University of Pennsylvania Department of Religious Studies

09/08/2026

Our first RELS colloquium of the year is a graduate student-oriented workshop on Archival Methods for Religious Studies featuring three RELS faculty! All grad students are invited to attend!

The event will be held on Thurs., Sept. 10, from 3:30–5:00pm in Cohen 204.
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Archival Methods for Religious Studies
RELS Colloquium
Sep 10, 2026 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204
Join Prof. Reyhan Durmaz (RELS), Prof. Megan Eaton Robb (RELS), and Prof. Donovan Schaefer (RELS) for a workshop on approaches to using archives in Religious Studies. Topics covered will include gaining access to archives, reading archival sources, and tips and best practices for archival research.
This event is open to graduate students across the university with an interest in the study of religion.

Reyhan Durmaz is an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Penn.

Megan Eaton Robb is associate professor and undergraduate chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Penn.

Donovan Schaefer is associate professor and graduate chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Penn.

08/31/2026

A reminder that there is NO RELS colloquium event this week. Our first colloquium event of the year will be on Thursday, Sept. 10, a workshop on Archival Methods for Religious Studies in our usual time/location (3:30–5:00, Cohen 204).

In the meantime, please take a moment to register for the upcoming RELS Boardman Symposium, The Foucault Century, happening Sept. 24–25 at the Van Pelt Library Center. Details and registration are available at this link! Registration will close in 2 weeks.

https://www.library.upenn.edu/events/foucault-century

08/25/2026

Welcome back to Penn! We have a fantastic line-up of events coming up this year as part of our RELS colloquium series as well as our 2026–2027 Boardman Symposium.

A list of upcoming events is available here!

If you wish to be added to the RELS-community mailing list for event announcements, please email the current department administrator.

08/24/2026

Welcome back to Penn! Did you catch our Chair of Undergraduate Studies Prof. Megan Robb at the New Student Orientation fair today?

You can also check out our exciting line-up of events and courses coming up this year at this link!

https://rels.sas.upenn.edu/events

07/09/2026

Congratulations to doctoral candidate Rushnae Kabir, who has received a Sobti Fieldwork Fellowship from the Center for the Advanced Study of India!

The fellowship will support research for Rushnae's dissertation project, "The Everyday Prophet: The Milād and Muslim Communities in South Asia (c. 1865–1965)."

July 9, 2026 Doctoral candidate Rushnae Kabir has received a Sobti Fieldwork Fellowship from the Center for the Advanced Study of India! CASI writes: The Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI) aims to nurture a new generation of scholars in the study of contemporary India. In line with CASI.....

07/08/2026

Dr. Chijioke Azuawusiefe (G'20) is about to publish his first book, *Nollywood and Popular Religion: Productions of Prosperity, Gender, and the Supernatural in Nigerian Cinema.* The book investigates the role that film plays in the construction of everyday life and everyday religion in contemporary Nigeria. Zooming in on how Nollywood produces and represents popular religion, it considers the ways popular religion in turn reclaims, validates, and sustains Nollywood's core motifs of "women, wealth, and witchcraft."

The book will be published by Indiana University Press on July 27 and can be pre-ordered from the press' website, here: https://iupress.org/9780253076373/nollywood-and-popular-religion/

Congratulations, Dr. Azuawusiefe!

05/01/2026

Congratulations to Prof. Justin McDaniel, who has been named as one of Cultured Magazine’s Cult100 list of "100 luminaries and rising talents shaping the world around us"!

Prof. McDaniel was recognized for being "one of the country’s most unorthodox professors—and one of its most popular" as part of a gala event at the Guggenheim Museum on April 30.

You can read Prof. McDaniel’s interview with Cultured here:

The U Penn academic built a devoted following by rejecting traditional classroom norms—and insisting on no phones or s*x.

04/21/2026

This past weekend, several undergraduate students in RELS classes took a tour of religious sites in Philadelphia's Old City led by Dr. Dave Krueger of the Dialogue Institute!

Sites visited included St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church, Christ Church, the Arch Street Meeting House, Congregation Mikveh Israel, and Washington Square. Religious Studies students continue to benefit from the extraordinary religious heritage of Philadelphia.

Many thanks to RELS major Daniella Kohn and Undergraduate Chair Prof. Megan Robb for organizing the tour!

04/15/2026

Happening tomorrow!

Our final RELS colloquium of the year is happening this Thursday!
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"Vodou, a Phylum: Transmission, Cosmic Ecologies, and Global Circulation in African Indigenous Spirituality"
Angelantonio Grossi (Penn Center for Experimental Ethnography)

Apr 16, 2026 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204