Religion - Newsletter June 2022
June 2022
From the Chair
Dear Smith College Religion Department alums and current majors & minors,
We want to stay connected with you! To that end, we create a newsletter each year, offering updates about the department and all of you. If you have an update you would like to share, please send it to Phoebe McKinnell at pmckinnell@smith.edu. And if you find yourself in Northampton, please stop in for a visit. Almost all of our events are open to the public, and everyone is welcome. And remember, you can keep up with the department through our postings on our home page and on Facebook.
Please stay in touch!
Andy Rotman, Chair
On behalf of Carol, David, Jamie, Joel, Lois, Phoebe, Suleiman, and Vera
Spring 2023
Graduates & Awards
Religion Department Awards
James Gardner Buttrick Prize
For the best essay written by a Smith undergraduate on a subject in the field of religious studies
Grace Mason-Brown AC ’22, “Popularizing Mysticism: William James, Carl Jung, and the Development of American Psycho-Spirituality”
Melinda White ’22, “'The Song and the Weeping': Death, Love, and Gifts in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings”
Henry Lewis Foote Memorial Prize
For the best essay written by a Smith undergraduate on a subject in the field of biblical studies
Naomi Brill ’22, “Repentence, Redemption, Resurrection: Early Christian Art and the Exegesis of the Book of Jonah”
Jochanan H.A. Wijnhoven Prize
For the best essay written by a Smith undergraduate on a subject in Jewish religious thought
Alexandra Domeshek ’22, “The Long Arc of Religion Bends Towards Mysticism: Job's Quest for Knowledge of the Divine”
Class of 2022
Speaking of Religious Studies: Podcasts by Smith Students
Thanks to the teaching leadership of visiting assistant professor David Howlett and a Mellon-funded initiative on public-facing writing, Smith students in five recent religion courses have written and produced podcast episodes. Over three years, to date students have created 30 episodes, aggregated under a departmental podcast to be launched this fall, titled “Speaking of Religious Studies: A Podcast by Smith College Students.” Series in the podcast include “Women’s Rites: A Podcast about Women’s Ordination,” “The Afterlife Eight Words,” “Bread, Bombs, and Borders: Religion in Contemporary Activism,” and “Scholars Speak: Religion and Race in America.”
For most of these series, students interviewed a scholar, an activist, or a clergywoman, and then, using audio-editing software, produced a podcast episode from their interviews. Other episodes took original student-written research essays and transformed them into conversational-style podcast episodes.
More than just in-class pedagogical exercises, the finished episodes are themselves educational media. For example, you can learn about the co-constitutive nature of race and religion in an interview with Princeton University’s Judith Weisenfeld; listen to the personal experiences of three women who serve as Episcopal priests (including a Smith alumna who is now a bishop); explore the House of Dust, the dwelling place of the dead, in ancient Mesopotamian religions; and reflect with a Nobel laureate upon the past and future of faith-based anti-nuclear activism. Look for the full run of episodes in the fall of 2022 and more episodes to come in 2023!
Kate Hart Smith ’60
My interest in religion has followed me since graduation. I graduated from Columbia University Medical School in 1964 and as part of my medical education I went to Africa and visited Albert Schweitzer. I converted from Episcopalianism to conservative Judaism and headed the Hebrew School program at the synagogue where my children were studying. Since retirement from practice I have lived in the mountains of Colorado and volunteer at the small nondenominational chapel near home. My education at Smith inspired me to keep religion in all aspects of my life. I send good wishes to all in the department.
Amy Hill Shevitz ’75
Amy writes that she and Ann James ’77 met for the first time at a Smith Club book club gathering in Evanston, Illinois this spring!
Irene Padavic ’79
(pictured, left)
I received my MA and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan and joined the faculty at Florida State University in 1987—since 2008 as the Mildred and Claude Pepper Distinguished Professor of Sociology. My research investigates how inequalities based on gender, race, and sexuality are reproduced and sometimes eroded, with a particular focus on the workplace. I teach an undergraduate course called Families and Social Change and graduate courses in the department’s Inequalities and Social Justice area.
Elaine Craddock ’82
I graduated from Smith as a Religion major in 1982, with the beloved Dennis Hudson as my advisor. The following summer I studied Tamil at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, then spent 1982-1983 on their language program in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. I completed my MA and Ph.D. in South Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, punctuated by language study and dissertation fieldwork in Tamil Nadu, finishing in 1994. In August 1994 I was hired in the department of Religion at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, where I am now a professor, and member of the Feminist Studies program. I teach courses on Indian religions.
Aline Kalbian ’82
After six years as Chair of the Department of Religion at Florida State University (FSU), I accepted the position of Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at FSU in July 2021. It’s been a big change, but exciting to be involved in helping shape the future direction of the College. Also in July 2021, I completed a 10-year stint as co-editor of the Journal of Religious Ethics. Current and former Smith Religion students who are interested in pursuing a graduate degree in Religion, we have a wonderful program at FSU and fund almost all of our MA and PhD students! If you're interested in learning more, reach out to me at akalbian@fsu.edu. So grateful for the wonderful opportunities my major in Religion at Smith has offered.
Joy Caires ’00
I write from the Twin Cities where I live and serve as the Rector of St. Clement’s Memorial Episcopal Church in St. Paul. I was ordained a priest in 2007 and have been at St. Clement’s for eight years (the longest I’ve been anywhere). My wife and kids have found a church home at St. Clement’s—something for which I am grateful. I still use the Harper Collins Study Bible that was required by Professor Karl Donfried for his biblical studies classes!
Melissa Gutierrez ’03
Melissa (pictured, right) writes that she is a Body Witch, a health and wellness coach that combines witchcraft and somatics to help people all over the world to use their bodies to solve problems! @thebodywitch, melgutierrez13@gmail.com.
Maya Ramos Clayton ’03
I am Chief of Staff for the California College Guidance Initiative, an organization that works to smooth the path to college for California students and unify the efforts of the education institutions that serve them. All these years later, I credit my religion professors with teaching me to write, think, and communicate in ways I now know are unique. I went on to earn my M.S. in professional writing from NYU. I’m also mom to two “tween”-agers who, along with my husband, have brought me immense joy during the last few years. Wishing everyone in this community well.
Chelsea Sunday Kline ’08
Chelsea was recently appointed to the Human Rights Commission in Northampton, MA, and has also just been hired as the new Executive Director of The Cancer Connection, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a haven of strength and hope where services are free and all facing cancer are welcomed. Chelsea is now the proud human companion to an outstandingly handsome rescue dog named Charlie, and is also the founding leader of the Massachusetts chapter of Women Who Submit, an organization that empowers women and nonbinary writers to submit and publish their work.
Colleen O'Toole ’11
Colleen professed perpetual vows with the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas on May 28. She made a lifelong commitment to live the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and service to the poor, sick, and ignorant. She wrote that she will send pictures for the next round of the newsletter.
Megan Dent '11 and Joel Kaminsky at British Museum, May 2022