News from the Religious Studies Chair December 2015

January is an especially busy month this year as we are interviewing candidates for our tenure-track position in Biblical Studies. We look forward to announcing the name of our new colleague in due course.  

In December, Chris Jensen (PhD student, Asian) attended a ceremony at Foguang shan Temple of Toronto along with myself and a  representative from University Advancement. Chris was the recipient of a scholarship in Chinese Buddhism from the Temple and was able to thank the donors in person. We very much appreciate the generous support from Foguang shan temple for our students.

Conference Participation and Invited Talks

Philippa Carter was co-presenter with the lead researcher, Nancy Fenton and three other Impact Fellows for “Developing Communities of Innovative Pedagogies” at MIIETL's conference, Research on Teaching and Learning: Cultivating Communities.

At the annual meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies in Boston, Dana Hollander led a roundtable discussion on “Teaching Rabbinic Literature." 

She also led a one-day workshop, “Thinking with Rabbinic Texts,” at the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, Boston University. The workshop was organized by Dr. Hollander along with Yonatan Brafman (Jewish Theological Seminary of America), Chaya Halberstam (King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario), and Randi Rashkover (George Mason University).

Liyakat Takim gave a paper on “Shi’ism in the Diaspora” at a workshop on “Lines of Identity: Middle Eastern Diasporas in North America,” University of Manitoba, Winnipeg.

Interviews

James Benn gave three interviews about his recent book Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History (University of Hawai'i Press, 2015).

Podcast interview with Marginalia, LA Review of Books; podcast interview with Carla Nappi for New Books in East Asian Studies; transcript of a recent interview in Chinese.

Graduate Student Publications

Graham Baker (PhD candidate, Western), Review of Todd Hartch, The Prophet of Cuernavaca: Ivan Illich and the Crisis of the West (Oxford, 2015) in Studies in Religion 44.4 (2015).

Alumni News

Glen Graham (PhD western 2011) has been appointed to a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of Humanities at Burman University, Lacombe Alberta. Congratulations, Glen! 

Eric Montgomery (PhD Biblical, 2013) is taking up a position as Assistant Professor of New Testament at Evangelical Theological Seminary (a branch of the Asian Christian Academy) in Hosur, India. The family will be moving in the coming year and they hope to visit Hamilton once more before leaving for India. Good luck in your new role, Eric!
 

Andrew Perrin (Phd Biblical, currently assistant Professor at Trinity Western University) won a 2016 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise for his monograph The Dynamics of Dream-Vision Revelation in the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015).  http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/fiit/preistraeger2015_en.html Congratulations, Andrew!

Ron Srigley (PhD, Western field) published "Dear Parents: Everything You Need to Know About Your Son and Daughter’s University But Don’t” in  the Los Angeles Review of Books. The piece has been much read and commented upon.   

And Finally...

Thanks for reading December's News from the Chair.  Please let me know of any errors or omissions.  Please remember that you can always find the department on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.