Graduate Assistants
No new graduate students were admitted after 2007
Graduate Students
Andrea Cartwright
Email: ancart50@hotmail.com
My interest in UTK’s Department of Religious Studies emanated from my 30-year career as Knoxville’s pioneer yoga teacher. Their faculty provided for me the support and guidance I needed for my area of undergraduate study in Individualized Majors that involved cultural myths. After obtaining a B.A. degree, I founded and directed the Kailasa Institute, a non-profit educational organization; subsequently, I authored and co-produced a weekly TV program on Hatha Yoga, taught exercise and stress management to Knoxville’s business and medical communities, and became a nationally certified Bodywork Therapist specializing in Craniosacral Therapy. I then pursued graduate studies in UTK’s Department of Continuing and Higher Education and, as part of the M.S. degree, I was awarded a fellowship to attend the internationally known Ontario Institute for Studies in Adult Education, where I was trained in teaching styles for adult learners. Later on, through participation in UTK’s Interdisciplinary Colloquy Program, I became interested in psychology and the study of history through literature. This led to an interest in European intellectual history and the use of philosophy and critical theory as literary interpretative methods. To realize my need for a fuller understanding of historical, social, political, and religious issues affecting our world today, I chose to enroll in the Department of Religious Studies’ Graduate Program. My thesis, which involves interpretation of Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella, Death in Venice, explores the bases for the events leading to the profound cultural changes that occurred in Germany from 1910 to 1930. I have been aided in this endeavor by the faculty of my department and professors in the Departments of English and Modern Language and Literature. I very much appreciate their interest and assistance in my educational endeavors and teaching me how to apply an interdisciplinary approach to the study of humanity.