Religious Studies Department Faculty
Loriliai Biernacki - Associate Professor and Undergraduate Advisor for Spring 2008, (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) teaches and researches the religious traditions of India, especially including Hinduism, Tantra and the 11th century Indian philosopher Abhinavagupta. Her research interests particularly address issues of gender and critical theory. Her research also deals with contemporary representations of Hinduism, including Hindu diaspora movements and Hindu syncretist movements in the U.S. She is the author of Renowned Goddess of Desire: Women, Sex and Speech in Tantra, (Oxford, 2007). Currently she is working on translating a philosophical text by Abhinavagupta. website
Ira Chernus - Professor, (Ph.D., Temple University) studies issues of war and peace and U.S. diplomatic history from the perspective of a historian of religions. His current research focuses on the cold war and the "war on terrorism". He is the author of Nuclear Madness: Religion and the Psychology of the Nuclear Age, Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace, General Eisenhower: Ideology and Discourse, and a forthcoming book on the idea of nonviolence in U.S. history. Recently, he has taught Religion and Nonviolence, Religion and Contemporary U.S. Society, and Religion and U.S. Nationalism. website
Frederick M. Denny - Professor Emeritus (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is the editor of the University of South Carolina Press scholarly book series "Studies in Comparative Religion", which currently has ca. 35 titles published. He is the author of An Introduction to Islam(2nd ed. Prentice-Hall, 1994l a 3rd ed. is scheduled for 2004 publication) and numerous articles on Islamic topics. He co-authored (with John Corrigan, Carlos Eire, and Martin Jaffee) Jews, Christians, Muslims: A Comparative Introduction to Monotheistic Religions (Prentice-Hall: 1998). His recent research and writing have been principally on Islam and Muslims in the contemporary world. His areas of interest encompass Qur'anic studies, comparative ritual, Islamic education in Malaysia and Indonesia, and Islam and Muslim communities in North America. website
Holly Gayley joins the department this year from Harvard University, where she is completing her Ph.D. in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies. She teaches courses in Buddhism that focus on ritual, gender, and modernism. Her current research explores religious revival in Tibetan areas of the PRC since the 1980s. More broadly, her research interests include the role of the senses in tantric ritual, Buddhist saints and relics, and the revelations of texts and objects as "treasures" in Tibetan and Himalayan regions. Her recent publications include "Ontology of the Past and its Materialization in Tibetan Treasures" and "Soteriology of the Senses in Tibetan Buddhism." website
Sam D. Gill - Professor, (Ph.D., University of Chicago) has research interests in dance, movement and the body, play, and theoretical issues of comparative cultural studies. Many of his publications have focused on Native Americans and Australian Aborigines. His current cultural interests span the globe, but especially Latin America and Indonesia. His recent publications include: Storytracking: Texts, Stories, and Histories in Central Australia , Mother Earth: An American Story, and the Dictionary of Native American Mythology . He is currently completing To Risk Meaning Nothing: Essays on Play and Dancing. website
Greg Johnson - Assistant Professor and Graduate Program Director, (Ph.D., University of Chicago) teaches in the areas of indigenous traditions, method and theory in the study of religion, and religion and law. His research focuses on contemporary Native American and Native Hawaiian religious life, particularly in legal and political contexts. Repatriation issues (NAGPRA, especially) are at the center of his current research. His recent publications include Sacred Claims: Repatriation and Living Tradition and “Narrative Remains: Articulating Indian Identities in the Repatriation Context.” website
Ruth Mas - Assistant Professor, (Ph.D., University of Toronto) teaches in the area of Contemporary Islam and Critical Theory. Her research addresses secular-liberal interpretations of Islam in the postcolonial context of France and in particular, the formation of secular-Islamic subjectivity. Currently, her scholarly focus is on questions of secularism and political theology as well as the politics of affect and memory that undergird judgments about and by “liberal Islam” and liberal or secular Muslims. Ruth Mas is appointed as a 2008-2009 Fellow to the Centre for Humanities and the Arts at CU-Boulder for the project "Apocalyptic Sensibilities in the Futures Past of Secular Liberal Islam." She was also the 2007-2008 recipient in the CU-Boulder IGP Seed Grant Program for the project "Transnational Discourses of the Global Islamic Community." She shares project leadership with with Carla Jones of the Department of Anthropology. website
Lynn Ross-Bryant - Associate Professor and Undergraduate Advisor for Fall 2007, (Ph.D., University of Chicago) teaches courses in religions in the U.S., women and religion, religion and nature in America, and religion and literature. Her current research is in the area of nature and religion in America with a focus on national parks as sacred sites. Her publications include Imagination and the Life of the Spirit and "The Land in American Religious Experience." website
Rodney L. Taylor - Professor and Chair, (Ph.D., Columbia University) specializes in Chinese and Japanese religions, having published on Confucianism as a religious tradition, Neo-Confucian spiritual cultivation, Confucian meditation, and Confucian autobiography. He has most recently published The Religious Dimensions of Confucianism , The Confucian Way of Contemplation , with J. Watson, They Shall Not Hurt: Human Suffering and Human Caring, and The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Confucianism in Two Volumes (2004).
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Deborah Whitehead - Assistant Professor (Th.D., Harvard University) teaches courses in religions in the U.S., Christianity, North American religious thought, and gender studies in religion. Her research interests include American pragmatism, specifically the work of William James, and the complex interrelationship between Christianity and culture in the U.S. from the 19th century to the present. Currently she is working on revising her dissertation, which addressed the American pragmatist tradition as a gendered discourse of cultural mediation, for publication as a book. website
David Valeta Instructor (Ph.D. University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology) has taught at CU since 2002 in the area of Western Religious Traditions. His academic preparation includes: B.A. in Biblical Studies and Biblical Languages from Geneva College (PA); M.Div. from Bethany Theological Seminary (IL/IN); Ph.D. in Religion from the University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology (CO). In addition to research and teaching interests listed above, he is particularly interested in issues concerning Civil Religion and the interface of Religion, Politics, and Culture in the modern world. He has been part of study seminars to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan and has participated in service projects in Guatemala with Habitat for Humanity and Disaster Relief in New Orleans. website
