Our Graduate Students

Our Graduate Students

Graduate students in Religious Studies have completed exciting work and have gone on to pursue PhDs at institutions such as UNC-Chapel Hill, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Princeton, Rice, and elsewhere. Our current graduate students are continuing a tradition of thoughtful, engaged, and creative work in the academic study of religion. On this page, you can learn about the Graduate Organization, meet our current students, and then learn about the thesis work of our past graduates. 

Graduate Organization

The Religious Studies Graduate Student Organization serves primarily to develop greater communication and camaraderie among fellow students and faculty in the Religious Studies Graduate Department for the purpose of helping students prepare for and further their education and career aspirations. We hope this organization will encourage a supportive, cooperative, professional, and educational environment that facilitates the open exchange of ideas. Our aim is to promote stronger understanding and tolerance of world religions through education and discussion of the social, economic, and political factors that influence and are influenced by religious beliefs.

We as an organization have sponsored many of our members to attend various academic conferences – such as the North Carolina Religious Studies Association (NCRSA) and American Academy of Religion (AAR) – by providing a platform for our many talented students to showcase their research with national and international audiences.

We would like to stress that this is not simply an ‘academic’ organization. We provide various opportunities for student involvement on campus and in the department in the hopes of fostering a nurturing environment for members throughout their academic career and beyond. We hold monthly meetings that involve discussion of goals, obstacles, achievements, and opportunities to provide support and guidance to members of the Religious Studies Graduate Student Organization.

For further questions concerning membership/meetings, please contact the Religious Studies Department at religiousstudies@uncc.edu.

Directory of Current Graduate Students

Reverend J R Atkinson
Religious Studies
Graduate Student
Anne Brown
Anne Brown
Religious Studies
Graduate Student
Annie Burchill
Annie Burchill
Religious Studies
Graduate Student (on leave)
Sarah Crouse
Religious Studies
Graduate Student
Shannon Dailey
Religious Studies
Emily Faggart
Emily Faggart
Religious Studies
Graduate Student
David Flaherty
Religious Studies
Graduate Student (on leave)
Vicky Harris
Religious Studies
Graduate Student and Administrative Support Associate, Global Studies
Albert Hodges
Albert (Otis) Hodges
Religious Studies
Graduate Student
Abby Marks
Religious Studies
Graduate Student
Picture of Shai Nickerson
Shai Nickerson
Religious Studies
Graduate Student and Graduate Teaching Assistant
Tabitha Rice
Religious Studies
Graduate Student and Graduate Teaching Assistant
Oliver Richards
Religious Studies
Graduate Student and Graduate Teaching Assistant
Douglas Samson
Religious Studies
Graduate Student and Data Coordinator, CCI
Casey Sheetz
Religious Studies
Graduate Student and Graduate Teaching Assistant

Past Graduates

Where are they now?


PhD studies, university professors and adjuncts, non-profits, various private sector positions, self-employed entrepreneurs, artists, Chinese medicine/acupuncture practitioners, pastors, elementary school teachers. 

 

Year Student Thesis Title Thesis Advisor
2022 Matthew Argonauta Elijah the Tishbite: The Zealous He-Prophet's Gender Performance in 1 and 2 Kings Barbara Thiede
2022 Jenny Beaumont Mark: A Messianic Post-War Gospel James Tabor
2022 Viola McElveen Identifying the Voice of the Teacher in the Thanksgiving Hymns (Hodayat) of the Dead Sea Scrolls James Tabor
2022 Wyatt Manlove Maintenance of a Tradition: An Analysis of Identity and Memory Making Process at Rock Springs Camp-Meeting Sean McCloud
2022 Sally Mesibov I Received an Inward Showing of Trust William Sherman
2022 Trina Rumfelt Dating the Teacher of Richteousness and the Floruit of His Movement: An Evaluation of Methods James Tabor
2022 Jonathan Daniel Staton A Thick Cloud of Forgetting: The Function of Unknowing in The Cloud of Unknowing Joanne Maguire
2021 Ryan Cataldo This Generation Will Not Pass Away before All These Things Take Place James Tabor
2021 Sam Davis Reporting the  Summer of Shame : Clergy Sex Abuse and U.S. Catholic Journalism in 2018 Kent Brintnall
2021 Justin Sells Christian Sun Worship and Theurgy in Late Antique Rome James Tabor
2021 Lesley Wright The Broken Shelves: Ex-Mormon Reddit Narratives in Deconversion Sean McCloud
2020 Joseph Amezquita Psychonautica: Rhetorical Patterns within Self-Reported Psychedelic Narratives Eric Hoenes del Pinal
2020 Joshua Casper South Park’s Satan: Sympathetic Character and Critical Cultural Mirror Sean McCloud
2019 Lindsay Carroll Sacrifice and Violence: Paśubalí in Nepal William Sherman
2019 Jason Graham Ritual Flexibility: Insights from and for Applied Behavior Analysis Joanne Maguire
2018 William Bowmer The Persistence of Images: Mürti, Monotheism, and Museums J. Daniel White
2018 Aleah Cornett The Name with Which You Ascend to Heaven : Semiotic and Linguistic Ideology in the Midrash of Shemhazai and Aza’el John C. Reeves
2018 Gabrielle Haley The Pragmatism of Food Porn: Modern Media as a Mode of Zen Perpetuation Joanne Maguire
2017 Chelsea Caskaddon Perceived versus Experienced: Religious Othering on a College Campus Sean McCloud
2017 Zannah Kimbrel/Zipporah Breunig Penetrating the Seventh Palace: Reading the Sexual Dimensions of the Hebrew Book of Enoch Kent Brintnall
2017 Robert Lee American Atheism: An Analysis of Eighteenth-Century Stigma Borne by Twenty-First Century Children Joanne Maguire

 

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