The Department of Religion congratulates Profs. Sonia Hazard and Elizabeth Cecil on their Collaborative International Research Grant from the American Academy of Religion. This grant supports their project "Material Ecologies: Indigeneity, Objects, and Environments in the Study of Religion."

The Department of Religion congratulates Profs. Elizabeth Cecil and Sonia Hazard on their NEH Summer Stipend awards. These competitive grants will support their summer writing and research. Cecil's award will support her book project, "Natural Wonder: Indigenous Landscapes and the Building of Hinduism in Early Southeast Asia." Hazard's award will support her project, "Sovereignty, Christianity, and the Book in the Cherokee Diaspora, 1828-1861." 

The Department of Religion celebrates with Profs. Jamil Drake and Laura McTighe on their having been awarded a three-year $250,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation for a project on Black religion and public health in the South. For more details on Profs. Drake and McTighe's project, see the FSU News story here. This is part of a number of prestigious projects spearheaded by scholars and community organizations across the US on race, justice, and religion that the Luce Foundation is funding; its press release appears here.

The Department of Religion joins in the many expressions of sorrow at the death of our colleague Leo Sandon at the age of 86. Sandon taught at FSU from 1969 to 2003. A full obituary can be found at the Tallahassee Democrat.

The Stephen Risley Family Fellowship was established in 1999 by the late J. Stephen Risley Jr. to support junior faculty in research as they work toward tenure. This fellowship will help support Prof. Cecil's second book project, provisionally entitled Architectures of Intimidation: Political Ecology and Landscape Manipulation in Early Southeast Asia. Click here for the full story.

The Department of Religion joins in the many expressions of sorrow at the death of our colleague Richard L. Rubenstein at the age of 97. Rubenstein taught at FSU from 1970 to 1995; in 1977, FSU awarded him the title of Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor, its highest faculty honor. Most famous for his 1966 book After Auschwitz, which inaugurated the scholarly field of post-Holocaust theology, Rubenstein wrote or edited over ten books, authored scores of articles, and impacted a generation of FSU students in his classes.

Full obituaries can be found at the New York Times and the Washington Post; subscribers to the Tallahassee Democrat can access a news story with remembrances from Rubenstein's colleagues and students. The Department of Religion's YouTube channel hosts a video interview that Rubenstein gave about his career in 2016 to Profs. John Kelsay and Martin Kavka.

Joseph Hellweg, Associate Professor of Religion, contributes timely article on Pope Francis and Africa's Catholic churches in The Conversation.

The McKnight Junior Faculty Fellowship Program promotes excellence in teaching and research by underrepresented minorities and women. As part of the program, Fellows receive a one-year sabbatical with full salary and benefits, during which they engage in research and training projects directly related to their professional interests.

Prof. François Dupuigrenet-Desroussilles was recently interviewed by several media programs on the tragic Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris. To listen to the interviews, please click the following links: i24 News, Israel; TBS, Seoul; WCTV #1, Tallahassee; WCTV #2, Tallahassee.

This fellowship from the ACLS and the Getty Foundation supports fieldwork and research for Elizabeth's second book project, entitled Architectures of Intimidation: Political Ecology and Landscape Manipulation in Early Southeast Asia.