Penn Religious Studies
The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
https://rels.sas.upenn.edu
- POSTPONED: Unfortunately, we have had to postpone our colloquium event with Paulina Kolata this week. Please watch this space for a revised date for this event when we have it.
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- Our RELS colloquium series for spring semester begins next week with Prof. Paulina Kolata (Harvard) @paulakolata.bsky.social, who will be giving the E. Dale Saunders Buddhist Studies Lecture on "The Trouble with Buddhist Gifts: The Ethics of Ritual Care in Contemporary Japan"!
- Happening tomorrow!
- Our final colloquium of the calendar year, happening this Thursday! ------------------------------ The Sound of Mormonism Jared Farmer (University of Pennsylvania History Department) Dec 4, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204
- RELS PhD candidate Kirby Sokolow has been profiled in the latest issue of Penn’s Omnia magazine! You can read the full interview with her about her research into Buddhism and prisons here: omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/prison... Congratulations, Kirby!
- Happening tomorrow!
- Our next Religious Studies colloquium event! -------------------- Moving Up the Cosmic Pole: Strategies for Legitimating Religious Authority in Buddhist Texts RELS Colloquium Ralph Craig (Whitman) Nov 13, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204
- A reminder that there is no RELS colloquium this week! Our next colloquium event will be held on Thursday, Nov. 13. We’ll be hosting Prof. Ralph Craig (Whitman) who will be giving a talk titled Moving Up the Cosmic Pole: Strategies for Legitimating Religious Authority in Buddhist Texts.
- Prof. Justin McDaniel led a group of graduate and undergraduate students on a trip to Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn Mansion in the Philadelphia suburbs this past weekend! Students took a tour of the mansion and the cathedral and listened to a lecture on the history of the Swedenborgians.
- A reminder that we have no colloquium event this week! However, our affiliated program, the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins, is holding a book event on Zoom with Prof. Ellen Muehlberger (Michigan) from 6:30–8:00 pm on Thursday, Oct. 30. Details here: rels.sas.upenn.edu/events/2025/...
- Did you miss our information session for prospective doctoral students with graduate chair Prof. Schaefer and graduate coordinator Katelyn Stoler on Oct. 13? Check out the recording here! www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4U6...
- Happening today! Please consider attending if you're thinking about applying for our doctoral program.
- Interested in applying for the PHD program in Religious Studies at Penn? Join graduate chair Donovan Schaefer and graduate coordinator Katelyn Stoler for this online information session and Q&A on Oct. 13! No registration required. Details at this link! rels.sas.upenn.edu/events/2025/...
- We're holding an online information session for prospective doctoral applicants on Monday at 5:30 ET! Details at this link: rels.sas.upenn.edu/events/2025/...
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- Exciting news from one of our alums! Dr. Abdul Manan Bhat, who completed his PhD earlier this year, has launched Preface, a new YouTube series dedicated to "thorny issues regarding literature, culture, and politics." The first episode has already racked up over 300,000 views! Check it out here!
- PhD candidate Kirby Sokolow's latest article, "Buddhist Exceptionalism Behind Bars," has just been published in the journal Pacific World as part of a special section on American Buddhism, Race, and Power. Congratulations, Kirby! pwj.shin-ibs.edu/2025/7191
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- Reposted by Penn Religious Studies[Not loaded yet]
- Interested in applying for the PHD program in Religious Studies at Penn? Join graduate chair Donovan Schaefer and graduate coordinator Katelyn Stoler for this online information session and Q&A on Oct. 13! No registration required. Details at this link! rels.sas.upenn.edu/events/2025/...
- Happening tomorrow!
- Our colloquium event this week! ------------------------- Domestic Nationalism: Muslim Women, Health and Modernity in Indonesia RELS Colloquium Chiara Formichi (Cornell) Oct 2, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204
- Come join us tomorrow for this exciting event!
- Happening this week in the Department of Religious Studies! ------------------------------ Black Freedom and the Racialization of Religious Excitement RELS Colloquium Judith Weisenfeld @judithweisenfeld.com (Princeton) Sep 25, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204
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- Happening this week in the Department of Religious Studies! ------------------------------ Black Freedom and the Racialization of Religious Excitement RELS Colloquium Judith Weisenfeld @judithweisenfeld.com (Princeton) Sep 25, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204
- Happening today!
- Prof. Schaefer, along with RELS alums Justin Seward and Olivia Haynie, has a new book project in the works!
- Our Religious Studies colloquium this week! Islamic Law, History, and Class in Early Nineteenth Century India Muhammad Qasim Zaman (Princeton) Sep 18, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204 Cosponsored by the Department of South Asia Studies
- RELS alumna Olivia Haynie has written this column for The Forward about her time working with Prof. Schaefer's False Image of History Project.
- Happening tomorrow! Our first RELS 2025–2026 colloquium featuring Elizabeth Ault @lizault.bsky.social (Senior Editor, Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social)! How (and Why) to Write an Academic Book in Impossible Times Thurs., Sept. 11, 3:30–5:00 pm Cohen 392
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- The first RELS 2025–2026 colloquium is a special event with Elizabeth Ault @lizault.bsky.social (Senior Editor, Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social)! How (and Why) to Write an Academic Book in Impossible Times Thurs., Sept. 11, 3:30–5:00 pm Cohen 392 rels.sas.upenn.edu/events/2025/...
- Congratulations to recent Religious Studies BA graduate Gabriella Raffetto, who debuted her new play "Skeletons" at the New York Theater Festival this summer! Read more about the play here: newyorktheaterfestival.com/skeletons/
- Here's Prof. Anthea Butler's latest for @msnbc.com, a commentary on the passing of James Dobson.
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- Take a look at what Prof. Schaefer has been up to with former RELS students Olivia Haynie and Justin Seward!
- Calling Penn alums! Prof. Robb is teaching a Lifelong Learning Seminar on "Can Sports Be a Religion?" featuring a series of prerecorded lectures and live online discussions! Details and registration at this link.
- Congratulations to doctoral candidate Claire Elliot, whose research on dreaming practices in Thailand will be supported by a Fulbright grant next year! penntoday.upenn.edu/news/penn-af...
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- Prof. Schaefer has a new article out today in @religiondispatches.org discussing the one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Scopes Trial on July 10, 1925. Check it out here! religiondispatches.org/of-monkeys-a... @sas.upenn.edu
- Did you miss our 2025 Boardman Symposium "The Scopes Trial at 100: Secularism, Race, and Education" in spring? The @sas.upenn.edu alumni magazine has published a detailed review here! thepenngazette.com/the-scopes-t... CW: This article contains a cartoon image depicting racist violence.
- The Graduate Group in Religious Studies is delighted to announce two successful doctoral defenses over the past week! Congratulations, Dr. Abdul Manan Bhat and Dr. Hallie Nell Swanson! Read more about their projects here: rels.sas.upenn.edu/news/2025/06...
- Prof. McDaniel's class on "Existential Despair" is the subject of a cover story in the newest issue of the Penn Gazette! thepenngazette.com/welcome-to-d...
- Congratulations to Dr. Jeremy Steinberg, who successfully defended his dissertation "How the Bible Became Literature: Jewish Assumptions about the Nature of Text in the Hellenistic Period" this week! rels.sas.upenn.edu/news/2025/04...
- REMINDER: Happening tomorrow!
- Our final colloquium event of the year takes place this Thursday! ---------------------------------- An Ethics of Completion: Russian Coloniality and Islamic Tradition in Kyrgyzstan RELS Colloquium Usmon Boron (@wolfhumanities.bsky.social) Apr 24, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204
- Our final colloquium event of the year takes place this Thursday! ---------------------------------- An Ethics of Completion: Russian Coloniality and Islamic Tradition in Kyrgyzstan RELS Colloquium Usmon Boron (@wolfhumanities.bsky.social) Apr 24, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204
- Happening tomorrow!
- Coincidence, Contradiction, Affect: On Spirited Knowing RELS Colloquium Emily Ng (Penn Anthropology) Apr 17, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204 A Zoom attendance option is available for this event. Please email Prof. Donovan Schaefer for the link.
- Happening tomorrow!
- "Toward the Human, After Man": A Sylvia Wynter Schematic RELS Colloquium Nathan Snaza (Richmond) Apr 10, 2025 at 3:30pm–5:00pm | Cohen 204 There is a Zoom attendance option for this event. Please email Prof. Donovan Schaefer at doschaef@upenn.edu for the link.
- Congratulations to PhD candidate Sam Herrmann, who has just been announced as the recipient of a 2025 Dissertation Research Award from the Graduate Division of Arts and Sciences! rels.sas.upenn.edu/news/2025/04...
