Department of Religion

The Graduate Students of the FSU Department of Religion invite you to a Roundtable Discussion on Journal Publications on Friday, May 7th at 3:00 pm via Zoom, with guests Phillip Goff (co-editor of Religion and American Culture), Andrea R. Jain (editor of Journal of the American Academy of Religion), Alex P. Jassen (editor of Journal of Ancient Judaism), and Urmila Mohan (founder and managing editor of The Jugaad Project). Registration is required. Please click here to register. Download the flyer here.

Questions may be directed to Taylor Dean (tdean@fsu.edu) or Amanda Conway (aep16d@fsu.edu).

Graduate Student News

Guanxiong Xi, MA student in History and Ethnography of Religions (Asia), has been selected as the First Place Winner for the 2021 Master's in Four (MI4) competition. Guanxiong's prize-winning video presentation on his research, How a Buddhist Monastery Became a Tourist Destination in 17th Century China, can be viewed here. Guanxiong will also be recognized at FSU's annual Celebration of Graduate Student Excellence.

Graduate Student News

James Waters, PhD student in Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy, has received a 2020-2021 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award sponsored by FSU's Program for Instructional Excellence (PIE). He is one of only two students this year in the College of Arts & Sciences, and seven total in the entire University, to have been awarded this outstanding honor. James will also be recognized at FSU's annual Celebration of Graduate Student Excellence.

Graduate Student News

Joshua Matson, PhD student in Religions of Western Antiquity, has won the 2021 Arts & Humanities Research & Creativity Award in recognition of his outstanding research, publication, and presentation record. Josh will also be recognized at FSU's annual Celebration of Graduate Student Excellence and will be featured in the spring 2021 GradConnection newsletter.

Graduate Student News

The Department remembered the late Allison Overholt this year by awarding the first Allison Elizabeth Overholt scholarship. Allison was a religion major who died suddenly last February 2019, and this scholarship memorializes her love for the study of Religion by helping to defray the costs of FSU tuition. This year’s scholarship went to Hunter Johnson, who is, among other things, an engaged and engaging major, and a rising senior. She is working on an honor's thesis with Dr. Adam Gaiser that examines material practices surrounding food and the Nation of Islam. In Dr. Laura McTighe's class this past Spring, she was voted Most Likely to Really Really Care and Make Everyone Feel Loved in their end-of-semester superlatives list/all class appreciation. Hunter is also affiliated with SISTUHS, Incorporated, FSU's Black Student Union (in their Seminole Minority Leadership Institute), the Big Sister Little Sister program, as well as the National Organization for Women. So, like Allison, she combines stellar academic work, a strong curiosity about her fellow human beings, and a desire to make a difference outside of a classroom setting.

Undergraduate Student News