Jassal’s research centers on the dynamic relationships among person, place and divinity in South Asia, particularly in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand in northern India. Through years of ethnographic fieldwork, he has explored how Hindu communities actively construct and experience sacred worlds through ritual practices such as shrine-building, pilgrimage, festival celebrations and spirit possession.

A key theme of the lecture was the idea that Hindu deities are not fixed but relational and mobile, often requiring “placemaking” practices to remain connected to human communities. Jassal discussed how rituals—including the relocation of deities to more suitable or accessible sites—serve as what he described as “technologies of healing” that reshape social realities. These practices, he argued, reveal the agency not only of human participants but also of non-human actors, such as deities themselves.

In addition to the lecture, Jassal shared a short documentary film, offering students a vivid, sensory perspective on his research. The film emphasized the importance of sound, movement, and atmosphere—elements that written ethnography alone cannot fully capture. Students noted that this visual component deepened their understanding of the material, making the lived realities of ritual practice more tangible.

The day prior to his lecture, Jassal participated in a casual lunch with students, creating space for informal conversation about his work, academic journey and the role of storytelling in research. Attendees described him as engaging, passionate and genuinely enthusiastic about student curiosity and dialogue. Following lunch, Jassal also visited Amy Allocco’s 4000-level Religious Studies seminar, “Ghosts Demons, and Ancestors in Asian Religions,” where students had been assigned chapters of his book and came prepared to engage directly with his research. During the class, students asked questions about Jassal’s fieldwork, methods, and key concepts like placemaking, creating an interactive and discussion-based environment. The session allowed students to connect course material with a guest scholar, deepening their understanding through conversation and critical engagement. Jassal emphasized the importance of intellectual openness and positionality in ethnographic research. His reflections encouraged students to think critically about how knowledge is produced and whose voices are amplified.

By the end of the lecture, it was clear that Jassal’s work not only expands scholarly conversations about religion and anthropology but also resonates deeply with students exploring questions of culture, practice, and representation. His visit left a lasting impression the importance of bringing diverse worlds into conversation.

The series is a multi-volume set that surveys the social and cultural construction of specific subjects across six historical periods, from Antiquity to the Modern Age. Otieno’s chapter, titled “Poverty and Gender: A Cultural History,” appears in Volume 6 of the Anthology, “A Cultural History of Poverty,” edited by Steven Beaudoin and Richard Axtell, which covers the Modern Age.

The chapter thoughtfully applies insights from Womanist and African feminist thinkers to examine poverty and gender as central global ethical issues. It discusses how Nnobi women in Igboland, Nigeria, historically challenged gender and patriarchal norms by leveraging religio-cultural categories to gain wealth and influence. Highlighting the persistence of the gender pay gap, it notes that labor and wages are largely male-centered and thus discriminate against non-male agents.

By explaining how women and LGBTQ individuals navigate these constraints, Otieno argues that women and other genders tend to produce unusual labor market outcomes, which are still measured using male statistics and language, thereby greatly undermining their effort, productivity and value.

The chapter also advocates viewing poverty as a collective moral issue rooted in communities rather than in individual agents, emphasizing how labor markets continue to erode traditional religio-cultural practices across Africa and Asia, such as the selection of trokosi shrine guardians in Ghana and the exploitation of widows and their inheritance in various African contexts.

Covering broad global issues faced by women, the chapter underscores how systemic poverty affects women worldwide. It calls for just treatment and community-focused socioethical interventions to address the disproportionate impact of capitalist systems on non-male laborers and their labor.

This year’s conference centered around the theme of “Shifting Identities and Fractured Communities.” Student paper topics ranged from the theocratic turn in US anti-abortion politics to a sentiment analysis of religious texts. Their international research took them to the south of Spain; their rigorous methods included ethnographic interviews and visual analysis of the Billy Graham Library; and their conclusions contributed to important conversations about Judeo-Christian nationalism in US higher education and the ramifications of abortion abolitionist legislation.

The American Academy of Religion is the largest scholarly organization in the world dedicated to the professional study of religion. Roughly three hundred scholars working at colleges and universities in this region regularly participate in the annual meeting. The regional meeting also offers limited spots for undergraduate students to present their academic research and engage with professional scholars from across the region.

Four sessions were held to showcase undergraduate research, and Elon students garnered five of the 16 highly competitive undergraduate slots. One of the five students was also an Elon College Fellow and a member of Elon’s Multifaith Scholars program, led by Director Amy Allocco. Two students were presenting research for the Honors and Lumen programs, and two students took the initiative to craft their own credit-bearing undergraduate research project for ELR. All five students were closely mentored in their discipline by an Elon faculty member who helped to guide their research and prepare their presentations over the course of their junior and senior years. The papers will also be delivered before Elon audiences at the Spring Undergraduate Research Forum, Tuesday, April 28, 2026.

Support for travel was provided by the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society, the Department of Religious Studies and the Office of Undergraduate Research. The funding also supported a small student group of conference observers as well as group co-organizer Amy Allocco, professor and distinguished scholar of religious studies.

Undergraduate Research Presentations

Alyssa Carney (MFS, ECF), “Echoes of Al-Andalus: Islamophobia and Migration in Spain” (Sandy Marshall, mentor)

Mallory Fahrlender, “Abortion Abolition Extremism: The Theocratic Turn in US Anti-Abortion Politics (Toddie Peters, mentor)

Kelsey Golden, “New Crusaders, Old Problems: Crusade as Cognitive Domain in the Billy Graham Library” (Lynn Huber and Evan Gatti, mentors)

Bunny Ingram, “Faith and Feeling: A Sentiment Analysis of Religious Texts” (Heather Barker, mentor)

Ben Kaplan, “Judeo-Christian Nationalism and Jewish Ethics in American Political Myth” (Andrew Monteith, mentor)

Elon Faculty Presentations

Andrew Monteith, “‘Hatred Is the Right Response to Evil’: Judeo-Christian Nationalism, The Heritage Foundation, and Donald Trump’s War Against Higher Education”

Geoffrey Claussen, professor of religious studies, Lori and Eric Sklut Professor in Jewish Studies and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at 51±ŹÁÏÍű, edited a special issue of the Journal of Jewish Ethics honoring his long-time mentor, Louis Newman.

Newman, the John M. and Elizabeth W. Musser Professor of Religious Studies, Emeritus, at Carleton College and former dean of academic advising and associate vice provost for undergraduate education at Stanford University, is one of the world’s leading scholars of Jewish ethics and one of the founders of Jewish ethics as an academic field. He was the founding president of the Society of Jewish Ethics and founding coeditor of this journal.

In his editor’s introduction to the special issue, Claussen recounts how studying with Newman at Carleton College first kindled his interest in Religious Studies and Jewish Studies and eventually inspired him to also become a scholar of Jewish ethics.

In the issue, thirteen scholars engage, respond to and build on Newman’s work. Claussen’s article in the journal is titled “Lessons in Intellectual Honesty and Humility: Studying Jewish Ethics with the Guidance of Louis Newman.”

The collection, edited by Jonathan K. Crane, Emily Filler, and Mira Beth Wasserman, is titled “Modern Jewish Ethics Since 1970: Writings on Methods, Sources, and Issues” and published by Brandeis University Press as part of the Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought.

Claussen’s article, “Musar in a White Supremacist Society: Arrogance, Self-Examination, and Systemic Change,” was first published in 2021 in “No Time for Neutrality: American Rabbinic Voices from an Era of Upheaval,” edited by Michael Rose Knopf with Miriam Aniel.

Amy L. Allocco, professor of religious studies and director of the Multifaith Scholars program, presented a paper titled “Divine Snakes, Sneaky Planets, and Remedial Rituals in South Indian Hindu Traditions” featuring new field research she recently carried out at the Srikalahasti temple in Andhra Pradesh, India. Allocco and the other scholars presenting in her session are developing their papers into chapters for an edited volume titled “Catching Sight of a Snake: South Asian Nāgas in Ancient and Modern Life Worlds” to be submitted to SUNY Press.

Lynn Huber, professor of religious studies, presented on a review panel for Trans Biblical: New Approaches to Interpretation and Embodiment in Scripture, edited by Joseph Marshall, Melissa Harl Sellew, and Katy E. Valentine. Huber also hosted an event, sponsored in part by the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society, celebrating the book series, “Sexing Scripture,” which she is co-editing for Bloomsbury/ T&T Clark.

Pamela D. Winfield, professor of religious studies, served as the respondent to a panel dedicated to “Encountering Buddha in Museums: Modern Expressions of an Ancient Tradition,” sponsored by the Association of Public Religion & Intellectual Life. Winfield also participated in an all-day pre-conference workshop on Religion & Museums at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Judaism in Five Minutes provides an accessible and lively introduction to common questions about Jews and Judaism. Claussen’s chapter, titled “What Does Jewish Tradition Say 51±ŹÁÏÍű War?” explains how “Jews in diverse historical contexts have constructed a wide range of Jewish traditions about war, framing their ideas with reference to Jewish identities, histories, and texts.”

The volume was published by Equinox Publishing as part of the “Religion in 5 Minutes” series. More information about the volume can be found .

The chapter is titled “Character and Musar,” and explores diverse Jewish approaches to questions about moral character, especially within the genre of “musar literature” focused on character and virtue.

Claussen is the author of books focused on moral character, including Modern Musar: Contested Virtues in Jewish Thought and Sharing the Burden: Rabbi Simhah Zissel Ziv and the Path of Musar. Miller is the author of books focused on character including Moral Character: An Empirical Theory and Character and Moral Psychology.

“The Routledge Companion to Jewish Philosophy” brings diverse perspectives to bear on the key topics, problems, and debates in Jewish philosophy and philosophical theology. The 37 chapters were written by an international team of experts from different traditions in philosophy and beyond.

Winfield’s paper, entitled “From the Misai-e to the Mishuhƍ: ‘Making Sense’ of Ritual Structures in Heian, Japan,” examined the evolution of imperial state-protecting New Year’s rites beginning in the early ninth century. The pre-existing Misai-e ceremony took place in the imperial palace’s large public Daigokuden Hall and focused solely on sutra recitation and analysis, but after 835, a concurrent Mishuhƍ ritual was inaugurated in a new private Shingon’in chapel near the emperor’s residence that involved all the senses.

This latter secretive Buddhist rite required vibrantly colored images of mandalas and protector deities (sight), chanted mantras and Sanskrit prayers (sound), incense offerings and smoky fire ceremonies (smell) and altar objects and ritual implements (touch). Moreover, the esoteric Buddhist patriarch KĆ«kai (784-835) metaphorically likened these sensational elements to the flavor of medicinal ghee (taste), which, he claimed, would protect and preserve the emperor’s body, and by extension, the larger body politic.

By recovering the embodied, lived experiences of pre-modern Buddhist and Shintƍ practitioners, the English- and Japanese-language papers of this conference contributed to the current trend in Religious Studies that investigates the role of sensory perception in religious experience.

The Journal is the scholarly journal of the Society of Jewish Ethics, of which Claussen is a past president. Published biannually by the Penn State University Press, the journal publishes outstanding scholarship in Jewish ethics, broadly conceived. It serves as a location for the exchange of ideas among those interested in understanding, articulating and promoting descriptive and normative Jewish ethics. It aspires to advance dialogue between Jewish ethicists and ethicists working through other religious and secular traditions.

Claussen joins Emily Filler of Drew University as co-editor of the journal. He previously served as an associate editor and has been a member of the journal’s editorial board since 2015.

Claussen joined the Elon faculty in 2011 and was named Lori and Eric Sklut Emerging Scholar in Jewish Studies in 2012. He has served as chair of the Department of Religious Studies since 2018 and was named Lori and Eric Sklut Professor in Jewish Studies in 2023.