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It appears that the IUP Religious Studies Department has a theme.... our tax dollars at work brainwashing our children!

I already posted the bio for Professor Alison Downie.. Here are a few more of the five faculty in the Department.

DR. THERESA SMITH
Dr. Smith Smith received her PhD in Religious and Theological Studies in 1990 from Boston University. Her areas of specialization include Myth and Ritual Studies, Native American Religions, and Traditional European/British Paganism and Neo-Paganism.

Her course for this voyage will focus on Northern European pre-Christian religions, their connection to landscape and identity, and their role as inspiration for contemporary pagan revivalist movements.

Smith serves as intern supervisor and advisor to the Committee for the Study of Culture and Religion as well as the Religious Studies Club. She regularly teaches World Religions, Native North American Religions, Women and Religion; Neo-Paganism, Experiential Studies in Great Britain, Religion and Sexual Diversity, and Religion and Film.

DR. NIXON S. CLEOPHAT

During his tenure at Union Theological Seminary he engaged progressive theological traditions such as Christian Existentialist and Realist philosophies and theologies, and presented papers at and participated in several conferences of the American Academy of Religion.

Cleophat has also devoted a great deal of time researching the contours of African and diaspora indigenous religions, Black Power, Black Theology, African Liberation Theology, Latin American Liberation Theology, Womanist/Feminist Theological Ethics. He engages indigenous religious traditions because he is convinced they are liberative sources that can be used to address social and ecological problems affecting humanity, the historically oppressed, and the natural world.

Cleophat’s research project looks into how Haitian Vodou deals with sin, redemption, pneumatology, and ecology. He explores this topic in his dissertation, titled “A Critical Examination of Reinhold Niebuhr’s and James Cone’s Views on Sin and Redemption: toward a Haitian Vodounist Theology of Social Evil and Human Liberation.” Recently, he has expanded the scope of his research interest in a two-volume anthology: Vodou in Haitian Memory: The Idea and Representation of Vodou in Haitian Imagination (first vol.) and Vodou in the Haitian Experience: A Black Atlantic Perspective (second vol.), which he is co-editing.

DR. T. NICOLE GOULET

At the heart of Goulet’s research interests is identifying the role and interplay of race, class, and gender as it relates to religion in general, and Hinduism specifically. These interests inform her current projects, including a collaborative effort on women, religion, and clothing, which is in its initial stages in development. These interests have also influenced how Goulet approaches and understands the study of religion in contemporary society, as can be noted in the following blog posts:
“Critical Questions Series 3: Category Formation and Eastern’‘ Traditions,” June 10, 2013
“Commentary on York University: Religious Freedom vs. Women’s Rights,” January 20, 2014
“Competing Representations,” March 3, 2014

“So You’re Not a Priest?,” June 1, 2016

“What’s In Your Syllabus?,” February, 2017

“What is a Feminazi?” April 20, 2017