|
Faculty
and Staff
Dr. C. Stuart Chandler <chandler@iup.edu>
Stuart Chandler obtained his Ph.D. in comparative religion from Harvard University in the spring of 2000 and joined IUP’s faculty that fall. His area of concentration is the religions of China and Japan, especially Buddhism. Dr. Chandler’s book Establishing a Pureland on Earth: The Foguang Buddhist Perspectives on Modernization and Globalization was published by University of Hawaii Press in 2004. He has written numerous articles, chapters, and encyclopedia entries. Some of his more recent works include “The Dimensions of Contemporary Chinese Buddhism ” (Buddhism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Stephen C. Berkwitz, ABC-CLIO, 2005), “Foguangshan” (Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition, edited by Lindsay Jones, Macmillan, 2005), and “Spreading Buddha’s Light: The Internationalization of Foguang Shan” (Buddhist Missionaries in the Era of Globalization, edited by Linda Learman, University of Hawaii Press, 2004).
In addition to
studying Chinese Buddhism, Dr. Chandler conducts research on the evolving
religious landscape of Pennsylvania. He has served as the director of the
Center for the Study of Religion in Pennsylvania (CSRP) since its founding
in 2002. The most important project undertaken by this center thus far was
an exhibit entitled "Eastern Religions Come to Western Pennsylvania," which
has been shown in the Sutton Hall Museum (IUP; 2005), Weyers-Sampson Gallery
(Thiel College; 2006), and Glencairn Museum (2007-2008). This exhibit
focused on the Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and Sikh traditions, especially their
practice in the Pittsburgh region.
Dr. Chandler’s current projects include the creation of a website for CSRP and the translation of the memoirs of a woman by the name of Oishi Junkyo, who was a geisha, artist, and Buddhist nun in early twentieth-century Japan.
Courses regularly taught by Dr. Chandler include “World Religions,” “Introduction to Religion,” “Buddhist Thought and Practice,” and “Religions of China and Japan.” To view Dr. Chandler's resume, click here.
|
 |
Dr. James Gibson <jgibson@iup.edu>
| James Gibson received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Temple
University in 1989. He has been at IUP since 1992, where he teaches at the
Armstrong County Branch Campus located in Kittanning, Pa., and the main
campus. Dr. Gibson teaches lower level Philosophy and Religious Studies
courses, which include Introduction to Religion; General Logic; Introduction
to Philosophy; Understanding the Bible; and Violence in Religion. He is
co-founder of the Religious Studies Resource Center based at IUP, and was a
University Senator from 1993-95. Dr. Gibson coordinated the IUP faculty
development workshop on Myth, Ritual, Art and Healing. |
 |
Dr. Tawny L. Holm <tholm@iup.edu>
 Dr.
Holm earned her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Languages from
Johns Hopkins University in 1997, and began teaching at IUP in 1999, after
one year as a visiting assistant professor at DePauw University. Her areas
of concentration include the Hebrew Bible, Aramaic, and ancient Near Eastern
literature. She has edited the book, The Literary Language of the Bible: The
Collected Essays of Luis Alonso-Schökel (BIBAL Press, 2000), and her
monograph, Courtiers and Kings: The Biblical Daniel Narratives and Ancient
Near Eastern Story-Collections, is forthcoming. Her recent publications
include: “Daniel 1-6: A Biblical Story-Collection,” in Jo-Ann A. Brant et
al., eds., Ancient Fiction: The Matrix of Early Christianity and Jewish
Narrative, pp. 149-166 (Society of Biblical Literature, 2005); “Ancient Near
Eastern Literatures: Genres and Forms,” in Daniel Snell, ed., A Companion to
the Ancient Near East, pp. 269-288 (Blackwell Publishing, 2007); “The Sheikh
Fadl Inscription in Its Literary and Historical Context,” Aramaic Studies
5.2 (2007),
193-224;and “The Fiery Furnace: Daniel 3 and Immolation in the Ancient Near
East, "Journal of the American Oriental Society, in press.
Dr. Holm is the advising coordinator for the Department of Religious
Studies, and regularly teaches the following courses at IUP: Understanding
the Bible, Apocalypse and Beyond, Biblical Hebrew, Women in the Bible,
Archaeology and the Bible, and Islam. She is also the coordinator of the IUP
conference series, “Teaching Religious Studies Courses at a State University
in Pennsylvania,” sponsored by the Wabash Center for the Teaching of
Theology and Religious Studies, 2007-2009.
Dr. Theresa S. Smith
<tsmith@iup.edu> Department Chair
Dr. Smith received her Ph.D in Religious
and Theological Studies in 1990 from Boston University. Her areas of
specialization include Native American Religions; Myth Studies; Feminist
Studies in Religion and Neo-Paganism. Dr. Smith is the author of
The Island
of the Anishnaabeg: Thunderers and Water Monsters in the Ojibwe Life-World,
(Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press, 1995), as well as more than a
dozen articles and books chapters. Her latest chapter, "Ojibwe Mythology"
appears in
American Indian Religious Traditions: An Encyclopedia,
Suzanne Crawford and Dennis Kelly, eds. (ABC-CLIO, 2005).
Dr. Smith is currently working on a book,
Medicine and Magic: Conversations with an Ojibwa Medicine Woman and a Cornish
Village Witch, in cooperation with Marilyn Johnson and Cassandra Latham. Dr.
Smith has served as an Artist in Residence at the Kalani Retreat Center, Kalani,
Hawaii, and a Visiting Research Scholar at the Centre for Feminist Research,
York University, North York, Ontario.
She has taught in the Oxford Program and
directed The IUP Institute for Experiential Studies in the Humanities in
Boscastle, Cornwall. Courses taught at IUP
include Native North American Religions; Women and Religion; Neo-Paganism:
Day Wicca; Creation Myths; Religion and Sexual Diversity; and Dreams and
Nightmares.
Dr.
Kwasi Yirenkyi <yirenkyi@iup.edu>
|
Kwasi Yirenkyi received
his P.hD. in Sociology of Religion and Religious
 Studies from the University
of Pittsburgh in 1984. He joined the Indiana University of Pennsylvania
faculty in 1986, and is a full professor in the Religious Studies
Department. Dr. Yirenkyi’s current research interests include religion and
politics, charismatic churches, and religion and immigrant congregations. He
has published several book chapters and Journal articles on church and
political development, the charismatic churches, the church and
modernization, African Ethics, personhood and development. Among the courses
he teaches are African Religions, American Religious Development,
Christianity, Religion and Culture: Their Interaction, and World Scriptures.
Dr. Yirenkyi served as Coordinator of Pan African Studies Minor Program. He
has served on several university committees, and was a past Chair of the
University Sabbatical Committee. Dr. Yirenkyi is a native of Ghana and an
ordained Presbyterian clergyman. He has served on regional and national
levels of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Dr. Tamar C. Reich
<tamar.reich@iup.edu>
Tamar
Reich earned her Ph.D. in South Asian Languages and Civilizations from the
University of Chicago in 1998. She also has an M.A. in Religious Studies
from the Hebrew University and an M.A. in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from
Harvard.
Prior
to joining our department in the fall of 2007, Dr. Reich taught at Tel-Aviv
University (Israel), at the University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada) and at
the University of North Florida.
Dr.
Reich’s main language of research is Sanskrit, and her area of concentration
is the religions of India, especially Hinduism. Among her interests are the
formation of Hinduism in the post-Vedic and classic period; Indian classical
literature in Sanskrit; religion and literature in modern South Asia; women
in South Asia; religion
and nationalism, religion and violence.
Dr. Reich’s research so
far has been on the Mahabharata,
the great Sanskrit Epic. Her
published articles are:
"Sacrificial Violence and Textual Battles: Inner Textual Interpretation in
the Sanskrit Mahabharata" History of Religions 41, 142-169; “The
Critic of Ritual as Ritual Reviler in the Ashvamedhika Parvan of the
Mahabharata." In: The Mahabharata: What is not Here is Nowhere Else.
Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 2005. Her article: "The Sacrifice of
Battle and the Battle of Yoga, or: How to Word-Away a Discontented Wife?" is
forthcoming in: Notes from a Mandala:
Essays in The History of Indian Religions in Honor of Wendy
Doniger. Eds. Laurie L. Patton and
David Haberman, University of Delaware Press.
Dr. Reich is currently
working on a translation of Books 15-18 of the Mahabharata for the Clay
Sanskrit Library series published by New York University Press. At the
same time she is working on a book on the Mahabharata tentatively titled;
“Inner Textual Interpretation: Textuality and Dialogue in the Sanskrit
Mahabharata.”
This
semester Dr. Reich is teaching “Introduction to Religion” and “Religions of
India.” In the spring, she will teach “World Religions” and “Women and
Goddesses in Hinduism.”
|
Professor Emeriti
Dr. Joel Mlecko <mlecko@iup.edu>
 Joel Mlecko received his Ph.D in
World Religions with a minor in Anthropology at The Catholic University of America/Consortium
of Universities, Washington, D.C. He is a Full Professor at Indiana
University of Pennsylvania (IUP) and former Philosophy and Religious Studies
chairperson. Dr. Mlecko coauthored/ co-edited "A Christian
Understanding of the Human Person" (Paulist Press) and co-produced the
documentary "A Krishna Family" (Indiana University/Bloomington,
distributor). He is the recipient of several teaching awards, on the
IUP Honors College faculty, and a professor in the IUP abroad programs at
Salzburg, Austria and at Oxford University. Appointed a Commonwealth
Speaker (sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities), he spoke
throughout Pennsylvania on the religious diversity in the state. Dr.
Mlecko also was a Research Scholar at Tantur Institute in Jerusalem, a
Fulbright awardee for India, and a faculty member of the Semester-At-Sea
program. Professor Mlecko's present academic interests are new
religious manifestations and inter-religious dialogue.
Dr. Benjamin Chan <bcchan@yourinter.net>
Benjamin Chan received his Ph.D from Temple
University in 1968 and began teaching at IUP in 1969. He retired from the
university in July 1999.
Vincent Ferrara
Vincent Ferrara received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Fordham University in 1968. He began  teaching at IUP in 1969, where he taught a variety of both philosophy and religion courses. Dr. Ferrara taught Introduction to Religion; General Logic; Introduction to Philosophy; History of Philosophy I and II; American Philosophical Thought; Contemporary Western Thought; Metaphysics; Philosophy of Law; Philosophy of the Women's Movement; Karl Marx; and Studies in Religious Thought. Dr. Ferrara retired from IUP in May of 2002.
Dr. Tian-Min Lin, retired 7/2002 <tmlin@iup.edu>
Tian-Min Lin received his Ph.D in Religious Studies from Boston University in 1969, and has been teaching at IUP since 1972. Among the courses Dr. Lin teaches are World Religions; World Scriptures; Oriental Religion - Philosophical Thought; Introduction to Philosophy; Introduction to Religion; Philosophy of Religion; Biblical Interpretation; and History of Christian Thought I and II.
Sharon Montgomery
Sharon Montgomery attended the University of Pennsylvania on a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship and received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Penn in 1972. She began teaching at IUP in 1971 and chaired the department from 1985 to 1990.
In her Ethics classes, Sharon used a method she developed and called CompSoc (i.e. Computer Socrates) which involved pairs of students dialoguing together on a computer. She also taught Symbolic Logic. Dr. Montgomery retired from IUP in May of 2002.
Dr. R. Thomas Schaub <rtschaub@iup.edu>
Dr. Schaub received his Ph.D in Religious
Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
in 1973. He joined the Religious Studies Department at IUP part-time in 1969
and became a full-time faculty member in 1973. His areas of expertise are
Biblical Studies, Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, and Islam. Since
1975, Dr. Schaub has been co-director of the Expedition to the Southeast
Dead Sea Plain, an interdisciplinary project examining settlement patterns
in Jordan during the Early Bronze Age (3500 B.C. to 2100 B.C.).
Dr. Schaub has edited two major reports on
the Dead Sea expedition and published numerous articles on various aspects
of the expedition and the archaeology of the Near East. He has lectured
frequently on the expedition locally, regionally and at international
conferences.
Dr. Schaub retired from the university in
January 1999.
Departmental Staff
Linda Askins, Department Secretary,
452 Sutton
<LAskins@iup.edu>
Linda Askins received her Bachelor of Arts
Degree in Business from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2003. Prior to
working at IUP, Linda had worked as Inside Sales Coordinator for a local
distribution company for 30 years. She has been a member of the local Business
and Professional Women's Club (BPW) since 1987.
|
