Expert sources on religion

The UC Davis faculty has a broad expertise across a variety of religious and spiritual topics. Spanish-language media members, please note fluent Spanish speakers Victor Montejo and Inés Hernández-Avila.If you need information on a topic not listed, please contact Susanne Rockwell at the UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, sgrockwell@ucdavis.edu.

Contemporary religious issues

• Religious conflict
• Israel, Judaism and Jewish-Christian relations
• Religious social movements and violence
• Psychology of religion
• Church-state relations

Religion in America

• The Black Church experience
• Spiritually based political groups
• Altered states of consciousness
• African American Jews

The Bible

• The Bible and place-based religion/spirituality
• The Reformation and the Bible
• European art history and the Bible

World religions

• Muslims in India, Pakistan and the West
• Eastern religion and philosophy
• African religions
• Mayan religions and spirituality
• Indigenous cultural/religious dance traditions
• Aboriginal myth, time and language

CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS ISSUES

Religious conflict

What is it that makes some religious groups able to live together in peace and others in unending conflict? Comparative religion scholar Naomi Janowitz, who directed the UC Education Abroad Program in Israel between 1999 and 2001, can talk about whether living in a multicultural and multireligious world means we are destined to see violent conflicts between people of differing religions. She says interactions in the ancient world offer important clues about tolerance and intolerance. She can also discuss how religious groups draw boundaries about claims to land, truth and divine power. Janowitz is author of "Magic in the Roman World: Pagans, Jews and Christians" (2001). Media contacts: Naomi Janowitz, Religious Studies, (510) 841-9159 (home) or (530) 752-6255 (office), nhjanowitz@ucdavis.edu.

Israel, Judaism and Jewish-Christian relations

David Biale, the Emanuel Ringelblum Professor of Jewish History and director of Jewish Studies at UC Davis, is available to speak on contemporary Jewish religion, Israeli politics and society, and Jewish-Christian relations. He is the author of "Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History" and "Eros and the Jews" and editor of "Insider/Outsider: American Jews and Multiculturalism" and "Cultures of the Jews." Biale is a regular columnist on issues pertaining to Israel and the Middle East for the San Francisco Chronicle and is a contributing editor and frequent writer in Tikkun Magazine. Contact: David Biale, History, (530) 752-1640 (office), (510) 524-9607, dbiale@ucdavis.edu.

Religious social movements and violence

John R. Hall, professor of sociology and an affiliated professor of the Religious Studies Program, researches and writes about religious social movements. His books on the subject include "Gone From the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History" (1987) and "Apocalypse Observed: Religious Movements and Violence in North America, Europe and Japan" (2000), co-authored by Philip D. Schuyler and Sylvaine Trinh. Recently, he has drawn on this research to discuss a wider array of circumstances in which violence and religion are connected in an essay, "Religion and Violence: Social Processes in Comparative Perspective," in the forthcoming "Handbook for the Sociology of Religion," edited by Michele Dillon. Contact: John Hall, Sociology, (530) 752-7035, or Center for History, Society and Culture, (530) 752-1638, jrhall@ucdavis.edu.

Psychology of religion

Psychology professor Robert Emmons' research is at the interface of personality, psychology and religion. He focuses on how religiousness and spirituality reflect core aspects of the self and identity, and how these aspects of the self are involved in well-being and personality coherence and integration over time. He also researches the psychology of gratitude. Emmons is an associate editor for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of the Psychology of Religion, and a member of the American Psychological Association. He is the author of "The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns: Motivation and Spirituality in Personality." Contact: Robert Emmons, Psychology, (530) 752-8844, raemmons@ucdavis.edu.

Church-state relations

Alan Brownstein, professor of law, writes and works in the area of church-state relations. He has written numerous articles on the religion clauses of the First Amendment, frequently lectures in this area to civic groups and has testified on related legislation before California legislative committees. Brownstein is on the board of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California and the Sacramento Jewish Community Relations Council. He advises the California Interfaith Coalition for the Free Exercise of Religion on constitutional matters. Contact: Alan Brownstein, School of Law, (530) 752-2586, aebrownstein@ucdavis.edu.

RELIGION IN AMERICA

The Black Church experience

Milmon F. Harrison, an assistant professor of African American and African studies, is a sociologist who looks at the various roles and meanings of Christianity and the Black Church in the African American experience. His new book, "Name It and Claim It! The Word of Faith Movement, The Faith Message and the Disestablishment of Doctrinal Meaning," concerns the Word of Faith movement, a contemporary charismatic, Christian movement gaining popularity among African Americans in the past 20 years. He is now studying the Christian music industry and, in particular, the production of African American gospel music. Contacts: Milmon Harrison, African American and African Studies, (530) 754-6622, mfharrison@ucdavis.edu;

Spiritually based political groups

Judith Newton, professor and director of women and gender studies, researches and writes about the Promise Keepers and about spiritually based political groups such as The Call to Renewal and the Politics of Meaning. Contact: Judith Newton, Women and Gender Studies, (530) 752-8988 (office), (530) 756-3604 (home), jlnewton@ucdavis.edu.

Asian immigration and folk spirituality

Historian Steffi San Buenaventura, professor of Asian American studies, is a pioneering scholar in the field of Asian American socio-religious movements. Her work on Filipino folk spirituality and immigration has been published in "New Spiritual Homes: Religion and Asian Americans" (1999). She has also written a book about a Filipino American socio-religious movement in California and Hawaii, "From Below and From Within: Nativism, Ethnicity and Empowerment in a Filipino American Experience, 1925-1995." San Buenaventura's research also includes studying Filipino immigrant Catholics and Protestants in historical and contemporary settings. Contact: Steffi San Buenaventura, Asian American Studies, (530) 752-2356, steffi@ucdavis.edu.

Altered states of consciousness

Charles T. Tart, professor emeritus of psychology at UC Davis, is internationally known for research with altered states of consciousness (including mystical experiences), transpersonal (spiritual) psychology and parapsychology. He can also talk about New Age religions. His 13 books include two classics, "Altered States of Consciousness" and "Transpersonal Psychologies." His 1997 "Body Mind Spirit: Exploring the Parapsychology of Spirituality" explored the scientific foundations of transpersonal/spiritual psychology, to show it is possible to be both a scientist and a spiritual seeker. His most recent book is "Mind Science: Meditation Training for Practical People," and is based on a workshop teaching scientists how to meditate. Contact: Charles Tart, Psychology, (510) 526-2591 (home), cttart@ucdavis.edu.

African American Jews

Assistant professor of sociology Bruce Haynes is currently writing a book on African American Jews in the United States. He specializes in the study of race and ethnic group relations within the context of urban and suburban community development. He most recently wrote "Red Lines, Black Spaces: The Politics of Race and Space in a Black Middle-Class Suburb (Yale University Press, 2001), a case study of race and class politics in a New York City suburban community. Contact: Bruce Haynes, Sociology, (530) 754-7127 bdhaynes@ucdavis.edu.

THE BIBLE

The Bible and place-based religion/spirituality

English professor David Robertson teaches and studies place-based religion and spirituality and the Bible as literature. He has written a basic introduction to reading the Bible as a piece of literature ("The Old Testament and the Literary Critic") and regularly teaches courses on this subject. He is also interested in religion and the natural world and, in particular, in spiritual movements that assert the oneness of matter and spirit and the equivalence of universe and local place. His book, "Real Matter," deals with this theme as it relates to a number of West Coast writers. Contact: David Robertson, English, (530) 752-0698, darobertson@ucdavis.edu.

The Reformation and the Bible

Peter Schaeffer, a professor of German affiliated with classics and religious studies, teaches about Reformation history and polemics, pagan Rome/Christian Rome, the Greek and Latin Bibles, and the beginnings of the English Bible, among other subjects. His publications include the biographies of Joannes Sapidus (a pioneer in Protestant higher education in Strasbourg) and Joachim Vadianus (the reformer of St. Gallen) in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. Contact: Peter Schaeffer, German, (530) 752-0730, pmschaeffer@ucdavis.edu.

European art history and religion

Jeffrey Ruda, professor of art history, writes and teaches about art as an expression of belief systems in Renaissance Italy and 17th-century Europe, with some carryover to contemporary issues including lesbian and gay studies. His book, "Fra Filippo Lippi: Life and Work, with a Complete Catalogue," was published by Phaidon Press, London, in 1993. Contact: Jeffrey Ruda, Art and Art History, (530) 752-0425, jhruda@ucdavis.edu.

WORLD RELIGIONS

Muslims in India, Pakistan and the West

Barbara Metcalf, professor of history, specializes in the study of Islamic reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries and in the history of the large Muslim populations of South Asia generally. Her edited volume, "Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe" (1996), dealt with the experience of Indo-Pakistani and other Muslim immigrants to the West. Her current research focuses on a transnational pietist movement called Tablighi Jamaat. Contact: Barbara Metcalf, History, (510) 642-1610 (office) and (510) 526-3683 (home), bdmetcalf@ucdavis.edu.

Eastern religion and philosophy

Whalen Lai, professor of religious studies, focuses on Eastern religious traditions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Gnosticism and Confucianism. He also is a scholar of Chinese philosophy and myth and of the Christian/Buddhist dialogue. Among his many publications are 12 entries in the Encyclopedia of Monasticism that engage in a Buddhist/Christian monastic comparison. He also has written about Buddhist ethics in the absence of a civil religion, examining the concept of civil society in the West and its applicability for China. He wrote the section on Chinese philosophy for the Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy (2001). Contact: Whalen Lai, Religious Studies, (530) 752-6002, ewlai@aol.com.

African religions

Jacob Olupona, director and professor of African American and African studies and affiliated with religious studies, teaches and studies religions of the sub-Saharan Africans and the African diaspora. He specializes in Yoruba thought and culture in southwestern Nigeria. He currently works on a Ford Foundation-sponsored project on African Immigrant Religious Communities in America. He has authored and edited more than eight books including "Kingship, Religion and Rituals in a Nigerian Community." He is the president of the African Association for the Study of Religion. Contact: Jacob Olupona, African American and African Studies, (530) 752-8354, jkolupona@ucdavis.edu.

Mayan religions and spirituality

Victor Montejo, associate professor of Native American studies, is an anthropologist who studies indigenous religions and spirituality. He has focused on the sacred myths of creation of the Mayas and the current ecological and spiritual beliefs among Jakaltek Mayas in Guatemala. His article, "The Road to Heaven: Jakaltek Maya Beliefs, Religion and the Ecology," deals with indigenous myths, moral values and respectful attitudes toward nature, humans and the supernatural world. Montejo is the author of the 1999 illustrated version for young readers of the "Popol Vuh, the Sacred Book of the Mayas" and "Q'anil: Man of Lightning," University of Arizona Press. Contact: Victor Montejo, Native American Studies, (fluent in Spanish) (530) 754-6128, vmontejo@ucdavis.edu.

Indigenous cultural/religious dance tradition

Inés Hernández-Avila, associate professor of Native American studies, researches and writes about the Conchero dance tradition of Mexico City. Hernández-Avila's project demonstrates how this cultural/religious tradition has sustained itself and influenced, in varying degrees, the elaboration of a Chicana/o indigenous consciousness via the more popularly known and practiced Aztec dance tradition. She is presently developing a video-documentary project on the history of the group known as La Mesa del Santo Niño de Atocha, headed by the elder Teresa Mejía Martinez, and CD project (of songs sung by the elders of the Conchero community). Contact: Inés Hernández-Avila, Native American Studies (fluent in Spanish) (530) 752-4394, ighernandez@ucdavis.edu.

Aboriginal Myth, Time and Language

Aram A. Yengoyan, professor of anthropology, writes and teaches on the importance of myth among Aboriginal Australian cultures. Basically, myth as expressed through epics and legends is the link from the most ancient past to the present. In his work he shows how different language structures (either through tense or aspect) connect myth as a critical and active force in everyday realities among the Pitjantjatjara in Australia. He has published extensively on the theoretical and ethnographic implications. Contact: Aram A. Yengoyan, Teaching Resources Center, (530) 752-6050 or Anthropology, (530) 752-2849, aayengoyan@ucdavis.edu.