Barnard College Department of Religion

Justine Ellis, an alumna of the Barnard Religion department, went on to Oxford to earn a PhD, and her new book grows out of her dissertation. She writes:

“My book, The Politics of Religious Literacy, was published today!

Looking at case studies and policy proposals, I set out to examine religious literacy as an educational and civic project. Above all, I wanted to understand what the popular concept of religious literacy reveals about the changing dynamics of religion and secularism in public life. The project puts religious studies, secularism studies, and affect theory into conversation with current policy debates about the place of religion in modern, multi-faith democracies.

I am deeply grateful to the many generous people who guided and supported me throughout this multi-year process, especially Donovan Schaefer, Johannes Zachhuber, and my family.

Here is the link to the publisher's page, for anyone interested: https://brill.com/view/title/59483

Join us and the other cosponsors (Barnard Center for Research on Women, Columbia Religion department, the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, and the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life) for this exciting conversation about gender and material religion on January 21 on Zoom. Jodi Eichler-Levine and Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada will be in conversation about their new books, which are available for purchase at Word Up Community Bookshop (link in the comments).

Crafting Objects, Crafting Community: Gender and Material Culture in American Religion | Barnard Center for Research on Women Jodi Eichler-Levine and Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada will be in conversation about their new books examining the role of material culture in shaping gender, memory, community, and identity in American Judaism and Catholicism.

Trailblazer for feminist studies in religion, Constance Buchanan BC ‘69, has passed away. The academic study of religion benefitted greatly from her intellectual commitments and institution building at Harvard and through her work at the Ford Foundation.

Constance Buchanan Dies at 73; Gave Women Voice in Religion At Harvard Divinity School, she ensured that women were represented in scholarship, in the curriculum, in the syllabus and in publications.

Earlier this month, Religion Department alumna Justine Ellis (BC '11) successfully defended her PhD dissertation, "Religious Literacy for a Secular Age: Approaches from Secularism Studies and Affect Theory," at Oriel College, Oxford University. Congratulations, Justine, on your accomplishment!

University of Puget Sound Professor Tanya Erzen began her career as a Mellon post-doctoral fellow in the Barnard College Department of Religion. In addition to teaching at Puget Sound, she serves as the director of the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound. In this article in Inside Higher Education, she discusses how the current pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on prison education programs.

The pandemic has exacerbated all the inequities that already existed in prison education programs (opinion) People in prison have often been relegated to “better than nothing” education, writes Tanya Erzen, and the inequities could become more prevalent during the pandemic.

So wonderful to see our graduates and their families at this morning's departmental reception on Zoom! Congratulations again, Religion majors of 2020!

Congratulations to graduating senior Leora Lupkin, the 2020 winner of Barnard College's Mary E. Allison Prize for general excellence in scholarship! Leora is a double major in Religion and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Her thesis project is entitled, "Soul and Body from Bukhārā to al-Andalus: Examining Philosophical Development Through the Non-Treatise Philosophical Sources of Ibn Sīnā and Avraham Ibn Ezra." Congratulations, Leora!

We love our students!

A message from Beth Berkowitz, Ingeborg Rennert Chair of Jewish Studies, Professor of Religion, Department of Religion.

Here’s a great job working for Athena—*not* Barnard’s Athena!—but a new movement organization working for a just economy. Check it out at athenaforall.org.

Project Associate We're looking for a great Project Associate to join our team at United for Respect

football is religion.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ racist "Arrowhead Chop" has flown under the radar. Not anymore. The Kansas City Chiefs’ chant isn’t a tribute to people like me. It’s racist.