Hanaoka named ACS Mellon Academic Leadership Fellow
Mimi Hanaoka, associate professor of religious studies, has been named Associated Colleges of the South Mellon Academic Leadership Fellow for 2025–27.
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Mormon Wrestling: A Genealogy
David Walker, University of California at Santa Barbara
This talk explores the lives and careers of “Brother Jonathan, The Battling Preacher” and “Don Leo Jonathan, The Mormon Giant”—two professional wrestlers with Mormon gimmicks, with careers spanning 1930 to 1980—as a way of understanding the commingled history of religion and popular culture in America. Their careers are as good a metric for the life of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 20th century as any other that we have. Perhaps even better, they demonstrate how religion and wrestling work together—how they shape and reflect each other—in the modern world.
David Walker is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of Railroading Religion: Mormons, Tourists, and the Corporate Spirit of the West (2019).
This talk will take place on Thursday, March 27th at 7:00 PM in the Brown Alley Room, Weinstein Hall.
Religious Studies and Science!
Reghan Ruf, '21, majored in biology and religious studies at the University of Richmond. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in biogeochemistry at the University of Akron. Listen to her insights on how her studies in religious studies and biology have complemented each other.
Faculty Highlights
Graybill Published
Rhiannon Graybill, Marcus M. and Carole M. Weinstein & Gilbert M. and Fannie S. Rosenthal Chair of Jewish Studies, published Narrating Rape: Shifting Perspectives in Biblical Literature and Popular Culture by SCM Press.
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Graybill Awarded
Rhiannon Graybill, Marcus M. and Carole M. Weinstein & Gilbert M. and Fannie S. Rosenthal Chair of Jewish Studies, received the American Academy of Religion's 2022 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Textual Studies for the book Texts after Terror: Rape Sexual Violence, and the Hebrew Bible. The annual competition recognizes new scholarly publications that make significant contributions to the study of religion. This year, 2022 and 2023 awards were announced simultaneously.
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Graybill Published
Rhiannon Graybill, Marcus M. and Carole M. Weinstein & Gilbert M. and Fannie S. Rosenthal Chair of Jewish Studies, published Lee Edelman and the Queer Study of Religion.
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University of Richmond Professors Olivier Delers and Mimi Hanaoka Named ACS Mellon Academic Leadership Fellows
French professor Olivier Delers and religious studies professor Mimi Hanaoka have been named Associated Colleges of the South Mellon Academic Leadership Fellows for 2025–27.
We tried Christian nationalism in America. It went badly.
Religious studies professor Douglas Winiarski, an expert on religion in early America, is quoted.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE
Richmond marks decades of civic learning
As the Bonner Center commemorates its 20th anniversary, their Civic Fellows program has also reached a significant milestone, with more than 200 students engaging through internships worldwide.
Student Experience
Study abroad for all Spiders
EnCompass celebrates five years of creating opportunities for students to participate in international travel.
Scholarship Repository Readership
The University of Richmond's Scholarship Repository shares faculty publications with a world-wide audience. The map below shows where articles from religion faculty are being read around the globe.
Upcoming Courses
- The Bible as Literature
- Magic & Religion in the Early Christian World
- The Hebrew Prophets
- Dying for God
- Devil in the Details: Microhistory & Historical Narrative (FYS)
Contact Us
Mailing address:
Department of Religious Studies
Weinstein Hall, Room 102
231 Richmond Way
University of Richmond, Virginia 23173
Phone: (804) 289-8325
Fax: (804) 287-6504
Chair: Mimi Hanoaka
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