Please join us in congratulating Associate Professor Deonnie Moodie who was awarded a select summer residency at the National Humanities Center:
https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/nhc-announces-incoming-class-of-select-summer-residents/
She will spend the month of June working on her monograph, Business School Hinduism, at the National Humanities Center in the Research Triangle alongside a cohort of 40 scholars from 19 US states and India.
You are invited to join us for the Third Annual Oklahoma Buddhism Conference on Saturday, March 28 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Price Hall room PH 3040. The theme of the conference this year is Bridges of Compassion: Buddhism in Dialogue with Other Faiths.
Jianhu Shifu from the Prajna Dharma Foundation will provide a talk and lead a meditation session. Also, Keynote speaker Erik Hammerstrom from Pacific Lutheran University will speak on Coming to Aid in this Sahā World: Buddhist Paths of Spiritual Care in a Pluralistic Society.
This event is co-sponsored by the University Buddhist Association (UBA).
You are invited to join us on Friday, March 27 at 7 p.m. in Kaufman Hall Room 221b for a film screening of *Carving the Divine*, a documentary presenting traditional Japanese manufacturers of Buddha images, followed by a virtual discussion with the Director Yujiro Seki.
This event is co-sponsored with the Department of History and the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics.
We hope to see you there!
The Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies, the Department of Religious Studies, and the Department of History invite you to a public lecture with Professor Ronald Hendel titled "How to Read Genesis: The Tower of Babel" on Wednesday, March 11 at 4:30 p.m. in Zarrow Hall.
Congratulations to Associate Professor Vishanoff and his colleagues for receiving another grant from the Templeton Religion Trust!
David Vishanoff is part of a team of scholars at OU, the University of Kansas and Pepperdine who have been awarded a three-year, two-million-dollar grant from the Templeton Religion Trust. The grant will provide extra research time from 2026 through 2028 to read in several schools of philosophy and social science, write four journal articles and hold a conference on the relationship between the virtue of intellectual humility, the virtue of courage and interreligious understanding. This interdisciplinary teamwork will bring new perspectives to Vishanoff’s long-term project on Sacrificial Listening, about which he will draft a book for a general audience.
The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Oklahoma is thrilled to announce that Associate Professor Rangar Cline has received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for faculty research. The fellowship is ranked among the National Research Council’s highly prestigious awards. Funds from the fellowship will support work on Cline’s current book project, which examines religious pilgrimage practices among Christians, Jews, and polytheists during the Roman Empire. You can find the NEH press release about Cline’s project and other projects funded this year here: https://www.neh.gov/news/neh-announces-751-million-84-humanities-projects.
Please also read: https://www.ou.edu/news/articles/2026/march/ou-professor-receives-neh-fellowship-for-pilgrimage-book-project
Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at www.neh.gov.
On April 15th, 2025, the Dept. of Religious Studies, the Dept. of Women's and Gender Studies, and Environmental Studies at OU had the pleasure to host author Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder in a reading and conversation of her book, Mother, Creature, Kin: What We Learn from Nature's Mothers in a Time of Unraveling with Rev. Barbara Boyd, D.Min. as moderator. The event was packed, and the discussion was engaging. Thank you to Chelsea, Barbara, and to everyone who made this such a successful event.
Thanks to generous donations from alumni and supporters like you, the Department of Religious Studies has expanded student experiences through guest speakers, social events, and travel opportunities.
This Giving Day, we're highlighting our Student Enrichment Fund, which directly supports Religious Studies majors and minors. Last year, this fund made it possible for four students to attend the American Academy of Religion’s annual meeting in San Diego—covering travel and conference costs. They returned inspired, full of new ideas for research and future careers.
Your gift helps us create more of these transformative experiences. It empowers students to explore what matters most and prepares them to lead meaningful lives rooted in curiosity, critical thinking, and compassion.
Thursday, April 3, 2025
7:00 p.m.
Sam Noble Museum
The Department of Religious Studies at OU along with the Shyam Dev Patwardhan Department of Philosophy invite you to attend the Agnes and Herbert True Memorial Lecture at 7 p.m. on Thurs., April 3, 2025 at the Sam Noble Museum auditorium with Daniel De Haan, the Frederick Copleston Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in Philosophy and Theology in the Catholic Tradition at Blackfriars and Campion Hall at the University of Oxford. De Haan will speak on "Offloading Human Intelligence: Does AI Threaten Our Common Goods?" We hope to see you there.
Thurs., March 27
12:30 p.m.
Robertson Hall 118
Religious Studies students and friends,
You are invited to March’s Religious Studies Student Lunch, featuring Religious Studies alumni, Cole Cloyd, Rhea Brown-Bright, and Lauren Gastineau on “Life After OU.” Please join us! Hideaway Pizza will be provided.
Fri., Nov. 15, 2024
12:30 p.m.
Robertson Hall 118
The Department of Religious Studies invites all interested students to attend our monthly RELS Student Lunch with guest Prof. Marie Dallam on Friday, Nov. 15 at 12:30 p.m. in the RELS Conference Room (Robertson 118). Lunch is provided. Prof. Dallam, Professor of American Religion and Culture in the Dept. of Religious Studies and the Honors College at OU, will discuss on "Religious Studies Classes in Prison: The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program."
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