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For our Summer 2024 courses, click HERE!
We invite you to join us in the W. F. Albright Institute courtyard or on Zoom for a panel discussion of Professor Jodi Magness‘s latest book, Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades (OUP), jointly hosted by Tel Aviv University, The Koret Center, and the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research. The discussion will be chaired by Prof. Vered Noam (TAU), will feature a panel including Prof. Yuval Gadot (TAU), Dr. Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, and Dr. Gideon Avni (IAA). The discussion will conclude with a response by Prof. Jodi Magness, followed by a reception.
Jerusalem Through the Ages: For followers of the three Abrahamic faiths, Jerusalem is the place where the presence of the God of Israel dwells. Jerusalem Through the Ages explores how this belief came to be associated with the city by introducing readers to its complex and layered history, including the most recent archaeological discoveries. Each chapter focuses on a key moment of transition from Jerusalem’s beginnings to the Middle Ages, providing a vivid narrative of the city’s many transformations as it changed hands and populations. The book also includes a walking guide for visitors who wish to experience the city’s many archaeological marvels firsthand.
Jodi Magness is Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her work on Jerusalem Through the Ages was supported by a Fulbright Fellowship at Tel Aviv University and a Seymour Gitin Fellowship at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.
On Monday, May 20, Religious Studies Professor Barbara Ambrose will give a talk entitled “Feeling Cross-species Kinship in Edo-Period Morality Books: Excessive Affect and the Ethic of Refraining from Killing and Releasing Life” from 5:30~7:00 pm in the Nanto Room of Reiners Library at Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan.
The talk is free and open to the public. Below is a brief introduction to the topic:
Influenced by Ming and Qing morality books, particularly the works of the Buddhist cleric Yunqi Zhuhong (1535–1615), devotional ritual releases of captive animals on the verge of death surged in popularity in the Edo period. Zhuhong’s seminal Jiesha fangsheng wen (Tract on refraining from killing and releasing life) was published in Japan as a Sino-Japanese edition in 1661 and inspired the composition of about three dozen Japanese Buddhist texts over the next two-and-a-half centuries. Most Japanese tracts on refraining from killing and releasing life were authored by Buddhist clerics, but some texts were composed by wealthy merchants, village heads, and lay intellectuals.
Religious Studies professor Lauren Leve has recently been featured in an article entitled “Blueprints for Innovation,” written by Emmy Trivette. Professor Leve, along with Jim Mahaney, are partnering with Nepalese locals to bring religious heritage sites to life through interviews and digital tools.
Computer scientist Jim Mahaney and religious studies scholar Lauren Leve are collaborating on Leve’s research in Nepal, where she’s spent the last 30 years documenting Buddhist holy sites. (photo by Megan Mendenhall | illustration by Corina Prassos)
In 2015, a 7.8 earthquake shook Nepal, and the city of Kathmandu rippled. Buildings swayed, temples toppled — and Lauren Leve was just 90 miles from the epicenter. The disaster destroyed more than 600,000 buildings and killed thousands. The earthquake’s tremble could be felt over 300 miles away in western Bhutan. To survive and witness this event was to survive and witness tragedy.
“Many buildings were damaged irrevocably, and you couldn’t live in them anymore,” Leve shares. “And the temples were destroyed. It was devastating.”
A religious studies professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, Leve has spent 30 years traveling back and forth to Nepal for her research. The 2015 earthquake highlighted the importance of preserving cultural heritage — and motivated Leve to pursue a project to do exactly that.
Now, she is collaborating with Carolina computer scientist Jim Mahaney and Kathmandu locals to document the Swayambjunath, or “Swayambhu,” temple — a monument with deep cultural significance for the region. Today, the team has conducted more than 30 interviews with temple priests, Buddhist monks, devoted visitors, and other people with traditional connections to the site…
The RELI Club (RELIC) had a great event on the 22nd, hosting a roundtable with Dr. Eduardo de J. Douglas from Art History, student Brenda Palacios Rodriguez (Akatek Maya), and our own Dr. Abelardo de la Cruz (Nahua) about Mesoamerican knowledge, cosmology, language, and religion. The event was moderated by Isaac Watkins, the President of the RELI Club. The conversation ranged from the creation of the idea of “Mesoamerica” to Mayan and Nahua ideas about the stars to the way religion exists within – and not apart – from language, food, and homemaking. A wide range of students asked great questions and enjoyed good pizza as they learned from all three. This was a stellar end to the semester for the club and a promising sign of great events to come from this group of first year majors!
We’re excited to announce that our Maymester, Summer 1, and Summer 2 courses for 2024 are now open for enrollment. Most of these courses will be taught in a remote, asynchronous approach (though, not all).
Maymester
| Reli 140 | Intro to American Religion | FC-Past & FC-Knowing |
| Reli 162 | Catholicism Today | FC-Past |
| Reli 220 | Religion & Medicine | FC-Global & FC-Values |
| Reli 246 | Supernatural Encounters | FC-Power & FC-Knowing |
Summer 1
| Reli 104 | New Testament | FC-Past & FC-Knowing |
| Reli 106 | Early Judaism | FC-Past & FC-Knowing |
| Reli 121 | Intro to Religion & Culture | FC-Values & FC-Knowing |
| Reli 180 | Islamic Civilizations | FC-Past & FC-Knowing |
| Reli 208 | Birth of Christianity | FC-Aesth & FC-Past |
| Reli 209 | Varieties of Early Christianity | FC-Aesth & FC-Past |
| Reli 236 | Religious Things | FC-Create |
Summer 2
| Reli 103 | Intro to Hebrew Bible | FC-Past & FC-Knowing |
| Reli 122 | Philosophical Approaches to Religion | FC-Values & FC-Knowing |
| Reli 141 | African-American Religion | FC-Power |
| Reli 161 | History of Christian Traditions | FC-Past |
| Reli 201 | Biblical Interpretation | FC-Aesth & FC-Knowing |
| Reli 207 | Jesus in the Early Gospels | FC-Past |
| Reli 283 | Buddhist Tradition: India, Nepal, Tibet | FC-Values & FC-Knowing |
Posted in News & Events on April 21, 2024
Congratulations to Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism Jodi Magness whose research on Huqoq is featured on National Geographic’s cover page! Stay tuned for more information.
Posted in News & Events on April 16, 2024
Over Spring Break, a group of faculty and graduate students from the Department of Religious Studies traveled to London to participate in a joint interdisciplinary conference with King’s College on the theme of “Ancient Religion and Modern Debates.”
This conference, which was made possible through support from the IAH King’s College Fund, the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, and the Department of Religious Studies, explored ways in which ancient texts might offer resources for reconsidering some of the most pressing and profound questions we confront today—from climate change, to artificial intelligence, to our conceptions of the human. Many thanks go out to our KCL colleagues, especially Dr. James Corke-Webster of KCL Classics, for being such wonderful hosts and dialogue partners throughout the conference.
Posted in News & Events on April 12, 2024
Check out a few posters for our upcoming Maymester and Summer School courses for 2024. For a full list, click HERE.
