Fanaticism & Game Design
Professor Lily Stewart’s Student Art Feature
Bachelor’s Degrees
Yasmeen Rafee
Chloe Chow
Lauren Joyce
Rosemary Sissel
Gabby Perkins
Ph.D. Recipients
Hope Cartwright
Alessia Mollo
Owen Rodney Lubben
Hank Yang
Varsha Krishnan
Mikayla Denault
Olivia Alexander
Adebukola Fetuga
Angelica Booth
Rachel Levy Nisheeta Jagtiani
Greetings friends of NU Religious Studies! My name is Elizabeth (Beth) Shakman Hurd and I’m delighted to have just completed my first year as department chair. There are big shoes to fill in this role and I am grateful to all the faculty and staff for their patience as I learn the ropes.
On that note, I begin by thanking our outgoing chair, Barry Wimpfheimer, for his dedicated service to the department over the past several years. Barry steered the ship fearlessly through the pandemic, for which he definitely deserves a prize. Thank you, Barry!
I also want to welcome our new colleagues who joined us in 2023-24: Assistant Professor Shira Schwartz, whose works in textual and ethnographic methods, religion and gender, and Jewish studies; and Associate Professor James Bielo, an ethnographer of American Christianity with a specialization in materiality, language, and power. Welcome to you both!
We are also fortunate to have welcomed Lu Zhang as our new Graduate Program Assistant this year. Lu is a wonderful presence in the Department and works to ensure that our prospective, incoming, current, and former graduate students all receive the support that they deserve. Rossi, our amazing Business Manager, deserves a huge thank you for her work to ensure that Lu who comes to us with an M.A. from a university a bit south of here whose name slips my mind becomes familiar with Northwestern and the Department. Thank you for everything you do, Rossi, to bring our community together.
I want to express our collective gratitude to visiting faculty members Lily Stewart, Darcie Price-Wallace, Allison Hurst, Claire Sufrin, and Ashley King. We see you and appreciate all that you do for the Department.
We had lots of top-notch academic programming in the Department this year, which you can read about in the pages that follow. I want to highlight some of the other events that brought us together: from a fun and well-attended AAR reception, featuring quite possibly the best guacamole in San Antonio, to an amazing Valentine’s Day Party complete with treats and craft stations (I still have my bejeweled mini-pumpkin), to Professor Sarah Taylor’s weekly “Coffee and Tea with Dr. T”, which combines the best of academic mentoring with student support. We’ve been lucky to spend time together outside of the classroom.
Looking ahead, we are excited to welcome our newest member of the faculty, Professor Usman Hamid, who will join us from Hamilton College in 2024-2025. We look forward to seeing you all in the hallways. Come by and say hi you know where to find me. For those of you reading this who are further afield, we look forward to hearing your updates and to keeping in touch!
Dr. James S. Bielo is an anthropologist of religion, with an ethnographic focus on Christianity in the United States. His research interests center on materiality and language as expressive resources in religious life, and the intimate relations of religion and power Bielo’s current ethnographic work focuses on the secondhand circulation of Christian material culture
SHIRA E. SCHWARTZ Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Shira E. Schwartz specializes in late antique rabbinic and contemporary Orthodox and exOrthodox Judaism, comparative forms of religious exit and queer/trans religious lives. Schwartz focuses on course offerings across the above topics, as well as in American Judaism, and religion and media, with particular relevance to the interdisciplinary concentrations of Religion, Sexuality and Gender, and Religion Health and Medicine.
Dr. KB Dennis Meade
Spring 2024
*Cross listed with Black Studies & American Studies
Professor Shira E. Schwartz
Winter 2024
This seminar explores theoretical and methodological links between textual and ethnographic research. As an interdisciplinary and topic-motivated field, religious studies pursues research questions that can cross multiple disciplines and periods. This seminar takes up one of those crossings text and ethnography as a site of rich potential for methodological innovation and theoretical exchange. Responding to recent calls to decenter “the human” within the (post)humanities and social sciences, we will investigate what gets lost by dividing meaning from materiality, the natural from the cultural, the archival and literary from the ethnographic. Troubling disciplinary boundaries and categorical binaries, students will be encouraged to explore what text and ethnography share as entangled sites of human and nonhuman production and what we stand to gain by linking them.
*Cross listed with Anthropology
Dr. Sarah McFarland Taylor
Lugyal Bum isfromanortheasternpartofTibetintheAmdoregion HereceivedhisBA in EnglishfromQinghaiNormalUniversityinXining,thecapitalcityoftheQinghaiprovince, whereBumsaidhelearnedEnglishfromtheABCsmorethanadecadeago.
HethenreceivedhisM.A.inCulturalSustainabilityfromGoucherCollegeinMaryland.Bum said he started the program because, "As a Tibetan, a minority ethnic group, we try to preservethelanguageandsustainthelanguageandculture,andmypreviousNGOworkwas relatedtoculturalpreservationanddocumentation"
BumworkedasafieldmanagerintheTibetanareafortheBuddhistDigitalResourceCenter (formerlyTBRC),aninternationalnon-profitorganization,collecting,scanningandmanaging TibetanBuddhisttextsandrelatedworksformorethan4years.
He said Northwestern's religious studies department allows him to take courses from all differenttypesofprogramsthatwillsupporthisresearchprojectinthefuture.Bumsaidhis researchfitsintothisprogrambecauseofitsinterdisciplinarynature.
Bumsaidhewasnotusedtoaquartersystemandhashadtosearchforabalance."It’sbeen verybusybutalsoatthesametimeIlearnedthatthequartersystempushesyoutodomore," hesaid
Ofhisbiggestachievements,BumsaidhisacceptanceintoNorthwestern'sreligiousstudies program makes him feel most accomplished He expressed his deep gratitude toward the program,professorsandstaffinthedepartment
"Ireallyappreciatetheprogram,theschool,andtheopportunity Itissomethinginvaluable Assomeonefrommybackgroundandmycommunity,itisveryspecialforus,notjustforme," Bumsaid.
In2020,hestartedmakingTibetanpodcaststoinvitescholarsfromvariousfieldstoshare theiracademicjourneyandtheirfieldofdiscipline,attractingaround10,000viewers.Bum said he wants to begin to make content that is informative and inspiring again over this summer
Daniela Rosas isfromBogota,Colombia Sheispassionateaboutthestudyofpolitics and religion As well as, the human brain and human behavior Daniela holds a PsychologydegreeandanM.A.inPhilosophyfromLaUniversidaddeLosAndes.
Rosas said she spent a big part of her childhood and teenage years with the youth groupsofaparticularChristianChurch.GrowingupinaChristianenvironment,Rosas wassurroundedbyreligion.Shesaidasshegrewup,herworldviewsbegantotake differentshapes
"Ihadalotofquestionsthatremainedunansweredduringthoseyears,andthemoreI readabouttherelationshipbetweenreligionandpolitics,themoreIfeltthatIwasabit closertofiguringouthowandwhythatworks Thatwasmymainmotivation,"Rosas said.
Rosassaidshe ismostproudoftheworkshedidduringhermaster'sprogramatLa UniversidaddeLosAndesinColombia.
ShesaidhergraduateexperienceatNorthwesternhasbeengoodsofar,andshehas beenenjoyingthegraduateseminars.Whenaskedaboutherbiggestinspiration,Rosas saidshehasbeeninspiredbyspecificprofessorsshehasmetduringherundergraduate andgraduateexperiences
Rosassaid,"Theyareallverymagicalandbrightandkind.I'velearnedsomuchfrom them,theytaughtmeeverythingIknow I'llbeluckyifIendupbeinghalfasgreatas theyactuallyareintheirrespectiveresearchfieldsandinlifeingeneral"
Shesaidshelikesgotooutwithfriendsinhersparetime Rosasalsoenjoyswatching moviesandtvshowsaswellasdiscoveringnewmusic
Juliana Sexauer was born and raised on Dena’ina lands in Anchorage, Alaska and moved to Chicago in 2021. She received her B.A. in Religious Studies and International Relations from Pacific Lutheran University. Now, she is a JD-Ph.D. studentatNorthwestern
Juliana is passionate about how people relate and show up for one another: what drivesandconnectsthem Shesaidshefirstdecidedtostudyreligionwhenshewas veryyoung,afteraconversationwithhergrandpa
“Iwasprobablyfourorfiveyearsold Ihadaskedhimwhyhedidn’tgotochurch andasked,“Don’tyouloveGod?”AndIrememberhetoldme,“Idon’thavetogoto churchtohavearelationshipwithGod,"Sexauersaid.Shesaidthisbriefexchange led her to study religion, and she later became interested in ways Christianity has influencedtheAmericanlegalsystem
Sexauersaidshehasgrownimmenselyasastudentandscholar,evenjustinthelast quarter ShesaidthePhD programhasbeenchallengingbutincrediblyrewarding
"This department is so supportive. I’ve made great friends with fellow students in ourdepartmentandotherdepartmentsaswellasfacultymembers,"shesaid
Whenaskedaboutwhatinspiresher,Sexauersaidsheisinspiredbyalotofthings intheworldbutultimatelysettledontheworkTheOrangeTentProjectisdoingfor Chicago'sunhousedneighbors
Sexauer said she has been working toward achieving a “work-life balance" and locatingherself-worthoutsideoftheacademicworksheproduces Sheisproudto bededicatedtosettinghealthyboundarieswithhertimeandenergy.
Outsideofgraduateschool,Julianaandherhusbandwatch“TheGreatBritishBaking Show”andsnuggletheirdog,Luna.Shealsolikestodoyogaandtakedanceclasses!
Yannick Lambert is from the Esch-sur-Alzette area in the south of Luxembourg. Before joiningNorthwestern'sgraduateprogram,YannickreceivedanM.A.inReligiousStudiesat theUniversityofEdinburgh,anMPhilinClassicalIndianReligionattheUniversityofOxford, andaPGDipinGlobalDiplomacyatSOASUniversityofLondon.
He is primarily interested in ancient Indian religions, ancient Indian philosophy and the languageSanskrit HesaidhehasdevelopedinterestsinancientIndiansecularism,statecraft andlawaswell.
Lambertsaidhispassionforreligiousstudiesbeganwhenhewasaround15yearsoldand encountered a set of ancient Indian texts through German philosophy. "It left such an impressiononmewhenIfirstreaditthatIamstilldoingitnowlike15yearslater,"Lambert said
Whenaskedabouthisgraduateexperiences,hesaidgraduateschoolhasbeengoodsofar, andheishavingalotoffun Lambertsaidheisenjoyingthefreedomhehastotakeallsorts ofcoursesfromdifferentdepartmentsatNorthwestern.
Hesaidpartofthereasonhechosethisprogramisbecauseitseemedlikeanopen-minded placewhereyoucanexpandyourideas.Themainreason,Lambertsaid,wasbecauseofthe connectionandchemistrybetween hisadvisor,ProfessorMarkMcClish,andhimself.
LambertsaidhisbiggestinspirationwashisveryfirstSanskritteacher,PaulDundas,who taughthimattheUniversityofEdinburghinScotlandandunfortunatelypassedawaylast year
"Duringmythirdyear,hetaughtmeSanskritjustone-on-oneandthatreallyleftastring impressiononmethathetookhistimejusttoteachme Ithinkofhimconstantly,"Lambert said
His greatest accomplishment, Lambert said, was his involvement in a pan-European investigation into green-washing in the investment fund industry where his group was namedrunner-upforaEuropeanPressPrizeinthecategoryofinvestigativereportinglast year.
Inhistimeoutsideofgraduateschool,hesaidheenjoyslisteningtomusic,readingnovels, goingforwalksandhasrecentlybeengettingintopowerliftingagaintodecompress.
Feb 6 - Prof. Kevin Buckelew, Faculty Colloquium, “Buddhist Masculinities.” Joined by panelists, Prof. Sarah Jacoby and graduate student Ray Buckner
Feb 20 - Sherab Wagmo, Graduate Student Colloquium, “From the Medium to the Agent: Self and Agency in Khandro Dechen Wangmo’s Prophetic Text.”
April 9 - Graduate Student Association guest lecturer, Arnika Fuhrmann, professor of Asian studies and comparative literature at Cornell University, “Karma, Kinship, and Queerness in the Cinema and Video Art of Apichatong Weerasethakhul.”
April 16- Presentation by Carlota McAllister, associate professor at York University, Canada, “This is how my conciencia is born: Jesuits, Maya, and a church from below in revolutionary Guatemala.”
April 23- Graduate Student Association guest lecturer, Marko Geslani, professor at University of South Carolina, “A Fatal Policy: A War-Time in the Astral State.”
April 30 - Dr. Rima Vesley-Flad, visiting professor of Buddhism and Black studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, The Edmund Perry Lecture, “Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition.”
March 5 - Presentation by Amira Mittermaier, professor of anthropology and the study of religion, University of Toronto, “Ninety-Nine Names: Towards an Ethnography of God ”
May 14 - Amanda Gvozden, Graduate Student Colloquium, “The First Defilement - Scapegoats, Sacred Capital, and the Ritual Foundations of Capital Punishment.”
Sept 29 - Damchö Diana Finnegan, "Reading, Translating, Retelling Buddhist Narratives: What are our Ethical Obligations?"
Oct 27 - Xiaoqiang Meng, "Philosopher’s Myth, Worldmaking, and Religious Polemics: How to Read Buddhist Deva-Asura War Myth?"
Nov 10 - Huatse Gyal, "Blessing or Poison? The Mass Production/Consumption of Khata and its Afterlife "
Jan 10 - Andrew Macomber, "Evil Dead in the Aristocratic Mansion: Buddhist Experiments with Ritual Healing in Heian Japan."
Feb 16 - Jue Liang, "Making It as Buddhist Women: Rethinking Female Inferiority in Tibetan Buddhism."
March 8 - Nisheeta Jagtiani, "The Fourteenth Dalai Lama and His Rimé Approach"
April 5 - Charles Hallisey, "The Ethics of Care and Responsibility for the Sāsana as a Transgenerational Project."
May 16-18 - Second KFBSLS Workshop, keynote speaker, Dr Langenberg, "Did the Buddha Teach Consent?: A Reception Studies Approach."
May 21- Miranda Smith, Graduate Student Colloquium, “Kelsang Lhamo’s Dreaming for a Time at the Sage’s Abode: A Study of Religious Affect in Modern Tibetan Verse ”
May 22-24 - Palimpsest Conference organized with Religious Studies and German Departments by Prof. Christine Helmer, “Reformation or Revolution? The Potential of Palimpsest.”
Monthly - North American Religions Workshop (NARW), an interdisciplinary workshop for Chicago-area students and faculty working in and alongside the field of North American Religions held monthly workshops and meetings.
ANNUAL E D M U N D P E R R Y L E C T U R E
April 30
Scholar of social theory and social ethics
Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad delivered our annual Edmund Perry Lecture on “Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation.” The lecture was based on her 2022 novel of the same title. Dr. Vesley-Flad discussed healing intergenerational trauma through Buddhist practice, dharma teachings, the body in the path of liberation and the importance of love and community
Sept 16 - Fall Gathering at the Double Clutch, a local Evanston brewery, eatery and event space.
Oct 30 - Halloween Religious Studies Bash
Feb 13 - Valentine’s Day Religious Studies Event
May 30 - End- of-the-Year Celebration with guest performance by DEEVA. The Perry, Bond, Charisma, Golden Hoopoe and new Awards were given. The event concluded with attendees singing the departmental song. *See photos on pg. 10 Every Tuesday- Tuesdays Coffee and Tea with Dr. T at Kresge Cafe.
with Dr.T !
Connection. Conversation. Cookies.
Professor Schwartz collaborated with Dr. Noam Sienna of the University of Toronto and Craig Jobson of Lark Sparrow Press on a special letterpress project this spring, "THIS IS TORAH!" which highlights the multivocality of Torah study and the role of personal interpretation, based on Prof. Schwartz's translation of Berkhot62a from the Babylonian Talmud. The broadside poster creatively references the talmudic page in form and color and highlights the evolution of Jewish textual production, from manuscript to the printing press. Prof. Schwartz's REL 230 Introduction to Judaism: Jewish Texts class participated in the project as the culmination of their learning about the materiality of Jewish texts by printing their own Torah posters at Jobson's studio and writing their own reflective commentary as part of the project.
Rachel Levy successfully defended her dissertation, "Do Clothes Make the Man?: Sartorial Rhetoric in the Writings of Thirteenth to Seventeenth Century Drukpa Kagyu Masters."
Nisheeta Jagtiani successfully defended her dissertation, "Rimé: Impartiality in Tibetan Buddhism and Beyond."
Undergraduate Awards & Undergraduate Awards & Accomplishments Accomplishments
The Theta Kappa Alpha Honor in Society Award of Most Innovative Research was awarded to Chloe Chow (co ‘24).
The Edmund F. Perry Award was awarded to Lauren Yi Joyce for Best Research in Religious Studies.
The departmental Charisma Award for Compassionate Presence & Community Citizenship was awarded to Rosemary Sissel (co ‘24).
The very first annual Richard Kieckhefer Undergraduate Summer Research Grant was awarded to Audrey Zhou (co ‘25) for her honors research project on hospital chaplaincy.
Nisheeta Jagtiani earned a South Asia Research Forum grant in support of her doctoral research on Tibetan non-sectarianism (rimé) in exile today.
Izzak Novak was awarded a 2024 Northwestern-SSRC Dissertation Proposal Development (DPD) Fellowship. Matthew Drew was awarded a "Buffett Summer Language Training Award" at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu, Nepal, and a "Buffett PreDissertation International Summer Research Grant" in Chengdu, China.
Dhondup T. Rekjong was awarded a 2024 Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in Buddhist Studies. He is one of 11 scholars to be awarded $30,000 for dissertation fieldwork, archival research and writing.
Joshua Brallier was awarded the Presidential Fellowship. The Presidential Fellowship is “the highest honor Northwestern University bestows upon a graduate student,” according to The Graduate School.
Izzak Novak was awarded the 2023-2024 George Bond Graduate Teaching Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
Prof. Elizabeth Hurd received a Buffett Global Collaboration Grant to host Prof. Carlos Manrique of the Universidad de los Andes to collaborate on a book project.
Prof. KB Dennis Meade received a grant as a 2024 Crossroads Community Stories Fellow to work on her film, “Crossing the Kalunga Line: A Cinematic Biography of a Revival Scientist.”
Prof. Christine Helmer’s co-authored book, “Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times: Justification and Justice,” was awarded the status of “finalist” in the 48th National PROSE Book Awards for theology and religious studies.
Prof. James Bielo was awarded a Luce-AAR Public Scholarship Grant as part of his ‘Secondhand Sacred’ project.
Prof. Sarah McFarland Taylor received the 2023 Iris Book Award for her book “Ecopiety: Green Media and the Dilemma of Environmental Virtue ”
Prof. Sarah McFarland Taylor was awarded the Golden Hoopoe Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching at the departmental End-of-the-Year Awards.
Several Northwestern faculty members, graduate students and alumni participated in panels at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Conference in San Antonio, Texas on November 18-21.
Some highlights of the AAR conference last year include a session with a sneak peek at a edited volume in Prof Sarah Taylor’s “Selling the Sacred” on Nov 20 and the Department’s reception for the NU Religious Studies community
It’s exciting to announce that thanks to the initiative and foresight of our Chair Beth Hurd we now have a brand new Undergraduate Research Grant Award. This annual research grant is named for one of our most beloved professors, a fan favorite among our students, you might say, and one who has dedicated multiple decades to the assiduous teaching, care, and mentorship of our students.
With that, we are proud to announce the very first annual “Richard Kieckhefer Research Grant” – which this year was conferred upon junior major Audrey Zhou for her honors research project on hospital chaplaincy at the University of Chicago Hospital.
On behalf of the Department of Religious Studies we thank Prof. Kieckhefer for nearly a half-century of service, and for many contributions to the enrichment of the Department and the University.
Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times, co-authored by Dr. Christine Helmer and Dr. Amy Carr, was published through Baylor University Press in October 2023. Helmer and Carr offer a theological framework for Christian justice-seeking. The book reveals how Christians who inhabit different ethical and political positions can navigate the disorientations and reorientations that arise when they debate what justice-seeking looks like from within the body of Christ.
Buddhist Masculinities, co-edited by Northwestern Prof. Kevin Buckelew and Prof. Megan Bryson, is a transdisciplinary book published through Colombia University Press in September of 2023. The book contains various essays exploring the diversity and variety of Buddhist masculinities in historical and contemporary contexts It seeks to draw scholarly attention to the forms of masculinity that go unstudied due to their "normative" position and discusses contemporary issues of intersectionality, sexual ethics and gender identity
Selling the Sacred, co-edited by Dr Mara Einstein and Dr. Sarah McFarland Taylor, was published in March 2024 by Routledge. This book explores the religio-cultural and media implications of a two-sided phenomenon: marketing religion as a product and marketing products as religion. This innovative volume examines the phenomenon of selling the sacred, providing a better understanding of how marketing tactics, married with religious content, influence our thinking and everyday lives.
January 31, 1932 - March 7, 2024
In 1980, Robin began her graduate study at Northwestern University in the Department of the History and Literature of Religions and pursued her deep interest in Judaism In 1986, she earned her PhD Robin was a humanist and brought the heart of Buber’s theology into her own life through her genuine relationships with others and through teaching social ethics at Northwestern in the 1990’s
A special note from Dr. Richard Kieckhefer
Robin Goldsmith was a delightful person, an outstanding graduate student and a committed teacher In all her roles she brought grace and insight to our department.
In the early 1980s faculty and students decided to go on outings to churches and synagogues in the Chicago area. We did it even in the winter quarter–in fact especially in winter, to get out and avoid cabin fever. Robin was almost always on those trips, and sometimes she brought her husband, the famous architect Myron Goldsmith We thought nothing of seeing six or eight places on a single outing We zigged and zagged all over Cook County Robin brought to these occasions truly deep understanding of the art but also the business of architecture. She knew about all the architects and their firms, and I’m pretty sure she had mingled with everybody on social occasions for the architecture luminaries of Chicago. She did her dissertation on social ethics in Reinhold Niebuhr and Martin Buber–and as a Reform Jew connected with the “Free Synagogue” Beth Emmet, she was profoundly committed to integration and progressive causes generally–but she also knew well the elites who were building things in and around Chicago and beyond.
She was a priceless addition to our program and to the community of faculty, students and staff who got out and did all sorts of things because they seemed worth doing.
James Howard Hill, Jr. embodies many titles: a first-generation college graduate, a North Texas native, a husband and a father to two beautiful children. Now, he takes on yet another title: an assistant professor of religion and African American studies at Boston University.
Hill’s interest in the study of religion came early in life, directly from the community he was raised in. “To understand the world, you have to understand religion because in Texas, in my neighborhood, that’s how people shamed you and celebrated you. ” he said.
Northwestern invited him to ask questions such as: What does it mean for us to think about freedom as something that is carefully managed? How does the country and society treat people who want to be free on their own terms? Hill said he is appreciative of the support and enthusiasm the department showed when he shared the line of thinking he had for his dissertation.
The Northwestern alumnus successfully defended his dissertation “Undeniable Blackness: Popular Culture, Religion, and the Michael Jackson Cacophony” in 2022. His dissertation explored politics, race and religion through the contested legacy of Michael Jackson. Hill examined what it really means for Michael Jackson to push the American idea of ‘freedom’ toward its limits. Michael Jackson tested this country on the freedom it sells itself on, and it showed itself to not be ready to live that out, he said.
Hill described his time in graduate school and journey to becoming a professor as a challenging yet rewarding experience that was anything but linear. We learn as scholars to hold complexity; we are tasked with handling complex stories,” Hill said “So, graduate student life is no less complex, particularly if you are Black, minoritized and firstgeneration.” Hill said since higher education was not made for non-white, working class communities, it can be difficult to be in these spaces upsetting algorithms. Hill thought about leaving several times after feeling like he couldn’t sustain a healthy mind space in graduate school.
For Hill, and he hopes for many others, it is important to maintain and hold yourself fast to an anchor of: ‘I come from a proud people, and I will not let these spaces take that out of me.’ He said he was also able to vocalize his struggles, receiving immense support and understanding from the department.
“I had faculty that recognized that it was so difficult for me to make it in these racialized spaces… the microaggressions, the harm that I experienced that people don’t even know is harmful,” he said. “They used their influence, names and status to help me get on the other side, and I wouldn’t be here without them.”
“The fact that I have the blessed privilege to work with students that are able to have a conversation with themselves that they weren’t having at the beginning of the class, that’s why I do what I do.”
Today, Hill uses the interdisciplinary training he received at Northwestern to be an educator in various subject areas. He said he can teach introduction to religion as well religion and black politics, religion and black popular music and religion, race and climate change because of his training. He now invites his students to be curious as well by always asking questions and not being afraid of where their questions may lead them.
He said he further recognizes how hard college can be and knows many of the students sitting in his classroom seats may be going through a situation similar to his own. Hill said he was always anxious at school, looking at his tuition balance. As a faculty member, scholar and educator at Boston University, Hill said he thinks about the students with real, difficult situations going on in their life while juggling his course at the same time. Hill said he tells students “sometimes the only hope we have is that we are stubborn.” He said once someone has a commitment to force the world to deal with them, all they need is a person in their corner to help them keep going; that’s the person Dr Hill wants to be for his students
His goal for his students is for them to achieve self-actualization to see themselves for who they’ve always been. Hill said the joy he has as a professor is seeing students who are at the University learn what it feels like to be themselves, without shame or apology. Hill said he hopes they can use his class as an instrument to figure out who they are and the conversation they want to have with the world. He said every semester he becomes a mentor to a new student, walks alongside them through the class and material and sees them figure out the conservation they seek with the world.
Wheatley defended his dissertation “Policing Fanaticism, Religion, & Race in the American Empire, 1830–1930” in 2020, earning his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Northwestern University.
Today, he is in his fourth year as an assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies at Iowa State University. Wheatley said his main task now is the finalization of his book manuscript, which is tentatively entitled “American Fanatics: Spirited Rebellion and the Policing of Religion ” He said it is an enhanced and updated version of his Ph.D. dissertation. His book centers on religious fanaticism in 19th century United States.
The Northwestern alumnus said he is interested in when Americans started using this language: what they mean by it, who is being labeled fanatical and the effects of being labeled this way. He said he views this from the perspective of religious institutions, who they are calling fanatical in sermons, and who the U.S. government considers dangerous because of their religion
Wheatley said while we have this ideal of religious freedom, which does quite a bit of good, there are always exceptions.
“There are certain groups, that are often already marginalized, especially racialized groups and religious groups that have ideas that are outside of the mainstream that are going to, rightly or wrongly, be viewed as not having a form of religion that we can tolerate,” he said.
He said his book looks at some of these groups whose religion is deemed too dangerous, violent or subversive
Wheatley explores how, since enslaved people were viewing and understanding Christianity through their oppression, their religion itself was targeted.
The scholar said he discusses how the government determined these Black religious leaders and practices were dangerous, so they were surveilled, policed and sometimes outright executed. Some other religious groups included are Native American groups, those within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and abolitionists.
Wheatley said he first became fascinated with religious studies during his undergraduate years at Arizona State University. While pursuing his Master’s, Wheatley said he got the chance to go to Northwestern and work with former faculty member Sylvester Johnson
He said he has fond memories of his time at Northwestern, which is why he gets excited when he sees his old colleagues and mentors. Wheatley recalled how the department’s professors made sure humanity was there when studying religion
I knew it was a supportive program, in terms of finances and funds, but Northwestern was also supportive emotionally and academically. They want to treat you like a full human, and they want you to succeed, so I knew that was the kind of place for me.
Another important aspect of his time at NU was when he got to design his own class entitled “A History of the Devil ” Wheatley said he reflects on that course as his introduction into his proper direction of teaching as a more advanced scholar.
Wheatley now teaches four religious studies courses at Iowa State. He said his favorite course to teach is Religion & Popular Culture. The course centers on how pop culture presents different religious traditions and how religious studies has these concepts that help us understand popular culture differently, Wheatley said
The Iowa State professor said he has taken a different direction recently that he has really enjoyed.
Wheatley said his students were particularly interested in games, so he began incorporating games into one of his courses and even allowed them to create a game for their final. When other faculty discussed creating a game design major, Wheatley said he jumped at the chance to partake in its creation.
He said that it has been a challenging yet revitalizing endeavor Wheatley's job in helping create this game design major is considering what role the humanities can have when people think ethically about games but also to create great games that are fun and compelling to spend time in
“I really enjoy the challenge of it and am starting to do more research on the relevance of some basic religious studies concepts for what makes games compelling in the first place,” Wheatley said.
Dr. Wheatley has seen continued success and has been accepted into the 2023 Young Scholars in American Religion Cohort
This piece of art was created by Hank Yang (class of 2024) as the final project for REL 345: Sainthood and the Body. Students were asked to investigate a saint of their choice and produce a creative work inspired by the saint’s life. Hank researched the twentieth-century German mystic Therese Neumann, whose body famously manifested the wounds of Christ as she experienced visions of his life and crucifixion. Hank was interested in conveying both the horror of Therese’s wounds as she received the stigmata, and the simultaneous joy of her communion with the divine. Because our class focused on premodern sources, Hank drew inspiration from medieval manuscripts to create the frame for the painting. Hank was a Religious Studies minor at Northwestern and is working towards an MTS degree in Comparative Religions at Harvard Divinity school starting this fall.
This Diorama was created by Annette Krol (Class of 2025) as her final project for REL 345: Sainthood and the Body in Fall, 2023. Annette researched the nineteenthcentury French saint and visionary, Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes. The scene Annette crafted shows Bernadette at age 14 having her first vision of the Virgin Mary in 1858. The grotto where Mary appeared to Bernadette as Our Lady of Lourdes has become a major pilgrimage site, and its spring is said to have miraculous healing powers During her research, Annette was interested in exploring the mystical relationships that develop between saintly women, and the role of sacred space in tying them together Annette is a premed student majoring in Biology. She has already been accepted to medical school at Feinberg!
This piece of art was created by Molly Braun (class of 2024) for REL 349: Blood and Christianity, a History in Substance. The final for this class was technically waived, but Molly decided to submit a creative work anyway! Molly carved a linocut for block printing, and stamped the image of Christ’s hand, bleeding from the wounds of the crucifixion. On its own, the wound symbolizes the role played by Christ’s blood in the process of Christian salvation. Molly added the words from Matthew 8:2-3 in which Jesus heals a man with leprosy: “Lord if you choose, you can make me clean” and “I do choose. Be made clean!” Molly drew from our discussions of Leviticus 13 and 14, in which Temple sacrifice was prescribed as a part of the ritual cleansing process for people with skin impurities (tzaraath, translated by Christians as lepra, or leprosy). This image speaks to later Christian beliefs that Jesus served as the final sacrificial lamb who cleansed the sins of the world with his blood. Molly studied French, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Political Science while at Northwestern and is tentatively considering a scholarly future.
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