Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate recently received grants from the American Philosophical Society and the Central New York Humanities Corridor from an award by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for two projects.

Heidi M. Ravven, professor of religious studies, was an invited participant in a small, intensive seminar on affective neuroscience Dec. 12 – 19 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

An opinion piece titled “Something to Celebrate on Religious Freedom Day” and written by Visiting Assistant Professor of History John Ragosta appeared on the Washington Post website as well as the Religious News Service. The essay was published on Religious Freedom Day, Jan. 16, which is defined as a day to celebrate the adoption of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom.

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Erich Fox Tree presented two co-authored papers on Native American sign languages during the annual winter meetings of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, which took place in Boston on Jan. 3-6.

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Abhishek Amar participated on the panel, "Excavating Layers of Sacred Landscape," at the AAR Conference in Chicago in November.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate participated in the annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) held Nov. 17-20 in Chicago.

Visiting Assistant Professor of History John Ragosta pondered the question of whether President Thomas Jefferson would have opposed the official Thanksgiving holiday in an invited column on the University of Virginia Thoughts from the Lawn blog that appeared on Nov. 5. Ragosta is the author of the forthcoming book Religious Freedom: Jefferson’s Legacy, America’s Creed.

Professor of Religious Studies Heidi M. Ravven attended the Vermont Association for Psychoanalytic Studies 2012 Scientific Meeting on Nov. 3, in Stowe, Vt. Ravven participated in a small group discussion led by Sharon Dennett, chair of the International Institute for Psychoanalytic Training.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate participated in several contexts at the 16th Biennial Conference for the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture held Oct. 19-21 in Copenhagen. Plate presented a work-in-progress titled “Celebrating the Celluloid, Celestial City: The Presence and Absence of Sacred Space on Film.”

Professor of Religious Studies Heidi M. Ravven attended the annual meeting of the International Neuroethics Society Oct. 11 – 12 in New Orleans, La.