Currently Enrolled Graduate Students

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Andrew Aghapour B.A., College of Charleston M.Phil., Cambridge University

aghapour@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Religion and Culture Research interests: Religion and science in the modern and postmodern west; religion in literature; critical theory

Jared Anderson H.B.A., University of Utah

jared126@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Ancient Mediterranean Religions Research interests: Formation, transmission, and translation of biblical texts, especially relating to the New Testament, manuscripts, and versions; formation and transmission of Gospel texts and traditions

Rose Aslan B.A., University of British Columbia M.A., American University in Cairo

rsaslan@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Islamic Studies Research interests: Qur'anic hermeneutics and Sufism

Zahra Ayubi B.A., Brandeis University

zayubi@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Islamic Studies Research interests: Muslim communities in the United States; Islam and gender; women's relationship with Islamic law

Shannon Barry B.A., University of Texas at Austin

shannonl.barry@gmail.com

Field of specialization: Religion in the Americas Research interests: Religion in the Americas after 1800; gender and sexuality; material culture of religion; food and religion; religious pluralism

Anne Blankenship B.A., University of Puget Sound M.A., Yale Divinity School M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

anne.blankenship@unc.edu

Field of specialization: Religion in the Americas Research interests: Religion in the American West; apocalypticism; evangelicalism; Japanese American internment

Catherine Burris B.A., Pacific Lutheran University M.A., University of Missouri-Columbia

cburris@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Ancient Mediterranean Religions Research interests: Late antique magic; reception and transmission of extra-canonical traditions; Christian Syria

Jason Robert Combs B.A., Brigham Young University M.A.R., Yale Divinity School M.A., Columbia University
combs@unc.edu	Curriculum vitae
Field of specialization: Ancient Mediterranean Religions Research interests: New Testament; early Christianity (second century); Hellenistic Judaism; religious identity formation; orthodoxy and heresy; method and theory in the study of religion and history

Brandilyn Denison B.A., University of Puget Sound M.A., University of Colorado

bdenison@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Religion in the Americas Research interests: Religion and politics; religion and the American West

Cynthia Hogan Dopko B.A., Wells College M.A., North Carolina State University

dopko@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Religion and Culture Research interests: Religious expression in the arts; religion in literature; Western esotericism; material religion

John-Charles Duffy B.A., Brigham Young University M.A., University of Utah M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
jcduffy@email.unc.edu	Curriculum vitae
Field of specialization: Religion in the Americas; Religion and Culture Research interests: Mormonism; politics of religious pluralism; religion in academia

Carrie E. Duncan B.A., Tufts University M.A., Harvard University
ceduncan@email.unc.edu
Field of specialization: Ancient Mediterranean Religions Research interests: Archaeology of Second Temple Period Israel; women in early Judaism and early Christianity; Greco-Roman cultural influence in the east

Kathleen Foody B.A., Carleton College M.A., Washington University in Saint Louis M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

foody@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Islamic Studies Research interests: Shi`ism; Islam and poltics; modern Iranian history; postcolonial theory

Joseph Gindi B.A., Wesleyan University M.A., Brandeis University

jgindi@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Religion and Culture Research interests: Jewish cultural studies; religion, ethnicity, and identity; religion and social justice

Vincent Gonzalez B.A., Arizona State University M.A., Emory University

vincentg@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Religion in the Americas Research interests: Cultural anthropology; new religious movments; identity formation and management; Christian Hebraism; ninteenth- and twentieth-century occultism

Megan Goodwin B.S., Boston University M.A., Drew University M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

goodwin@unc.edu

Field of specialization: Religion and Culture Research interests: Religion and sexuate bodies; religious alterity and innovation; religious language and literature; contemporary critical thought; queer theory; gender theory

Matthew Grey B.A., Brigham Young University M.St., University of Oxford M.A, Andrews University

mgrey@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Ancient Mediterranean Religions Research interests: Archaeology of the New Testament world; varieties of ancient Judaism; temple and priesthood in the Second Temple Period; architecture and liturgy in the synagogues and churches of late antiquity

Matthew Hotham B.A., Colgate University M.F.A., Syracuse University M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School

mhotham@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Islamic Studies Research interests: Sufi poetry; hagiography; asceticism; mysticism and negative theology

Brannon Dobbs Ingram B.A., Reed College M.A., Leiden University

bdingram@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Islamic Studies Research interests: Islam in South Asia and South Asian Muslim diasporas; transnational and transregional Muslim networks; Sufism

G. A. Lipton B.A., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill M.A., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

lipton@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Islamic Studies Research interests: Islamic mysticism; Ibn 'Arabi and his school (esp. in South Asia); post-Enlightenment thought and the idea of Sufism; postcolonial theory and discourse analysis

David McDuffie B.A., University of Georgia M.A., Religion, University of Georgia M.A., Philosophy, University of Georgia

dmcduffi@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Religion and Culture Research interests: Western philosophy of religion; religion and ecology; environmental ethics; the relationship between contemporary Christian thought and ecological conservation in America

Ilyse Morgenstein-Fuerst B.A., Colgate University M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School

ilyse@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Islamic Studies Research interests: Sufi and Bhakti poetry; Indian history; women; postcolonial theory

Shenandoah Nieuwsman B.A., Taylor University M.A., University of Wyoming

nieuwsma@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Religion and Culture Research interests: The relationship between visual impairment and religious experience; the hegemony of function in scholarly discourses of embodiment

Jill Peterfeso B.A., Rhodes College M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School

petjm@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Religion in the Americas Research interests: Religion in literature and the dramatic arts; religious experience of adolescents; religion and social justice; religion and suffering

Pamela Mullins Reaves B.A., Centre College M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

pmullins@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Ancient Mediterranean Religions Research interests: Early Christian martyrdom; orthodoxy and heresy; New Testament textual criticism Dissertation: "Gnosis, Witness, and Early Christian Identity: The 'True Martyr' in Clement of Alexandria and Gnostic Traditions"

Jason Staples B.A., Florida State University M.A., Florida State University

jstaples@unc.edu

Field of specialization: Ancient Mediterranean Religions Research interests: Pauline studies; Paul and the Torah; New Testament's use of scripture; Luke-Acts; early Christian eschatology; Hebrew Bible wisdom and prophetic literature; Jewish-Christian relations in antiquity

Stanley Thayne B.A., Brigham Young University M.A., Brigham Young University

stanleythayne@gmail.com

Field of specialization: Religion in the Americas Research interests: New religious movements; religion in the west

Tehseen Thaver B.Com, McGill University M.A. University of Virginia

tehseen@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Islamic Studies Research interests: Shi'i theology; Qur'anic hermeneutics; interpretation theory

Jenna Tiitsman B.A., Swarthmore College M.Div., Union Theological Seminary

tiitsman@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Religion and Culture Research interests: Religion and media

Leif C. Tornquist B.A., College of New Jersey M.A., University of North Carolina at Charlotte

ltornqui@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Religion in the Americas Research interests: Religion and biopolitics (particularly Protestant biopolitics); religion and culture

Ben White B.B.A., Campbell University M.A., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary Th.M., Duke University
benwhite@email.unc.edu	Curriculum vitae
Field of specialization: Ancient Mediterranean Religions Research interests: First- and second-century Christianity; Pauline studies; Pauline traditions of the first and second century; theories of social memory; textually mediated images

Timur R. Yuskaev B.A., Bard College M.A., University of Colorado, Boulder

yuskaev@email.unc.edu

Field of specialization: Islamic Studies Research interests: Muslim communities in the United States