Anna Bialek, a current graduate student in the Religion and Critical Thought track, has recently been awarded Brown's prestigious Presidential Award for Teaching. The award is annual prize given to graduate students to recognize excellence in pedagogical achievement.
Karen King, a Brown Religious Studies alumna, who earned her PhD in 1983, has been awarded the Horace Mann Medal for Distinguished Graduate School Alumni. The award was established in 2003, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Graduate School. The award is named in honor of Horace Mann, class of 1819, who created the nation's first state board of education and is widely regarded as the father of American public school education. The Horace Mann Medal is given annually by the Graduate School to an almnus or alumna who has made significant contribution to his or her field.
Karen is currently Hollis Professor of Divinity at the Harvard Divinity School, the oldest endowed chair in the United States. She is the author of several books including The Gospel of Mary Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle (2003); What is Gnosticism? (2003); and Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and Shaping Christianity (2007).
Niki Clements, a doctoral student in Religious Studies, has just been 
Niki Clementsawarded one of two prestigious Brown/Wheaton Fellowships. The Brown/Wheaton Faculty Fellowship is a collaborative program that provides an opportunity for an advanced graduate student to not only teach, but get a sense of what faculty life is like at a liberal arts college. Niki will teach next spring, a course she designed, "Demons, Melancholy and Madness." For more information about this year's winners, please click here.
Megan McBride, graduate student in Religious Studies, recently co-authored an article with Jessica Stern, Fellow at the Hoover Institution and FXB Center for Human Rights, Harvard University, titled "Terrorism after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq." The article is part of a broader study by the Watson Institute for International Studies, Costs of War, which looks at Iraq 10 years after the invasion. The Stern/McBride article examines
Costs of War how the United States invasion of Iraq effected terrorism in the region. The United States had claimed that invading Iraq would prevent the country from becoming a "safe haven for terrorists." The article argues that the invasion had the opposite effect, and actually increased terrorism in the country (and also region) as the U.S. presence in the country acted as a recruiting tool for jihadi leaders and provided a training opportunity for militant groups.
The Religious Studies Department is happy to announce that it has been awarded one of four International Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2013-15 offered through the Cogut Center for the Humanities. The post-doc will focus on the area of "Religion, Secularization, and the International," and collaborate closely with the Religion and Internationalism Project. Applicants from across the humanities and social sciences are encouraged to apply, provided they have a strong background in the academic study of religion. The Department is particularly looking for applicants with critical and historical perspectives on the construction of domains such as "the religious," "the secular," and "the political" as well as on the formation of international political regimes. Applicants must have received a Ph.D. from an institution other than Brown within the last five years (as far back as 2008). Applications are now being accepted. To see the full job listing or to apply please visit: https://secure.interfolio.com/apply/20923. Review of applications will begin on February 15, 2013.
Gregory SchopenThe Religious Studies Department is thrilled to welcome to the faculty in Spring 2013, as Rush C. Hawkins Professor of Religious Studies. Schopen joins us from UCLA and is the author Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks (University of Hawaii Press, 1997); Buddhist Monks and Business Matters (University of Hawaii Press, 2004); and Figments and Fragments of Mahayana Buddhism in India (University of Hawaii Press, 2005). Prof. Schopen's research focuses on Indian Buddhist monastic life and early Mahayana movements.
The Religious Studies Department offers its warmest congratulations to the following:
Alissa MacMillian, who just defended her dissertation in Religion and Critical Thought, has been awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, France.
Recent Ph.D. graduate, Debra Scoggins Ballentine, has been offered and accepted a tenure-track position at Rutgers University. Debra started her new position as of July 1, 2012.
Our soon to be 2nd year PhD student in Religion and Critical Thought, Megan McBride, has been selected to participate in the Hertog Global Strategy Initiative's seminar on "The History and Future of Religious Violence and Apocalyptic Movements" this summer, at Columbia University
Andrea Allgood Smith, a current Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean graduate student, has been awarded the John Cargill MacMillian Fellowship through the Cogut Center for the 2012-13 academic year.
We are thrilled to share the following news from our undergraduate concentrators:
Michael Zack Mezera will be an undergraduate fellow at the Cogut Center for the Humanities for 2012-13.
And both Matthew Peterson and Joshua Schenkkan have been awarded UTRA fellowships to work with Professors Thomas Lewis and Stephen Bush (respectively), this summer!
And from the faculty:
Prof. Ross Kraemer has been elected as President of the New England Regional Society for Biblical Literature for 2012-13, and will be a faculty fellow at the Cogut Center in Spring 2013.
Prof. Susan A. Harvey has received the 2012 Karen T. Romer Award for Excellence in Advising!