Department of Religious Studies

Faculty

Breadcrumb

Faculty

  • Shahzad Bashir

    Shahzad Bashir

    Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Humanities, Professor of History
    Shahzad_Bashir@brown.edu
    Shirley Miller House Room 204
    Research Profile

    On sabbatical AY 25-26.

    Research Areas: Medieval Islamic Thought

    Specializations include: Temporality; Poetry; the Study of Sufism and Shi'ism.

  • Stephen Bush

    Stephen Bush (he/him)

    Chair, Professor of Religious Studies
    Stephen_Bush@brown.edu
    Shirley Miller House, Rm 301
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Art, Literature & Media; Philosophy & Ethics; Religion & Ecology; Religion & Politics; Religious Experience & Mysticism

    Specializations Include: Theory of religion; American pragmatism; religious ethics; political aesthetics

  • Mark Cladis

    Mark Cladis (he/him)

    Brooke Russell Astor Professor of Humanities
    Mark_Cladis@brown.edu
    Shirley Miller House Rm 104
    Research Profile

    Research Areas:  Art, Literature & Media; Emotions & Affect; Gender & Sexuality; Philosophy & Ecology; Religion & Politics; and Race & Indigeneity

    Specializations Include: Literary Arts & Political Aesthetics; Environmental Humanities; the Interrelation Between Ethics, Philosophy, & Religion; Environmental Justice & Indigenous Ecology; Political & Social Theory.

  • Jae H. Han

    Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies, Director of Undergraduate Studies
    Jae_Han@brown.edu
    Shirley Miller House, Rm 300
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Jewish Studies; Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean

  • Susan Ashbrook Harvey

    Susan Ashbrook Harvey

    Willard Prescott and Annie McClelland Smith Professor of History and Religion
    Susan_Harvey@brown.edu
    Shirley Miller House, Rm 304
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Art, Literature & the Media; Emotions & Affect; Gender & Sexuality; Religion & Ecology; Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean

    Specializations Include: Late Antique & Byzantine Christianity; Syriac Studies; Women & Gender in Ancient Religions; Hymnography; Hagiography; Asceticism; and Popular Piety

  • Nancy Khalek

    Nancy Khalek (She/Her)

    Director of Graduate Studies, Associate Professor of Religious Studies
    Nancy_Khalek@brown.edu
    Shirley Miller House, Rm 205
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Art, Literature & the Media; Emotions & Affect; Medieval Islamic History & Thought; Philosophy and Ethics

    Specializations Include: Medieval Islamic History, Thought, & Culture; History of Emotions; Material Culture in the Islamic Middle Ages; Late Antiquity & Early Islam/Continuities & Encounters; Medieval Arabic Hagiography & Historiography; Medieval Arabic Pietistic Literature; Medieval Isalmic Ethics & Theology.

  • Paul Nahme

    Associate Professor of Judaic Studies and Religious Studies
    Paul_Nahme@brown.edu
    Judaic Studies, Rm 301
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Emotions & Affect; Jewish Studies; Religion & Politics; Religious Experience & Mysticism; Race & Indigeneity

  • Saul Olyan

    Saul Olyan

    Samuel Ungerleider Jr. Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies
    Saul_Olyan@brown.edu
    Judaic Studies, Rm 303
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Jewish Studies; Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean

    Specializations Include: the History, Literature, & Religion of Ancient Israel; and the History of Biblical Interpretation. 

  • Leela Prasad

    Leela Prasad (she/her)

    St. Purandar Das Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies
    Leela_Prasad@brown.edu
    67 George Street, Rm 107
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Culture, Ethics & Society in Modern South Asia; Philosophy & Ethics; Race & Indigeneity; Gender & Sexuality

    Specializations Include: Anthropology of Ethics; Storytelling, Cinema, & Performance in South Asia; Colonialism & Decoloniality; Prison & Post-prison Life; Gandhi; Hindu Worlds; Human Rights & Social Justice; Gender; Diaspora & Indigeneity; Non-human Animal Humanities. 

  • Jason Protass

    Associate Professor of Religious Studies
    Jason_Protass@brown.edu
    Shirley Miller House, Rm 200
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Art, Literature & the Media; Religion & Ecology; Religions of East Asia

    Specializations Include: Chinese Buddhist Religion, Society, & Literature, specifically the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, the period of the Northern Song (960-1127) and its legacies.

  • Harold Roth

    Professor of Religious Studies, Director of the Contemplative Studies Initiative
    Harold_Roth@brown.edu
    Shirley Miller House, Rm 201
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Religions of East Asia; Religious Experience and Mysticism

    Specializations Include: Classical Chinese Religious Thought, Classical Daoism, the Comparative Study of Contemplative Practices and Experiences & Contemplative Studies more broadly

  • Michael Satlow

    Professor of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies
    Michael_Satlow@brown.edu
    Judaic Studies, Rm 202
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Art, Literature & Media; Emotions & Affect; Gender & Sexuality; Jewish Studies; Philosophy & Ethics; Race & Indigeneity; Religion & Politics; Religious Experience & Mysticism; Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean

  • Janine Sawada

    Janine Sawada

    Professor of Religious Studies and East Asian Studies
    Janine_Sawada@brown.edu
    Shirley Miller House, Rm 107
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Religions of East Asia

    Specializations Include: Religion and thought of Tokugawa and Meiji Japan; popular Japanese religions; Neo-Confucianism; Zen Buddhist apologetics.

  • Kera Street

    Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
    Kera_Street@brown.edu
    67 George Street, Rm 109

    Research Areas: Gender & Sexuality; Race & Indigeneity; Religious Experience & Mysticism; Religion in the Americas

  • Daniel Vaca

    Daniel Vaca (he/him)

    Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Director of Graduate Admissions
    Daniel_Vaca@brown.edu
    Shirley Miller House, Rm 302
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Art, Literature & the Media; Religion & Politics; Religion in the Americas; Race & Indigeneity

    Specializations Include: Economy and Society; History of Capitalism; Consumerism; Economic Inequality; Taxes and Politics; History of Christianity; Evangelical Christianity; Media Cultures 

  • Andre C. Willis

    Andre C. Willis (he/him)

    Associate Professor of Religious Studies
    Andre_Willis@brown.edu
    Shirley Miller House, Rm 305
    Research Profile

    Research Areas: Art, Literature & Media; Race & Indigeneity; Religion & Politics; Philosophy & Ethics

    Specializations Include: Enlightenment Philosophy of Religion; African American Religious Thought; American Pragmatism; US Politics, Race & Religion; Collective Resilience & Cultural Belonging