourth-year students, Audrey Cruey and Finn Pollard, to present original research at Indiana University's annual Undergraduate Religious Studies Symposium, the premier annual undergraduate Religious Studies research conference in the nation. The conference organizers sent us a note praising the quality of the paper presentations from UVA.

Distinguished Major Thesis Presentations
On April 26th five students presented their theses, representing a year of original research, to about fifty peers, faculty, and proud family. This year's thesis titles:

Audrey Cruey: "Within the Wombs of 'Witches': Witchcraft as Fertile Ground for Maternal Metaphor in African and African Diaspora Literature"
Finn Pollard: "Travelrite: Morality of the American Family Road Trip in the Cold War"
Rebecca Popp: "Making Deniers of All Nations: Evangelical Framing of Climate Change"
Jonathan Rivers: "Exploring the Role of Imagery in Low Church Protestantism: Is Christian Visualization Vestigial without Veneration"
Julianne Saunders: "Writing from the Womb: On Julian of Norwich, Motherhood, and Theological Reflection"

Graduate Student Accolades

Two PhD students, Erin Burke and Heather Moody, won Fulbright Fellowships
PhD student Aik Sai Goh won a 2024 American Academy of Religion Dissertation Research Award
PhD student Nicholas Shrum won a 2024 award from the Mormon History Association for the best graduate student essay
PhD students Eliot Davenport and Anderson Moss were each awarded a 2024 Jefferson Fellowship
Three PhD students (Michelle Bostic, Anderson Moss, Blair Wilner) were selected by UVA's Institute for Humanities and Global Cultures for funded summer 2024 study at the Centre for Humanities Research at University of Western Cape, South Africa
PhD alum Karen Guth won a 2023 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion for her book The Ethics of Tainted Legacies

New Director of Undergraduate Programs
After moving to UVA from Carleton College and immediately undertaking three years of inspiring leadership of the undergraduate program, Noah Salomon is taking a much-deserved research leave. During his time as DUP the department instituted the peer fellows programs, developed student-alumni events, and overhauled the curriculum, adding new pathways to the major and new co-taught classes. Many faculty have worked closely to make that possible, including our incoming DUP, Cindy Hoehler-Fatton, a beloved teacher of African religions and long-time supporter of the major.

Alumni Career Mentoring Network
In 2022 academic year, we launched an alumni career mentoring network for our undergraduate students. About 25 alumni from fields as diverse as business, law, environmental advocacy, politics, grassroots organizing, religious leadership, and the arts have responded to our appeal, and many students have already taken advantage of the helpful connections. If you would like to add yourself as a potential mentor, check out the page and then be in touch with Prof. Cindy Hoehler-Fatton, Director of Undergraduate Programs.

Declining Majors in Religious Studies?
The Virginia alumni magazine recently published an article on declining humanities majors that mentioned Religious Studies and prompted a number of you to reach out to us. The article depicts a nationwide trend that we certainly see and worry over. But it also misses something peculiar: our overall enrollments have not declined as majors have. In fact, our average class size has gone up as we work to meet student demand and satisfy wait lists. We actually worry about not enough classes, especially small seminars, to meet student interest.

I am not sure what that fact means for the overall trend but it at least shows that at UVA students still seek out the educational experience they find in this department. We have strengthened and re-invested in our major curriculum (adding pathways, co-taught classes, new requirements) because we think that providing the best undergraduate Religious Studies major in the world will also make for an educational environment that non-majors continue to seek out with such regularity. That includes developing experiential opportunities, including chances to interact with alums.

In short, our teaching contribution is broader than our number of majors but designing curriculum around a world-class major experience is the condition for making that contribution. The magazine article underscores the perennial work we must do to explain that. You can help by telling alumni and foundation officers about your experience with Religious Studies whenever you have the opportunity to do so. And you can encourage alums to give directly to our graduate and undergraduate teaching mission.

Public Research Initiatives

With support from the College and Dean Christa Acampora, the department launched three new series of programming last year. Building on work begun through previous external grants to study religion, race, democracy, and public life, in 2023 the department launched the Forum on Religion and Democracy , initially co-directed by Oludamini Ogunnaike and Nichole Flores. In its first year the Forum hosted several international conferences linking researchers from Europe, Africa, and the United States. Several of its events were co-developed with the Jewish Studies Program and the Department of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages and Culture. The Forum also inaugurated a new annual lecture on religion, climate, and colonialism with a talk from Seyyed Hossein Nasr. (The next lecture in that series will be given by Dana Lloyd on September 19th, 2024 at 5pm.)

Nichole Flores is also directing a newly launched Catholic Studies Program, which opened in Spring 2023 with a lecture from Ramon Luzarraga on Caribbean political theologies. Additionally, Noah Salomon was invited by Dean Acampora to co-develop and co-lead a College-wide Islamic Worlds Initiative, involving faculty from multiple departments.

Those projects join the ongoing excellence of the Tibet Center (led by David Germano), the Project on Lived Theology (led by Charles Marsh), and the Mormon Studies Program, which celebrated the leadership of Kathleen Flake and welcomes Laurie Maffly-Kipp (see below).

Public events from these initiatives will be posted on our website over the year. Meanwhile, don't miss the new season of the podcast Sacred & Profane, directed by Martien Halvorson-Taylor and Kurtis Schaeffer. With support from a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, the most recent season focuses on religion and climate change.

Alumni Invitation to Richard Lecture

Our premier lecture series in the study of religion is the Richard Lecture, which will be given by Amy Hollywood (wonderful historian of medieval Christianity) in three installments, October 28-30, 2024 at 5pm each evening (title TBD, check back at the website). This year we are extending a special invitation for alumni to attend. If you intend to attend one or more of the lectures, please drop a note to Kathleen Carmody (ckj4nx@virginia.edu); we would love to be able to personally welcome you.

Remember also our next online Alumni Seminar Series on Tuesday September 10th at 7 pm EST with Janet Spittler: "Hidden in Plain Sight: 'Apocryphal' Christian Traditions and the Bible." Register here; be in touch with Kathleen Carmody if any trouble or questions.

Faculty Research

Our faculty work in more than twenty primary research languages, advancing work through articles, lectures, documentaries, podcasts, digital humanities scholarship, art exhibits, and other media collectively too numerous to list. But here is a sample of a few highlights from last year:

Jessica Andruss Jewish Piety in Islamic Jerusalem (Oxford 2024)
Ashon Crawley's installation "Homegoing" was featured on the National Mall in Washington D.C. in August and September 2023, as described here in the NYTimes. Ashon was also recognized by UVA with a 2023 Research Achievement Award for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities.
Supported by two NEH grants Martien Halvorson-Taylor and Kurtis Schaeffer created a new season of the podcast Sacred & Profane, focusing on the intersection of religions and climate change in America.
Oludamini Ogunnaike The Book of Clouds (Fons Vitae, 2024)
Kurtis Schaeffer, Buddhist Meditation: Classic Teachings from Tibet (Penguin 2024)

Kathleen Flake Retires, Awarded Emeritus Status

In Spring 2023 Kathleen Flake retired as the inaugural occupant of the Richard Lyman Bushman Chair in Mormon Studies, which she held since her arrival to UVA in 2013. After a sixteen-year career as trial attorney and senior counsel with federal agencies, Flake received a PhD in American religious history from the University of Chicago. She taught first at Vanderbilt for thirteen years before coming to UVA. Flake is author of The Politics of Religious Identity (2004), in addition to many essays and two co-edited books. Flake directed the founding of UVA's Mormon Studies Program, including the endowment of the Joseph Smith Lecture, a gift of 11,000 items to the Library (the Gregory A. Prince Collection), library research fellowships, and a public engagement program that included the "Saints & Scholars" podcast. Flake also co-founded UVA's Forum on Religion & Democracy.

Two New Promotions

Jessica Andruss was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Andruss specializes in Jewish and Muslim intellectual exchanges in the medieval period. Her book Jewish Piety in Islamic Jerusalem focuses particularly on Arabic translations of Hebrew texts made by Jewish scholars in the 10th-13th centuries, and the cultural history of Karaite Judaism which arose in that context. Andruss's scholarship contributes to the understanding of Judaism, of Islam, of their historical interaction, of medieval intellectual exchange, and of biblical interpretation. That deep historical understanding and linguistic capability shapes Prof. Andruss's classes on "Jewish-Muslim Relations" and "Jerusalem," which are praised by students for the care of exchange and mutual understanding they curate. In a year when universities have rediscovered how much they need that kind of scholarship and teaching, Prof. Andruss was invited by the provost to lead a public forum on understanding Jewish-Muslim relations.

Janet Spittler was promoted to Professor of Religious Studies. A scholar of New Testament, early Christian literature, and Greco-Roman religion, Professor Spittler specializes in non-canonical (sometimes called "apocryphal") texts. She is at the forefront of international projects to recover texts that were once widely influential across Christian world but now scarcely accessible. Prof. Spittler has translated and published texts that have never been available in English like The Acts of John in Rome and The Acts of Thomas and His Wonderworking Skin . A gifted teacher, her introductory course on "New Testament and Early Christian Literature" is regularly enrolled by 300 students. She is also Co-Director of the College's signature teaching initiative, the College Engagements Program, a sequence of first-year classes through which students are introduced to higher learning. In addition to being promoted this year, Prof. Spittler was also awarded the Shannon Mid-Career Fellowship by the provost, which is "bestowed upon faculty members who have made outstanding contributions to discovery, inquiry, scholarship, and creative expression at the university, within the community, and in their fields of expertise."

New Faculty

Beginning Fall 2024 we are delighted to welcome three new faculty from three different fields and specialties.

Julia Cassaniti comes to UVA from Washington State University as Professor of Religious Studies. Cassaniti is an anthropologist of mind and culture in contemporary religious contexts of transnational Asia. Her work examines relationships between social, mental, and physical influences on health and well-being, and the patterned approaches by which people construct reality through idiosyncratic implementations of cultural ideologies. Professor Cassaniti specializes in Theravāda Buddhist interpretations in Northern Thailand, with ethnographic emphases on embodiment, including issues of gender and sexuality in historical texts and popular media. Her books include Remembering the Present: Mindfulness in Buddhist Asia (Cornell U. Press); Universalism Without Uniformity: Explorations in Mind and Culture (U. Chicago Press); and Living Buddhism: Mind, Self, and Emotion in a Thai Community (Cornell U. Press), which won the American Anthropological Association's Stirling Prize for Best Book in Psychological Anthropology.

Laurie Maffly-Kipp comes most recently from the Danforth Center at Washington University in St. Louis to assume the Richard Lyman Bushman Chair in Mormon Studies. Professor Maffly-Kipp's studies African American religions, Mormonism, religion on the Pacific borderlands of the Americas, and issues of intercultural contact. Her publications include: Religion and Society in Frontier California (Yale University Press, 1994); Practicing Protestants: Histories of Christian Life in America, 1630-1965 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006) with Leigh Schmidt and Mark Valeri; Proclamation to the People: Nineteenth-Century Mormonism and the Pacific Basin Frontier (University of Utah press, 2008); Setting Down the Sacred Past: African-American Race Histories (Harvard University Press, 2010); American Scriptures, a Penguin Classics anthology of sacred texts (Penguin, 2010); and Women's Work, a co-edited collection of writings by African-American women historians (Oxford University Press, 2010). Currently she is working on a survey of Mormonism in American life that will be published by Basic Books. Prof. Maffly-Kipp is recipient of numerous fellowships and grants, including a grant for a collaborative project on the History of Christian Practice from the Lilly Endowment, fellowships at the National Humanities Center, and an NEH Fellowship for University Professors. Her work in African American religion was honored with the James W.C. Pennington Award from the University of Heidelberg in 2014. Prof. Maffly-Kipp is past president of both the American Society of Church History and the Mormon History Association. In 2026-27 she will be the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at Oxford University.

Sam Shuman comes to UVA as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies after completing a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan. Professor Shuman studies Hasidic Judaism within a global context, often foregrounding questions about political theology, race and religion, global capitalism, gender and sexuality. Their first project, Cutting Out the Middleman , focused on Antwerp's regulation of the diamond sector and the restructuring of its Hasidic workforce and was funded by the Social Science Research Council, the National Science Foundation, and Fulbright. Prof. Shuman is currently researching forms of saintly mediation performed by a Hungarian Hasidic miracle-worker named Reb Shayele (1851-1925). Shayele has been resurrected as a patron saint of hospitality and protection against "intruders." By praying at Shayele's gravesite and using his amulets and incantations, contemporary Hasidic men seek to ward off unwelcome encounters with agents of the state, such as police, traffic enforcement agents, and building inspectors. Prof. Shuman conducts ethnographic research among the 50,000 pilgrims at Shayele's gravesite in Hungary and explores hagiographic materials appearing in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Hungarian.

In Memoriam

Professor Emeritus K.L. Seshagiri Rao, who was born in India 14 October 1929, died January 14, 2024. He received his master's degree with distinction in Philosophy at the University of Mysore in India, then came to the United States in 1962 on a Fulbright Fellowship. He earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Study of World Religions from Harvard University in 1966. Following a few visiting faculty appointments in the U.S., including one year at the University of Virginia, he founded the Department of Religious Studies in Punjabi University in India. He returned in 1971 to UVA, where he taught courses in Hinduism, comparative religion, and Gandhian studies until his retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1994. The author of several books and numerous articles and book chapters, he also edited several works, including, as editor-in-chief, the eleven-volume Encyclopedia of Hinduism, published in 2010. He is survived by his wife Saraswati, four sons and their wives, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Hopkins, founder of the UVA program in Buddhist studies, died on July 1, 2024. Jeffrey came to UVA in 1973, founded a doctoral program in Tibetan Buddhist studies in 1975 and in subsequent years worked to expand Buddhist studies though the hiring of Paul Groner, Karen Lang, and David Germano. For over 30 years, from his arrival in 1973 to his retirement in 2005, Jeffrey dedicated himself to developing Tibetan Buddhist studies here in Virginia. He published over 50 books and mentored 18 successful Ph.D. graduates. Jeffrey Hopkins was instrumental in making Tibetan Buddhist studies the flourishing field that it is today, and for that we are grateful.

New Alumni

We are delighted to welcome the following 2024 graduates as alumni:

Bachelor of Arts: Julissa L. Bishop, Sophia M. Burk, Audrey M. Cruey*+, Reilly A. David, Emma A. Fuentes, Vidar Hageman, Inaya Reza Hasan, Dustin F. Howery, Margaret M. McDermott, Emily N. Miller, Arlo L. Morgan, Elena G. Novak, Alexander M. Pawlica, Finnigan C.W. Pollard*, Rebecca A. Popp*, Timothy S. Rah, Jonathan Rivers*, Lillian A. Rojas, Marly E. Rokenbrod, Elizabeth V. Sachs, Julianne E. Saunders*, and Harrison E. Stewart.

* Distinguished Majors Program
+ Phi Beta Kappa

Master of Arts:

Joan Esquibel: "The Impossibility of Religious Freedom: The Optimization of the Judicial Opinion for Colonial Power" (Nichole Flores, advisor)
Jacob Ferrier: "Wisdom and Apocalypticism in Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity" (Gregory Goering, advisor)
Jacob Green: "The Law of Attraction: Theorizing TikTok's #manifestation Trend as Mediated Spirituality" (Matthew Hedstrom, advisor)
Hunter Hollins: "Relational Creativity in the Cosmology of Alfred North Whitehead" (Heather Warren, advisor)
Tulku Tenzin: "Reimagining Tradition: Ratna Lingpa's 'Seminal Heart of Luminous Expanse' Revelations (klong gsal snying thig?)" (David Germano and Kurtis Schaeffer, advisors)
Fan Wu: "Acculturation of *Cintāmaṇicakra-guhyakośa-dhāraṇī-sūtra, from Chinese to Tibetan" (David Germano, advisor)

Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies:

Brittany Acors: "Creed and Crisis: American Religious Responses to Polio" (Matthew Hedstrom, advisor)
Rebecca Danielle Bultman: "Disguised God Stories in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Narrative Literature" (Martien Halvorson-Taylor and Janet Spittler, advisors)
Jason Oliver Evans: "If God Be for Us: Toward a Theology of Atonement and Christian Life from a Black Queer Perspective" (Paul D. Jones, advisor)
Peter Fraser-Morris: "Lactantius, Eusebius, and the Transformation of Christian Apologetics in the Constantinian Era" (Janet Spittler, advisor)
Adam Liddle: "Acoustic Awakening: Sound and Sonic Imagination in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra" (David Germano, advisor)
Kyle Nicholas: "A Cathedral of Humanity: Dignity and the Sacred in Modern Social Ethics" (Charles Mathewes, advisor)
Maxwell Pingeon: "Nationalizing American Catholicism: Irish Power, French Canadians, and the New England Language Wars, 1853-1936" (Matthew Hedstrom, advisor)
Eben Yonnetti: "Transplanting the Dharma: The Transmission, Territorialization, and Localization of Tibetan Buddhism in Modern Taiwan" (David Germano and Kurtis Schaeffer, advisors)
Devin Zuckerman: "Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Space: Elemental Theory and Practice in the Great Perfection Heart Essence (Rdzogs chen snying thig) Tradition of Tibet" (David Germano, advisor)

Alumni Council

Anne Carleton, Jessica Church, Kimberley Rae Connor, Braeden Crosby, Sonny Ellis, Claudia Hadjigeorgiou, Jessica Hawthorne, John Feldman, Carrie Fillipetti, Isabelle Foley, Daniel Kirzane, Ellie Leech, Richard Miller, Vicky McPherson, Grey McLean, Jeff Prudhomme, Melina Rapazzini, G.D. Rothenberg, Maribeth Southworth, Tate Wilson, Rick Yoder

Donors to Religious Studies 2023-2024

Gifts from the following people made a significant difference in what we were able to offer students last year. We used gift funds for the peer fellows program, to send two undergraduates to a national conference, to host an undergraduate thesis presentation and reception, to compete for the best PhD students, and to support a monthly faculty/grad research lunch.

Peter W. E. Becker & Amy Julia Becker
Edward G. R. Bennett, Jr.
James M. Billingsley & Hillary Rouse Billingsley
Jaclyn G. Bricker
Emily Rowell Brown & Daniel C. Brown
Garrett E. Buxton & A. Carly Brown Buxton
Jennifer K. Camp
Jenny Champoux & Mark Champoux
Charities Aid Foundation (US)
Kevin E. Clyde
Braeden D. Crosby
Gerald H. Crowther
Henry L. Curry III
Deseret Trust Company
Jeffrey H. Dillenbeck
Christine Durham & George Durham
Clyde E. Ellis, Jr. & Lee H. Ellis
Daniel Ellsworth
John D. Feldmann & Katherine T. Feldmann
Jennifer L. Geddes
Charles A. Gillespie
Amy L. Graeser
Sarah A. Hoffman & Ian S. Hoffman
Joshua C. Hurwitz
T. Floyd Irby, Jr. & Christine F. Irby
Cynthia C. Kean & Andrew V. Kean
Charles T. Mathewes
Kevin P. Mitchell & Lisa Jensen Mitchell
Hannah G. Moriarty
Jane Dawkins Murphy
L. Paul Nelson, II & Lee Melchor-Nelson
Teresa T. Nguyen & Obie N. Quelland
Lincoln C. Oliphant & Donna B. Oliphant
John Durham Peters
Sarah Gauche Pickell & Travis R. Pickell
George D. Randels, Jr.
C. Rebecca Rine & P. Jesse Rine
Carleton R. Rio & Sonja E. Rio
Michael E. Roche
Hyde Mckinney Russell
Therese Seiberlich & William Seiberlich
Brian K. Sixbey & Shannon K. Sixbey
Matthew J. Skapars
Rena M. Snow & Duane E. Snow
Janet E. Spittler
John D. Sykes, Jr. & Mrs. Rebecca C. Sykes
David N. Weidman
Rachel M. Weidman
T. Scott White
Anonymous
Gift in Honor of Emma Seiberlich
Gift in Honor of Harry Y. Gamble, Jr.
Gift in Honor of Kathleen Flake