A picture of a Buddhist monument taken by one of our students on a DU service-learning program

Faculty News

Sandra Dixon

Professor Dixon presented a paper in April entitled "Gender and the Moral Life in Investment Banking after 09/11: An Invitation to Discuss a Work in Progress" at the Regional Meeting of the American Academy of Religion/Society for Biblical Literature in Denver.

Ginni Ishimatsu

In the Fall of 2007, Ginni Ishimatsu became the new Chair of the department, taking over from Carl Raschke, who had served two terms as Chair.

Carl Raschke

Professor Raschke was an invited presenter for a special conference on "Religion in the Public Square" in New York May 3-4 in conjunction with Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary.  His paper "Evangelicals in the Public Square" will be published later this year in Society magazine.

Gregory Robbins

Professor Robbins will be participating in two Humanities Institute Salons, both on the Canon. He is also part of a film series at St. John's Cathedral in Denver.

Alison Schofield

Professor Schofield will serve as editor (in collaboration a fellow scholar) of the proceedings from the conference "Reading Between the Lines: Scripture and Community in the Dead Sea Scrolls," organized in honor of her dissertation advisor, Jim VanderKam. Dr. Schofield contributed "Scripts, Scrolls and Textual Communites: A New Model for Reading the Serekh Versions," as a thematic issue in the Dead Sea Discoveries Journal.

Liyakat Takim

Professor Takim recently presented "The 10 Commandments in the Qur'an," with the Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions in Madison , Wisconsin . April 15, he will speak on “The Prophet's Birthday" in Orlando , Florida . April 22, Dr. Takim joins an Interfaith Panel at the Forgiveness Symposium in Alamosa , Colorado to present “Forgiveness in Islamic Tradition."

In December 2007, Professor Takim was awarded the SUNY Press 2007 CHOICE Outstanding Academic for his book The Heirs of the Prophet: Charisma and Religious Authority in Shi'ite Islam. 

Student Awards

The following Religious Studies students were honored at the university awards ceremony on May 23, 2007.

Housing & Residential Education – Director’s Award: Becky Plunkett (undergrad)

Religious Studies

Wallace B. Clift Award - Iqbal Akhtar (grad) 

Cecil Franklin Honor Award - Karen D’Onofrio (undergrad) 

Religious Studies Faculty Recognition Award - Alicia Olson, Grace Tung (grad)

Gregory A. Robbins Award - Amanda Shelton (undergrad)

Outstanding Student Awards 

Outstanding First-Year Nominees - Women: Rabah Kamal.  Men:  Tucker Plumlee (undergrad)

Outstanding Sophomore Nominees - Brandi Braun (undergrad)

Outstanding Senior Man - Daniel Easton (also Phi Beta Kappa member, double major in Religious Studies & Philosophy) (undergrad)

Student News

Graduating MA Students Spring 2007

The following master's students successfully defended their theses and will be receiving their degrees at June 2007 Graduation: Aaron Sokoll, Daniel Dillard, and Christa Kuberry.  Aaron has been accepted into the PhD program in Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and will be enrolling next year.

Master Students 2007--08

Iqbal Akhtar - As of January 2008, Iqbal is living in Tanzania and will be there for a year on a research grant doing language training and research.  In December 2007, he was interviewed by KOAA for his reaction as a former Northcom Cultural Analyst to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto (Link to KOAA interview).

Erica Ferg will be an adjunct at Regis College where she has been asked to teach Islam starting Fall 2008.