Philosophy & Religious Studies Archives - Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP)

Professor Başaran Receives Three-month Fulbright Global Scholar Research Award

April 21, 2020

Professor of Religious Studies Betül Başaran has won a three-month Fulbright Global Scholar Research award for the Spring 2021 Semester to conduct critically important archival research in England and India for her book project on the legacy and impact of Princesses Niloufer (1916-1989) and Durrushehvar (1914-2006).

Başaran’s host institutions will be the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, The Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, and the Centre for Deccan Studies in Hyderabad. As a Fulbright Global Scholar, she will give lectures about her research at each of these institutions, and organize seminars with students who have an interest in Islamic Studies and Gender Studies.

Başaran’s project underscores the agency of Muslim women as important role models and pioneers in world history, in contrast to the contemporary western narrative most prevalent today that reduces them to mere victims or religious extremists.

The story of late Ottoman princesses and their cross-cultural journeys present a unique perspective to investigate the intertwined themes of international politics, religion, royalty, and Muslim women’s agency during a turbulent period of major social and political transformations in the 20th century. The princesses belonged to the Ottoman dynasty and were condemned to life-long exile after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following World War I. Their life is a fascinating story of exile from Turkey to the French Riviera, followed by royal glamor in India as daughters-in-law of Hyderabad’s last independent ruler, where they evolved from foreign brides into cultural ambassadors dedicated to women’s empowerment.

Başaran’s project aims to enhance our understanding of the role of Ottoman princesses as transnational and cross-cultural agents for change during the 20th century.

Tidewater Project Seeks to Broaden Climate Change Education In Curriculum

May 4, 2018

The Tidewater Project brought six St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) faculty and eight local experts together on October 8 and 9, 2017, to discuss cross-disciplinary approaches to effective climate change education. Headed by Dr. Barry Muchnick, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, the Tidewater Project centered on leveraging campus and community resources to strengthen climate literacy and sustainability awareness and to integrate sustainability into our institution’s strategic future.

Represented disciplines included: Art & Art History, Biology, Sociology, Political Science, Philosophy, and Religious Studies. Local experts and faculty gathered at the Brome Howard Inn to create new and renovated courses using innovative interdisciplinary teaching methods, discuss ideas for research projects, grants, and publications, expand their own knowledge about practical action to mitigate climate change, strengthen community ties, enhance wellness, and enrich connections to the natural world. Program organizers and participants were thrilled with the project outcomes, and valuable impacts continue to be realized as reimagined programming focusing on climate change education is implemented on campus.

The Tidewater Project was primarily funded by a University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science grant awarded to Dr. Muchnick, with additional support generously provided by SMCM’s Office of Sustainability. Organizers are exploring options to host similar workshops in future years to reach additional individuals, and to build on the positive momentum generated to date.

Tidewater Project faculty participants, from left to right: Drs. Barry Muchnick, Susan Grogan, Emily Casey, Andrew Cognard-Black, Jessica Malisch, Kristy Lewis, and Charles Stein.

SMCM students attending the 2018 National Conference on Undergraduate Research

February 22, 2018

In April 2018, students, faculty, and academics alike will travel to the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, OK for a very special event. The National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), annually invites accepted students to present their undergraduate research from a variety of disciplines. After a competitive review, three St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) students have been awarded the opportunity to share their research and academic achievements at NCUR 2018.

One of these successful students is Hannah Murphy, a graduating senior studying Spanish. She has been conducting research on increasing the retention of critical thinking skills in students that speak English as a second language. Using local middle school students as her focus, she hopes to develop critical thinking skills using articles in the students’ native language, and show that those skills transfer over when students use English. She will assess students critical thinking skills before and after relevant articles are read in the native language and will share her results at the NCUR conference. Hannah hopes to promote the importance of native languages and how they can be used to better the students educational experience, instead of hindering it.

Sidi Chleuh working on Fulbe linguistic research

Another notable student is Sidi Chleuh, a senior here at SMCM. He is studying International Languages and Cultures, with a double concentration in French and Spanish. He will be presenting his research on Fulbe oral literature at NCUR. The Fulbe are an ethno-linguistic group located in West Africa and have had their linguistic culture influenced by the spread of Islam and colonization. Sidi hopes to revive the importance of the Fulbe language and show how Fulbe proverbs impact culture throughout time. Sidi has conducted much of his fieldwork in the Republic of Guinea, collecting notes on the Fulbe language from the former colonial administration records, as well as past anthropological work. He will present his findings and showcase how Fulbe proverbs impact local identity, as well as influence values and knowledge. Sidi conducted much of this research in the summer of 2017, as part of the St. Mary’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship program. After graduation, Sidi hopes to continue travelling and to share his passion for languages as he contemplates future education.

Chikondi Kulemeka is researching female Muslim identity in France

Also going to NCUR is Chikondi Kulemeka, presenting ‘Beyond the Veil: Exploring the Many Layers of Muslim Women’s Identity in Nice, France’. Seeing the rising rate of Islamophobia in Europe, Chikondi has researched the daily life of Muslim women in France. She focuses her research on one woman particularly. This woman was born in Morocco, but grew up in France and is currently attending Nice University. Chikondi used this woman as a main focus of her interviews and research, helping to describe the bigger picture of the female Muslim experience in France as a whole. This research can show the opinions and experience of these individuals during their daily life. Through interviews and a detailed literature review, she hopes to shed light on the unique perspectives that these female Muslim individuals have as they navigate through their layered identities.

Past SMCM students presenting their work at NCUR have included Elizabeth Wenker ’17 and Brad Davidson’s ’17 research with white-crowned sparrows in Dr. Malisch’s lab (NCUR 2017) and Alex Schoen ’17 and Mary Korendyke’s mathematical modeling research with Dr. Socha (NCUR 2016).

Katharina von Kellenbach to lead study of guilt as a culturally productive force

January 30, 2018

Katharina von Kellenbach, professor of religious studies and her colleague Matthias Buschmeier (German literature, University of Bielefeld) were awarded a prestigious grant for over €500,000 (about $600,000) by the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZIF) at the University of Bielefeld for the 2018-2019 academic year.

She and Dr. Buschmeier will lead 15 scholars from different continents representing the disciplines of anthropology, art, classics, law, medieval studies, philosophy, psychology, religious studies, and sociology to examine the idea of guilt as an enduring and generative force in the aftermath of violent conflicts.

Titled “Felix Culpa? Guilt as a Culturally Productive Force,” the research group will be in residence at the ZIF in Bielefeld to exchange theoretical perspectives on the notion of ‘productive guilt’ and to pursue individual projects examining a variety of topics ranging from white guilt in the United States to the Turkish denial of the Armenian genocide, from religious healing rituals in Mozambique to the reception of Syrian refugees in Germany as negotiation of different kinds of guilt.
The project closely examines the intersections of violence, shame, and guilt to ask how guilt consolidates social orders in the cultural production of jurisprudence, art, literature, and religion. Each scholar pursues their own research project while engaging in collaborative discussion across disciplines and different religious, cultural, and linguistic contexts to explore the wealth of symbolic representations and discourses of guilt.

Associate Professor Betül Başaran Leads Summer Seminar Funded by NEH Grant

August 11, 2016

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Betül Başaran recently completed a four-week seminar for college and university professors in Washington, D.C. Her seminar, titled “Transcending Boundaries: The Ottoman Empire, Europe and the Mediterranean World, 1500-1800.” was funded by a prestigious institutional grant for St. Mary’s College of Maryland from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). [Read more…]