Faculty News
David Hackett
presented a paper, "Interrogating American Christianities," at the annual meeting of the American Society of Church History in Boston.
Mario Poceski
was awarded a UF Research Foundation professorship, for a period of three years during which he will finish the two new books he is presently working on, on East Asian Buddhism and Chan literature.
received Rothman Summer Fellowship from the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere. He will use the funds this summer for research on a new book, especially for travel to Japan.
New publication by Professor Mario Poceski: Review of John Lagerwey, China: A Religious State (Hong Kong University Press, 2010), in Numen 58/1 (2011): 142–46.
presented a paper on Chan genres and the canonization of Chan texts at an international conference on the Chinese Buddhist canon, held in Tucson.
presented a paper, "Communal Remembrances and Hagiographic Portrayals of Patriarch Ma: Buddhist Philosopher and Thaumaturge," on Thursday, March 31, at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii. The paper was on Chan hagiographic narratives and communal memories.
published a review of Wendi Adamek, The Mystique of Transmission: On an Early Chan History and Its Contexts (Columbia University Press, 2007), in the most recent issue of the Journal of Chinese Religions 37 (2009).
traveled to Washington DC, where he served on a review panel for the Ford Foundation Fellowship Program (Social Sciences and Humanities Panel), National Academy of Sciences (March 18 and 19).
Vasudha Narayanan
gave the Ruth K and Shepard Broad Distinguished lecture, “An expanding vision of religious pluralism in America” on Friday, April 22, 2011. The talk was sponsored by the School of Public and International Affairs, Florida International University and was held at the Coral Gables Congregational Church Parsonage, Coral Gables, FL.
presented a paper in a conference on “Re-Imagining South Asian Religions: A Conversation on Old World Cultures through the 21st Century” held at University of California, Riverside, March 4 and 5, 2011. Dr Narayanan’s paper was called “Rewriting the Hindu Traditions from Global Perspectives.”
Terje Ostebo
has been appointed as senior editor of the new Ethiopian Journal of Religious Studies. The journal’s first issue will appear in the fall.
has submitted the final revised version of his book Localising Salafism: Religious Change among Oromo Muslims in Bale, Ethiopia to Brill (Leiden). The book will be published later in 2011.
Professor Ostebo’s article “Local Reformers and the Search For Change: The Emergence of Salafism in Bale, Ethiopia” was accepted for publication in Africa. The article will be published in Vol. 81, No. 3, 2011.
Anna Peterson
presented a paper, "The Zoological Marx," at the 13th Annual Conference of the Marxist Reading Group, "Nature of the Contradiction," in Pugh Hall 210 on Thursday, March 31. Her paper explored the potential of Marxian thought for thinking about animals and nature.
participated in a roundtable discussion with John Bellamy Foster, keynote speaker of the Annual Conference of the Marxist Reading Group, and other UF faculty on "Sustainability, Community, and Labor in a University Context."
Whitney Sanford
published an article “Transforming Agricultural Practice: Hindu Narrative and the Moral Imagination” in the journal Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 15, 1 (2011): 88-116.
Professor Sanford's article “Ethics, Narrative, and Agriculture: Transforming Agricultural Practice through Ecological Imagination.” was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 24, 3 (2011): 283-303.
Zoharah Simmons
was presented with the "Women's Global Award" by the Gainesville Commission on the Status of Women for her lifetime of service on behalf of African American and Women's Rights. The award was presented by Tanja Philhower, President of the Gainesville Commission on the Status of Women, at the 14th Annual Women's History Month Awards Reception on Thursday, March 24th, 2011, held at the University of Florida's President's House.
give two lectures at Valencia Community College in Orlando on the school's East and West Campuses on Friday, March 25th and Saturday, March 26th from 1 to 3pm on "Women In the Civil Rights Movement." In addition to her lecture, Dr. Simmons read from her essay in the recently published book, Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC, published by the University of Illinois Press.
was a participant in a day-long symposium on Saturday, March 19th, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. at the Carmichael Auditorium of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The symposium featured the editors and several contributors of the new book: Hands on the Freedom Plow, Personal Accounts by the Women in SNCC. Fifty-two women--northern and southern, young and old, urban and rural, black, white, and Latina--share their personal stories of working for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. Professor Simmons’ chapter, "From Little Memphis Girl to Mississippi Amazon," was the first chapter of the collection. The symposium was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institutes' African American History Museum. Additionally, Professor Simmons was interviewed and read from the book on Sunday, the 20th on the Miyuki Williams show, "Sunday Kind of Love," from 12:00 - 2:00 pm on Radio Station WPFW in Washington, D.C.
co-led a workshop with Dr. Vincent Harding and others at the annual meeting of the Kellogg Fellows Association on March 4th & 5th, 2011, in Washington, DC, at the Arlington, Va. Westin Hotel. The theme of the workshop was: "Civil Engagement: Developing Leaders in the 21st Century."
Bron Taylor
gave a lecture on March 10, 2011, sponsored by the Reinhold Niebuhr Institute of Religion and Culture at Sienna College in Loudonville, New York. For information see The Reinhold Niebuhr Institute of Religion and Culture.
Professor Bron Taylor's article, “Idolatry, Paganism, and Trust in Nature” was published in Pomegranate 12:1 (2010), 103-108, in a focus section entitled “Idolatry and Materiality,” which can be perused at The Pomegranate.
Professor Bron Taylor's Earth Day reflection on Bolivia/indigenous/Andean inspired International Mother Earth Day, Debate Over Mother Earth’s ‘Rights’ Stirs Fears of Pagan Socialism, was published by Religion Dispatches on 20 April 2011.
Professor Bron Taylor‘s Earth Day commentary, It’s International Mother Earth Day: ready or not!, was in the Huffington Post on 21 April.
Professor Taylor's Dark Green Religion was reviewed as a “recommended” title in Tikkun (Winter 2011, p. 96) as well as excerpted in Surfer's Journal, Volume 20, Number 1, February-March 2011.
The latest issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture has been published (v. 5, #1, March 2011). It includes “Exploring Religion, Nature, and Culture: The Growing Field, Society, and Journal,” which was written by religion and nature graduate student Joseph Witt, UF graduate and Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Dr. Lucas Johnston, and UF Professor Bron Taylor (the Journal’s editor). The table of contents and abstracts are available online.
The Sacred Tribes Journal (v. 6, #1 [Spring 2011], pp. 1-73) has published a special issue focusing on Professor Bron Taylor's Dark Green Religion. It includes Taylor's article-length response to the editor and contributors. This scholarly journal is published by evangelical Christian scholars who are interested in promoting inter-religious dialogue and is available via Sacred Tribes Journal.
Manuel Vasquez
gave a presentation entitled “Toward an Institute for Study of Immigration, Religion, and Social Change in the U.S. South” at the 60th Annual Conference of UF’s Center for Latin American Studies on March 26.
posted an essay entitled "De-provincializing Oprah" on The Immanent Frame, a website focused on religion and the public sphere hosted by the Social Science Research Council. See: The Immanent Frame.
Robin Wright
presented a talk in the Geography Department on "Mythscapes in the Amazon" which synthesized the researches of several ethnographers on the relations of sacred sites to creation stories in the Northwest Amazon. Indigenous peoples situate creation stories in innumerable features of the landscape throughout their territory as well as in 'petroglyphs'--the meanings of which have been unknown or little studied until the present day. These new findings add an important dimension to native amazonian histories, parallel to the "sacred geographies" of native North Americans.
Professor's Wright's film on the “Inauguration of a Shamans’ House of Knowledge and Power” was screened at the Center for Latin American Studies’ event, “Looking Forward, Looking Back: Celebrating 80 Years of Latin American Studies at the University of Florida,” held from March 24-26. The program included the dedication of a historical marker at the Plaza of the Americas, documentary screenings, an academic conference, a Latin American career symposium, several art and cultural exhibits, and a gala reception.
has published a major review article on "Ethnology and Indigenism in the Brazilian Northwest Amazon" in the Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America (vol. 7(1): 103-18, 2011).
submitted his new monograph, Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon, for publication. Based on over 30 years of research on and with the religious specialists of the Baniwa peoples in Brazil, the monograph seeks to present an in-depth ethnography of their knowledge and power.
will be giving a one-month field course this summer in Ecuador at the Andes and Amazon Field School, which is administered by a consortium of U.S. universities, among which Arizona State University is the founder of the school. Wright will be giving a course on Indigenous Amazonian Religions and co-teaching, with Dr. Tod Swanson of ASU, a course on Mythology. A flyer with further information on the course is forthcoming.
