Graduate Assistants
Elizabeth Cecil
Email: ececil1@utk.edu
I am from Hastings, Nebraska, where I attended Hastings College and graduated in 2005 with a double major in Philosophy and Religious Studies. I studied under a former instructor from UT’s Department of Religious Studies, Dan Deffenbaugh. Thanks to the Rotary Youth Exchange program, I was able to spend a year living and traveling in India in 2003-04. As a result of this experience, I developed an interest in religion generally and Hinduism specifically.
Through the Master’s program in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee I have been able to further develop my interest in religion in India through the exploration of a variety of topics. In the last semester I have completed papers on Samkhya philosophy, Yoga, religious nationalism, and the role of women in the performance of Tantric rituals. This semester I plan to focus my studies on South India, and have begun reading classical Tamil poetry and the Tamil epic Shilappadikaram. I am interested in studying further the roles of women in the South Indian social context, and how these roles are reflected in, and shaped by, the religious texts and practices of the region.
Next year I will begin my training in the Sanskrit language, and I am also interested in studying the Tamil language in the future.
Steven Chan
Email: schan@utk.edu
I am from Knoxville, TN. I completed a double major in psychology and religious studies from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in the Fall of 2003. Then I entered into the graduate program for religious studies here at UT in the Fall of 2005. I have always had an interest in Chinese culture and Chinese religion, Taoism in particular.
I study Tai Chi, a Chinese Martial Art, which utilizes many Taoist principles in the movements of the body. I have studied some classical Taoist texts: Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu.
This semester my studies will focus on East Asian Buddhism, Cha’n in particular which borrows some elements from Taoism and incorporates them into a Buddhist framework. I will also be focusing on Pre-modern Chinese Buddhist sects and how they affected Chinese politics and religious beliefs. I am also studying the Chinese language, and learning proper grammar and usage.
Graduate Students
Bob Barth
Email: barthrc@roanestate.edu
This is my twenty-second year as a professor at Roane State Community College where I have a dual appointment in Mathematics and Philosophy. I served a three year term as Curriculum Chair of the Academic Development Mathematics Department, soon founded the Philosophy Department and still serve as its Curriculum Chair. I developed online courses in world religions for both Roane State and the Regents Online Degree Program, a division of the Tennessee Board of Regents. I received the Regents Award for Innovative Teaching in Distance Education in 1999. Last year I developed the elementary ethics course in philosophy for the RODP. I serve as a Course Content Mentor for the Tennessee Board of Regents. Recently I received the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member at Roane State. I am the 2005-6 recipient of the Sarah Ellen Benroth Award for teaching excellence.
I’ve had an interest in religion throughout my academic career even though I majored in Mathematics and Physics as an undergraduate and studied Mathematics and Philosophy in graduate school. A few years ago I came back to UT as a graduate student in Religious Studies where I found I had myriad interests. Hermeneutics is the one underlying strand that unites these various interests for me. Hermeneutics and literary criticism form the basis of my recent interest concerning biblical interpretation and homosexuality.
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.
AB Johnson
Email: ajohns32@utk.edu