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Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate says, “This year's Oscar line-up is once again rife with religious references, and the entertainment industry may be overtaking religious institutions as the prime mythmakers and ritual producers in a society where the 'nones' are on the rise.”

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate recently received grants from the American Philosophical Society and the Central New York Humanities Corridor from an award by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for two projects.

The national media highlighted Hamilton College in multiple ways throughout 2012 by focusing on faculty research and expertise, featuring opinion pieces, and announcing new endeavors and special student projects. From The Today Show to NPR’s All Things Considered to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the college was visible in the media across the country.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate participated in the annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) held Nov. 17-20 in Chicago.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate participated in several contexts at the 16th Biennial Conference for the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture held Oct. 19-21 in Copenhagen. Plate presented a work-in-progress titled “Celebrating the Celluloid, Celestial City: The Presence and Absence of Sacred Space on Film.”

In a Religious Dispatches essay, “‘Cult’ Cinema Comes of Age,” Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate examined recent films that focus on cults including The Master, the latest in the group. In the Oct. 7 article, Plate described The Master as “emblematic of a new, more nuanced treatment of cults in the movies,” and “more or less … the story of L. Ron Hubbard and the birth of Scientology.”

An article on The Washington Post website titled “Atheists find a new venue for the godless: on film,” and released by the Religion News Service, quoted Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate.  “An independent faith film festival will create film fests for similar reasons — to be with other, like-minded people, to laugh together and cry together and think together,” Plate said in the article that focused on the San Francisco-based, annual Atheist Film Festival. Published on Aug. 17, the article also appeared on the The Times-Picayune site.

Brent Plate, visiting associate professor of religious studies, presented two papers this summer. The first was at the International Media, Religion and Culture conference, a scholarly meeting held biennially in a different part of the world. This year's conference was hosted by Anadolu University in Eskisehir, Turkey.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate guest-edited the June 2012 issue of the journal CrossCurrents (Wiley-Blackwell). The issue theme is "The Mediation of Meaning," and includes articles by scholars and artists working in museum studies, art and religious studies. 

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate recently published two book chapters at the intersections of religion, film and contemporary culture. The first, titled “Religion and Film: Making Movies, Making Worlds,” appears in Religion and Culture: Contemporary Practices and Perspectives, edited by Vincent Biondo and Richard Hecht, and published by Fortress Press. The volume is an anthology of essays that look at the religious practices, including topics of violence, gender, nature, the arts, sports and more. Plate’s contribution argues for the ways cinema construes particular frames of reality in ways akin to religious traditions.