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Religious Studies Recent Successes

Miriam Levering

  • In November, Miriam Levering was elected Vice President (aka program chair), with the dread fate of becoming President, of the Society for Buddhist Christian Studies.  The society holds annual meetings, international conferences every five years, and publishes a journal whose articles are available on JSTOR called Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies.

Rosalind Gwynne

  • Rosalind Gwynne's article "Usama bin Ladin, the Qur'an and Jihad" received the most online hits of all the articles "Religion" (Vol. 16, no. 2, June 2006 p. 61-90, pub. Elsevier) had published in 2007, and the third largest number in the previous year, 2006.

Johanna Stiebert

  • Johanna Stiebert had a 34-page article accepted for publication in the journal Old Testament Essays 20/3 (2007), entitled "Shame and the Body in Psalms and Lamentations of the Hebrew Bible and in Thanksgiving Hymns from Qumran."

  • In 2005, Johanna Stiebert's second book was published, "The Exile and the Prophet's Wife: Historic Events and Marginal Perspectives" (Interfaces Series. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press).

  • Johanna Stiebert contributed a chapter to a forthcoming textbook for the continent of Africa, entitled "An Introduction to the Study of Theology, Religion and Philosophy." My contribution therein is, "The Bible: The History of Interpretation and Methods."

  • In July 2007, Johanna Stiebert presented a paper at the African Association for the Study of Religion, held in Gaborone, Botswana. My title discussed the inappropriateness of the term "Holocaust" for the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa and was entitled, "The African Holocaust: What Is In A Name?"

  • Johanna Stiebert will be the Director for the Semester in Wales for fall 2008.

Mark Hulsether

  • Mark Hulsether co-published "Religion, Culture, and Politics in the Twentieth Century United States" in May 2007: New York: Columbia University Press (Columbia Religion and Politics Series) and Edinburgh University Press (British Association of American Studies Paperback Series).

  • In the past few months, Mark Hulsether has been invited to write four articles, each of which addresses an issue of public interest related US religion and will appear in a publication that reaches beyond a solely academic readership.  These include review essays on Jose
    Camilo Vergara’s book How the Other Half Worships for New Labor Forum and Matthew Sutton’s Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America for Reviews in American History.   They also include an article called “After Niebuhr” for Reinhold Niebuhr Revisited: Engagements with an American Original (Eerdman’s) and a critique of the so-called “New Atheist” phenomenon for a collection called The Edge of Reason: Science and Religion in Modern Society (Continuum).

Rachelle Scott

  • Rachelle Scott received a book contract from SUNY for my book entitled, Nirvana for Sale?: Buddhism, Wealth, and the Dhammakaya Temple in Contemporary Thailand. 

Christine Shepardson

  • Dr. Tina Shepardson, Assistant Professor of Early Christianity, has recently won two national awards to support her current research on Christianity in the fourth-century city of Antioch (modern Antakya, Turkey).  Dr. Shepardson is currently working on her second book, which will demonstrate that fourth-century Christian leaders in Antioch rhetorically and physically manipulated the physical places in the city in order to try to win an intense religious and political struggle over the definition of Christian orthodoxy.  A Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society will allow Dr. Shepardson to travel to Antakya, Turkey later this spring in order to do research for her project, and a Summer Stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities will fund two months of her research and writing over the summer. 

  • Christine Shepardson's book manuscript was accepted for publication: Anti-Judaism and Christian Orthodoxy: Ephrem’s Hymns in Fourth-Century Syria (Washington, D.C.: CUA, 2008). 

  • Christine Shepardson organized a panel of distinguished scholars for the annual SBL conference in San Diego, November 2007.

  • Christine Shepardson have recently presented 3 papers at national and international conferences:
    • “Augustine and Ephrem on Judaism,” SBL, San Diego, CA, November 2007.
    •  “Reading Regional ‘Realities’: Fourth-century Judaizers in Antioch and Edessa” SBL, San Diego, CA, November 2007.
    • “Burying Babylas: Meletius of Antioch and the Spatial Politics of Christianization,” XVInternational Conference on Patristic Studies, Oxford, August 2007.

  • Christine Shepardson had three articles published:
    • “Controlling Contested Places: John Chrysostom’s Adversus Iudaeos Homilies and the Spatial Rhetoric of Religious Controversy,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 15.4 (December 2007): 483-516.
    • “Defining the Boundaries of Orthodoxy: Eunomius in the Anti-Jewish Polemic of his Cappadocian Opponents,” Church History 76.4 (December 2007): 699-723.
    • “Paschal Politics: Deploying the Temple’s Destruction against Fourth-Century
      Judaizers,” Vigiliae Christianae 62.2 (March 2008), forthcoming.

  • Christine Shepardson had one book review published:
    • Review of Christianization and Communication in Late Antiquity: John Chrysostom and his  Congregation in Antioch, by Jaclyn Maxwell. Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, 76.4 (December 2007): 823-824.

  • For the third year, Christine Shepardson remained the Project Director and Chair of UTK’s faculty seminar, “The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity.”  In this role, I have organized 15 seminar sessions for the 2007-2008 academic year, including bringing four outside scholars to campus, and presenting my own work for discussion at the September meeting: “Rewriting Julian’s Legacy: Dating Chrysostom’s De S. Babyla in light of Libanius’s Oration 24.”

  • August 2007, Christine Shepardson was selected as one of UTK’s two nominees for the NEH Summer Stipend.

Gilya G. Schmidt

  • May 2007: Jewish Museum of Jebenhausen, Germany: Inivited lecture, "Das Schicksal der Suessener Juden."

  • July 2007: Two invited lectures on Judaism and the Holocaust at Shanghai University.

  • 2007-2008:  Core participant in UT Research Seminar on Modern Germany and Central Europe, funded by College of Arts & Sciences Humanities Initiative.  This is our second year.  Lecture on "Requsitions-Restitution-Reparations: The Story of the 'Judenhaus' in Suessen."

  • Spring and summer 2007:  McClung Museum: In conjunction with Marco semester, participated in writing catalog copy for "Sacred Beauty" exhibition, docent training, and public lecture on Judaism.  Exhibition ran from August 2007-Jan. 6, 2008. 

  • Ongoing:  Serving fourth term as Commissioner appointed by Gov. Bredesen on Tennessee Holocaust Commission (about 14 years).

  • Summer 2007:  Wrote preface to book of photographs of Holocaust survivors and liberators by Professor Rob Heller, published by UT Press in conjunction with Tennessee Holocaust Commission.  Publication date 2008.  This book is an outcome of a photography project sponsored by the THC and partially funded by the Claims Commission to document all living TN Holocaust survivors and concentration camp liberators.  We produced a traveling exhibition of museum quality that has traveled throughout TN and to Warsaw, Poland.

  • Fall 2007: Humanities Initiative Wednesday lunch presentation, "Can Grand Larceny and Good Neighboring Exist Side-by-Side? The Case of Two Jewish Families During the Nazi Era."

  • December 2007: Research trip to Cuba for book project below.

  • Work-in-progress: Book manuscript, "Suezza -- No Grazing Land for Jews," on rural German Jewry.  Hope to complete in 2008.

  • July 2008:  Returning to China for more lecturing.  

Rosalind I.J. Hackett

 PUBLICATIONS
Submitted
Edited Books

  • Proselytization Revisited: Rights Talk, Free Markets, and Culture Wars. (editor) London: Equinox Publishers (publication 08).

Chapters

  • “Revisiting Proselytization in the Twenty-first Century.” Introduction to: Proselytization Revisited: Rights Talk, Free Markets, and Culture Wars. London: Equinox Publishers (submitted, publication 08).
  • “Devil Bustin' Satellites: How Media Liberalization in Africa Generates Religious Intolerance and Conflict.”  In: Religion in African Conflicts and Peacebuilding Initiatives: Problems and Prospects for a Globalizing Africa. University of Notre Dame Press (submitted) co-edited with Sakah Mahmud and James Smith.  
  • “Foreword.” In Wanda Alberts, Integrative Religious Education in Europe: A Study-of-Religions Approach (New York:  Mouton de Gruyter) (2007).

Published
Chapters

  • “The Religious Dimension of War and Peace: Opening Remarks.” Religion and Society: an Agenda for the Twenty-first Century.  Leiden: Brill, pp. [short]
  • “Competing Universalisms: New Discourses of Emancipation in the African Context.”  In:  La rationalité, une ou plurielle? ed. Paulin Houtondji.  Dakar: CODESRIA, Paris: UNESCO, 163-171.

Articles
Note: I was pleased to be commissioned to do two pieces for the American Bar Association for two of their publications:

PAPERS PRESENTED/TALKS

  • African Studies Association, October 2007
  • Keynote speeches/presentations: Germany, Botswana, Thailand
  • Talks on my research on religion and media in Africa: India, the Netherlands, Canada, Nigeria

PANELS ORGANIZED

  • American Academy of Religion Nov 07 (on my forthcoming book Proselytization Revisited)
  • American Anthropological Association Dec 07 (on my forthcoming book Proselytization Revisited)

CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION

  • Symposium on “Assessing the Humanitarian Situation in Northern Uganda” Nov 2, 07 UT (featured Ugandan speakers)
  • Member, International Committee, 2nd South and Southeast Asian Association for the Study of Culture and Religion (SSEASR) Conference, Thailand (May 2007)

ACTIVITIES
Grants received
2007    Ready for the World grant ($4000) (June 07) to travel to Uganda with students
            2007    Center for International Education Development Grant Fund (UT) ($1500) (June)

Consultancy

  • Invited to join planning committee for a major conference on Religion and Human Rights organized by the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Human Rights at the University of Connecticut in 2008.
  • Invited to serve 2007-11 as an Associated Member, Research Group on Social Movements and Political Culture, African Studies Centre, Leiden http://www.ascleiden.nl/Research/SocialMovementsAndPoliticalCulture.aspx
  • Invited to serve on the British Government’s Commissioning Panel for the ESRC/AHRC/FCO 'Radicalisation' and Violence – A Critical Reassessment programme (June 2007)
  • Invited to serve on the British Government’s Advisory Board for the ESRC/AHRC/FCO 'Radicalisation' and Violence – A Critical Reassessment programme (2008-09).
  • Invited to deliver a paper on Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa and the Media at a Conference on Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa organized by the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, U.S. Department of State and the National Intelligence Council, Washington, DC, December 13, 2007

Professional

  • Presidency of the International Association for the History of Religions—the worldwide body for the academic study of religion  2005-10 (renewable to 15)
  • Created and launched with Professor Morny Joy (Canada) the IAHR Women Scholars Network www.iahr.dk/wsn
  • Member, Congress Academic Program Committee, IAHR World Congress, Toronto (2010)

Outreach

  • Knoxville Jazz for Justice founder and coordinator www.knoxjazzforjustice.org.  Organized two major benefit concerts in Knoxville in September 06 and November 07.  Raised $15,000 to date for Northern Uganda girls’ education and trauma counseling.
  • Organized visit of 2 UT students and one musician to Uganda, Botswana, and South Africa in July 07
  • Organized Good Karma Gardening Circle (mainly UT faculty), to do public gardening at Highlander Research and Education Center, New Market, TN