An article written by Professor Caleb Simmons was featured in the July 10 issue of Lo Que Pasa UA@Work, an online magazine for UA employees. The article highlights Professor Simmons's research and field work on his most recent trip to India in December 2018. 

You can read the entire article here.

Donna Swaim, who touched thousands of students’ lives in her 50 years teaching at the UA, brought a commitment to study abroad that the College of Humanities continues today.

In thanks for her life-long service to the University of Arizona and her dedication to generations of students, Dr. Swaim was the guest of honor at the 2019 College of Humanities Honors Luncheon.

Starting with her first trip in 1979, when she led a small group of students across England and France, Swaim was passionate about enabling enriching international travel experiences for her students.

“The value of study abroad is that you’re seeing for yourself that the things in the book actually exist,” Swaim says. “They can show you a picture of it and they can tell you about it, but you have to be there. You see and learn so much more than is in the textbooks.”

During her time at the University of Arizona, Dr. Swaim led hundreds of students on a total of 24 trips abroad, visiting a wide array of countries including Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cambodia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland & the Faroe Islands, Italy, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Mali, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Norway, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey and Zimbabwe.

Swaim led her first group on a trip before there was any formal study abroad office at the UA. Those students are planning a reunion for this summer. One of those students, Emilee Mead, wrote in her journal at the time:

“I’ve seen things, felt feelings and experienced events that I never imagined and which I never could have prepared myself for. All the reading in the world, or the wildest imagination cannot replace the reality of strolling on a narrow, winding cobblestone street of a small French village.”

Chelsea Forer, a 2019 graduate in Religious Studies who studied abroad in Bhutan as a 2017 recipient of the Donna Swaim International Award for Religious Studies, spoke about her experiences.

“I am proud to call myself an honorary member of the legacy that is Dr. Donna Swaim. Her kindness and passion are contagious and her commitment to her students is inspiring,” Forer said. “My trip to Bhutan expanded my boundaries to spaces I did not know possible. My life has never been the same and I guarantee each of Dr. Swaim’s students share in my sentiment.”

To support student study abroad, donate to The Donna Swaim International Award For Religious Studies.

Congratulations to the College of Humanities’ Outstanding Senior for Spring 2019, Chelsea Forer!

Forer graduates with honors, completing a double major in Religious Studies and Biological Anthropology and spent two years as a College of Humanities Student Ambassador. This summer, she will intern at the International Rescue Committee and has plans to continue her education in graduate school.

“More than I can express, the College of Humanities is where my community exists, where I find my home,” she told fellow graduates at the Spring 2019 Convocation.

“We are where we have been. My journey began on the Hopi Reservation, continued to the hillsides of Monticello, the Dragon Kingdom of Bhutan, and the linguistic treasures of Jordan, and promises to lead to unknown and beautiful places in the future,” Forer said. “No matter which department we are in, we are the countless ways in which we embody languages, literatures, and cultures. We seek to understand culture by traveling abroad and engaging with communities both local and global.”

Rae Dachille, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, was Forer’s mentor and honors thesis advisor, and nominated her for the award.

“Chelsea is a rising star in her cohort. She has embraced the highest standard of religious studies scholarship expanding her efforts beyond the classroom to conduct study and research abroad in Bhutan and Jordan and to undertake intensive language study in Arabic,” Dachille said. “Chelsea’s incredible commitment to service to the College of Humanities as well as to the broader Tucson community while balancing a rigorous program of interdisciplinary research and study truly set her apart. Her intellectual promise, emotional maturity, willingness to collaborate, and deep respect for alternative ways of thinking about the world are exemplary.”

Forer said Humanities majors embody an interdisciplinary approach to education that will serve her and her fellow graduates well in any field they pursue.  

“Within our intellectual pursuits, in which we have demanded integrity, encouraged rigor, and inspired intellect, we have also cultivated empathy and competence, awareness and compassion,” she said. “As Humanist scholars, we are uniquely suited to address our communities’ most pressing issues. We are the present and future stewards and leaders of our globe.”

Religious Studies is thrilled to announce that Cecilia Cruz is the first-ever winner of the Fred and Barbara Borga Award. 

The Fred and Barbara Borga Award was established in memory of Fred and Barbara Borga through the generosity of their son Ross Schwartzberg. The award supports outstanding undergraduate students at the University of Arizona who are majoring in Religious Studies with a concentration in Religious Studies for Health Professionals.

Congratulations, Cecilia!!!

Read (in Cecilia's own words) how the Religious Studies major enriches the medical profession:

As a student in the College of Medicine I have spoken with many peers and mentors to emphasize the importance of humanities in the medical field. To be able to communicate with patients and their support system is as equally important as the actual practice of medicine. I first began taking Religious Studies courses because of multiple medical cases where the patients decided against the advised treatment based on their beliefs. It is important for health care professions to have religious literacy so they can give alternative methods or speak in the right terms with discussing treatments with their patients. 

Religious Studies is proud to announce 2019 winners of the Donna Swaim International Award for Religious Studies: Amelia Symm and Robert Lisak. 

The Donna Swaim International Award for Religious Studies enables academically-prepared Religious Studies majors to study the religions of the world in the context of their cultures, through study abroad opportunities. This fund was established in 2014, to honor Professor Donna Swaim’s 50 years of teaching and service at the University of Arizona. 

This award will support Amelia's participattion in a Directed Research Project studying archaeological methods and history at the Poggio del Molino field school in Populonia, Italy and Robert's opportunity to help create a cutting edge digital media collection as part of the Hangzhou Buddhist Culture project in Hangzhou, China.

Congratulations, Amelia and Robert!

Read (in their words) how traveling as part of their Religious Studies major will enrich their lives and studies:

Amelia Symm:

I personally want to study abroad so that I might not only gain more archaeological field experience, but that I might be able to better communicate as a citizen of a global society. The opportunity to study abroad is open to all students and should be seriously considered as a life-changing event that presents many differing avenues of learning, both within and outside of the classroom through cultural interaction.

Robert Lisak:

My fundamental reason for study is to find commonality in humanity and to be an active agent to bridge the gaps that seem to exist between so many people. I hope to continue to pave the road for a new level of cross-cultural understanding and share what I learn with anyone I meet.

Last week, Professor Andrea McComb Sanchez delivered lectures at a Barnard College/Columbia University and Yale University.

On April 8, Professor McComb Sanchez lectured on "Becoming a Tradition: Pueblo Indian Patron Saint Feast Days as Resistance and Adaptation" at an event cosponsored by the Barnard College Department of Religion, the Barnard College Department of Anthropology, the Barnard College Program in American Studies, the Columbia University Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life, and the Columbia University Department of Religion.

On April 10, Professor McComb Sanchez delivered a lecture titled "The Interconnection between Place, Narratives, and Ceremony in Pueblo Indian Patron Saint Feast Days" as part of the Yale University's Institute of Sacred Music 2018-2019 Colloquium. 

Congratulations, Professor McComb Sanchez!

Three Religious Studies majors presented papers at the American Academy of Religion/Western Region annual conference.

This was just the second year that undergraduate papers have been accepted and the University of Arizona is the only university to send undergraduate students both years.

Sophie Penn Barshay, majoring in Religious Studies and History, Chelsea Forer, majoring in Religious Studies and Anthropology, and Gamini Sethi, majoring in Religious Studies and Art History, each presented alongside faculty members and graduate students at the conference in Tempe. Blayne Roach, a 2018 graduate in Religious Studies, also presented.

Barshay’s presentation, “’Fatal’ Deviations From Tradition: How the Christian New Right Influenced American Conceptions of Family and Gender Roles as Exemplified in 80s and 90s Femme Fatale Movies,” drew on research for her Honors Thesis project.

“I was very grateful for the opportunity to present my research at the AARWR conference, as well as for the opportunity to learn about other interesting research projects in the field. It was also great to get feedback on my presentation from a wide variety of people,” she said.

Forer’s paper, “The Eye of the Scholar of Religion: A Lens of Resistance,” represented a case study, culminating in her senior Honors Thesis, that looks specifically at the modes and means of resistance in providing an undergraduate education in Religious Studies at a public, research-based university institution.

“Presenting alongside other scholars with similar interests showed me I am not alone, and instead am interested in pedagogical approaches that are cutting edge and currently researched by others,” Forer said. “I feel like part of the community of Religious Studies scholars after my experience.”

Sethi’s presentation, “Reimagining Religious Objects in the Postcolonial World” focused on the parallels between the historic plunder of art and illegal acquisitions of art by museums.

“The conference was a wonderful opportunity, and a true highlight of my time here at the UA. I was truly fascinated by the variety of research that fell under the larger ‘Religious Studies’ umbrella and really appreciated the opportunity to be able to discuss my research with individuals who had such varied academic backgrounds,” she said.

Brett Esaki recently published an article in CrossCurrents titled, “Japanese American Spiritual Ambiguity and Arts of Silence.” It describes the challenge of making political art that communicates an experience of ambiguity.

You can find the article in CrossCurrents Volume 67, Issue No. 4 (December 2017): 668-80. DOI: 10.1111/cros.12289