That luncheon also welcomed Barbara von Schlegell, an Islam scholar trained at the University of California in Berkeley. Barbara has already become a respected and popular teacher among graduate and undergraduate students alike. Her dissertation is entitled "Abd al-Ghan) al-Nabulusi and Sufism in the Ottoman Arab World," and she co-authored with M. Kimball Women in the Muslim World: An Annotated Bibliography, which will be published this fall.
As you all know, Penn's Graduate Group system is unique, and enables students in Religious Studies to work easily with several dozen faculty across many departments. These rich and easily accessible resources no doubt contributed in a major way to our #10 ranking by the NRC this year. The 1994 Task Force recommended that we involve more members of the Graduate Group in the ongoing work of the Department. Accordingly, this spring four Penn scholars received secondary appointments in Religious Studies: Jim O'Donnell of Classical Studies, Bill Lafleur and David Stern of AMES, and David Ruderman of History. They have already begun to participate in policy and strategy discussions and Jim also agreed to serve a three year term as Chair, beginning January 1. On March 1 however, he became acting Vice Provost for Computing, and had to resign his Religious Studies post. With Ann and Bob on leave and Guy serving as Chair of South Asia Regional Studies, I took over as Chair. On July 1 Bob will become Graduate Chair and I will continue as Chair of the Department and of the Undergraduate Program. We have also established for the first time subcommittees for both programs: Bill Lafleur and I will help Bob with the Graduate Program, and David Stern and Barbara will serve on the Undergraduate Program subcommittee. Student members will be appointed to both subcommittees by September.
Another change this spring has been the presence of Dr. William Grassie, who brought his Templeton Religion and Science Course Program Award to Penn and offered an introductory course on religion and science to over twenty students. He also sponsored an excellent series of speakers. A Templeton Award will also enable me to offer a course on religious responses to Darwin's theory of evolution next year.
An unwelcome faculty development was the denial of tenure to Eddy Breuer, who was unanimously supported by the Department. We are confident that Eddy, with his book on Moses Mendelssohn just out and rave reviews from students, will find a good position elsewhere, but we are very sorry to be losing him to the Department and to the Jewish Studies Program. Despite a freeze on new faculty searches in Arts and Sciences, we are working to ensure that the loss of Eddy will not mean the loss of his position.
Finally, I am starting work on the design of a masters program in Teaching About Religion in Secondary Schools, and would be very grateful for any ideas and especially for information about similar programs. Thanks.
Alumnae/Alumni and Current Student Newsbits
Anne Berman-Waldorf, B.A. 1987, serves as Program Director of
Temple Isaiah in Columbia, Maryland. Anne received an M.A. in Jewish
History from Baltimore Hebrew University and an M.S.W. from the University
of Maryland. Aspects of her job include teaching adults, children and
families, and communicating ways to make religion relevant and meaningful
to our modern lives.
Loriliai Biernacki, grad student, has been awarded a Pennfield Fellowship for study of ritual in India for the upcoming academic year.
David B. Biggs, B.A. 1977, is Adjunct Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Salem State College in Salem, MA and an academic advisor in the Center for Academic Advising. David received an M.A. in Philosophy of Religion at Boston University in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Philosophy at The Ohio Sate University in 1983.
Barbara Eckman, Ph.D. 1984, has been pursuing a career in biomedical informatics. From 1987-1995 she held a variety of positions in Penn's School of Medicine, including providing computational support for the Philadelphia Genome Center for Human Chromosome 22, located at Penn and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. In May, 1995 she received a M.S.E. in Computer and Information Sciences from Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science. Since she had to do it part-time, the Master's took longer than the Religious Studies Ph.D.! In July 1995, Barbara left Penn to join Merck Research Laboratories in West Point, PA as Bioinformatics Database Associate. Her current work is in database systems and algorithms in computational biology, Her recent publications include a language for specifying transformations and constraints in biological databases.
Jason Fuller, grad student, has been awarded an AIIS Fellowship for language study in India for the 1996-97 academic year.
Maxine Grossman, grad student, will be the Hazel D. Cole Fellow in Jewish Studies at the University ot Washington in Seattle in 1996-97. The current working title of Max's dissertation is: "Textual Strategies in the Establishment of Authority: A Case Study From Qumran.'
John Harding, grad student, will study at Cambridge University on a Rotary Fellowship in the upcoming academic year.
Jacqueline Z. Pastis, Ph.D. 1994, has been appointed to a tenure-track position in the Religion Department at LaSalle University in Philadelphia, PA. Jackie studies early Christianity.
Sigrid Peterson, grad student, will be a Finkelstein Fellow at the University of Judaism in 1996-97.
Jane Marie Pinzino, Ph.D. 1996, has been appointed Visiting Assistant Professor in Religious Studies at Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA. Jane Marie's dissertation is entitled, "Heretic or Holy Woman? Cultural Representation and Gender in the Trial to Rehabilitate Joan of Arc." Jane Marie has an essay entitled "Speaking of Angels: A Fifteenth-Century Bishop In Defense of Joan of Arc's Mystical Voices," appearing in Fresh Verdicts of Joan of Arc published by Garland Press in 1996. Jane Marie has edited the Boardman Bulletin for the past four years.
A. Whitney Sanford, Ph.D. 1995, has been appointed to a tenure-track position at Iowa State University in Ames, IA. Whitney is a scholar of religion in India.
Carol Scheppard, grad student, has been awarded Penn's Dissertation Fellowship for the upcoming academic year. Carol spent the 1995-96 year in Dublin researching Irish monasticism on a Pennfield fellowship.
Janet Timbie, Ph.D. 1979 is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Christian Oriental Research at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Jay Curry Treat, Ph.D. 1996 is Manager of the Prep Center, SAS Computing at Penn. Jay's dissertation is entitled, "Lost Keys: Text and Interpretation of Old Greek Song of Songs and its Earliest Manuscript Witnesses." Jay's piece, "The Epistle of Barnabus," with Introduction, Notes and Revised Translation is forthcoming in Early Christian Reader, edited by Steve Mason. See Jay's article "Computing and the Religious Studies Department at Penn," in this issue of the Boardman Bulletin.
Lord Runcie, the Retired Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke at the 1995 Boardman Lecture in the auditorium of the Christian Association in November. His topic was "Religion and Diplomacy Since 1945. " Lord Runcie is shown here flanked by graduate students and faculty of the Religious Studies Department.
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RELIGIOUS STUDIES ALUMNI and ALUMNAE
Let us know where you are and what you're doing.
Department of Religious Studies
Attention: Erica Gelser |
ENIAC, the world's first large-scale digital computer, was created fifty years ago at the University of Pennsylvania. The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and, more specifically, Professor Robert A. Kraft and his students have played a significant role in the introduction of computer technology into the humanities and the study of religion. It seems especially appropriate in this fiftieth year of ENIAC to chronicle some of these events.
[The remainder of this rather long article by Jay Treat may be found on a separate page.]
Rabbi Seth Brody, assistant professor of religion at Haverford, died Monday at the age of forty after a brief bout with cancer. Brody's passing came as a shock to everyone; he was still teaching until two weeks ago when he was diagnosed.
Born in Philadelphia, Seth Brody graduated Summa Cum Laude from Columbia University with a degree in religious studies in 1978.
He simultaneously received a Bachelor of Jewish Literature degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. In 1984, he went on to receive his Rabbinical Ordinance and Master's Degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary as well. He was a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Association of Jewish Studies, the Rabbinical Assembly of America and the Association of Religion and Intellectual Life.
In 1991, he received his Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and began to teach at Haverford. His fields of study included Jewish Mysticism and Philosophy, Medieval and Modern Judaism and the Theology of Creation and Ecological Ethics. At the time of his death he was in the process of composing two books.
Michael Sells, chairman of Haverford's Religion department, said of Rabbi Brody, "He was a generous, unobtrusive, kind, and open-hearted scholar and mentor. [He was] openminded, both situated in his specialty of Judaic studies and yet able to teach with insight and empathy aspects of other religions including Islam, Christianity and Buddhism." Sells added that the death was so sudden that neither students nor faculty were fully able to absorb what had happened.
Senior Alex Robinson described how Brody reached out to him with a sincere interest in his experiences at Haverford. Although he had never had a class with Brody, the two took literally an hour to walk from Chase to Marshall Auditorium one day, they were so caught up in their discussion.
Seth Brody was once asked by a student what he would have had he not become Professor of Theology. "A starship commander," was his reply. It was a characteristic response from a congenial man with an additional passion for science fiction.
Perhaps his greatest contribution to those he taught was the enthusiasm he injected into the classroom atmosphere. His zeal was contagious both in the field of religion and in daily life in general. In one of his last conversations while in the hospital, he expressed concern that his classes be continued successfully.
The loss of Professor Brody brought about a deep sadness to all and a reaffirmation of how precious and fragile life is. A great asset to the community and to all whose lives he touched, Professor Brody will be sorely missed. He firmly believed in the concept that, when one carries out a duty, one creates a living presence that can aid in healing the world. His presence and spirit will definitely live on.
Surviving him are his parents, Martin and Marcia Weinerman Brody, and his sister Stephanie. Services were held Friday at Platt Memorial Chapels, Inc. in Cherry Hill, and burial followed in Montefiore Cemetery in Jenkintown.
Jay Treat, alum