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2009-2010 Edition
New cupola installed on Christian Center tower October 6!
TEACHING
We reported last year that the first holder of our gift-supported Teaching Fellow position was Annie Blakeney-Glazer, PhD candidate in Religion and Culture at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Since then she has successfully defended her dissertation and successfully consolidated her last name, so she's now Dr. Annie Blazer, and we're fortunate that she is able to continue here one more year. In fall 2009, she's teaching Introduction to Islam as well as a Core 1 section. In spring 2010 she's scheduled to teach "Sports and Christianity" and "Religion on the Internet" as well as a Core 5 class.
Dr. Blazer took a contingent of Religion on the Internet students to present their work at an undergraduate religious studies conference at Hendrix College in April.
Darby Ray is on sabbatical leave in 2009-2010. While she works on a commissioned book on the meaning of work, Steve Smith is teaching her Meaning of Work course in fall 2009.
Lola Williamson traveled to the Southeastern AAR meeting (see below) with her Ford Fellow, Candice Fisher.
SCHOLARSHIP
Annie Blazer presented "'I Am Not a Lesbian': Christian Athletics and Gender Transgression" at the AAR national meeting in Chicago in November 2008, and "Accidentally in Love: Narrative Strategies in X-Men Fanvids" at the Popular Culture Association meeting in New Orleans in April 2009.
James Bowley and his co-editors have completed the second massive volume of the The Dead Sea Scrolls Concordance (Leiden: Brill, 2009). He also reports progress during his sabbatical on his commentary on the biblical book of Judith. As Alumnus in Residence at Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati), he gave lectures on "Rethinking the Concept of Bible," "Sharing Memes and Traditions in a Jewish, Christian, and Muslim World," and "The Academy and Professors of Religion."
Darby Ray's co-authored paper on "The Religious Studies Major and Liberal Education" was published by the Teagle Foundation in Spring 2009.
Steve Smith recently published "Historical Meaningfulness in Shared Action," History and Theory, 48 (February 2009), 1-19; "The Work of Service: Levinas's Eventual Philosophy of Culture," Levinas Studies, Vol. 4 (Pittsburgh: Duquesne U., 2009); and "Hooks," Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 67 (Summer 2009), 311-319. See also his hooks essay blog where philosophical and religious studies content seeps in from time to time.
Lola Williamson's newly titled book Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religion (New York: New York University Press) will be out in January 2010. She gave a presentation at the 2009 Southeastern AAR in Greensboro, NC on "The Intersection of Indian and Non-Indian Hindus in Jackson, Mississippi." At the upcoming national AAR meeting in November in Montreal, she will be presenting “American Models of the Guru-Disciple Relationship” and “Creation of Social and Religious Meaning in Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements.” A chapter, “Death is Not Final: Attitudes toward Dying, Death and Medicalization among American Hindus” appears in Religion, Death, and Dying in America, ed. Lucy Bregman (New York: Praeger, 2009).
LOUNGING
With the support of Religious Studies gift money, and thanks to the taste and intrepid efforts of Dr. Amy Forbes of the History Department, the Christian Center now has a bona fide lounge in CC-17 (formerly known as the Blue Room).
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