Dear friends of Religious Studies at Mizzou,

Welcome to a new edition of our digital newsletter. Once a semester, we will bring you the latest news and information from our department. We’d love to receive news and feedback from our students, alumni, and friends; please feel free to email me at [email protected] . And don’t forget to check out our updated website and follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and now also on Instagram . 

Signe Cohen

Chair

Welcome to Tiffany!

The Department of Religious Studies is thrilled to welcome Tiffany Horton, our new department administrator. She has a joint position in religious studies and women’s and gender studies and does a fantastic job of making two departments run smoothly.

Daniel Cohen Publications

Dan Cohen has been busy recently. In addition to his forthcoming book with Brick Johnstone on neuroscience, selflessness, and spiritual experience, he has also recently published “Changing Brains: From Primal Horde to Nuclear Family to Religion,” an article in Religion, Brain, and Behavior; and a co-written article “Affect as a Foundational Psychological Process for Spirituality and Empathy” in Mental Health, Religion, and Culture. 

Kate Kelley on Inclusivity in College-level Courses

In September, religious studies instructor Kate Kelley was one of the participants in “Course Micro-Practices to Help You Become a More Inclusive Leader,” a forum aimed at college science teachers.

Signe Cohen on Ancient Indian Robots, Siri, & Apocryphal Texts

Signe Cohen gave a lecture on android tales from ancient India at Ohio University in October before heading to a conference at Complutense University in Madrid where she gave a paper on contemporary legends and the uncanny ability of virtual assistants like Siri to predict the future and communicate with the dead. While in Spain, she also had the opportunity to see some great religious art, such as the ancient Proto-Iberian Lady of Eiche and the lovely Virgin of Montserrat (below). She gave a paper, “Fanfiction, Apocrypha, and the Bakhtinian Carnivalesque,” at the November American Academy of Religion conference in Denver.

Joseph Windheim Presents on the Pauline Epistles

Religious studies master's student Joseph Windheim gave a paper on the Pauline epistles at the Heartland Graduate Workshop in Ancient Studies in October. Well done, Joe!

The department was pleased to welcome W. Michael Ashcraft, professor of philosophy and religion at Truman State University, an expert on new religious movements, to campus. Ashcraft talked about his newly published book: A Historical Introduction to the Study of New Religious Movements.

religiousstudies.missouri.edu/event/w-michael-ashcraft-new-religious-movements

Another Paine Lecture (co-sponsored by South Asian Studies and the University Lecture Series) was given by Meena Nayak , an assistant professor of English at Norther Virginia Community College, who gave a lively introduction to the rivalry between Krishna and Shiva in the Hindu Mahabharata epic, based on her new book Evil in the Mahabharata. Nayak, who is also a novelist, read to a spellbound audience from her novel Endless Rain, set in war-torn Kashmir, at a separate event at the lovely newly opened Skylark Bookstore.  

Department of Religious Studies | 221 Arts and Science Building

573-882-4769 | [email protected]