Associate Professor of Religious Studies Brent Rodriguez-Plate presented at several universities this spring. At each institution, he met with students who are using his 2014 book A History of Religion in 5½ Objects in their courses. Plate said the book has now become a regular required text in many college religious studies classrooms.
With each visit, Plate also delivered a public lecture on preliminary studies that will become his next book, tentatively titled The Spiritual Life of Dolls: Religious Technology from Golem to Barbie, Sex Dolls to AI.
Early in the semester, Plate gave a talk on “The Spiritual Life of Dolls” as the keynote address for a symposium titled “The Religious Body Imagined.” The event was hosted by the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society at Elon University. While there, he also visited with the religious studies senior seminar, which uses his book as a main text.
Plate also visited with students and faculty at Drew University’s Theological School, where he led discussions on his book and his new work on dolls.
More recently at the University of Virginia he delivered a public lecture on the spiritual life of dolls and visited with a college seminar using his book.
In addition to his travels, Plate also joined a University of Kentucky introduction to religious studies class via Skype. This course also used his book as a main text.
