Matthew Trafford (MA 2023) reviews John Gray’s The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism for the Philosophical Inquiry in Education. www.erudit.org/en/journals/...
McMaster Religious Studies
@mcmasterreligion.bsky.social
The Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University, the oldest graduate program in religious studies in Canada.
Congrats to Andy Perrin (PhD 2013) on being awarded a SSHRC Insight Grant for a new research project, "Daniel in Ancient Jewish Scribal Imagination"! The project will re-examine the formation, development, and shape of the Daniel tradition in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls discoveries at Qumran.
PhD student Xiaowen Zhou presented a paper entitled “The Demons Within: Reinterpreting the Fifteen Demon-Deities in Late Ming Jiangnan” at the Asian Studies Conference Japan (ASCJ) 2026, held at Sophia University in Tokyo in early July.
Check out Ralph Korner's (PhD 2014) newest essay, “Paul’s Ekklēsia Communities: Are They Imitative or Transgressive of Dēmokratia in the Greek East?” in Early Christianity in Civic Space! www.peeters-leuven.be/detail.php?s...
Marwan El Gaddafi, a doctoral student in Religious Studies, has just published an article, “Québec’s Bill 9 doesn’t just ban symbols — it bans obligations,” in The Conversation: theconversation.com/quebecs-bill...
Québec’s Bill 9 doesn’t just ban symbols — it bans obligations
Québec’s Bill 9 demands the public sphere be free of visible religion, even when expressions of religion take are obligations its adherents cannot set aside.
theconversation.com
Check out Ralph Korner’s (PhD 2014) recently published essay, “Is the Grandson of Ben Sira the Tendentious Translator of LXX Isaiah 23–27 into an Actualized Prophecy that is an Ideological Critique of Ptolemaic Oniad and Seleucid Worldviews?” www.peeters-leuven.be/detail.php?s...
Congratulations to Marc Lodge Andrew Lagace (PhD 2025) on the publication of his book, Hare Krishna in China, in the Routledge Religion in Contemporary Asia Series! www.routledge.com/Hare-Krishna...
Congratulations to current MA student, Adrienne Tondreau, on becoming an assistant editor at Written in the Waves, an online journal dedicated to spotlighting women’s research on the Atlantic world, in the fields of history, anthropology, folklore, and multimedia! writteninthewaves.substack.com
Written in the Waves Journal | Substack
Written in the Waves is an online journal/magazine dedicated to spotlighting women's research on the Atlantic world. Click to read Written in the Waves Journal, a Substack publication. Launched 6…
writteninthewaves.substack.com
Congratulations to Mark Scott (McMaster BA 2001, Harvard PhD), who was promoted to Full Professor and tenured at Stonehill College as of July 1, 2026. www.stonehill.edu/news/details...
Congratulations to Matthew Pawlak (MA 2016, Cambridge PhD 2020), who recently took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Vienna’s Faculty of Protestant Theology, where he will join the project on "Mockery and Torture in Passion Narratives and their Ancient Contexts.”
Robert Revington (MA 2018; TST PhD 2023) just published "Death of Christian Canada? Does Arthur Leonard Griffith's Testimony Support Stuart Macdonald and Brian Clarke's Theory of Canadian Church Decline in the 1960s?” in History Matters: A Festschrift in Honor of Stuart Macdonald. bit.ly/4fg8pMu
Gerjan Altenburg (McMaster PhD 2022), assistant professor at St. Francis Xavier University, recently published “Voyeurism at the Abbey: R v Jack Hillie III” in Buddhism, Law & Society. brill.com/view/journal...
Congratulations to Chris Jensen (PhD 2019) on being awarded tenure and promotion to associate professor at Carleton University!
Congratulations to Hanna Tervanotko, who has taken up the role of Acting Director of McMaster’s Gender and Social Justice Program! To learn more about the important work of the GSJ Program, click here: gsj.humanities.mcmaster.ca
Jeremy Cohen has been with us since 2016, first as a PhD student and then on a contractually limited appointment. We are delighted to announce that he has recently been converted to tenure-track assistant professor!
Today marks Celia Rothenberg’s last day as chair of the Department of Religious Studies. The Department is grateful for the hard work and dedication Celia has put in over the last five years and wishes her a rejuvenating and fruitful time as she transitions to a one-year administrative leave....
Check out Alison Imrie’s (McMaster BA in Religious Studies 2017, Osgoode Hall Law School 2022) co-authored article, “A Necessary Realignment:Section 7 Engagement in Canadian Council for Refugees,” in The Supreme Court Law Review!
Congratulations to John Ottuh, a doctoral student in Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity, on the publication of his book, Jesus, the Gospels, and African Christianity: Interpreting Fasting and Prayer. www.routledge.com/Jesus-the-Go...
Congratulations to John Ottuh, a doctoral student in Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity, on the publication of his book, Jesus, the Gospels, and African Christianity: Interpreting Fasting and Prayer. www.routledge.com/Jesus-the-Go...
Congratulations to Andrew Perrin (PhD 2013), whose book *Lost Words & Forgotten Worlds: Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls* won the 2025 Foreword INDIES Gold Award for Religion (Non-Fiction)! www.forewordreviews.com/awards/winne...
Today Robert Revington (McMaster MA 2018, TST PhD 2023) will give a lecture at University of Toronto alumni week titled "'Under a Very Heavy Cloud of Suspicion': Great Debates in Canadian Biblical Studies and Theology at the Turn of the Century." knox.utoronto.ca/alumnireunion/
Maxwell Kennel (PhD 2021) just had his recent article, “Pacifist Historiography” (Angelaki 30 (2025): 34–48), translated into German as “Pazifistische Geschichtsschreibung” and published in a special issue of the Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter 83 (2026).
Check out Dr. Liyakat Takim's new essay “Shi'i Communities and Networks in North America” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam in North America! global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Congratulations to Rory Tasker (MA 2021) on completing his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of Toronto.
Check out Dr. Liyakat Takim's new essay, “Ijtihad and Reform in Modern Shi'ism” in The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Reform. global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Check out John Van Maaren's (University of Vienna, McMaster PhD 2019) new article, "Learning to Treat Other Ways of Being Generously Through the Biblical Studies Classroom" in Teaching Theology & Religion! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
This May, Elaine Michalicka (BA 2024) completed the Master of Divinity, with a focus on counselling and spiritual care, at McMaster Divinity College. She plans on working in chaplaincy within the Catholic District School Board.
We are hiring for a 1-year position! Religious Studies at @mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social invites applications for a 1-yr Contractually Limited Appointment position at the rank of Lecturer or Asst. Prof. from Aug 1, 2026 to July 31, 2027. See the following link (position 76421): bit.ly/4dMp2yW
Congratulations to PhD student Pema Sherpa, on being awarded a prestigious Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in Buddhist Studies! Check out the following link for more information about Pema’s research project: www.acls.org/fellow-grant...
Today is the final day of the CSBS annual meeting in beautiful Sackville, NB! And it's a big day for McMaster presenters… Dr. Hanna Tervanotko presents “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, the birds of the air, and they will tell you” (Job 12:7): Bird Divination in Ancient Jewish Texts.”
