Religious Studies Blog

Posted on May 24th, 2024

What follows is Alondra Arriaga-Rosales’s address as delivered at the School of Liberal Arts Commencement, May 10th, 2024 Welcome students. My name is Alondra Arriaga-Rosales, and I am one amongst many 2024 School of Liberal Arts graduates. Can you all believe that we have made it right celebrating our academic success?! Today marks the end …

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Posted on May 24th, 2024 by wheelerr

What follows is Alondra Arriaga-Rosales’s address as delivered at the School of Liberal Arts Commencement, May 10th, 2024 Welcome students. My name is Alondra Arriaga-Rosales, and I am one amongst many 2024 School of Liberal Arts graduates. Can you all believe that we have made it right celebrating our academic success?! Today marks the end …

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Posted on March 8th, 2024 in Classes by Sydney Bielefeld

Exploring the Ethical Landscape: Why You Should Enroll in REL-R 383 Power, Sex, and Money In a world where ethical dilemmas constantly challenge our moral compass, the importance of understanding diverse perspectives on issues such as war, medicine, discrimination, welfare, marriage, and sexuality cannot be overstated. These topics not only shape our individual lives but …

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Posted on February 14th, 2024 in Faculty, Research by Sydney Bielefeld

At a time when the humanities are often overlooked in favor of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines, Dr. Rachel Wheeler, chair of Religious Studies, proposed an innovative solution to revitalize the humanities: one-credit “co-labs” attached to STEM courses. Dr. Wheeler’s idea seeks to address the imbalance between technical skills and essential humanistic understanding …

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Posted on January 12th, 2024 in Blog, Students by Sydney Bielefeld

What can a religious studies major or minor offer you? How does it benefit? Read what some students have to say about their time in religious studies. “Religious studies is very eye opening. We get to learn and talk about so many topics that most people don’t talk about often in an academic way.” – …

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Posted on October 26th, 2023 in Blog, Classes by Sydney Bielefeld

Prepare your Spring 2024 schedule with courses in Religious Studies! Here are the upcoming semester course offerings: REL-R 101 Religion and Culture (3 cr.) An introduction to the diversity of human cultures from the perspective of religious studies. The course uses a case study approach to understand how religion shapes, and is shaped by, culture and …

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VALE DO AMANHECER
Posted on August 18th, 2023 by wheelerr

In May 2023, King Charles III was crowned with all the pomp and ceremony that the shrunken British Empire can still muster in the way of symbolic excess. It was a grand spectacle, made even more so by the extravagant regalia and ritual finery on display: the radiant emblems of rule encrusted with jewels, the …

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Posted on August 4th, 2023 in Classes by wheelerr

What happens when you load our Course Bulletin into ChatGPT and ask it to speak Gen Z? Read on to find out! REL R103 The Bible and Culture: Fulfills Cultural Understanding General Education Core requirement. A cultural introduction to this central text of Western civilization. Explores some of the Bible’s major themes and literatures in …

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Posted on May 5th, 2023 in Community Engaged by wheelerr

Over the last academic year, two students Kayla McVeigh and Alondra Arriaga-Rosales, have been working as Religious Studies Community Engagement Associates (CEAs) with Dr. Kelly Hayes. As Community Engagement Associates Alondra and Kayla work with their faculty mentor on a community-centered project, conducting interviews, compiling a list of community contacts, and creating a final report …

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Posted on March 21st, 2023 in Classes by wheelerr

By Prof. Tom Davis and Kayla McVeigh “A real conversation always contains an invitation. You are inviting another person to reveal herself or himself to you, to tell you who they are or what they want.”  David Whyte About a year and a half ago, I found myself seated next to Jing Wang, a colleague …

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The day after my talk in Cedar Rapids, I visited the home of 94-year-old Aziza Igram whose family is central to the book.
Posted on February 1st, 2023 by wheelerr

While I was still writing Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest (NYU Press, 2022), I became determined to take the book back to the places where its stories unfolded from the 1890s to the 1940s. At first, I thought that perhaps I should do one big road trip and …

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