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Department of Religious Studies Undergraduate Research Award
Majors and minors in Religious Studies are invited to submit their research for the department’s Undergraduate Research Award, which includes a $200 prize. The research should be from the past three semesters (no earlier than Spring 2015) and may consist of essays, poster presentations, or other research projects done for a Religious Studies course or under the supervision of Religious Studies faculty. Research papers should be at least seven double-spaced pages. Other research projects should be accompanied by a narrative of at least two double-spaced pages. The deadline for submissions is March 15. Submit applications to religiousstudies@utk.edu.
Entries will be evaluated by a committee of three Religious Studies faculty from different regional specializations that will rotate its members annually on a regular basis. Each entry will be evaluated by two faculty members, and faculty will recuse themselves from evaluating their own students’ work. Submissions will be evaluated on the quality and originality of research and their contributions to the field of Religious Studies. The winner will be announced at the annual department awards ceremony in late April.
Research Travel Support
The Department has two funds that it can use to support travel and expenses related to research, whether locally, nationally, or internationally. Awards cannot exceed $500.
Students are also advised to visit or consult the Center for International Education, especially the McClure Scholarship Fund.
Research Opportunities
For more information on Undergraduate Research at UT (such as working with a faculty member over the summer), click here or consult a faculty member.
For service-learning projects, consult the Office of Service-Learning as well as your faculty mentor.
Taylor Thomas ’16 talks about her successes, opportunities, and travels as an undergraduate researcher in Religious Studies. Note: this video originally formed part of the department’s VOLstarter campaign to raise funds for the new Undergraduate Research and Travel Fund in fall 2016.
Research Achievements
2020
Senior Thesis Project
- Symantha Gregorash
Faculty Advisor: Erin Darby
Thesis: “Examining Impacts of Cultural Competency Curriculum among Study Abroad Students,” May 2020
College Scholars Thesis
- Peyton White
Faculty advisor: David Kline, Faculty co-advisor: Randy Hepner
“Making Meaning in the Dark: A Heritage of Black Disavowal, Incarceration, and Religious Conversion,” May 2020
CHP Thesis
- Austin Hoffarth
Faculty advisor: Rosalind Hackett
“A Study of Physician Preparedness in relation to Religious Diversification: Examination of Policy, Education, Training, and Experience,” May 2020
REST Research Presentations
- Discovery Day – August 20, 2019: (all related to taking the “research section” of the summer field school in Jordan)
- Ashley Cornell
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby
““Middle Islamic Burial at ‘Ayn Gharandal” - Travis Cornell
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby
“‘Ayn Gharandal Archaeological Project: Inhumation 5335 and Locus 5336” - Olivia Kelley
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby
“Ayn Gharandal Archaeology Project: Pottery in A:5-5/6-5 in the 2019 AGAP Dig Season” - Symantha Gregorash
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby
“Examining Impacts of Cultural Competency Curriculum Among Study Abroad Students.”
- Ashley Cornell
- Posters on the Capitol
- Ashley Cornell and Travis Cornell (joint poster, related to dig)
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby
“‘Ayn Gharandal Archaeological Project: Locus 5336 and Inhumation 5337”
- Ashley Cornell and Travis Cornell (joint poster, related to dig)
- Undergraduate Research Symposium
- Shannon Dugger
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby
“Deification or Demonization: Jesus’ Post-resurrection Body in Luke 24:36-40”
- Shannon Dugger
- Eureca – April 13, 2020
- Carl Weinstein
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby
“Herem as Contaminant in Joshua 6 and 7: Is Achan ‘Sinner Zero?’” - Shannon Dugger
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby
“Deification or Demonization: Jesus’ Post-resurrection Body in Luke 24:36-40” - Ashley Cornell
Faculty advisor: Tina Shepardson
“As Below, So Above: Early Christian Women as Veiled Expressions of Power and Difference” - Travis Cornell
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby
“The Emergence of Bench Tombs in the Levant during the Eighth to Sixth Centuries BCE” - Symantha Gregorash
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby
“Examining Impacts of Cultural Competency Curriculum Among Study Abroad Students.”
- Carl Weinstein
- Department Organized Public Research Symposium (REST 413)
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby- Shannon Dugger
“The Anomy of Luke 24:36-40: A Theoretical and Linguistic Reevaluation of a Scholarly Debate” - Laura Branson
“The Battle of Two Conflicting Thoughts: Approaches to Death and Retribution in Qoheleth 9:1-10 and the Book of the Watchers” - Timothy Smith
“It’s A Hard Job, But Someone’s Gotta Do It: Speaking for the Dead in the Book of Job” - Zamir Turner
“Meeting the Lord in the Air” Reevaluating ‘The Rapture’ in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18” - Phillip Dunn
“Politics and Eschatology in the Book of Daniel” - Madeline Stinnett
“Bitter Waters of Death”: Understanding Numbers 5:11-31 and Corpse Impurity in the Biblical Text” - Mary Merrill
“‘No One Can Say This is Jezebel’: The Meaning and Function of Jezebel’s Death Narrative in 2 Kings 9:30-37” - Carl Weinstein
“חרם as a Contaminant in Joshua 6 and 7: Is Achan “Sinner Zero?” - Travis Cornell
“The Emergence of Bench Tombs in the Levant during the Eighth to Sixth Centuries BCE”
- Shannon Dugger
Regional Research Presentations
- SECSOR
- Carl Weinstein
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby
“Herem as Contaminant in Joshua 6 and 7: Is Achan ‘Sinner Zero?’” - Shannon Dugger
Faculty advisor: Erin Darby
“Deification or Demonization: Jesus’ Post-resurrection Body in Luke 24:36-40” - Ashley Cornell
Faculty advisor: Tina Shepardson
“As Below, So Above: Early Christian Women as Veiled Expressions of Power and Difference” - Nick Pittinger
Faculty advisor: Megan Bryon
“The Commercialization of Buddhist Mindfulness Meditation”
- Carl Weinstein
- Nexus Interdisciplinary Conference – March 7, 2020
- Symantha Gregorash
Faculty advisor: Erin Darb
“Examining Impacts of Cultural Competency Curriculum Among Study Abroad Students.”
- Symantha Gregorash
- Feminism and Classics Conference, Wake Forest University
- Andrew Swann
Faculty advisor: Tina Shepardson
“Nature, Speech-Acts, and the Performed Other: A Historical-Methodological Analysis of John of Ephesus and ‘Christian Womanhood’”
- Andrew Swann
Research Related Awards
- UT Undergraduate Research Travel Awards
- Carl Weinstein
- Shannon Dugger
- Ashley Cornell
- Eureca Awards
- Symantha Gregorash: Award of Excellence, Social Science Division. College of Arts and Sciences, Silver Award, Office of Undergraduate Research, University of Tennessee
- Department of Religious Studies Undergraduate Research Award
- Andrew Swann
- 1794 Scholar of the Year
- Helene Sinnreich’s 1794 student, Morgan McGinn, won 1794 scholar of the year for his work with the public health in the ghettos project (2nd year in a row for Helene).
- Publication
- Shannon Dugger’s piece, “Deification or Demonization: Jesus’ Post-resurrection Body in Luke 24:36-40” was accepted for publication in Pursuit, the peer-reviewed UG research journal at UT.
2015
2015 Recipients of the Lusby and Hodges Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research
Robert Cremins, Kirby Trovillo, and Felipe Oliveira were the 2015 recipients of the Lusby and Hodges Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. All three students presented their research at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion.
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