The Department for the Study of Religion (DSR) began its 50th anniversary celebrations on September 25, welcoming back two alumni with a thought-provoking discussion from the perspectives of two leading scholars of the study of Islam.
The stately Seeley Hall at U of T’s Trinity College was the setting for “The Study of Religion, Then and Now,” a conversation with distinguished DSR alumni, Professor Jane McAuliffe (MA ’79, PhD ’84) and Professor Amir Hussain (MA ’90, PhD ’01), moderated by DSR professor Amira Mittermaier.
An eminent scholar of the Qur’an and Muslim-Christian relations, Professor McAuliffe completed her PhD at the Centre for the Study of Religion in 1984, and subsequently took up a position at Emory University. She returned to the University of Toronto to serve as chair of the DSR (1992-1998), and united the undergraduate Department of Religious Studies with the graduate Centre for the Study of Religion. She then became dean of Georgetown College at Georgetown University and later president of Bryn Mawr College. Professor McAuliffe was also president of the American Academy of Religion in 2004.
Professor Hussain is a leading scholar of religion specializing in the study of Islam. He achieved his PhD from Department for the Study of Religion in 2001. Now a professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University, he served as the president of the American Academy of Religion in 2022, after a long run as editor of the flagship Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
Introduced by DSR chair and graduate chair Pamela Klassen, U of T President Melanie A. Woodin delivered opening remarks to a capacity audience. The President spoke appreciatively of the DSR’s contribution to the University of Toronto’s renowned excellence, highlighting the department’s “exceptional worldwide rankings and outstanding achievements, from teaching to research to public engagement.” She acknowledged, too, the presence of many DSR alumni at the event, part of a community of graduates who have taken their DSR experience and gone on to leadership roles around the world, in education, law, journalism and civic society organizations, as well as in academic positions at the highest level. “The DSR is deeply engaged with its students,” she noted, “preparing the leaders we need in today’s world, those critical and creative thinkers.”
Professor Amira Mittermaier moderated the wide-ranging conversation, following the stories of Professors McAuliffe and Hussain as students in the DSR and then along their respective career journeys. Jane McAuliffe recalled that it was a single course at U of T’s new graduate religious studies program that crystallized her lifelong interest in religion, taking it in entirely new directions over her subsequent academic career. She spoke of the fascination born of a course taken with the late scholar of medieval Islamic philosophy Michael Marmura that propelled her through graduate work. It was also classes with Marmura that made Amir Hussain realize that it was religion that he wanted to study. He attributed to then-DSR chair McAuliffe’s advice his decision to work on Muslims in Canada and ultimately find a career that now finds him at a U.S. Catholic Jesuit institution teaching about Islam and Muslims in North America.
Following the event, Jane McAuliffe commented that it was “a professional and personal delight” to participate, adding that she is “thrilled to see how the department has grown and flourished.” Her scholarly life in Islamic Studies began as a member of the inaugural class of graduate students and her career in academic leadership with chairing the DSR itself.
For his part, Amir Hussain was thrilled to celebrate the DSR’s anniversary with his former teacher, Jane McAuliffe, as well as appreciating the opportunity to catch up with old friends, professors and classmates – and to discover what the latest cohort of students is exploring. First attending U of T as an undergraduate, he was “a working-class kid, who was the first in his family to go to university. I had no dreams of being a professor in Los Angeles, but over 40 years later, that’s where I am.” The study of religion led him in unexpected directions – “I had no inkling that I’d ever edit the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, or be elected to the presidency of the AAR,” he said. “The University of Toronto made me the teacher and scholar that I am,” for which he is profoundly grateful.
Also in attendance was alumnus Bryan Levman (PhD, 2014), DSR visiting scholar and, with Rosi Levman, the creator of the Bill and Belle Levman Graduate Award in the Department for the Study of Religion. Of the event, and the lively reception that followed, he remarked that the occasion demonstrated “how rich and vibrant the DSR is and how many dedicated and brilliant people (professors and students alike) are part of it – and how proud I am to be part of it all!”
Bringing the DSR experience and community full circle, Grace Feeney, President of the DSR’s Graduate Student Association, particularly noted the uniqueness of this occasion. “Graduate students were able to gain insights into the field as well as institutional developments that have significant ramifications for the humanities, as well as academia,” she said. “Some of these topics are not often discussed openly, so the opportunity was especially informative and enjoyable.”
The DSR’s Professor Pamela Klassen joined the department in 1997 and has been chair and graduate chair since 2020. “To be leading the department at this significant point in its story is a real honour. I’m so grateful to our returning alumni, especially Jane and Amir, for sharing their stories and their perspectives on futures for the study of religion.” She reflected that “The story of the founding of the DSR is a fascinating window onto the history and future of the University of Toronto, which turns 200 in 2027. A university founded on Christian and colonial principles, U of T is now a place of profound diversity.” She remarked that it was a “special bit of serendipity that Jane McAuliffe’s granddaughter, Vivian deGuzman, is an undergraduate at U of T and currently a student in DSR alum Filip Andjelkovic’s class RLG104H1F, The Rise of Conspiritualities.” Across generations and into the future, the study of religion remains a necessary perspective for critical and creative understanding of the world around us.
Learn more about our exciting schedule of 50th anniversary events
Alumni & Friends Lecture Photo Gallery