In the Religious Studies Program, religious traditions are explored in all of their complexity through comparative, contextual (in specific historical or cultural contexts), and thematic studies. The courses offered through the program are built on the established scholarly tradition of the study of religion as an academic, as opposed to confessional, pursuit.

The Religious Studies Program, an undergraduate program in the College of Arts & Sciences, is designed to meet the needs of three classes of students: students planning to pursue advanced degrees in the academic study of religion or allied disciplines or sub-disciplines (e.g., history of religions, religion and literature, religion and psychology, ethics, theology, area studies); students seeking courses on topics relating to religion to fulfill distribution requirements: and students desiring a more systematic exposure to the academic study of religion as a significant component of a liberal arts education.

The program offers an excellent opportunity to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of the complex ways in which religious traditions inform human thought and behavior. The program hosts lectures, conferences, symposia and periodic social gatherings for faculty members and students throughout the academic year to foster a sense of intellectual community.

Department website

Ross Brann

Milton R. Konvitz Professor of Middle Eastern Studies & Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow

Publications

  • Moses Maimonides: A  Very Short Introduction (in press, Oxford University Press, 2024)
  • Iberian Moorings: al-Andalus and Sefard and the Tropes of Exceptionalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021) 240 pp.
  • “Hebrew Poetics, and Linguistic Thought,” to appear in The Cambridge History of Rhetoric (General Editors, Rita Copeland and Peter Mack)
  • “Medieval Jewish Translingualism,” in The Routledge Handbook of Literary Translingualism (2021), ed. Natasha Lvovitch and Steven G. Kellman, pp.85-96
  • “Andalusi Hebrew Poetry and the Arabic Poetic Tradition,” Routledge Companion to Arabic Poetry, ed.
    Huda Fakhreddine and Suzanne Stetkevych (London: Routledge, 2023), 108-130.
  • Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Muslims and Jews in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Islamic Spain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002), 208 pp. 
  • The Compunctious Poet: Cultural Ambiguity and Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), 228 pp. [recipient of the 1992 Maurice Amado Foundation National Jewish Book Award in Sephardic Studies]
  • [Ed. with Adam Sutcliffe] Renewing the Past, Reconfiguring Jewish Culture: From Al-Andalus to the Haskalah (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004) 237 pp.
  • “Arabic Alongside and into Hebrew: Andalusi Hebrew Literature in Meta-Critical Perspective,” The Routledge Companion to Medieval Iberia: Unity and Diversity, ed. E Michael Gerli (Routledge, 2021), 363-374
  • "An Aramaic Writ from Ramla (1056): A Translation and Genizah Study" in Text, Tradition and the History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (Lawrence Schiffman Festschrift), ed. Stuart Miller (Brill, 2020), 245-253.
  • “Jewish Perceptions of and Attitudes towards Muslims,” in Cambridge History of Judaism, Vol. 5 [Jews and Judaism in the Islamic World, Seventh through Fifteenth Centuries], ed. Philip Lieberman (Cambridge University Press, 2021), 64-91.
  • “The Moors?” Medieval Encounters 15 (2009): 307-318.
  • “He Said, She Said: Re-inscribing the Andalusi Arabic Love Lyric,” in Raymond P. Scheindlin Festschrift, ed. M. Rand and J. Decter (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press, 2007), 7-15.
  •  “Rule (’Amīnūkāl)”], Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 5 (2013): 106-110.
  • "Andalusi "Exceptionalism"," in A Sea of Languages: Rethinking the Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, ed. Karla Mallette and Suzanne Akbari (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013) 119-134.
Klarman Hall
413 White Hall
ross.brann@cornell.edu
607/2556275

Departments and programs

Links

Jonathan Aaron Boyarin

Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies

Publications

book

Klarman Hall
224 McGraw Hall
jboyarin@cornell.edu

Departments and programs

Daniel Boucher

Associate Professor

Publications

  • academic article
    • What Do We Mean by 'Early' in the Study of the Early Mahāyāna-And Should We Care?.  Bulletin of the Asia Institute.  23:31-39. 2013
    • On Hu and Fan Again: The Transmission of 'Barbarian' Manuscripts to China.  Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies.  23:7-28. 2000
    • Gandhari and the Early Chinese Buddhist Translations Reconsidered: The Case of the Saddharmapundarikasutra.  Journal of the American Oriental Society.  118:471-506. 1998
    • The Pratityasamutpadagatha and Its Role in the Medieval Cult of the Relics.  Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies.  14:1-27. 1991
  • book
    • Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mahayana: A Study and Translation of the Rastrapalapariprccha-sutra.  University of Hawaii Press.
  • chapter
    • Sacrifice and Asceticism in Early Mahāyāna Buddhism.  Religion and Identity in South Asia and Beyond: Essays in Honor of Patrick Olivelle. Ed. Lindquist, Steven.  New York: Anthem Press. 197-224. 2011
    • The Nagaropamasutra: An Apotropaic Text from the Samyuktagama. A Transliteration, Reconstruction, and Translation of the Central Asian Sanskrit Manuscripts.  Sanskrit-Texte aus dem buddhistischen Kanon: Neuentdeckungen und Neueditionen. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck Ruprecht. 7-131. 1996
    • Sutra on the Merit of Bathing the Buddha.  Buddhism in Practice. Ed. Lopez, Donald S..  59-68.1995
Klarman Hall
382 Rockefeller Hall
djb38@cornell.edu
607/2550723

Education

Ph.D. in East Asian Literature, University of Pennsylvania, 1996

MA in Religious Studies, Indiana University, 1989

BA in Religious Studies and Philosophy, Indiana University, 1986

Departments and programs

Links

Anne M. Blackburn

Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities

Publications

  • academic article
    • Buddhist Technologies of Statecraft and Millennial Moments. History and Theory 56, no. 1 (March 2017), 71-79
    • Buddhist Connections in the Indian Ocean: Changes in Monastic Mobility, 1000-1500. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 58 (2015), 287-266
    • Ceylonese Buddhism in Colonial Singapore: New Ritual Spaces Specialists, 1895-1935.  ARI Working Paper Series.  2012
    • Writing Buddhist Histories from Landscape and Architecture: Sukhothai and Chiang Mai.  Buddhist Studies Review.  24:192-225. 2007
    • Notes on Sri Lankan Temple Manuscript Collections.  Journal of the Pali Text Society.  27:1-59.2002
    • Looking for the Vinaya: Monastic Discipline in the Practical Canons of the Theravada.  Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies.  22:255-289. 1999
    • Magic in the Monastery: Textual Practice and Monastic Identity in Sri Lanka.  History of Religions.  38:354-372. 1999
  • books
  • chapter
    • "Buddhist Networks in the Indian Ocean: Trans-regional Strategies & Affiliations." In Belonging Across the Bay of Bengal: Religious Rites, Colonial Migrations, National Rights, edited by Michael Laffan. London: Bloomsbury, 2017.
    • “Sīhaḷa Saṅgha and Laṅkā in Later Premodern Southeast Asia," in Buddhist Dynamics in Premodern and Early MOdern Southeast Asia, ed. D. Christian Lammerts. Singapore: Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, 2015.
    • Lineage, Inheritance, and Belonging: Expressions of Monastic Affiliation from Lanka.  How Theravada is the Theravada?: Exploring Buddhist Identities. 2012
    • 'Buddhist Revival' and the 'Work of Culture' in Sri Lanka, Past and Present.  The Anthropologist and the Native: Essays for Gananath Obeyesekere. London: Anthem Press. 221-246. 2011
    • Localizing Lineage: Importing Higher Ordination in Theravadin South and Southeast Asia. Constituting Communities: Theravada Buddhism and the Religious Cultures of South and Southeast Asia. Albany: State University of New York Press. 2003
    • Serendipity and Sadness.  Excursions and explorations : cultural encounters between Sri Lanka and the United States. Colombo. 2002
Klarman Hall
346 Rockefeller Hall
amb242@cornell.edu
607/254-6501

Education

  • Ph.D. in History of Religions, University of Chicago, Divinity School 1996
  • M.A. in Religious Studies, University of Chicago, Divinity School 1990
  • B.A. in Asian History and Religion (Special Major), Swarthmore College 1988

Departments and programs

Links

Caitie Barrett

Associate Professor

Publications

MONOGRAPHS

  • Domesticating Empire: Egyptian Landscapes in Pompeian Gardens (2019). Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. [430 pp. + 100 figures]
  • Egyptianizing Figurines from Delos: A Study in Hellenistic Religion (2011). Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition 36. Leiden/Boston: Brill. [731 pp. + 80 plates]

EDITED VOLUMES

  • Figurines grecques en contexte: Présence muette dans le sanctuaire, la tombe et la maison (2015), eds. S. Huysecom-Haxhi and A. Muller (editors-in-chief) and C. Aubry, C. Barrett, C. Blume, and T. Kopestonsky (collaborating editors). Archaiologia. Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion. [534 pp.]

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS

  • "Magical Gems as Material Texts" (forthcoming). In Textual Archaeology of the Ancient Near East: Are We Doing It Wrong?, ed. Y. Heffron. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. 
  • "The Valuation of Terracotta Figurines in Domestic Contexts: Reconsidering the Gap between Material and Ritual" (forthcoming). In Stuff of the Gods: The Material Aspects of Religion in Ancient Greece, eds. M. Haysom, M. Mili, and J. Wallensten. Athens: Swedish Institute at Athens.
  • "Recontextualizing Nilotic Scenes: Interactive Landscapes in the Garden of the Casa dell’Efebo, Pompeii.” American Journal of Archaeology 121: 293-332. [40 pp.]
  • "Egypt in Roman Visual and Material Culture" (2017). In G. Williams (ed.), Oxford Handbooks Online in Classical Studies. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. (http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935390.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935390-e-18) [43 pp.]
  • "Archaeology of Ancient Religions" (2016). In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, eds. J. Barton et al. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. (http://oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-48) [24 pp.]
  • "Avant-propos" (with C. Aubry, C. Blume, S. Huysecom-Haxhi, T. Kopestonsky, and A. Muller) (2015). In Figurines grecques en contexte: Présence muette dans le sanctuaire, la tombe et la maison, eds. S. Huysecom-Haxhi et al., 7-9. Archaiologia. Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion. [3 pp.]
  • "Terracotta Figurines and the Archaeology of Ritual: Domestic Cult in Greco-Roman Egypt" (2015). In Figurines grecques en contexte: Présence muette dans le sanctuaire, la tombe et la maison, eds. S. Huysecom-Haxhi et al., 401-420. Archaiologia. Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion. [20 pp.]
  • "Harpocrates on Rheneia: Two Egyptian Figurines from the Necropolis of Delos" (2015). In Figurines de terre cuite en Méditerranée orientale grecque et romaine. II: Iconographie et contextes, eds. E. Laflı and A. Muller, 187-200. Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.
  • "Material Evidence for Ancient Greek Religion" (2015). In Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, eds. E. Eidinow and J. Kindt, 113-130. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [18 pp.]
  • "Hellenistic and Roman Egypt" (2015). In D.L. Clayman (ed.), Oxford Bibliographies in Classics. New York: Oxford University Press. [87 pp.]
  • "The Perceived Value of Minoan and Minoanizing Pottery in Egypt" (2009). Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 22.2: 211-234. [24 pp.]
  • "Was Dust Their Food and Clay Their Bread? Grave Goods, the Mesopotamian Afterlife, and the Liminal Role of Inana/Ishtar" (2007). Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 7: 7-65. [59 pp.]

OTHER ARTICLES, BRIEF ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES, AND ENTRIES IN MUSEUM CATALOGS

  • “Casa della Regina Carolina, Regio VIII.3.14” (2020). K.L. Gleason, C.E. Barrett, and A. Marzano. Fasti Online (http://www.fastionline.org/excavation/micro_view.php?fst_cd=AIAC_4667&curcol=sea_cd-AIAC_10402). 
  • Multiple entries (2018) in Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World, eds. J. Spier et al., 250, 252–253, 272, 276-277, no. 174. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. 
  • "Figurines" (with E. Darby) (2016). In The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions, ed. E. Orlin, 344-346. New York: Routledge. [3 pp.]
  • "Harpokrates" (2016). In The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions, ed. E. Orlin, 388. New York: Routledge. [1 p.]
  • "Gems" (with V. Platt) (2015). In Cornell Collection of Antiquities, ed. A. Alexandridis and V. Platt (http://antiquities.stg.library.cornell.edu/gems). [3 pp.]
  • "Plaster Perspectives on 'Magical Gems': Rethinking the Meaning of 'Magic' in Cornell's Dactyliotheca" (2015). In Cornell Collection of Antiquities, ed. A. Alexandridis and V. Platt (http://antiquities.stg.library.cornell.edu/gems/plaster-perspectives-on-magical-gems). 
  • "Terracotta Figurines of Harpocrates from Greco-Roman Egypt" (2013). In C.M. Manassa (ed.), Echoes of Egypt: Conjuring the Land of the Pharaohs (http://echoesofegypt.peabody.yale.edu/overview/harpocrates-figurines). Online exhibit catalog for a 2013-2014 exhibition at the Yale Peabody Museum. [4 pp.]
  • "'Campana' Relief with Roman Nilotic Landscape" (2013). In C.M. Manassa (ed.), Echoes of Egypt: Conjuring the Land of the Pharaohs (http://echoesofegypt.peabody.yale.edu/overview/campana-relief-roman-nilotic-landscape). Online exhibit catalog for a 2013-2014 exhibition at the Yale Peabody Museum. [3 pp.]
  • "Egyptianizing Graeco-Roman Objects" (with C.M. Manassa) (2013). In C.M. Manassa (ed.), Echoes of Egypt: Conjuring the Land of the Pharaohs, pp. 15-16 [print edition]. New Haven: Yale Peabody Museum. Exhibit catalog for a 2013-2014 exhibition at the Yale Peabody Museum. [2 pp.]

INVITED BOOK REVIEWS

  • Review (2013) of M. Trümper, Die 'Agora des Italiens' in Delos: Baugeschichte, Architektur, Ausstattung und Funktion einer späthellenistischen Porticus-Anlage. Journal of Hellenic Studies 133: 116-117. [2 pp.]
  • Review (2012) of B. Rabe, Zwischen Entwurf und Produkt: Die griechisch-römischen Gipsformen aus Ägypten im Museum August Kestner, Hannover. Coroplastic Studies Interest Group Book Reviews (http://www.coroplasticstudies.org/reviews-rabe.html).

NOTES, RESEARCH REPORTS, AND BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS

  • "Nilotic Scenes, Egyptian Religion, and Roman Perceptions" (2013). Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 5: 3-5. [3 pp.]
  • "Recent Research in Greco-Egyptian Interactions" (2012). Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 4:4. [1 p.]
  • "Egyptian Imagery in Hellenistic Bulgaria: Lamps from the Thracian City of Seuthopolis" (2010). CSIG News: Newsletter of the Coroplastic Studies Interest Group 4: 17. [1 p.]
  • "Religious Syncretism in Egyptianizing Terracotta Figurines from Delos" (2009). CSIG News: Annual Newsletter of the Coroplastic Studies Interest Group 1: 10. [1 p.]

 

Klarman Hall
120 Goldwin Smith Hall
ceb329@cornell.edu

Education

PhD in Anthropology (Archaeology Subfield), Yale University, 2009

BA in Anthropology (Archaeology Subfield), summa cum laude, Harvard University, 2003

Departments and programs

Links

Keywords

 

 

Mediterranean archaeology, Greek and Roman archaeology, Egyptian archaeology, Egypt under Ptolemaic and Roman rule, archaeology of religion and ritual, household archaeology, household religion, connectivity, cross-cultural interactions, Hellenistic period, Roman empire, Hieroglyphic Egyptian language, Pompeii

 

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