Philosophy & Religious Studies at ISU

Congratulations to Prof. George Archer for the publication of his book The Prophet’s Whistle!

We have two Religious Studies faculty presenting at the Iowa History conference this June! Profs. Christopher Chase and Sarah Dees are on the panel Faith in Iowa.

Congrats Prof. Jeff Wheatley on receiving an LAS Teaching Award!

Congrats Prof. Cullen Padgett Walsh on receiving an LAS Teaching Award!

We are so proud of our incredible graduates this year! We can’t wait to hear about the great things coming up for your next adventure. We’ll miss you! 🎓🎉🥲

Post from our friends at the History Department. Congrats to Becca for being awarded the Distinguished History Undergraduate Award!

Hooray for Prof. Kate Padgett Walsh!

Prof. Sarah Dees presenting her research to our friends at !

Religious Studies classes for Fall 2024! 💫🕌⛩️🌊🕍⛪️📚

Philosophy classes for Fall 2024! 🧠🧐📚

Join and .philosophy.club for an afternoon of board, card, and video games celebrating LAS Week! We’ll have chill games, games that test your knowledge, logic, and ethics, and, for some reason, Mario Kart! 🍄

Professor Jeff Wheatley presented at a symposium on Religion and Social Change hosted by Creighton University’s Kripke Center. Here’s a picture of a Creighton statue of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order that, in turn, founded Creighton and many other Catholic universities in the US.

Professor Wheatley’s talk examined the rhetoric of anti-abolitionist novels in the 1850s US.

Thank you to Darian Everding for stopping by RELIG 332 to talk about the history of Catholicism and alcoholic beverages. The class learned about the Catholic gruit botanical monopoly, women brewsters, witch iconography, abbess herbal research, and Katie Luther’s apparently delicious beer (according to husband Martin Luther, who stuck his nose up at other beers).

More great events coming up! Learn more about local religious history put on by Ames History Museum.

Professor Christopher Chase after talking Vodou with the .philosophy.club

Talk by the Thomistic Institute that may be of interest! Professor Koritansky draws on the ideas of Thomas Aquinas in his exploration of the meaning and purpose of punishment.

PhilRS Professors Kate Padgett-Walsh and Courtney Wilson organized the Iowa Ethics Bowl this past week. High school teams from across Iowa braved the weather to come to ’s campus to engage and debate ethical cases.

Great opportunity for students interested in AI, world-building, or game design! May be of interest to , .philosophy.club!

From the most recent PhilRS newsletter we spotlighted , who is completing a triple major! Swipe on to read more about Kara’s experience and where she’ll be heading next. 🇯🇵📜

Congrats to the ISU Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Team! They will be recruiting teammates for next year. Interested in joining? Email Prof. Kate Padgett Walsh at [email protected].

One last push to winter break!

The Religious Studies Movie Party for Spring 24 will be a showing of The Exorcist. Students in RELIG 215 Religion and Popular Culture and RELIG 332 Catholicism will study the film, but all interested (and brave) students will be welcome to watch it.

This 1973 film is a masterpiece of psychological and supernatural horror. Written as a Catholic story by the Catholic William Blatty, the film has been as controversial as it has been influential, contributing to a rise in public requests for exorcisms and interest in demonic possession.

Date and time TBA.

Spring internship opportunities from !

Profs. Jeffrey Wheatley and Jeremy Best (History) received a .isu faculty learning community grant to convene sessions and readings on Game Studies. The sessions are open to all interested Iowa State faculty and will support teaching and research on games and game design, a proposed new major.

More to come! Interested faculty should contact Profs. Wheatley and Best.

Offering PHIL 320 Existentialism this spring!

Prof. Scott Samuelson, ISU’s new Professor of Practice in extension doing public humanities outreach and teaching in PhilRS, is offering Existentialism this spring! Want to learn more about Prof. Samuelson’s work? Check out “Rome as a Guide to the Good Life” or listen to the podcast about the book.

Prof. Jeff Wheatley pictured with his cohort as part of the Young Scholars in American Religion () program. This YSAR cohort met in Indianapolis in October for the first time to discuss the mission of teaching, to share and review syllabi, and to plan for the three remaining meetings over the next two years.

Just some of the presentations ISU Religious Studies faculty are making at the annual American Academy of Religion conference, where scholars share research and receive questions and critiques. Also: Prof. Sarah Dees is presenting on religion and memory and Prof. Jeffrey Wheatley is chairing a panel on race and the discourses on mind control.