Department of Religious Studies
News
Undergraduate News
Congratulations to all our 2009 graduating majors and minors and best wishes in future. Please stay in touch!
- Umayyad Mosque, Damascus
2009 Graduating Majors Elected to Phi Beta Kappa
Congratulations to Jason Saltzman, who enters Tulane's School of Law in the fall, and John Schmidt, who enters the University of Tennessee's School of Medicine this fall, on being elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest undergraduate honors organization in the United States.
Class of 2009 Majors Awarded Honors College BPhil Degrees
Congratulations to Ryan E. Suskey, for "Returning to Exile?: The Retrieving and Rejecting of Jewishness in French Shoah Narrative" (August 2008), and Timothy R. Jackson, for ""Deep Ecology in Action: A Series of Case Studies on the Conservation Efforts of Monastics and Other Religious Leaders in Mongolia, India, and Thailand" (2009).
Religious Studies Minor Acknowledged for Promotion of Women's Rights
Shannon Black (class of 2009) received a 2008 Nationality Rooms Scholarship to go to Tanzania, where she helped local villagers gain better access to water supplies while she learned about issues affecting women and families in Africa. She has been very active in Pitt’s Campus Women’s Organization (CWO), serving as president for the past two years. She was also the 2008-2009 president of Pitt’s campus-based Student Volunteer Organization, a community service group, and a member of Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance, an organization dedicated to the interests of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered communities. Read more about Shannon's promotion of women's right at home and abroad in the Pitt Chronicle.
Major Presents Paper at International Conference in India
Tim Jackson, who completed a study trip on environmental issues in Mongolia, India and Thailand (May-December 2008), is the first recipient of a Fred W. Clothey Grant for South Asian and Ritual Studies. He presented "The Ecological Activities of Various Religious Groups in India" at the Conference on Indian Philosophy held in Kolkata, India in January 2009. This research was incorporated in parts of Tim's religious studies senior thesis and Honors College BPhil theses.
Religious Studies Senior Thesis Research Highlighted in Pitt Magazine
Halle Goldblatt's (class of August 2008) ethnographic research for her senior thesis on the religious pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last spiritual leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, an ultra-orthodox Judaism that emphasizes worldwide outreach and a return to traditional practices, was featured in Pitt Magazine's "Commons Room: A Slice of Campus Life" column.
Majors See the World
Religious Studies majors continue to take advantage of study and research abroad opportunities available at Pitt.
Majors who head aboard in AY 2010 are Jessica Drake (Tel Aviv University, Israel), Matthew Gill (London), Isabelle Jargowski (Semester at Sea), and Julia Minor (Hebrew University, Israel).
Majors who headed abroad in AY 2009 are Elise Canup (Italy), Talia Cohen (Haifa University, Israel), Darelle Dogans (Galilee program, Israel), Carolyn Gerecht (Semester at Sea), Nichole Hayden (Pitt in London), Tim Jackson (Thailand), Margaret Jeffries (Australearn, Fiji), Candice Robertson (Hebrew University, Israel), and Laurie Zinberg (Semester at Sea).
Majors studying abroad in summer 2008 are Tim Jackson (Mongolia), Margaret Jeffries (Ireland), Nichole Jokola (Greece), Mallory Jordan (Haifa University, Israel), Laura McGee (Boston University Dublin Internship program), Sarah Murison (China), and Lindsey Myers (Turkey).