This May, Elaine Michalicka (BA 2024) completed the Master of Divinity, with a focus on counselling and spiritual care, at McMaster Divinity College. She plans on working in chaplaincy within the Catholic District School Board.

We are hiring for a 1-year position! Religious Studies at @mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social invites applications for a 1-yr Contractually Limited Appointment position at the rank of Lecturer or Asst. Prof. from Aug 1, 2026 to July 31, 2027. See the following link (position 76421): bit.ly/4dMp2yW

Congratulations to PhD student Pema Sherpa, on being awarded a prestigious Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in Buddhist Studies! Check out the following link for more information about Pema’s research project: www.acls.org/fellow-grant...

Today is the final day of the CSBS annual meeting in beautiful Sackville, NB! And it's a big day for McMaster presenters… Dr. Hanna Tervanotko presents “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, the birds of the air, and they will tell you” (Job 12:7): Bird Divination in Ancient Jewish Texts.”

The annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies continues today in beautiful Sackville, New Brunswick! Today, PhD student John Ottuh presents “Reading 1 Samuel 28 in Ancient Jewish and African Medium Contexts.”

The annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies will take place at Mount Allison University and numerous current and former members of McMaster's Religious Studies Department will be presenting. Today...

Congratulations to Robert Revington (MA 2018) on the recent publication of “Revisiting the Response to the 1977 Book The Myth of God Incarnate” in the Anglican Theological Review. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Happy 60th Anniversary to Us! We are all set and ready to celebrate with current and former graduate students and faculty!

McMaster University's Graduate Program in Religious Studies turns 60 and we are looking forward to celebrating with so many former and current members of the department tomorrow!

Check out David Miller’s (McMaster PhD 2005) newest article, “Josephus and Jewish Ethnonyms: Restoration Eschatology or Jewish Antiquity?” in the Journal for the Study of Judaism! brill.com/view/journal...

Dr. James Benn recently reviewed The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Practice for Reading Religion. You can read the review here: readingreligion.org/978019063292...

Congratulations to Robert Revington (MA 2018) on the recent publication of “Angelo Mosca and the Semi-Fictionalized Construction of Masculinity: A Gender DiscourseAnalysis” in Sport History Review! journals.humankinetics.com/view/journal...

Congratulations to Andrew Knight-Messenger (McMaster PhD 2022) on the publication of his monograph, The Place of the ‘Court Tales’ in the Hebrew Bible and Early Jewish Literature: Form, Development, and Function! Bloomsbury Publishing UK www.bloomsbury.com/us/place-of-...

Check out Benjamin Fleming’s (McMaster PhD 2007) new article, “An Independent Śiva Purāṇa and Śiva’s Reverence to the Man-Lion” in the latest issue of Religions! www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/17...

Recently, Robert Revington (MA 2018), Hannah Fonseca, and Merrill Greene (MA 2015, PhD 2022) published “The Psychological Impact of Ostracism and the Silent Treatment and their Application to the Psalms" in JIBS. Check it out here: jibs.hcommons.org/2025/12/05/t...

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Johnson (McMaster PhD 2019) on the publication of his coedited volume, (Con)textual Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Orion Symposium. Published in Honor of Esther G. Chazon. brill.com/display/titl...

Recently, Adel Hashemi (McMaster PhD 2018) launched Folio PDF Reader & Editor, a totally free, modern PDF app available for both macOS and Windows. Check it out here: For Mac: apps.apple.com/us/app/folio... For Word: apps.microsoft.com/detail/9pjrx...

Congratulations to Dr. Adele Reinhartz (McMaster PhD 1983), Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at U. Ottawa, on the publication of her latest book, Theories, Models, and Metaphors in the Historiography of Christian Origins! bit.ly/4eKQdL9

Recently, Dr. Matthew Thiessen's book, *A Jewish Paul: The Messiah's Herald to the Gentiles*, was translated into both Korean and Portuguese!

Recently, a number of McMaster Religious Studies people gave papers at the Buddhism and Law conference held at York University:

Check out the "Lives and Literacy in Ancient Egypt" exhibit that Dr. Jeremy Penner (McMaster PhD 2010) and others organized! It opened recently at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas. www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/...

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Johnson (McMaster PhD 2019) on being awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA) at the University of Agder! This is a prestigious grant from the EU’s research and innovation framework programme, Horizon Europe. www.uia.no/english/abou...

Today, Dr. Fumi Yao, a former postdoc in our department, will give a colloquium paper entitled “On a Manuscript of the Vinayoddānagāthā: What It Brings to Our Knowledge of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya,” at 2pm in LRW 3001. All welcome!

In March, Alexia Rolle joined our department as Program Coordinator. She has a diploma in Office Administration from Mohawk College and has worked at McMaster since 2022. In her free time, her favourite hobby is playing tabletop roleplaying games. She is also known for her love of narwhals.

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Johnson (McMaster PhD 2019) on the publication of his coedited volume, Performance, Space, and Time in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Papers from the Eleventh Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies, Zürich 2022, with Brill: brill.com/edcollbook/t...

Dr. Fumi Yao, a former postdoc in our department, will give a colloquium paper entitled “On a Manuscript of the Vinayoddānagāthā: What It Brings to Our Knowledge of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya,” on Monday April 20, 2pm in LRW 3001. All welcome.

Keep an eye out for Dr. Hanna Tervanotko’s new book, Signs and Meanings: Divination and the Production of Knowledge in Jewish Antiquity, which comes out later this year with University of California Press! www.ucpress.edu/books/signs-...

Dr. Justin Klassen (Bellarmine University, McMaster University PhD 2009) just published a new article, “Uselessness as Disruption: Spiritual Resources for Eco-Crisis,” in Spiritus. muse.jhu.edu/article/986932

Looking to learn something new this Spring? Consider taking Introduction to Sanskrit virtually, Mondays/Wednesdays, 1-4pm EST!

Wherever you are this Spring, you can learn Biblical Hebrew!

Congratulations to Dr. Adele Reinhartz (McMaster PhD 1983) on the publication of her edited volume (in collaboration with Oded Irshai), In Praise of Wisdom, a Festschrift in honour of Paula Fredriksen!

Congratulations to Dr. Andrew Krause (McMaster PhD, 2015) who has been named Assistant Dean and Associate Faculty at St. Stephen's College at the University of Alberta!

On March 27th, the Department of Religious Studies celebrated the retirement of Doreen Drew. Doreen was a beloved member of the department, serving as our graduate administrative assistant for 22 years (and almost 40 years total at the university!). To many new and exciting adventures, Doreen!

🎉🎉Congratulations to Dr. Jeremy Cohen on winning the 2026 MSU Excellence in Teaching Award! 🎉🎉

Why not use this Spring and Summer to learn something new? All our courses are online so you can study from wherever your Spring and Summer adventures take you!

Check out Dr. Rob Jones’ (McMaster PhD 2020) latest article, “Was There an Enoch Group in the Second Temple Period? The Contribution of the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls,” in the Journal of Ancient Judaism

Congratulations to Dr. Jordan Ryan (McMaster PhD 2016) on the recent publication of his article, “Filipino American Biblical Interpretation: Nascent Hermeneutics” in Currents of Biblical Research!

Check out Dr. James Benn’s latest essay on demonic states from Suramgama sutra in a new volume entitled Meditation Sickness: A Sourcebook on the Dangers of Buddhist Practice! uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/medita...

Today at 1.30, Dr. Myriam Nafte will join the Department of Religious Studies to give a talk entitled, "Mediating Mortality: The Afterlife of Human Remains." All are welcome to join!

Recently, Dr. Michael Gabizon (McMaster PhD 2022) spoke about intermarriage in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Period with Isaac Oliver on the Talmud for Everyone Podcast. Check it out below! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4my...

This Friday at 1.30pm, Dr. Myriam Nafte will join the Department of Religious Studies to give a talk entitled, "Mediating Mortality: The Afterlife of Human Remains." All are welcome to join!

Today, Matthew Thiessen will give a paper entitled "Mapping Biblical Studies and Christian-Jewish Relations" at the Mapping the Field of Jewish-Christian Relations Conference at Boston College. For more details or to watch via Zoom, click here: www.bc.edu/content/bc-w...

A number of students, alumnae, and faculty of McMaster’s Grad Program in Religious Studies will be busy this weekend attending and presenting at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies in Vancouver! See details in thread.

Tonight at 7pm, Dr. Matthew Thiessen will deliver the Annual Jakob Jocz Lecture at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. His lecture is entitled, "Jesus and the Jewish Law: The Purification Mission of Jesus." Dr. Michael Gabizon (McMaster PhD 2022) will respond.

Congratulations to Dr. Mark Scott, Associate Professor at Stonehill College and McMaster B.A. Honours in Religious Studies 2001, on the recent publication of his book, The Beauty of Souls: Aesthetic Encounters with Marilynne Robinson (Fortress Press, 2025)! www.fortresspress.com/store/produc...

Congratulations to Sayed Mohaqqeq, a doctoral student in our program, on being awarded a Graduate Pedagogy Fellowship from Yale University's Life Worth Living Network! More details on this fellowship can be found here: lifeworthliving.yale.edu/fellowship

Today at 4:30-6:00pm, Dr. Aya Oba will give a talk entitled "Building Connections in a New Land: Chinese Religious Communities and Support Around Funerals" in LRW 1003. All are welcome to attend!

Dr. Lily Vuong (McMaster PhD 2010 and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Oregon) recently published a co-edited volume entitled *The World of the New Testament: Encountering Texts in Context* with Fortress Press. www.fortresspress.com/store/produc...

REMINDER! Any and all McMaster undergraduate students are invited to join us for the SCAR Winter Warm Up, which will take place TODAY from 2:30PM to 4:00PM in the foyer of University Hall. Come meet other undergrads interested in the study of religion, as well as our faculty and staff!

Tonight at 6pm: grad and undergrad students are invited to attend the Religious Studies Movie Talk Night! Film: Children of Men, an all too timely film that explores a world ravaged by nationalism, xenophobia, and economic decline. Presenter: Wayne Chandira Room: LRW 1003 Bring your own snacks!