Faculty Accomplishments from Spring and Summer 2020

Miranda Schonbrun

BCSR is proud to share a sample of recent accomplishments, publications, awards, and news from affiliated faculty from spring and summer 2020. Please join us in congratulating our affiliated faculty members Robert Alter, Karen Barkey, Robert Braun, Charles Hirschkind, Ethan Katz, Henrike C. Lange, Rita Lucarelli, Joanna Picciotto, Ronit Stahl, Jonathan Sheehan, and Francesco Spagnolo on these achievements! …

Recent Alumni Spotlight: Basit Iqbal

Miranda Schonbrun Featured

As part of our ongoing interview series, BCSR recently caught up with Basit Iqbal, who was a 2018 recipient of a BCSR summer research grant. He is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta. He received his PhD from the UC Berkeley Department of Anthropology with a designated emphasis in critical theory in December 2019. …

Grad Student Spotlight: Madeline Lesser

Miranda Schonbrun

As part of our series spotlighting UC Berkeley graduate student research, BCSR recently had the opportunity to sit down with Madeline Lesser, a PhD student in English. Her dissertation is titled “Bad Prophets: the Aesthetics of Uncertainty in Revolutionary England.” BCSR: Could you tell us about your doctoral research topic more broadly and how you feel it contributes to the study of religion? …

Faculty Achievements from Fall 2019

Brandon Schneider Research

Fall 2019 was an excellent and busy semester for the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion’s affiliated faculty. BCSR is proud to share a sample of recent accomplishments, publications, awards, and news from affiliated faculty from the fall 2019 semester. Please join us in congratulating our affiliated faculty members Carolyn Chen, David A. Hollinger, Rita Lucarelli, Diego Pirillo, and …

Grad Student Spotlight: Simon Brown

Brandon Schneider Research

An ongoing series on current and recent Berkeley grads working on religion. Simon Brown, PhD Candidate, Department of History As part of our series spotlighting UC Berkeley graduate student research, BCSR recently had the opportunity to sit down with Simon Brown,  a doctoral candidate in European History. His dissertation is tentatively titled “Useful Subjects: English Practical Divinity and Useful Knowledge from Reformation to …

Grad Student Spotlight: Grace Goudiss

Miranda Schonbrun News

An ongoing series on current and recent Berkeley grads working on religion. As part of our series spotlighting UC Berkeley graduate student research, BCSR recently had the opportunity to sit down with Grace Goudiss,  a doctoral candidate in North American History. Her dissertation is tentatively titled “California Converts: the ‘Cult Scare’ and American Politics, 1965-1988″. BCSR: Could you tell us about your doctoral research …

Grad Student Spotlight: Raphael Magarik

Brandon Schneider Research

An ongoing series on current and recent Berkeley grads working on religion. [NOTE: This post is best viewed on Medium, where we post longer-form content] As part of our series spotlighting UC Berkeley graduate student research, BCSR recently had the opportunity to sit down with Raphael Magarik, a doctoral candidate in English with emphases in Early Modern and Jewish Studies. His …

Grad Spotlight: Simone Stirner

Brandon Schneider Research

An ongoing series on current and recent Berkeley grads working on religion. [NOTE: This post is best viewed on Medium, where we post longer-form content] As part of our series spotlighting UC Berkeley graduate student research, BCSR recently had the opportunity to sit down with Simone Stirner, a doctoral candidate in Comparative Literature with designated emphases in Critical Theory and …

From BCSR Postdoc to Projects on Neoconservatism, Neoliberalism, and Christian Human Rights: 5 Questions with Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Yale University

Brandon Schneider Research, The Berkeley Postdoctoral Fellowship in Public Theology

As part of our ongoing 5 Questions series, BCSR recently caught up with Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, the 2016-2017 Berkeley Postdoctoral Fellow in Public Theology. Now with the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale, Jenkins shared his thoughts on his time at Berkeley and the place of BCSR in the wider religious studies landscape. We also asked about his current and …

Grad Spotlight: Candace Lukasik

Brandon Schneider Event, News

The second in an ongoing series on current and recent Berkeley grads working on religion. [NOTE: This post is best viewed on Medium, where we post longer-form content] As part of our ongoing series spotlighting UC Berkeley graduate student research, BCSR recently had the opportunity to chat with Candace Lukasik, a PhD candidate in Anthropology studying the Egyptian Coptic Christian …

Synagogues with Cemeteries, Secret Mosques, Underground Churches, Religion and Countinsurgency: 5 Questions with Jason Klocek, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Center for the Study of Religion and Society, Notre Dame

Brandon Schneider News, Research

In mid-August Jason Klocek, a former BCSR grant winner and now Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Global Religion Initiative at Notre Dame, walked us through the aforementioned aspects of his scholarly development, part of his wider journey from coal-town Pennsylvania to Berkeley, with with stops in Crete, Turkmenistan, and Washington D.C. along the way. Klocek also discussed his choice of, …

Grad Spotlight: Youssef Carter

Brandon Schneider News, Research

The first in an ongoing series of spotlights on current and recent Berkeley grads working on religion. [Note: this post is best viewed on Medium, where we will be posting longer-form content.] BCSR recently caught up with an alumnus of our summer grant program, Dr. Youssef J. Carter. Dr. Carter, presently a College Fellow in the Departments of Anthropology and …

Faculty Research: New Books on Psychoanalysis and Islam | Luther and the Reformation | Judaism

Brandon Schneider Research

BCSR affiliated faculty have recently, or will soon, publish new contributions to the topics noted above. In May Stefania Pandolfo (Anthropology), published Knot of the Soul: Madness, Psychoanalysis, Islam with the University of Chicago Press: “Through a dual engagement with the unconscious in psychoanalysis and Islamic theological-medical reasoning, Stefania Pandolfo’s unsettling and innovative book reflects on the maladies of the …

Intellectually Diverse New Directions Cohort to Join the BCSR Community

Brandon Schneider

BCSR faculty will mentor an intellectually diverse set of New Directions in Theology grant winners in 2018-2019. Representing eight disciplines, with interests ranging from antiquity to the present, the incoming New Directions students will regularly meet with BCSR faculty to discuss contemporary religious research and to refine their academic projects. The New Directions in Theology grants, part of the Berkeley …

Jordan, Lebanon, London, New York, D.C., Madrid, Florence: BCSR Summer Grant Winners Take Their Research on the Road

Brandon Schneider News, Research

BCSR funding will support four graduate students’ research travel this summer. Grants of $1500-$3500, provided with the support of the Frank and Leslie Yeary Endowment for Ethics in the Humanities, will help students from the departments of Anthropology, Near Eastern Studies, and History to conduct fieldwork and archival research in the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. The grant winners’ …

BCSR Announces Graduate Student Summer Research Grants in Religion

jfernandez News, Research

The Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (BCSR) is offering summer research grants to advanced graduate students working on topics at the intersection of religion and ethics, broadly construed. The grant is supported by the Frank and Lesley Yeary Endowment for Ethics in Humanities, established to support research and scholarship in ethics. Grants range from $2,000 to $5,000, and …

BCSR Announces Graduate Student Summer Research Grants in Religion

Brandon Schneider Research

The Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (BCSR) is offering summer research grants to advanced graduate students working on topics at the intersection of religion and ethics, broadly construed. The grant is supported by the Frank and Lesley Yeary Endowment for Ethics in Humanities, established to support research and scholarship in ethics. Grants range from $2,000 to $5,000, and …

BCSR New Directions in Theology Grants for Second-Year Graduate Students | Call for Applications

Brandon Schneider Research

BCSR is offering up to four grants in the amount of $5,000 each for graduate students in their second year of study in 2017-18.* New Directions grants are provided by BCSR through the Public Theology Program, a critical three-year research initiative funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. Grantees participate in a cohort of early-career students from diverse disciplines to explore the …

Recruitment opens for the 2017-2018 Postdoctoral Fellowship in Public Theology

Brandon Schneider News, Research

The Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (BCSR) opened recruitment for the Berkeley Postdoctoral Fellowship in Public Theology on December 1. Part of BCSR’s Public Theology Program, the fellowship is dedicated to the furtherance of the very best new scholarship in religious studies, and, in particular, the development of modes of inquiry that can pioneer new approaches to the study of …

Announcing 2017-2018 New Directions in Theology Graduate Student Grants

Brandon Schneider News, Research

BCSR announces a call for applications for the 2017-18 New Directions in Theology Graduate Student Grants, an opportunity offered through the Public Theology Program. A $5,000 grant will be awarded to incoming first-year and continuing second-year students from a variety of disciplines. Grantees participate as a cohort in biweekly meetings convened by BCSR faculty, receive intellectual guidance on research projects, and …

BCSR Welcomes Berkeley Postdoctoral Fellow in Public Theology Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

Brandon Schneider News, Research

Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins is the Berkeley Postdoctoral Fellow in Public Theology for the 2016-17 academic year. He is the managing editor of Immanent Frame, the Social Science Research Council’s online religion forum, and recently received his Ph.D. in Modern European History from Columbia University. His work primarily focuses on twentieth-century Western European intellectual, religious, and political history with subsidiary interest in …

BCSR Hosts Visiting Fellow Jason S. Sexton

Brandon Schneider News, Research

Jason S. Sexton joins BCSR as a visiting fellow through June 2017. He is a Lecturer in the Honors Program at Cal State Fullerton, where he teaches a variety of interdisciplinary courses. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews, and has written widely in the areas of California studies, prison studies, religious studies, and contemporary theology. He is the …

BCSR Graduate Student Summer Research Grants in Religion

jfernandez

The Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (BCSR) is offering two summer research grants in the amount of $5,000 each for advanced graduate students working on topics in the study of religion, broadly construed. Applications are welcome from all UC Berkeley Ph.D. students who have advanced to candidacy, with preference given to those who are close to completion of …

BCSR New Directions in Theology Grants for Incoming Graduate Students | Call for Nominations

jfernandez

The Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (BCSR) is offering up to four grants in the amount of $5,000 each for graduate students in their first year of study in 2016-17. Grantees participate in a cohort of early-career students from diverse disciplines that explores new directions for the study of religion in the public university. Nominations of incoming students …

BCSR Opens Recruitment for the Berkeley Postdoctoral Fellowship in Public Theology

jfernandez

The Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (BCSR) announces a postdoctoral fellowship as part of its Public Theology Program. For the academic years 2016-17 and 2017-18, BCSR seeks a top early career scholar to come to Berkeley for one year. The fellowship is dedicated to the furtherance of the very best new scholarship, and in particular the development of …