{"id":373,"date":"2020-02-28T21:18:36","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T21:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-religious-studies\/?page_id=373"},"modified":"2026-03-05T18:28:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:28:48","slug":"news","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/religious-studies\/about\/news\/","title":{"rendered":"Department News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veils in the ancient world<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Susanna Drake, professor of religious studies, published Veiling in the Late Antique World<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>The book explores how veiling functioned in everyday life and religious practice in the ancient Mediterranean, and how it signaled meanings such as virtue, status, grief, and reverence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drake said she relished sharing her research with students, colleagues, and community audiences and traveling to sites such as Roman and Neapolitan catacombs, Herculaneum, and Byzantine churches to study the art of veiling in antiquity firsthand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled that all of this research and wonder is now gathered in a book that is out in the real world,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversations in her Macalester course, The Veil in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, also helped shape the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFormer students such as Lydia Bremer-McCollum, Daniel Picus, and Olivia Dimka supported this book project at pivotal points in its inception and publication,\u201d Drake said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Veiling<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Grant opens path to Buddhist Studies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Professors Erik Davis (Religious Studies) and Jake Nagasawa (American Studies) were awarded an Academic Development Grant from the Khyentse Foundation for the project \u201cCourse Development: Foundations of Buddhist Studies at Macalester.\u201d The grant will support the creation of a new course introducing students to Buddhist Studies as an academic discipline, tracing Buddhist philosophical and institutional development from its origins through the rise of Mah\u0101y\u0101na traditions. The course also will include a community engagement component, with field visits to Buddhist temples across the Twin Cities, connecting students with the diverse Cambodian, Thai, Vietnamese, Tibetan, and other Buddhist communities in Minnesota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Bill Hart on panel: “Black Writers Writing While Black” presented by Vanderbilt University Department of African American and Diaspora Studies and Callie House Research Center<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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LNP<\/em> | F&M professor\u2019s book explores the contentious dispute in modern Islam between 2 theologies<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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SherAli Tareen ’05, associate professor of religious studies at Franklin and Marshall College, is the author of “Defending Muhammad in Modernity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History and Religious Studies Mini-Symposium<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Of Blasphemy and Miracles: New Approaches to Old Catholic Puzzles<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

In collaboration with the History and Spanish and Portuguese Departments the Religious Studies Department is sponsoring two dynamic individuals at a mini-symposium Sunday, March 8, at 4 p.m. in Arts Commons 102<\/strong>. <\/b>The speaking engagement is titled “Of Blasphemy and Miracles: New Approaches to Old Catholic Puzzles.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

University of San Francisco Professor Katrina Olds\u2019s work focuses on early modern Spanish history. Her research interests include popular culture and religion; Counter-Reformation history and hagiography; the history of the book; and religious and intellectual exchange in Spain and the Americas. She is a Macalester alum, and when she was at Macalester, she concentrated in Religious Studies and Spanish, wrote an honors thesis on the Virgin of Guadalupe, and studied abroad in the Dominican Republic, where she learned to speak Spanish, got to see the pope (from very far away), and became fascinated with popular Catholicism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Karin V\u00e9lez is a member of the faculty of Macalester College. She received her doctorate from the History Department of Princeton University and her research interests  include the history of the Atlantic World, early Modern Iberian and French empires, and popular religion. She has received several awards for her recently published book \u201c\u200bThe Miraculous Flying House of Loreto: Spreading Catholicism in the Early Modern World.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Lecture in 5 Tweets” from Candace Mixon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Lecture<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Visiting Assistant Professor Candace Mixon participated in the @Macalester<\/a> Twitter account’s “Lecture in 5 Tweets” series, tweeting a lesson about Islamic art to the Macalester community. Check out the thread here!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Erik Davis is quoted in The Phnom Penh Post<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Read the article here: \u201cHow serious are Cambodia\u2019s land rights protesters about their curses?\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian Lee Novetzke ’93 writes book<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\"Jacob_Bessen.JPG\"<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A new book, The Quotidian Revolution – Vernacularization, Religion, and the Premodern Public Sphere in India<\/em> by Christian Lee Novetzke ’93, was published by Columbia University press in 2016. Novetzke is professor of religious studies, South Asia studies, and global studies at the University of Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacob Bessen ’17 publishes article in JUIS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\"Jacob_Bessen.JPG\"<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Jacob Bessen\u2019s \u201817 article, Worship and Success in Global Capitalism: West African Pentecostal Immigrants in The Netherlands, was published in JUIS<\/a>, Journal of Undergraduate International Studies, Spring 2016 Issue.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veils in the ancient world Susanna Drake, professor of religious studies, published Veiling in the Late Antique World. The book explores how veiling functioned in everyday life and religious practice in the ancient Mediterranean, and how it signaled meanings such as virtue, status, grief, and reverence. Drake said she relished sharing her research with students, colleagues, and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":0,"parent":107,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-373","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/religious-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/religious-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/religious-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/religious-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/religious-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/religious-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":973,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/religious-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/373\/revisions\/973"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/religious-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/religious-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}