Gottschalk to Develop Course on “The Sacred” with NEH Grant

Professor of Religion Peter Gottschalk has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities “Enduring Questions” grant for approximately $20,000 to develop and teach a new course on different understandings of “the sacred.” Over the last five annual competitions, this competitive grant program received approximately 200 applications each year on average, and funded only 19 awards each year. (more…)

In this Q&A, meet Tracy Mehr-Muska, Wesleyan's Protestant chaplain. Q: Rev. Mehr-Muska, how long have you been Wesleyan’s Protestant chaplain, and what did you do before this? A: This is my third year as a university chaplain at Wesleyan. Like many, my professional journey was not a direct route. After graduating from the Coast Guard Academy, I served as a Deck Watch Officer in the U.S. Coast Guard. My love of the sea and my degree in Marine/Environmental Science led me to subsequently work as a marine scientist, conducting oceanographic surveys and engineering subsea cable routes for a company that…

On Oct. 19, members of Wesleyan's Jewish community gathered to celebrate a fundraising effort spearheaded by David Rabban '71 to raise gifts in memory of Rabbi George Sobelman. Sobelman was Wesleyan's first Jewish Chaplain from 1969-1973. In addition, the Sobelman family is donating 43 volumes of the Babylonian Talmud with translation and commentary by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz to Olin Library. Rabbi Sobelman died Sept. 11, 2010 in Rehovot, Israel. During his time at Wesleyan Sobelman taught Modern Israeli Literature. The event was hosted by University Relations. (Photos by John Van Vlack) (more…)

Professor Elizabeth McAlister recently presented a weeklong intensive seminar on the ethnography of religion at the Anthropology and Sociology Department, Faculté d'Ethnologie, at the State University of Haiti, Université d'Etat d'Haïti. McAlister is professor of religion, professor of African-American studies, professor of American studies. Her seminar catered to Haitian university students who are training in field methods of ethnography of religion. The seminar wrapped up McAlister's four-month study on "Understanding Aggressive Prayer Forms in Evangelicalism and Afro-Atlantic Religions." Her research was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation in "New Directions in Study of Prayer." Developed through the Social Science Research…

Professor of Religion Peter Gottschalk is the author of an op-ed published April 17 in The Los Angeles Times on the history of religious intolerance in the U.S. Responding to recent shootings near Jewish community centers in Kansas, in which three people were killed, Gottschalk writes that though the incident "seems at first glance like a disparaged past flaring briefly into the present," in fact religiously motivated violence is alive and well in the U.S. Gottschalk walks readers through a history of religious intolerance from the country's earliest days, and traces the various forms the KKK has taken over the years. He…

Mary-Jane Rubenstein, associate professor of religion, is the author of Worlds Without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse, published by Columbia University Press, 2014. “Multiverse” cosmologies imagine our universe as just one of a vast number of others. While this idea has captivated philosophy, religion and literature for millennia, it is now being considered as a scientific hypothesis—with different models emerging from cosmology, quantum mechanics and string theory. Beginning with ancient Atomist and Stoic philosophies, Rubenstein links contemporary models of the multiverse to their forerunners and explores the reasons for their recent appearance. One concerns the so-called fine-tuning of the…

Seven films, all with English subtitles, will be screened during the annual Israeli Film Festival this spring. The festival aims to educate and explore the richness, diversity and creativity of Israeli culture as witnessed through the flourishing of contemporary Israeli cinema. Each film screening is followed by a guest speaker or Wesleyan faculty who comments on the film from a particular perspective. FIlms this year include Fill the Void, Wherever You Go, Welcome and our Condolences, Zaytoun, By Summer’s End, Six Million and One, Back by Popular Demand: Eyes Wide Open. Films run every Thursday at 8 p.m. from Jan. 30 to March 6 in the Goldsmith…

Professor of Religion Peter Gottschalk recently authored a new book, American Heretics: Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and the History of Religious Intolerance, published by Palgrave Macmillan in November 2013. The book chronicles the history of religious intolerance in the U.S. – from persecution of Irish and German Catholics in the mid-19th century to today's discrimination against Muslims, Sikhs and other religious groups. Through the historical record it presents, the book challenges the notion that the U.S. is a stronghold of religious freedom. Gottschalk's book recently was featured in a holiday book round-up in the Chicago Tribune.

Joshua Dubler ’97 is the author of the new book Down in the Chapel: Religious Life in an American Prison (Farrar Straus Giroux). A religion scholar who was working on his dissertation at Princeton University, he spent more than six years working with prisoners at the Graterford Maximum Security Prison outside of Philadelphia, focusing his studies on the religious diversity of the prison chapel. Down in the Chapel tells the story of one whole week at the Graterford chapel in which Dubler attended Jewish, Muslim, Native American, Catholic, and various other services and study sessions. Conversing with chaplains and correctional…

Mary-Jane Rubenstein, associate professor of religion and chair of the Religion Department, has been appointed Wesleyan's 2013-14 Distinguished Teaching Fellow. She also is associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies. Established last year by the John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology Rob Rosenthal, the Distinguished Teaching Fellowship honors Wesleyan's most outstanding teachers and gives them the opportunity to teach a course outside their usual departmental offerings. The inaugural fellowship was awarded to Andy Szegedy-Maszak, Jane A. Seney Professor of Greek, professor of classical studies. "It is no surprise that Mary-Jane is Wesleyan's second Distinguished Teaching Fellow: she is known…

Lang Chen, a visiting instructor in religion, was named a 2013 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The Newcombe Fellowship is the nation’s largest and most prestigious such award for Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences whose dissertations address questions of ethical and/or religious values. Each 2013 Newcombe Fellow will receive a 12-month award of $25,000. Chen is teaching "Buddhism "and "(Non)violence in Buddhism" this semester at Wesleyan. Chen also is a doctoral candidate in religious studies at Yale University. Her dissertation, Elixir or Poison? Indian Origins and Chinese Interpretations of Buddhist Antinomian…

Gottschalk to Develop Course on “The Sacred” with NEH Grant

As University Protestant Chaplain, Mehr-Muska Mentors, Offers Confidential Support

Jewish Community Celebrates the Life of Wesleyan’s First Chaplain

Jewish Community Celebrates Rosh Hashanah with Shofar Factory

McAlister Teaches “Ethnography of Religion” Seminar in Haiti

Gottschalk Authors Op-Ed Published in L.A. Times

Rubenstein’s Worlds without End Published

Explore Israeli Culture during Spring Film Festival

Gottschalk’s New Book Chronicles History of Religious Intolerance in the U.S

Dubler ’97 Publishes Immersive New Book on Religion in Prison

Rubenstein Appointed 2013-14 Distinguished Teaching Fellow

Chen Named Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow