Message from the Chair and Graduate Chair, Professor Pamela Klassen, FRSC
As we ramp up for our 50th anniversary next year, we are looking forward to celebrating Department for the Study of Religion (DSR) accomplishments past and present. In the past four years, our undergraduate enrolments have tripled, and our majors and minors have nearly doubled. Thanks to the inspiring work of faculty, teaching assistants and staff, students are finding their way to the study of religion!
Our recent convocation celebration saw a packed room of family, friends, professors and students as we honoured our graduates: 11 PhDs, three MAs and 11 BAs, as well as many DSR student award winners. November saw the 2024 Annual Meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion take place in San Diego, and the DSR welcomed more than 100 alumni, faculty, students and friends to our reception where we shared news about plans for next year’s anniversary celebrations. To that end, if you have photos, memorabilia or anything else you’d like to share as we compile a record of the DSR’s last 50 years, please get in touch with Tanya Proulx, the DSR chair’s assistant, at tanya.proulx@utoronto.ca. We are working with the U of T Archives to build a collection focused on the DSR, so all contributions are welcome and will be well cared for.
In research news, Professor Simon Coleman was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada at a ceremony in Vancouver, which I had the chance to attend. Later in November, we launched the new DSR Lecture Series with our inaugural speaker, Mona Oraby of Howard University, speaking about her new book, Devotion to the Administrative State: Religion and Social Order in Egypt. See below for a Q&A between DSR PhD student Chiho Tokita and Professor Oraby.
We are very excited to announce that the renovations to the DSR spaces will finally get under way at the start of 2025 — including a brand-new undergraduate-friendly lounge, designed in consultation with the Religion Undergraduate Student Association. We are also renovating our main seminar rooms to make them more comfortable and welcoming — and less noisy — as well as refreshing the furniture in these seminar rooms, the DSR kitchen and our graduate study rooms. Construction is expected to take six to eight months and has been generously supported by the Provost’s Student Space Enhancement Fund, the Faculty of Arts & Science, the DSR, the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies, the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies and the Centre for Diaspora & Transnational Studies.
We continue to be grateful for the wonderful generosity of DSR donors. Every gift goes directly to student or programming support, allowing us to ensure our students flourish and our research and teaching mission continues to thrive. If you are able, please consider donating this month to the DSR Departmental Trust.
I wish everyone a restful holiday break.
— Pamela Klassen, FRSC
Professor, Chair & Graduate Chair, Department for the Study of Religion
Contents
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The Write Stuff Books and articles, by and about our faculty, postdocs and students. → Read more |
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Simon Coleman, FRSC Professor Coleman’s induction as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. → Read more |
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DSR Lecture Series A Q&A with Mona Oraby, our guest speaker at the inaugural event of this brand-new series. → Read more |
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A New Way to Say Goodbye Sociologist of religion and postdoctoral fellow Chris Miller examines green burial and other ideas about how to dispose of our bodies after we die. → Read more |
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The Reading & Listening Room Public sphere contributions from faculty and students, from Sanskrit love poetry to podcasts. → Read more |
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Where in the World? Find out who’s been doing what, and where, with this 2024 interactive map showing DSR activities and people. → Read more |
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Fall 2024 Graduates & Award Winners We celebrate our latest graduates and student award recipients. → Read more |
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Our Community The latest news and updates on DSR alumni and friends. → Read more |
