From July to December 2025. Appointments and achievements across the board by DSR members.
Appointments
We are proud to announce that Walid Saleh has been elected as Vice President of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the largest and most prestigious international scholarly organization focused on the study of religion. He will automatically advance to the presidency in two years’ time. He has been a member of the AAR since 1998, active in various units and on the board of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. “I am grateful for the support of the AAR membership and I am honoured to have been elected,” Saleh says, also noting that “recent world events have made it very apparent that academic professional organizations like the AAR are needed now more than ever.”
Amira Mittermaier became President of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion, officially taking up the role at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in November, and has also been appointed Director of U of T's Institute of Islamic Studies.
Ajay Rao has been appointed as Special Advisor to the Vice-Principal, Academic & Dean on community outreach at UTM. In this role, he will contribute strategic advice and leadership to advance UTM’s community engagement and outreach initiatives across the Peel Region.
Krissy Rogahn, who defended her dissertation in November 2025, will join Cornell University in July 2026 as Assistant Professor of Tamil and Religious Studies.
Honours & Awards
DSR chair and graduate chair Pamela Klassen was awarded the 2025 Dr. Suning Wang Award for Outstanding Graduate Mentorship from the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies (CAGS). She received the award in November at the CAGS Annual Meeting in Ottawa, where she participated on a panel about graduate mentorship with her former PhD student Meaghan Weatherdon and her current PhD student Sarina Simmons.
Affiliate faculty Kamari Maxine Clarke received SSHRC’s 2025 Insight Award, which recognizes scholars whose work has made a significant contribution to knowledge and understanding about people, societies and the world – this is an amazing accomplishment and richly deserved.
Affiliate faculty member Miray Philips and former DSR postdoctoral fellow Isaiah Ellis have been named members of the Young Scholars in American Religion 2025-2027 cohort by the Center for the Study of Religion & American Culture at Indiana University.
For his contributions to UTM’s History of Religions program, PhD candidate Mohannad Abusarah has received the UTM Cleo Leland Boyd Teaching Excellence Award for Sessional Instructor. This award is granted by UTM’s Office of the Vice-Principal Academic & Dean and recognizes excellence in undergraduate teaching at UTM. At the end of the last academic year, Mohannad also received the Historical Studies Teaching Award (Sessional).
Read "Award-winning PhD candidate Mohannad Abusarah on the rewards of learning and teaching"
PhD candidate Carolyn Beard was ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). The ceremony took place on Saturday, September in the Old Stone Church at First Presbyterian Church in Lewiston, NY.
PhD candidate Thinley Gyatso received a PhD Dissertation Completion Award from the Khyentse Foundation for the 2025-26 academic year.
PhD candidate Julie Sharff received a Doctoral Seminar award from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture for her dissertation, Dreaming with Yiddish Women Writers.
PhD candidate Ridhima Sharma received the India-Canada Association Scholarship as well as the Sandhya and Riten Ray Award for Indian Philosophy and Religion from U of T’s Asian Institute.