News & Events

McMaster's Department of Religious studies has a number of faculty and students delivering papers at the meeting of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature.

Congratulations to the Department of Religious Studies Dr. Eileen Schuller on the publication of her co-edited volume, The Paulist Biblical Commentary!

Ryan Richard Overbey (Skidmore College) presents “Embodying Buddhas, Quelling Demons: Theorizing Presence in Buddhist Studies”

Professor Amy-Jill Levine (Vanderbilt University) will deliver the 2018 Harry Lyman Hooker Lecture. Her topic: “Of Pearls and Prodigals: Hearing Jesus’s Parables as Jewish Stories.”

Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Machiela on the publication of his co-edited book (together with Jan Joosten of Oxford University and Jean-Sébastien Rey of the University of Lorraine)

Alicia Giannetti, a recent grad with a double honours degree in sociology and religious studies and a minor in sustainability, has been awarded a Climate Change and Health – Innovation Award.

Congratulations to Dr. Matthew Thiessen winner of the 2018 McMaster Faculty of Social Sciences Early Career Researcher Award.

Congratulations to current MA student Robert Revington, who was recently admitted into PhD program at the Toronto School of Theology.

Congratulations to PhD student Jeremy Cohen on receiving a Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship worth $105,000 over 36 months.

It is with great sadness that the Department of Religious Studies announces the recent passing of Professor Louis Greenspan. He died at his home with his family by his side on the afternoon of Thursday, May 10, 2018. He was 83 years old.

Two-day hands-on workshop on Digital Humanities tools for graduate students in East Asian religions

Friday, May 11, 2:30 p.m. in the Great Hall at McMaster University.

Dr. Hanna Tervanotko of the Department of Religious Studies recently received an Experiential Learning in Academic Programming (ELAP) Grant that will allow students to write cuneiform on clay tablets.

Ph.D. student wins Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship

Recently, McMaster hosted the 9th annual Scrollery.

Four members of the McMaster community have been named University Scholars including Daniel Machiela, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies.

The Canadian Jewish News recently published a piece by McMaster PhD Jonathan Milevsky (Religious Studies) about the haggadah, the document that guides Passover Seders.

Congratulations to former MA student (2008), Laura Yares (Tomes), who was recently appointed an assistant professor of Religious Studies at Michigan State University!

Dr. Gerald McKenny, University of Notre Dame “Can Appeals to Human Nature Constrain Biotechnology?”

Religious Studies PhD Student, Miriam DeCock, was recently awarded a highly competitive and two-year Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship at Aarhus University in Denmark.

A PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies, Gerjan is especially interested in Buddhism and East Asian Religions. He is creating a series of infographics presenting a map of the intertexuality of some Buddhist monastic commentaries found within the Tibetan Buddhist Canon. Gerjan says that “this project will be helpful to scholars and translators working on Buddhist monastic literature in the Canon.” Gerjan is sponsored by Dr. Shayne Clarke.