The current co-presidents of the Religion Graduate Student Association are Kandace Geldmeier and Daniel Cheifer. Please feel free to contact them with questions about our program. Also visit our Alumni page, where you can read about Department of Religion alumni and view a list of recent dissertations. To read about recent graduate student prize recipients, visit our Graduate and Alumni News and Accolades page.

Please join us in welcoming the following new graduate students for academic year 2008-09 -- no fewer than three of whom will be on SU Fellowships, and one on a Benjamin Fellowship:

• Emma Brodeur - M.A. Program
• Jennifer Caplan - Ph.D. Program
• Amy Chaney - Ph.D. Program
• Patricia Giles - Ph.D. Program
• Casey Koons - Ph.D. Program
• Rebecca Moody - M.A. Program
• Theresa Reeder - Ph.D. Program
• Robert Ruehl - Ph.D. Program
• Raven Sherbo - Ph.D. Program
• Joshua Snodgrass - M.A. Program

Here are profiles of some of our current graduate students:

Jill Petersen Adams		Began Ph.D. program in 2007. (M.A., Religion, Syracuse University, 2007; B.A., Philosophy and Religion, Emory University, 2003.) Interests: Mourning, death and dying: philosophy, history, materiality; continental philosophy of religion; Japanese religious philosophy; ethics; aesthetics.
Alyssa Beall		Began Ph.D. program in 2000. (B.A., Religious Studies: CSU Chico, 1996; M.A., Graduate Theological Union, 2000.) Current interests: Alternative historical religious traditions, technology and popular culture.
Marc Beard		Began Ph.D. program in 2000. (B.A., University of Arkansas, 1998; M.A., Boston University, 2000.) Interests: Christianity in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Christian sanctity, and history of the body.
Emma Brodeur		Began M.A. program in 2008. (B.A., Bachelor's Degree with Individual Concentration (BDIC): Religion, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2006.) Interests: Continental philosophy of religion, philosophy through literature (an their proximity), methodology, language, cartography (and mapping), anatomy (and the human body), gender theory, and queer theory.
Ashley Cake		Began M.A. program in 2007. (B.A. Philosophy, University of Toronto, 2004; M.A. Philosophy, Duquesne University/KU Leuven, 2007.) Interests: Contintental Philosophy of Religion and Psychoanalysis, especially Kierkegaard and Lacan; Religious theories of intersubjectivity, psychology and the per/formative role of language in narratives of creation.
Jenny Caplan		Began Ph.D. program in 2008. (B.A., Wellesley College, Religion and Theatre Studies, 2001; M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School, World Religions, 2003.) Interests: Interplay between American religion and popular culture (predominantly film, theatre, and literature) as well as having a secondary interest in NRMs.
Nell Champoux		Began Ph.D. program in 2006. (B.A., Sweet Briar College, 2005; M.A., University of Amsterdam, 2004.) Interests: Medieval ritual and liturgy; art and medieval religion; methodology of esotericism; renaissance neo-platonism.
Michael Chaness		Began M.A. program in 2004. (B.A., University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004.) Interests: Indigenous religions; contemporary Haudenosaunee religious orientations and expressions; Onondaga Land Rights Action; Native American Church; creation mythologies; religion as exchange and inhabitation.
Amy Chaney		Began Ph.D. program in 2008. (B.A., Oklahoma State University, English Literature, 1996; M.T.S., Emory University, 2004.) Interests: The impact of place on constructions of religious identity and expression; narratives regarding boundaries and displacements; how modern conceptions of place are informed by collective memories of geography and landscape.
Daniel Cheifer		Began Ph.D. program in 2007. (M.A., Religion, Columbia University, 2007; B.A., Religion and Philosophy, Rutgers University, 2005.) Interests: South Asia; Hindu traditions; globalization; multiculturalism; pop culture; consumer culture; ethnography; Sanskrit language and literature; South Asian philosophy.
T. Wilson Dickinson		Began Ph.D. program in 2005. (B.A., Transylvania University, 2002; M.Div., Vanderbilt University, 2005.) Interests: Continental philosophy of religion; ethics; globalization; apophatic theology; world Christianities; ghosts and memory.
Sangeetha Ekambaram		Began Ph.D. program in 2007. (M.A., Syracuse University, 2007; B.A. in Religion, Emory University, 2003.) Interests: Contemporary religious and spiritual practices in South Asia and the diaspora; anthropology of religion, globalization, gender and ethics.
Juliana Finucane		Began Ph.D. program in 2004. (M.A. Religion, M.A. Newspaper Journalism, Syracuse University, Spring 2004.) Interests: Religion and globalization; religion and the news media; globalization of Japanese religious traditions; pilgrimage.
Kandace Geldmeier		Began Ph.D. program in 2007. (M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School, 2007, M.A., Kent State University, 2004, B.A., Humboldt State University, 2002.) Interests: rhetoric and religious language, miscarriage and embryology in rabbinic texts (and also across traditions), feminist hermeneutics, theology of children/children's spirituality, Theravada Buddhism.
Patty Giles		Began Ph.D. program in 2008. (B.F.A., Rhode Island School of Design, Painting, 1990; M.F.A., Boston University, Film Production, 2000; M.Div., Harvard Divinity School, 2007.) Interests: Buddhist and Christian theologies/philosophies and practices; Continental philosophy; art, aesthetics, and creative/meaning-making practices; religion, psychology, and cognitive/neuroscience.
Shannon Grimes		Began Ph.D. program in 2001. (B.A., University of Puget Sound, 1993; M.A., California Institute of Integral Studies, 1998.) Interests: religions in Late Antiquity; religious cosmologies and views of nature; magic, science, and religion.
Ping Guan		Began Ph.D. program in 2000. (M.A., Temple University.) Interests: modern and contemporary philosophy of religion, Asian religious thoughts, ritual and history, comparative studies of religion.
Airen Hall		Began Ph.D. program in 2006. (B.A., Gonzaga University, 2004; M.A., Syracuse University, 2006.) Interests: Religion in America; interactions between religion and popular culture; the emergence of New Religious Movements in the American context; the Latter-Day Saint tradition.
Alexander Herasimtschuk		Began M.A. program in 2004. (B.A., Syracuse University, 2004.) Interests: History of Christian Thought; 19th and 20th century Philosophy/Theology; ethics; aesthetics; asceticism; Political Philosophy and Human Rights.
Mark Holland		Began Ph.D. program in 2007. (B.A., Hendrix College, 2001; M.A. Columbia University, 2004.) Interests: Religion and Technology, Ecology, Globalization, Continental Philosophy of Religion, Christianity, Buddhism, Cognitive Theory and Body Studies, Aesthetics.
Eglute Trinkauskaite Johnson		Began Ph.D. program in 2002. (B.A., Hunter College, City University of New York, 2000; M.A., Syracuse University, 2002.) Interests: History of Religions; Indigenous Religions; Eastern Europe.
Casey Koons		Began Ph.D. program in 2008. (B.A., University of Maine at Farmington, Religion and Philosophy, 2006; M.A., Maimi University in Ohio, Religion, 2008.) Interests: Religion and colonialism and Islam, colonial and post-colonial situations involving Muslims in France and the United States, myth and the formation of identity.
Shawn Krause-Loner		Began Ph.D. program in 2004. (B.A. Psychology, Boston University, 1995; M.A. Comparative Religion, Miami University, Ohio, 2003; M.A. Folklore, Indiana University [pending].) Interests: New Religious Movements in the American context; religion and popular culture; theories of myth and comparative mythology.
Jason T. Larson		Began Ph.D. program in 2005. (B.A., Gordon College, 1995; M.A., Miami University, Ohio, 1998; MLS, University of Kentucky, 2000.) Interests: Ancient Near Eastern and Hellenistic religions; early Christianity; religious texts and cultural memory in antiquity; emergent theology and prophetic faith.
Soonki Lee		Began M.A. program in 2005. (B.A., Seoul National University, 1995; M.A., Seoul National University, 2005.) Interests: Gender studies; Hinduism.
Joe McCaffrey		Began Ph.D. program in 2000. Interests: Comparative theology and religion in America.
Melissa Menon		Began M.A. program in 2006. (B.A., Comparative Studies, Ohio State University, 2004.) Interests: Religion and reproduction; motherhood; contemporary ethical issues in reproductive healthcare and health policy.
Dan Miller		Began Ph.D. program in 2005. (B.A., Oklahoma Baptist University, 1998; M.Div., Golden Gate Theological Seminary, 2001; M.St. (Research), University of Oxford, 2005; M.Phil., Syracuse University, 2007.) Research and teaching Interests: Contemporary Continental philosophy of religion; postmodern and radical Christian theologies; radical political theory and the "return of religion"; apocalypticism and American culture; contemporary Islamism and global jihadism.
Becky Moody		Began M.A. program in 2008. (B.A., Oklahoma State University, English, 1998; M.A., University of Texas at Austin, Women and Gender Studies, 2006.) Interests: Women's and gender studies, body studies, feminist theory; the role of religion and culture in the construction of women's bodies as evidenced by narratives about impurity.
Rosanne Morici		Began PhD program in 2005. (B.A., Nyack College, 2000; M.A., New York University, 2004.) Interests: Iconography and the body; Eastern Orthodoxy, nationalism and visual culture; film, narrative, and memory.
Paul Morris		Began M.A. program in 2003. (B.A., University of the South, 1998; M.A., Syracuse University, 2005.) Interests: The interrelated histories of religion, science, modernity, and the secular; the aesthetics of religious practice; music, ritual, performance, and the body; critical theory, psychoanalysis, and continental philosophy of religion.
Lyman Mower		Began M.A. program in 2007. (B.A. University of California, Berkeley, 2005.) Interests: Philosophy of religion, including meta-ethics (especially Levinas), and metaphysics & epistemology (especially Plato); Psychoanalysis (Lacan); Political theology; Contemporary appropriations of Saint Paul; American religious philosophy in Emerson and Thoreau; The theological content of late Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.
Dorina Miller Parmenter		Began Ph.D. program in 1998. (B.A., Central College, 1992; M.A., Ball State University, 1996; M.A., Syracuse University 1998.) Interests: Religion and book culture, history of religions, history of Christianity, religions in Late Antiquity.
Dianne Quigley		Ph.D. student and principal investigator of "Research Ethics and Envrionmental Health" (NIH-funded project; see www.researchethics.org). Interests: Ethics for community health and environmental sustainability, and integrating indigenous philosophies into environmental planning.
Theresa (Terry) Reeder		Began Ph.D. program in 2008. (B.A., Nazareth College of Rochester, Religious Studies and Education, 1989; M.A., St. Bernard's, Rochester, Theology, 2003.) Interests: Religious oppression and liberation; ethics, particularly genetic and reproductive ethics; religion and psychology, particularly Jung and feminist rhetoric.
Angela Rudert		Began Ph.D. program in 2004. (B.A., Davidson College, 1989; M.A., Cornell University, 2004.) Interests: South Asian religions; modern Hindu traditions; globalization and religion; gender and religion.
Robert Ruehl		Began Ph.D. program in 2008. (B.A., St. John Fisher College, 2000; M.Div., Colgate Rochester Divinity School, 2008.) Interests: Postmodern philosophy of religion, postcolonial thought, critical discourse analysis and identity formation.
Francis Sanzaro		Began Ph.D. program in 2006. (B.A., Colorado State, 2002; M.A. in Philosophy of Religion, University of Denver, 2005; M.A. in Philosophy and Critical Theory, University of Denver 2006.) Interests: Contemporary religious theory, especially in the areas of politics, aesthetics and philosophy; greek philosophy and its relation to the origins of democratic processes; tracking the various strands of contemporary French philosophy.
Naoko Sasaki		From Japan. Began Ph.D. program in 1997. Interests: Christian theology, Christianity and modernity/postmodernity, Japanese religious philosophy.
Donovan Schaefer		Began Ph.D. program in 2005. (B.A., University of British Columbia, 2003; M.A., Syracuse University, 2005; M.Phil., 2007.) Interests: Theories of humanity and animality; phenomenology of religion and experience; postmodern philosophy; relligion and globalization (especially contemporary Hinudism); evolutionary biology; cognitive theory; ethics; film and media studies.
Grant Schmit		Began Ph.D. program in 2003. (B.A., Case Western Reserve University, 1998; M.Div., Candler School of Theology, Emory University, 2002.) Interests: the differing ways of thought of American Indian and Euro-American communities; the conflicts between paradigms of spatiality and temporality; stories as means of sharing and living the sacred.
Shawn K. Schuyler		Began Ph.D. program in 2002. (B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies and M.A. in Comparative Religion, Miami University.) Interests: Cosmographic sacred architecture, sacred kingship and cosmology, calendrical and astronomical ritual/divination, archaeoastronomy. Also, religious responses to colonialism and other cultural contact.
Christine Shanaberger		Began M.A. program in 2006. (B.A., Franklin and Marshall College, 2006.) Interests: South Asia; Hinduism and especially popular Hinduism; religious practice in modernity; the priesthood; ethnography; mystician, evangelical Christianity within the United States and internationally.
Raven Sherbo		Began Ph.D. program in 2008. (B.A., New York University, 2005; M.A. Drew University.) Interests: Neo-paganism and critical theory of magic, ritual performativity, sacred dance, trance, embodiment, and possession.
Christa Shusko		Began Ph.D. program in 2002. (B.A., Sweet Briar College, 2000; M.A., Syracuse University, 2002.) Interests: History of religions, religion and the body.
Joshua Snodgrass		Began M.A. program in 2008. (A.A., Keystone College, 2006; B.A., Syracuse University, Religion and English, 2008.) Interests: Continental philosophy of religion, critical theory, political theory, especialy as regards subjectivity, modes of being, ethics, and embodiment.
Alex Snow		Began Ph.D. program in 2000. (B.S., B.A., Truman State University, 1993; M.A., Ohio State University, 2000.) Interests: Comparative, cross-cultural, and inter-disciplinary approaches to religion; philosophical theology; science studies; esotericism/mysticism; cosmology.
Olga Solovieva		Began Ph.D. program in 1999. (B.A., Omsk State University, Russia, 1996; M.A., Syracuse University, 1999.) Interests: Christian Asceticism, Religions in Late Antiquity, History of Christianity.
Benjamin Stahlberg		Began Ph.D. program in 2001. (B.A., Guilford College, 1998; M.T.S., Boston University, 2001.) Interests: Philosophy and religion, theology and critical theory, psychoanalysis, religion and culture.
Jeremy Thomas Vecchi		Began M.A. program in 2006. (B.A., Religion and Greek, Calvin College, 2004.) Interests: Islam; Muslim politics, particularly in Europe; Continental philosophy; feminist and gender theory; revolutionary political thought.
Cordell Waldron		Began M.A. program in 2004. (B.A., University of Northern Iowa, 1992; M.A., University of Northern Iowa, 2001.) Interests: Hellenistic/Greco-Roman religion; early Christianity; hermetism/hermeticism; magic; esotericism/mysticism; religious narrative and mythology; journey/pilgrimage narrative; Platonism; utopian idealism.
Carson Seabourn Webb		Began Ph.D. program in 2007. (B.A., Religion, Pepperdine University, 2004; M.A., Philosophical Theology, University of Nottingham, 2006). Interests: Philosophical theology and continental philosophy of religion.
Clark West		Began Ph.D. program in 2005. (B.A., Williams College, 1989; M.Div., University of Chicago, 1997.) Interests: Philosophy of religion; postmodern theology; mystical and ascetical theology; American Pragmatism.
Holly White		Began Ph.D. program in 2005. (B.A. Baldwin-Wallace College, 1995; M.A. Bethany Theological Seminary, 2004.) Interests: Modern/postmodern theology; ethics; cultural and personal narrative in studies of religion.