Scholarship and Student Experiences Are on the Rise
Department Head Helene Sinnreich highlights what’s new in student programs, faculty research, and more
I am very excited to say that this spring I was in Poland with a group of exceptional students on the inaugural Frankel-Ricketts Global Scholars program trip!
Sixteen students visited Jewish sites and Holocaust sites in Poland as a result of an incredibly generous gift from Dan Rickets and Steve Frankel. Their support includes an estate gift that will enable the program to expand and continue. Dan and Steve were honored by the College of Arts and Sciences this year as philanthropists of the year—a well-deserved recognition.
Not only does philanthropy to our department enable amazing trips for students, but it also supports many of our programs, including our endowed lectures.
This past year we once again hosted the Siddiqi endowed lecture in Islamic Studies, with a presentation by Mohammad Ballan. We welcomed Shari Rabin for a talk on the Jewish South for the Abraham and Rebecca Solomon and Ida Schwartz Distinguished Lecture on Judaic Studies and hosted Oded Nir for a series of lectures as our Karen and Pace Robinson Scholar in Residence. The Anjali Lecture in Hindu Studies featured Sugata Ray.
Another piece of exciting news is the arrival of our new colleague Assistant Professor Rachel Schneider, who has filled our position in religion and public life. We are thrilled that she has already been awarded a Denbo Center for the Arts and Humanities fellowship for next year. Associate Professor Erin Darby had a fellowship at the Denbo Center during the 2025-2026 academic year, and Assistant Professor Marcus Harvey returned to the classroom after his Denbo fellowship the previous year. Our faculty’s repeated receipt of this competitive award is a testament to the research excellence in the department.
Speaking of awards, Megan Bryson was appointed again as a Lindsay Young Professor for another term. This prestigious award recognizes excellence in scholarship and teaching. Additionally, our department’s most prestigious accomplishment was the receipt of the Dr. Marva Rudolph Access and Engagement Unit Excellence Award for 2025. We are proud of the community-engaged work that led to this recognition.
Our faculty has been extremely research productive this past year with several books coming out, including Assistant Professor Manuela Ceballos’s Between Dung and Blood: Purity, Sainthood, and Power in the Early Modern Western Mediterranean (University of California Press, 2025), Distinguished Professor Christine Shepardson’s A Memory of Violence: Syriac Christianity and the Radicalization of Religious Difference in Late Antiquity (University of California Press, 2025), and Teaching Professor David Kline’s co-edited volume Words Made Flesh: Sylvia Wynter and Religion (Fordham University Press, 2025). Assistant Professor Larry Perry and Bryson each submitted manuscripts to their publishers this year, so we should have exciting news from them soon!
We are very excited to welcome new staff members including a new business manager, Amber Tipton and a new banner coordinator, Tiffany Angaran.
We had our first students complete our new graduate certificate in spring of 2025 and our department, which prides itself on supporting undergraduate research, saw several students receive external awards for research.
Helene Sinnreich
Department of Religious Studies
Professor and Head