University of Pennsylvania Department of Religious Studies

Congratulations to Prof. Justin McDaniel, who has been named as one of Cultured Magazine’s Cult100 list of "100 luminaries and rising talents shaping the world around us"!

Prof. McDaniel was recognized for being "one of the country’s most unorthodox professors—and one of its most popular" as part of a gala event at the Guggenheim Museum on April 30.

You can read Prof. McDaniel’s interview with Cultured here:

The UPenn Professor Behind the Viral “Monk Class” Has Some Advice for You The U Penn academic built a devoted following by rejecting traditional classroom norms—and insisting on no phones or s*x.

This past weekend, several undergraduate students in RELS classes took a tour of religious sites in Philadelphia's Old City led by Dr. Dave Krueger of the Dialogue Institute!

Sites visited included St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church, Christ Church, the Arch Street Meeting House, Congregation Mikveh Israel, and Washington Square. Religious Studies students continue to benefit from the extraordinary religious heritage of Philadelphia.

Many thanks to RELS major Daniella Kohn and Undergraduate Chair Prof. Megan Robb for organizing the tour!

Happening tomorrow!

Our final RELS colloquium of the year is happening this Thursday!
------------------------------------
"Vodou, a Phylum: Transmission, Cosmic Ecologies, and Global Circulation in African Indigenous Spirituality"
Angelantonio Grossi (Penn Center for Experimental Ethnography)

Apr 16, 2026 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204

The Graduate Group in Religious Studies is pleased to announce that Dr. Kirby Sokolow has received a prestigious Engaged Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Syracuse University Humanities Center!

Over the course of her 2-year appointment, Dr. Sokolow will design and teach a series of Engaged Humanities courses, research, and support public projects in partnership with local community organizations and arts, educational, and cultural centers.

Dr. Sokolow successfully defended her dissertation "Buddhism Behind Bars: Transforming Race, Religion, and Power" on April 6.

Congratulations, Dr. Sokolow!

Our final RELS colloquium of the year is happening this Thursday!
------------------------------------
"Vodou, a Phylum: Transmission, Cosmic Ecologies, and Global Circulation in African Indigenous Spirituality"
Angelantonio Grossi (Penn Center for Experimental Ethnography)

Apr 16, 2026 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204

Austin McCredie (RELS doctoral student) and Dr. Kirby Sokolow (recent RELS PhD) have both won student paper prizes!

Austin has won the Student Essay Prize from the Canadian Society of Patristic Studies-Association Canadienne des Études Patristiques (CSPS-ACÉP) for his paper "Performance and Parody in Ephrem the Syrian’s Carmina Nisibena 52-54." The prize includes a cash award and travel stipend for the CSPS-ACÉP annual conference. Austin will also have the opportunity to have his paper published in the journal Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses.

Separately, Dr. Sokolow has won the RELS Graduate Group's 2026 Israel Goldstein Prize for her paper "Toiling in the Dirt: Mapping Buddhist Space and Feeling Otherwise in U.S. Prisons."

Congratulations to both!

Paper Prize Winners | Department of Religious Studies April 8, 2026 Austin McCredie (RELS doctoral student) and Dr. Kirby Sokolow (recent RELS PhD) have both won student paper prizes! Austin has won the Student Essay Prize from the Canadian Society of Patristic Studies-Association Canadienne des Études Patristiques (CSPS-ACÉP) for his paper "Perfor...

Happening in 3 weeks! Prof. Jamal Elias in conversation about his book *After Rumi: The Mevlevis and Their World*.

Co-sponsored by the Wolf Humanities Center at Penn and The Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
--------------------------------
April 29, 2026 (Wednesday) / 5:00 pm—6:30 pm

A book talk by Walter H. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities at Penn, Jamal J. Elias. Professor Ahmet T. Karamustafa (University of Maryland), one of the world’s foremost experts on the history of medieval Sufism, will join in the discussion of After Rumi: The Mevlevis and Their World, which focuses on Rumi’s religious, social, and literary legacy.

Humanities Conference Room, Williams Hall 623, 255 S 36th Street

Free and open to the public. Registration required. A reception will follow.

After Rumi Presented in collaboration with Penn's Middle East CenterAfter Rumi: The Mevlevis and Their World by Jamal J. Elias is the first major book since the mid-20th century to focus on Rumi’s religious, social, and literary legacy. In this book talk, the author will briefly introduce important aspects o...

Come join us for a special colloquium event this week! (Please note new time and venue!)
-------------------------------------
Borders and Borderlessness: The Religious Politics of American Power
RELS Colloquium/PSCI Forum
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (Northwestern)
Apr 9, 2026 at 4:30pm - 6:00pm | The Forum, PCPSE 250, 133 S. 36th Street

For American borders there is more going on than meets the eye. Drawing on Professor Hurd’s book Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States, this discussion explores the paradoxes of creation, enforcement, suspension, and refusal of American borders understood as simultaneously religious and political objects. Americans, argues Hurd, share a bipartisan border religion, complete with an array of beliefs and practices, including a reverence for national security, a liturgy for immigration, and an eschatological foreign policy. Through an analysis of the many ways the United States creates, enforces, and ignores borders at home and abroad, Hurd offers a bold new perspective on the ties that bind American religion, politics, and public life.

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is Professor and Chair of Religious Studies and Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. She studies religion and global politics, political theory, and political theology. She is the author of Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States (2025), Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion (2015), and The Politics of Secularism in International Relations (2008).

Cosponsored by the Department of Political Science and the Browne Center for International Politics.

Congratulations to Dr. Kirby Sokolow, who successfully defended her dissertation "Buddhism Behind Bars: Transforming Race, Religion, and Power" this afternoon!

https://rels.sas.upenn.edu/news/2026/04/06/congratulations-dr-kirby-sokolow

Prof. Jolyon Thomas (supervisor), Dr. Kirby Sokolow, Prof. Donovan Schaefer (Graduate Chair)

Check out this event cosponsored by the Department of Religious Studies happening this week!