Richard Newton
@seedpods.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. Germinating Conversations about Religion, Culture, and Teaching.
Back this fall—it’s Off-Script: Conversations on Scriptures, Scholarship, and our Subfield! Join colleagues and graduate students for our monthly discussion of currents in the critical comparative study of scriptures! Can’t believe this will make Semester 5 of the Little Zoom Meeting that Could.
Off-Script Fall ‘26—Save the Date
Off-Script back with Fall ‘26 gatherings. Grab your calendars and save the date!
sowingtheseed.org
Like Loebs? Every fall semester, I like to remind people that while Perseus has many free Loebs sectioned up into book and chapter, if you want to download and read the public domain Loebs (277 of them) as PDFs or txt files, Duke U's very own Ryan Baumann created _Loebolus 📗📕_. ryanfb.xyz/loebolus/
Loebolus
ryanfb.xyz
Reading around about “scriptures,” “ritual,” and why the twain meet less in scholarship than one would think.
From the Footnotes
Reading around about “scriptures,” “ritual,” and why the twain meet less in scholarship than one would think.
sowingtheseed.org
I had no intention of color-coordinating outfits with my reading. But if ever there were a topic …
Iconic
I had no intention of color-coordinating outfits with my reading. But if ever there were a topic …
sowingtheseed.org
Coming Attractions: New K-12 collab in the works for Decoding Diapsora and my Data Signification lab work. Super excited to take things to the next step! #DigitalHumanities #ComputationalHumanities #acrel DecodingDiaspora.org
Decoding Diaspora: Home
decodingdiaspora.org
One of the things I love about the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama is our culture of student research. Sierra Ruden is a student in our Religion in Culture MA program. She has been using discourse analysis to examine the social construction and function of award shows.
The Culture of Award Talk
One of the things I love about the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama is our culture of student research. I have the pleasure of advising Sierra Ruden in our Religion in Culture MA program. Sierra has been using discourse analysis to examine the social function of award shows. Sierra's been experimenting with text coding, metadata management, and media production to think through what's going on when artists accept awards. Over on the Study Religion blog, Sierra shares a dispatch from her research. While undergoing this work, she noticed how awards shows buck against the subjectivty of art by creating a veneer of empirical measure.
sowingtheseed.org
It was a real treat to be on Dr. Smiti Nathan's amazing anthropology YouTube show, Curiosity Meets the Past. This is a go-to spot to learn about currents in anthropology and archaeology. Dr. Nathan interviewed me about my work and my latest project, Decoding Diaspora.
Curiosity Meets the Past Podcast
it was a real treat to be on Dr. Smiti Nathan's amazing anthropology YouTube show, Curiosity Meets the Past. This is a go-to spot to learn about currents in anthropology and archaeology. Dr. Nathan interviewed me about my work and my latest project, Decoding Diaspora: Signifying J. A. Rogers' Mythic Africa.
sowingtheseed.org
This Monday, June 15 from Noon EST/11am Central, I’m talking about teaching tactics, pedagogical challenges, and more with the good folks of NAASR. It’s going down on Zoom for free courtesy of the North American Association for the Study of Religion.
Let’s Talk Teaching!
This Monday, June 15 from Noon EST/11am Central, I’m talking about teaching tactics, pedagogical challenges, and more with the good folks of NAASR. It’s going down on here on Zoom for free courtesy of the North American Association for the Study of Religion. Thanks to my colleague, Dr. Merinda Simmons for the invite and for facilitating this workshop conversation. Hope to see some friendly faces and to make new connections to fellow Religious Studies teachers.
sowingtheseed.org
Going into the new month with some not-so-light reading. One of my students asked me how I read, and this picture encapsulates my process pretty well. I scan a work, its arguments and its structure. Then I write in the margins questions of clarification and questions of substance (shoutout Dr.…
Friday Coffee Reading
Going into the new month with some not-so-light reading. One of my students asked me how I read, and this picture encapsulates my process pretty well. I scan a work, its arguments and its structure. Then I write in the margins questions of clarification and questions of substance (shoutout Dr. Charles Wood). Then I use sticky notes to label things I want to remember, use, or look at further. Then at some point, I insert the notes into various projects electronically. It’s a lot of fast and repeated iterations of this.
sowingtheseed.org
On Criticism: Why is some criticism vital and other, deadly?
On Criticism
Why is some criticism vital and other, deadly?
sowingtheseed.org
“Last Week In Review.” Quick hits on what I wrote, read, and listened to over the last few days or so.
Last Week In Review
ICYMI, I Recently Wrote… Currently Studying I’m reading David Dault’s The Accessorized Bible (Yale University Press, 2026) and thinking about people’s parasocial relationships with cultural texts. I learned a bit about this earlier in the year at Off-Script: Conversations on Scriptures, Scholarship, and Our Subfield. You can listen to that on Broadcast Seeding. Currently Reading Earlier this year, I got into audio books for non-fiction. I’ve been listening to Brené Brown’s Rising Strong. I’m also reading Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. That’s the print read. Listening to… Ben Howard’s 2014 album, I Forgot Where We Were.
sowingtheseed.org
I haven't seen Michael yet, but I have spent some time thinking with James Howard Hill Jr.'s insightful words on the film. It sounds like this film is most eventful when it asks much of the audience. As Hill invites us to ask, how exactly does one rightly watch horror?
Remember the Time: On “Michael” and Horror
I haven't seen Michael yet, but I have spent some time thinking with James Howard Hill Jr. insightful words on the film. It sounds like this film is most eventful when it asks much of the audience. As Hill said, how exactly does one watch horror?
sowingtheseed.org
Broadcast Seeding is up with a presentation by David Dault on his new book, The Accessorized Bible (Oxford University Press, 2026). Dault is President of the Society for Comparative Research on Iconic and Performative Texts and an Assoc. Professor at Loyola University Chicago.
Broadcast Seeding is up with David Dault
David Dault (Loyola University Chicago) spoke about his new book at Off-Script. We bring his presentation to you on the podcast, Broadcast Seeding.
sowingtheseed.org
San Francisco Airport has an amazing museum that made me pause in the hustle and bustle of travel. Currently up is an exhibit, “Women of Afrofuturism.” It kicks off with Nettice Gaskins’ piece, “mOTHERboard.” I could not have thought of a better way to end a conference on biblical studies,…
Afrofuturism in San Francisco Airport
San Francisco Airport has an amazing museum that made me pause in the hustle and bustle of travel. Currently up is an exhibit, “Women of Afrofuturism.” It kicks off with Nettice Gaskins’ piece, “mOTHERboard.” I could not have thought of a better way to end a conference on biblical studies, pedagogy, and AI. If you’re flying through, make the trip to @sfomuseum.
sowingtheseed.org
“Teaching the Bible in the Age of AI: Pedagogy, Assessment, and Imagination”
“Teaching the Bible in the Age of AI: Pedagogy, Assessment, and Imagination”
Checking out Berkeley before an SBL and Wabash workshop on AI and biblical studies. It’s nice to be back in Cali for a bit.
sowingtheseed.org
Just Uploaded: Dr. Hannah Jung on Broadcast Seeding and Off-Script Now up on Broadcast Seeding, "'The Law of the Land': The Hermeneutics of Continued Mormon Polygamy after 1890” with Dr. Hannah Jung (Unviersity of Alabama). Jung recently presented at Off-Script: Conversations on Scriptures,…
Just Uploaded: Dr. Hannah Jung on Broadcast Seeding and Off-Script
Now up on Broadcast Seeding, "'The Law of the Land': The Hermeneutics of Continued Mormon Polygamy after 1890” with Dr. Hannah Jung (Unviersity of Alabama). Jung recently presented at Off-Script: Conversations on Scriptures, Scholarship, and Our Subfield. Take a listen to EP25 at sowingtheseed.org/podcast or on Apple Podcasts.
sowingtheseed.org
@seedpods.bsky.social has been working with many of our students for several years to produce a brand new initiative. Go see. #decodingdiaspora decodingdiaspora.org
Are you coming to the REL Strategy Group tomorrow? Friday at Noon Central, Dr. Leslie Dorrough Smith of Avila University compares the state of the field from the view of HigherEd administation and the professorate.
The INFORMATION Drop in Religious Studies Programs
Are you coming to the REL Strategy Group tomorrow? Friday at Noon Central, Dr. Leslie Dorrough Smith of Avila University compares the state of the field from the view of HigherEd administation and the professorate. Join other program leaders to learn how to better document the impact we make on students.
sowingtheseed.org
This Friday at Noon Central, Casey A’Hearn presents at Off-Script: Conversations on Scriptures, and Our Subfield. Register at sowingtheseed.org/off-script!
Noon Friday 11/14. Off-Script is on its way! Join us for conversation on scriptures, scholarship, and our subfield! @caseylogan0122 will lead us in asking “‘What Does It Mean To Be Mormon and American?’ Scripturalizing John J. Stewart’s Pamphlet Program.” Scholars and graduate students come join us.
Great chat with Dr. @jennisifire.bsky.social about her latest book, Gender Violence in Late Antiquity: Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagination (Univ Cali Press). It’s on Broadcast Seeding now! sowingtheseed.org/podcast/epis...
Episode 21: Gender Violence in Late Antiquity with Dr. Jennifer Barry
Dr. Jennifer Barry (Associate Professor of Religious Studies at University of Mary Washington) discusses her latest book, Gender Violence in Late Antiquity: Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagina…
sowingtheseed.org
One of my favorite things is that Off-Script has been one of those rare places where scholars-- at least for a moment --have been able to rest in having found some people with whom they can be, listen, work, and build together.
Finding Your People at Off-Script
In Dare to Lead , there is a story about a center director at a research university who was facing a confidence problem. He had apirations of completing his doctorate, but his life went another direction. Grad school din't pan out. His family fell apart. He moved back home and had to restart his life. Brick by bring, he rebuilt his sense of self--new family, new career, new institution.
sowingtheseed.org
Learning new words. Writing new words. What is it all for anyway?
Vegetal, Anyone?
I submitted an article last week, so I'm back on the grind for my next book. Yesterday, one of my students was saying how hard it was to disabuse oneself of scholarship as finished work. We all know (and hope for) that finality to be an illusion if we want our work to actually be engaged. I want to write things that will give people something to talk about.
sowingtheseed.org
Closed a billion tabs on my phone on accident. Feels so good. Do it.Trust me!
May be over the hump on one of my book projects. We’ll see. It’s too early to call. #amwriting
@seedpods.bsky.social is now steering the RELtoolbox and has linked it to something new he’s cooking up and he needs your help. religion.ua.edu/blog/2025/10...
Strategies to strengthen the academic study of religion
Strategy group meeting and REL Toolbox to help departments remain strong in a challenging time
religion.ua.edu
