Penn Religious Studies
LightNews LightNews
banner
upennrels.bsky.social
Penn Religious Studies
@upennrels.bsky.social
660 followers 320 following 110 posts
The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

https://rels.sas.upenn.edu
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
upennrels.bsky.social
Penn Religious Studies @upennrels.bsky.social · Oct 14
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...
2025 Information Session for Penn RELS Doctoral Program Applicants
YouTube video by Penn Religious Studies
www.youtube.com
upennrels.bsky.social
Happening tomorrow!
upennrels.bsky.social Penn Religious Studies @upennrels.bsky.social · 4d
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
November 12, 2025 at 3:24 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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
November 10, 2025 at 11:17 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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.
November 3, 2025 at 10:13 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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.
Bryn Athyn Bryn Athyn Bryn Athyn Bryn Athyn
October 29, 2025 at 4:39 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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/...
October 27, 2025 at 10:58 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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...
2025 Information Session for Penn RELS Doctoral Program Applicants
YouTube video by Penn Religious Studies
www.youtube.com
October 14, 2025 at 6:50 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
Happening today! Please consider attending if you're thinking about applying for our doctoral program.
upennrels.bsky.social Penn Religious Studies @upennrels.bsky.social · Oct 2
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/...
RELS Information Session for Prospective Doctoral Students | Department of Religious Studies
rels.sas.upenn.edu
October 13, 2025 at 3:05 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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/...
RELS Information Session for Prospective Doctoral Students | Department of Religious Studies
rels.sas.upenn.edu
October 10, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Penn Religious Studies
religionlit.bsky.social
In a joint Buddhist Studies/SNRL event today Prof Justin McDaniel @upennrels.bsky.social provided our audience with some fascinating (and very funny) insights into his classes that encourage switching off, reading deeply and even taking temporary monastic vows. #digitaldetox @uoedivinity.bsky.social
Professor Justin McDaniel presenting his talk 'Living Deliberately through Existential Despair' in a lecture theatre
October 10, 2025 at 12:04 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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!
Preface Ep 1— The Eloquent Fool: Javed Akhtar and His Views on Religion
YouTube video by Dr. Bhat
www.youtube.com
October 9, 2025 at 9:22 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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
Buddhist Exceptionalism behind Bars
Part of a special section on American Buddhism, Race, and Power. Many Buddhist programs in US prisons focus on reforming incarcerated people. Often the leaders of these programs celebrate their inc…
pwj.shin-ibs.edu
October 7, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Penn Religious Studies
jolyonbt.bsky.social
If you are thinking of applying to our program, DEFINITELY attend this session. It will help you determine if the PhD is right for you and will also include tips on how to craft a competitive application.
upennrels.bsky.social Penn Religious Studies @upennrels.bsky.social · Oct 2
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/...
RELS Information Session for Prospective Doctoral Students | Department of Religious Studies
rels.sas.upenn.edu
October 2, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Penn Religious Studies
feelingtheory.bsky.social
Religious Studies folks: If you know any students thinking about applying for the PhD program at Penn, please send them this invitation to our online information session on Oct. 13!
upennrels.bsky.social Penn Religious Studies @upennrels.bsky.social · Oct 2
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/...
RELS Information Session for Prospective Doctoral Students | Department of Religious Studies
rels.sas.upenn.edu
October 3, 2025 at 3:20 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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/...
RELS Information Session for Prospective Doctoral Students | Department of Religious Studies
rels.sas.upenn.edu
October 2, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Penn Religious Studies
upennrels.bsky.social
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
Domestic Nationalism argues that Muslim women in Java and Sumatra, from the late 1910s to the 1950s, were central to Indonesia’s progress as guardians and promoters of health and piety through gendered activities of care work. Women from all walks of life were called upon to fulfill domestic and motherly roles for the production and socialization of laborers, soldiers, and citizens, and pushed against the boundaries imposed on them by states and patriarchal orders. In this talk I will discuss how they rearticulated scientific mothering, nationalist maternalism, and Islamic ideals of motherhood to create a public voice through gendered care work, and the methodological challenges of doing so. Chiara Formichi is Director of the Religious Studies Program and Professor in Asian Studies at Cornell University. She specializes on Islam in Southeast Asia focusing on the intersection of religion, politics and society in colonial and postcolonial Southeast Asia. Chiara’s third monograph, Domestic Nationalism: Muslim Women, Health, and Modernity in Indonesia is forthcoming with Stanford University Press. Cosponsored by the Penn Forum for Global Islamic Studies
September 29, 2025 at 2:33 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
Happening tomorrow!
upennrels.bsky.social Penn Religious Studies @upennrels.bsky.social · Sep 29
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
Domestic Nationalism argues that Muslim women in Java and Sumatra, from the late 1910s to the 1950s, were central to Indonesia’s progress as guardians and promoters of health and piety through gendered activities of care work. Women from all walks of life were called upon to fulfill domestic and motherly roles for the production and socialization of laborers, soldiers, and citizens, and pushed against the boundaries imposed on them by states and patriarchal orders. In this talk I will discuss how they rearticulated scientific mothering, nationalist maternalism, and Islamic ideals of motherhood to create a public voice through gendered care work, and the methodological challenges of doing so. Chiara Formichi is Director of the Religious Studies Program and Professor in Asian Studies at Cornell University. She specializes on Islam in Southeast Asia focusing on the intersection of religion, politics and society in colonial and postcolonial Southeast Asia. Chiara’s third monograph, Domestic Nationalism: Muslim Women, Health, and Modernity in Indonesia is forthcoming with Stanford University Press. Cosponsored by the Penn Forum for Global Islamic Studies
October 1, 2025 at 2:15 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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
Domestic Nationalism argues that Muslim women in Java and Sumatra, from the late 1910s to the 1950s, were central to Indonesia’s progress as guardians and promoters of health and piety through gendered activities of care work. Women from all walks of life were called upon to fulfill domestic and motherly roles for the production and socialization of laborers, soldiers, and citizens, and pushed against the boundaries imposed on them by states and patriarchal orders. In this talk I will discuss how they rearticulated scientific mothering, nationalist maternalism, and Islamic ideals of motherhood to create a public voice through gendered care work, and the methodological challenges of doing so. Chiara Formichi is Director of the Religious Studies Program and Professor in Asian Studies at Cornell University. She specializes on Islam in Southeast Asia focusing on the intersection of religion, politics and society in colonial and postcolonial Southeast Asia. Chiara’s third monograph, Domestic Nationalism: Muslim Women, Health, and Modernity in Indonesia is forthcoming with Stanford University Press. Cosponsored by the Penn Forum for Global Islamic Studies
September 29, 2025 at 2:33 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
Come join us tomorrow for this exciting event!
upennrels.bsky.social Penn Religious Studies @upennrels.bsky.social · Sep 22
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
Black Freedom and the Racialization of Religious Excitement RELS Colloquium Judith Weisenfeld (Princeton) Sep 25, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204 As the nineteenth century drew to a close, white American psychiatrists declared that mental illness among African Americans in the South had reached alarming proportions and argued that, in a notable percentage of these cases, “religious excitement” was the key precipitating factor. This talk explores late nineteenth and early twentieth-century psychiatric theories about race, religion, and the “normal mind” and shows how the emerging specialty of psychiatry drew on works from history of religions to make racialized claims about African Americans’ “traits of character, habit, and behavior.” This history of the intersections of psychiatry and African American religions sheds light on how ideas about race, religion, and mental normalcy shaped African American experience in courts and mental hospitals and on the role the racialization of religion played more broadly in the history of medicine, legal history, and the history of disability. Judith Weisenfeld is Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Her books include Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929-1949, New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration, and Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake. Cosponsored by the Department of the History and Sociology of Science.
September 24, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Penn Religious Studies
judithweisenfeld.com
I'm looking foward to talking about my work at Penn later this week.
upennrels.bsky.social Penn Religious Studies @upennrels.bsky.social · Sep 22
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
Black Freedom and the Racialization of Religious Excitement RELS Colloquium Judith Weisenfeld (Princeton) Sep 25, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204 As the nineteenth century drew to a close, white American psychiatrists declared that mental illness among African Americans in the South had reached alarming proportions and argued that, in a notable percentage of these cases, “religious excitement” was the key precipitating factor. This talk explores late nineteenth and early twentieth-century psychiatric theories about race, religion, and the “normal mind” and shows how the emerging specialty of psychiatry drew on works from history of religions to make racialized claims about African Americans’ “traits of character, habit, and behavior.” This history of the intersections of psychiatry and African American religions sheds light on how ideas about race, religion, and mental normalcy shaped African American experience in courts and mental hospitals and on the role the racialization of religion played more broadly in the history of medicine, legal history, and the history of disability. Judith Weisenfeld is Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Her books include Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929-1949, New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration, and Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake. Cosponsored by the Department of the History and Sociology of Science.
September 22, 2025 at 5:41 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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
Black Freedom and the Racialization of Religious Excitement RELS Colloquium Judith Weisenfeld (Princeton) Sep 25, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204 As the nineteenth century drew to a close, white American psychiatrists declared that mental illness among African Americans in the South had reached alarming proportions and argued that, in a notable percentage of these cases, “religious excitement” was the key precipitating factor. This talk explores late nineteenth and early twentieth-century psychiatric theories about race, religion, and the “normal mind” and shows how the emerging specialty of psychiatry drew on works from history of religions to make racialized claims about African Americans’ “traits of character, habit, and behavior.” This history of the intersections of psychiatry and African American religions sheds light on how ideas about race, religion, and mental normalcy shaped African American experience in courts and mental hospitals and on the role the racialization of religion played more broadly in the history of medicine, legal history, and the history of disability. Judith Weisenfeld is Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Her books include Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929-1949, New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration, and Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake. Cosponsored by the Department of the History and Sociology of Science.
September 22, 2025 at 4:32 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
Happening today!
upennrels.bsky.social Penn Religious Studies @upennrels.bsky.social · Sep 15
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
September 18, 2025 at 12:58 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
Prof. Schaefer, along with RELS alums Justin Seward and Olivia Haynie, has a new book project in the works!
falseimage.bsky.social The False Image of History Project @falseimage.bsky.social · Sep 16
Coming soon to a library near you: The False Image of History Project book!

We're thrilled to announce that the False Image of History project will be published as a book as part of the Reconstructing America series at Fordham University Press @fordhampress.bsky.social!
September 16, 2025 at 8:51 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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
September 15, 2025 at 10:09 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
RELS alumna Olivia Haynie has written this column for The Forward about her time working with Prof. Schaefer's False Image of History Project.
September 10, 2025 at 2:22 PM
upennrels.bsky.social
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
How (and Why) to Write an Academic Book in Impossible Times RELS Colloquium Elizabeth Ault (Duke University Press) Sep 11, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 392 This talk will focus on some of the most common issues that first-time authors face during the writing and publishing process, including some broader discussion of the current environment facing scholars and publishers alike. Most of the session will focus on conversation intended to help junior (and other!) scholars consider the purpose and reach of their writing, as well as the nuts and bolts of finding the right publisher and working with an acquisitions editor. Please bring questions! Elizabeth Ault is a Senior Editor at Duke University Press, which she joined in 2012 after receiving her Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota. Trained in an interdisciplinary field, she pursues projects that reach outward across disciplines and academic conversations in surprising ways (including work by activists and organizers), that connect historical and emerging conditions, and that are committed to engaging with race, gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability. She works with the editors of several book series, including Practices , Black Feminism on the Edge, ASTERISK, Theory in Forms, and Camera Obscura . You can find Elizabeth at conferences about religion, American studies, women's studies, African studies, sociology, and geography, working with scholars in trans studies, disability studies, critical ethnic studies, Black geographies, witch studies, and more. N.B.: This event will be held in COHN 392! Cosponsored by the Department of Africana Studies, the Department of English, the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies/The Center for Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies, and Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at Penn.
September 10, 2025 at 2:17 PM