University of Minnesota
Religious Studies
rels@umn.edu
612-624-5233


Religious Studies' home page.

People

Director

Jeanne H. Kilde, Director and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Religion in America, Religious Space and architecture
150C Nicholson Hall
612-625-6393
jkilde@umn.edu

Director of Graduate Studies

Ann B. Waltner, Institute for Advanced Study and Department of History
Law, World History, Gender, Traditional Chinese Social History
waltn001@umn.edu

Steering Committee Members

Iraj Bashiri, Department of History
Islam, Central Asian Studies, Middle East
bashi001@umn.edu

Spencer Cole, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies
Religious debate and deification at Rome
secole@umn.edu

Jeanne H. Kilde, Director and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Religion in America, Religious Space and architecture
jkilde@umn.edu

Nabil I. Matar, Department of English
English 17th-century religious literature, Mysticism, Modern Arabic literature
matar010@umn.edu

Natan Paradise, CLA Student Services

Paul F. Rouzer, Department of Asian Languages and Literatures
Buddhism, traditions of the supernatural in East Asia, East Asian poetry and poetics
prouzer@umn.edu

Ann B. Waltner, Institute for Advanced Study and Department of History
Law, World History, Gender, Traditional Chinese Social History
waltn001@umn.edu

Core Faculty and Staff

Bernard Bachrach, Department of History
Medieval Jewish-Christian relations, history of the Crusades
bachr001@umn.edu

William O. Beeman, Department of Anthropology
Islam, Middle Eastern religion and anthropology
wbeeman@umn.edu

Matthew Canepa, Department of Art History
Art, architecture, urbanism and ritual power in western Asia and the eastern Mediterranean with a particular focus on ancient Iran, the Hellenistic East and the late Roman Empires
mpcanepa@umn.edu

Penny A. Edgell, Department of Sociology
Culture, Gender, Religion
edgell@umn.edu

Kirsten Fischer, Department of History
American Religious History, Women, Gender, and sexuality in early America
kfischer@umn.edu

Peter Harle, CLA Advising

Jasper Hopkins, Department of Philosophy
History of Medieval and of Renaissance Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
hopkins@umn.edu

Alex Jassen, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies
Dead Sea scrolls, Hebrew Bible, Study of Judaism and Christianity in antiquity
jassen@umn.edu

Ruth Karras, Department of History
Medieval European history, the Medieval Church, history of marriage
rmk@umn.edu

Bernard Levinson, Department of Classical & Near Eastern Studies
Hebrew Bible, Jewish studies, history of interpretation, literary approaches to biblical studies, divine revelation
levinson@umn.edu

Riv-Ellen Prell, Department of American Studies
Anthropology of America, Cultural studies of American Jews and Judaism
prell001@umn.edu

Philip H. Sellew, Department of Classical & Near Eastern Studies
Greek and Roman Religion, New Testament Studies, Early Christianity
psellew@umn.edu

J. B. Shank, Department of History
History of Western philosophy, science, and religion
jbshank@umn.edu

John Soderberg, Department of Anthropology
Archaeology of medieval northern Europe, Clonmacnoise, monasticism
sode0018@umn.edu

Theofanis Stavrou, Department of History
Religious history of Russia in the twentieth century
stavr001@umn.edu

Affiliated Faculty and Staff

Hakim Abderrezak, Department of French and Italian
French and Francophone (language, literature and culture), French immigration policies, Maghrebi cinema, North African and Caribbean literature
abder002@umn.edu

Cawo Abdi, Department of Sociology
Migration; transnationalism; Islam, race, class, and gender; globalization
cabdi@umn.edu

Anjelica Afanador-Pujol, Department of Art History
art and architecture of the native peoples of Mesoamerica and the Andes from 1700 B.C. to A.D. 1700
afana003@umn.edu

Catherine Asher, Department of Art History
Cultural production of South Asia and the Islamic world
asher001@umn.edu

Dean Billmeyer, School of Music
Organ, analysis and techniques of sacred music
dwb@umn.edu

Jeffrey Broadbent, Department of Sociology
Religious cultural influence and social action in East Asian society
broad001@umn.edu

David Chang, Department of History
Race and ethnicity in Hawai'i and the United States; religion in the politics of agrarian socialism
dchang@umn.edu

Maria Damon, Department of English
Jewish and other diaspora poetries
damon001@umn.edu

Susan Gangl, Wilson Library
Librarian for Jewish Studies, Philosophy, and Religious Studies
s-gang@umn.edu

Michael Gaudio, Department of Art History
Visual culture of early modern Europe, Protestant Reformation
gaudio@umn.edu

Michelle Hamilton, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Jews, Muslims, and Christians in medieval Iberia; Maimonides, Ibn Rush, Christian mystics, Moriscos, mysticism
hamilton@umn.edu

Katherine Hayes, Department of Anthropology
Historical archaeology and material culture, early colonial entanglements of European settlers, Native Americans and enslaved Africans in North America
kathayes@umn.edu

Alan Love, Department of Philosophy
Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Science, Science and Religion
aclove@umn.edu

Susan J. Noakes, Department of French and Italian
Women's Studies, The Global Middle Ages
noake001@umn.edu

Steven F. Ostrow, Department of Art History
Early modern Italian visual culture, post-Tridentine period and seventeenth-century sculpture and art theory
ostro133@umn.edu

Thomas Pepper, Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature
Philosophy of religion of modernity (Kierkegaard), theory of the text and interpretation
tapepper@umn.edu

Derk Renwick, Program in Religious Studies
Philosophy of aesthetics: the sublime, biblical studies, critical pedagogy
renwick@umn.edu

Ozayr Saloojee, School of Architecture
Questions of tradition and modernity in Islamic Architecture, spatial concepts in the Abrahamic faiths, Contested terrains/landscapes
saloojee@umn.edu

Andrew Scheil, Department of English
Late antique and early medieval theology, exegesis, and literature; anti-Semitism; religion and literature (esp. poetry)
ascheil@umn.edu

Daniel J. Schroeter, Department of History
Jewish studies, Middle East, North Africa
schro800@umn.edu

Hoon Song, Department of Anthropology
Theories of religion, witchcraft, divination, sorcery, shamanism
songx080@umn.edu

Shaden Tageldin, Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature
19th- and 20th-century literatures in English, Arabic, French, Empire and postcolonial studies, Critical translation theory, Politics of language, literary form, genre, Histories and ideologies of comparative literature, Aesthetics and biologics of race, nation, culture, Literatures of migration and diaspora
tageldin@umn.edu

Hernan Vidal, Emeritus, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Theology of liberation
vidal001@umn.edu

John Watkins, Department of English
Reformation cultural history, apocalypticism in modern American culture
watki005@umn.edu