Dept. of Religious Studies

Faculty & Staff

Undergraduate

Faculty

Dexter Callender, Ph.D. (Harvard University, 1995)
Associate Professor
Email 305-284-3695

Dexter E. Callender, Jr. , has taught at the University of Miami since 1995 and is the author of Adam in Myth and History (Harvard Semitic Studies, Eisenbrauns, 2001). A recipient of the 2000 Provost's Excellence in Teaching Award, he was also named "Professor of the Year" by the Pan-Hellenic Association in 2001. With research interests in myth theory and the nature of religious discourse, he is a specialist in Hebrew Bible and the history and literature of the ancient Near East. In addition to REL 101, Introduction to Religion, and REL 111, Introduction to Hebrew Bible, his regular course offerings include REL 311, Prophecy and Prophetic Literature; REL 305, Religion and Culture in the Ancient Near East; and REL 356, Myth and Religion.

John T. Fitzgerald, Ph.D. (Yale University, 1984)
Associate Professor
Email View CV 305-284-3698

John Fitzgerald has taught at the University of Miami since 1981 and is the author of two books, three dozen articles, and more than 150 book reviews; he is also the editor of four volumes. He concentrates on the religions and philosophical schools of the ancient Mediterranean world in the period between Alexander the Great (d. 323 BCE) and Constantine (d. 337 CE). He is particularly interested in Second Temple and Hellenistic Judaism, the history and literature of early Christianity, and Hellenistic moral philosophy, and his research focuses on the ways in which Jews and Christians interacted with the various segments of Greco-Roman culture and appropriated philosophical materials for religious use. The recipient of two UM teaching awards, he offers courses primarily in the area of early Christian literature. In addition to offering Introduction to the New Testament (REL 121) at least once a year, he regularly offers seminars on both Jesus (REL 325) and Paul (REL 322) and various other topics dealing with the Bible in its socio-historical contexts. Dr. Fitzgerald has been a visiting professor at both Brown University and Yale University, currently serves as General Editor of the Writings from the Greco-Roman World Series, and is the Society of Biblical Literature's Secretary of Council.

David Graf, Ph.D. (University of Michigan, 1979)
Professor
Email View CV 305-284-4733

David Graf has taught at the University of Miami since 1986 as a specialist in the Greco-Roman Near East. He is the author of Rome's Arabian Frontier from the Nabataeans to the Saracens (1997) and was an associate editor of the multi-volume Anchor Bible Dictionary (1994), and over 70 articles in scholarly journals. His recent publications have appeared in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research , Topoi: Orient-Occident , Mediterranean Archaeology , the XVIII International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies , Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan , and his entry on "Arabia" is soon to appear in the Oxford Companion to Exploration . Recently he has been the recipient of the Stanley J. Seeger Fellowship in the Program in Hellenic Studies, Princeton University (2003), a William J. Fulbright Scholar Award for Saudi Arabia (2003), and the Sterling Dow Fellowship at the Center for Epigraphical and Paleographical Studies, in the Department of Greek and Latin, Ohio State University (2004 and again in 2006). He serves on the Committee on Archaeological Policy for the American Schools of Oriental Research and directs their Saudi Arabian initiative. He is currently directing the excavations of the Hellenistic Petra Project in Jordan and publishing hundreds of new Aramaic, North Arabian, Greek, and Latin inscriptions from Arabia, including the Roman milestone inscriptions from Jordan for the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum project in Berlin. He teaches REL 307, Pre-Islamic Arabia; REL 380 Archaeology of Palestine; and in conjunction with the Classics Department, the core courses in Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman history (REL 301-304 = CLA 301-304).

Henry A. Green, Ph.D. (St. Andrews University, 1982)
Professor
Email 305-284-4375

Henry A. Green has taught at the University of Miami since 1984. He received his Ph.D. from St. Andrews University (Britain) after postgraduate work in Canada, at the Sorbonne (France) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). He is the author of four books, including Research in Action (education of at-risk populations in Israel); The Economic and Social Origins of Gnosticism (Jewish origins from a sociological perspective); Mosaic: Jewish Life in Florida; and Gesher Vakesher, Bridges and Bonds:The Life of Leon Kronish (the Israelization of American Jewry and the story of Jewish Miami) and many articles. Professor Green is the former Director of the Judaic/Sephardic Studies Program (1984-2001) and the founding executive director of the Jewish Museum of Florida. He has served as a Visiting Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Oxford University, and the University of Toronto. Among his awards are the Canada Council, the Israel Fellowship, and the Skirball Fellowship (Oxford University, England). Professor Green led the effort to establish first locally, and then nationally, a literacy and school readiness program (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, HIPPY) and served as national chair (200-2003). He continues to conduct social policy research in the areas of education and health for foundations and the government. His current research, " The Forgotten Exodus " , documents the lives of Jewish refugees (approximately 1 million) from Islamic lands and parallels projects concerning Holocaust testimonies. He teaches courses on modern Israel (REL 375/JUS 375), Jewish Civilization (REL 231/JUS 231), American Jewry (REL 334/JUS 360), and spirituality and education (REL 408), a course that pioneers the concept of holistic education and includes meditation and community service.

William Scott Green, Ph.D. (Brown University)
Professor & Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education
Email 305-284-3386

William S. Green is a historian of religion with interests in ancient Judaism, biblical studies, and the theory of religion. He edited the Journal of the American Academy of Religion for a decade andalso is Associate Editor of the HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion (HarperSanFrancisco, 1995), Editor of The Dictionary of Judaism in the Biblical Period (MacMillan, 1996), and Co-Editor of The Encyclopedia of Judaism (E.J. Brill, 2005). He has written widely on ancient Judaism, the study of religion, and higher education, and he has served as educational director for archeological excavations at multiple sites in Israel and Italy.

Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, Ph.D.
(Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley)
Assistant Professor
Email View CV 305-284-9782

Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado's (Michelle A. Gonzalez) teaching and research interests include Latin American, Latino/a, and African-American religiosity, as well as feminist theology, theological anthropology, and theological method. She is the author of Sor Juana: Beauty and Justice in the Americas(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003); Afro-Cuban Theology: Religion, Race, Culture, and Identity (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006); and the forthcoming Created in God's Image: An Introduction to Feminist Theological Anthropology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2007).

David W. Kling, Ph.D. (University of Chicago, 1985)
Professor
Email View CV 305-284-3704

David Kling has been at the University of Miami since 1986, serving initially in an administrative capacity before joining the Department of Religious Studies in 1993. He is the author of A Field of Divine Wonders: The New Divinity and Village Revivals in Northwestern Connecticut, 1792-1822 (published by Penn State Press in 1993 and winner of the Kenneth Scott Latourette Prize in Religion and Modern History), The Bible in History: How the Texts Have Shaped the Times (published in 2004 by Oxford University Press and a featured "Editor's Choice" selection of the History Book Club), and co-editor of Jonathan Edwards at Home and Abroad: Historical Memories, Cultural Movements, Global Horizons (published in 2003 by the University of South Carolina Press). He is currently working on a fourth book, A History of Christian Conversion. Kling is a specialist in American religious history and the history of Christianity. He regularly teaches REL 131, Religion in American Life, REL 232, History of Christianity, and REL 405, American Religion in Modern Film (January Intersession). His other course offerings include Religious Fundamentalisms of the Modern World, Reformation Europe, Global Christianity in the 20th Century, The Millennium: Religious and Social-Psychological Perspectives, Cults and New Religious Movements in America, and Dimensions of Religious Conversion.

Michael McCullough, Ph.D. (Virginia Commonwealth University, 1995)
Professor
Email 305-284-8057

Associate Professor of Psychology (secondary appointment in Religious Studies). Adjunct Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, and Affiliated Center Scientist, Duke Center for Religion/Spirituality and Health, Duke University.

Irene Oh, Ph.D. (University of Virginia, 2004)
Assistant Professor
Email View CV 305-284-3699

Irene Oh teaches courses in religious ethics, biomedical ethics, and religion and politics. She regularly offers REL 151: Religion and Moral Choices, REL 353: Religion and Politics, and REL 360: Biomedical Ethics. Her research focuses upon the intersection of comparative religions and politics, especially religion and human rights, feminist ethics, and environmental ethics. She has authored The Rights of God: Islam, Human Rights, and Comparative Ethics (Georgetown University Press, 2007) and is currently working on a manuscript about the ethics of motherhood.

Daniel L. Pals, Ph.D. (University of Chicago, 1975)
Professor
Email View CV 305-284-6078

Professor of Religious Studies (joint appointment in History). Interim Dean of Arts and Sciences 2000-2002. Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences, 1997-2000. Author: The Victorian "Lives" of Jesus; Seven Theories of Religion; articles in Journal of Religion, Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Zygon.

Ivan Petrella, Ph.D. (Harvard University, 2002)
Assistant Professor
Email View CV 305-284-3670

Author: The Future of Liberation Theology: An Argument and Manifesto, articles in the Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology and Cuadernos de Teologia, and a chapter in Latin American Perspectives on Globalization: Ethics, Politics, and Alternative Visions.

Karen Ruffle, Ph.D. (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 2007)
Assistant Professor
Email 305-284-9213

Karen Ruffle joined the University of Miami in 2007 and teaches courses in Islamic studies and religions of South Asia. Her research interests focus on Shi`i devotional literature and ritual in India and Iran where she has completed ethnographic fieldwork and archival research on the development and Indianization of Muharram. She has additional interests in gender theory and expressions of sainthood. In addition to offering Introduction to Islam (REL 171) each year, she offers an introductory course on the religions of South Asia (REL 331), and seminars on Islam and Gender (REL 406), Islam in Modern Times (REL 370), and Epic Traditions (REL 406).

Stephen Sapp , Ph.D. (Duke University, 1975)
Professor and Department Chair
Email 305-284-4733

Stephen Sapp has taught at the University of Miami since 1980 and is currently Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Religious Studies. In addition to publishing a number of articles in journals such as Second Opinion, Journal of Religious Gerontology (which he edited from 1994 to 1999), Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, and Journal of Religion and Health, he is the author of three books—Sexuality, the Bible, and Science (1977), Full of Years: Aging and the Elderly in the Bible and Today (1987), and Light on a Gray Area: American Public Policy on Aging (1992)—and a widely distributed booklet, When Alzheimer's Disease Strikes (rev. ed. 2002). He is past chair of the Governing Council of the Forum on Religion, Spirituality, and Aging (FoRSA) of the American Society on Aging (ASA) and edited FoRSA's newsletter, Aging & Spirituality, from 1993 to 1999. He was the 2002 recipient of the ASA Award, the organization's highest award for contributions to the field of gerontology. Founding president of the South Florida Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, from 1990 to 2007 Dr. Sapp chaired the Bioethics Committee of Miami Children's Hospital, where he was Fellow in Clinical Ethics in the Division of Critical Care Medicine in 1996. He is past chair of the University of Miami 's Social and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board and current chair of the Faculty Senate. His research interests include ethical issues in Alzheimer's disease, the role of religion and spirituality in aging, the impact of the aging of American society, end-of-life issues in pediatric and geriatric populations, and the ethics of human subjects research. He regularly teaches REL 101, Introduction to Religion; REL 252, Religion and Human Sexuality; REL 351, Religious Issues in Death and Dying; REL 360, Religion and Bioethics; and REL 406/BIL 471, Ethics and Genetics (with Luis Glaser of the Biology Department).

STAFF

Ada Orlando
Administrative Assistant
Email 305-284-4733

B.A. cum laude in Religious Studies, Italian, and Business Management. University of Miami (2001). Member of Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, and Theta Alpha Kappa National Honor Society for Religious Studies/Theology. Advisor and founding member of the Society for the Study of Religions and Cultures (SSRC). Member of the Ethics Committee of the Miami Children's Hospital since 1996