In May 2023, King Charles III was crowned with all the pomp and ceremony that the shrunken British Empire can still muster in the way of symbolic excess. It was a grand spectacle, made even more so by the extravagant regalia and ritual finery on display: the radiant emblems of rule encrusted with jewels, the …
Read MoreWhat happens when you load our Course Bulletin into ChatGPT and ask it to speak Gen Z? Read on to find out! REL R103 The Bible and Culture: Fulfills Cultural Understanding General Education Core requirement. A cultural introduction to this central text of Western civilization. Explores some of the Bible’s major themes and literatures in …
Read MoreOver the last academic year, two students Kayla McVeigh and Alondra Arriaga-Rosales, have been working as Religious Studies Community Engagement Associates (CEAs) with Dr. Kelly Hayes. As Community Engagement Associates Alondra and Kayla work with their faculty mentor on a community-centered project, conducting interviews, compiling a list of community contacts, and creating a final report …
Read MoreBy Prof. Tom Davis and Kayla McVeigh “A real conversation always contains an invitation. You are inviting another person to reveal herself or himself to you, to tell you who they are or what they want.” David Whyte About a year and a half ago, I found myself seated next to Jing Wang, a colleague …
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While I was still writing Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest (NYU Press, 2022), I became determined to take the book back to the places where its stories unfolded from the 1890s to the 1940s. At first, I thought that perhaps I should do one big road trip and …
Read MoreFall Semester is wrapping up and Spring is just around the corner! We’ve got lots of exciting courses on tap for Fall 2023 – and who knows, it could be the start of your journey to being a best-selling author like Indiana resident, John Green, who majored in Religious Studies at Kenyon College. Check out …
Read MorePeter J. Thuesen In the fall of 1989, I arrived as a freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with dreams of an eventual career in journalism or the foreign service. I was particularly fascinated by Russia—Mikhail Gorbachev was then pursing the reforms that would end in the Soviet Union’s collapse—but the …
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Dr. Kelly Hayes and Religious Studies major Alondra Arriaga-Rosales are working together on a project to strengthen the Religious Studies department’s ties with religious communities in central Indiana. With funding from IUPUI’s Community Engagement Program, this year-long project explores how the department can institutionalize our relationships with local religious communities in more intentional, enduring, and …
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Since 2018, Religious Studies professor David Craig has partnered with local congregations serving in neighborhoods across the near northside of Indianapolis. As the COVID-19 pandemic began in spring 2020, he co-led a team with Rev. Shonda Nicole Gladden, CEO, Good to the SOUL, to design and facilitate a virtual #HealthyMe learning community for historically-Black and …
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In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Indianapolis was home to a thriving, Arabic-speaking community whose legacy, though not well-known by many Hoosiers, has made a lasting impact on Indiana’s history. IU’s Edward Curtis, IV has spent the last few years working with IUPUI students to document the history of Arab Americans in Indianapolis. Through …
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