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Patrick Reynolds, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, announced the appointment of new faculty for the 2015-16 academic year, including five tenure-track appointments, 24 visiting professors and instructors, and two teaching fellows. New tenure-track appointments are Catherine Beck, geosciences; Farah Dawood, chemistry; Cynthia Downs, biology; Quincy Newell, religious studies; and Javier Pereira, economics.

At Hamilton, research into how the city of Utica and its flourishing refugee population affect one another has been going on for over a decade. This summer Shannon Boley ’17 and Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies Brent Plate are studying the religious life of refugees in Utica as part of Harvard’s prestigious Pluralism Project.

Emma Reynolds ’17 is taking a deeply personal approach to research this summer, exploring the role of geography in the practice of meditation and studying the effects of different landscapes on the female consciousness through a project titled “Rooted in the Ground: A Geographical and Historical Study of the Female Consciousness in Meditation.

Jennie Wilber ’17, Shannon Boley ’17 and Talia Vaughan ’18 presented papers as part of a panel on “American Sacred Space: Constructing and Contesting the Sacred across Cultures” during the annual Eastern International Region meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR).

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate recently discussed “Spirituality and Sensuality: Why Bodies Matter More Than Beliefs” at the University of Vermont and at Syracuse University.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate recently participated in a working group on “Religion, Media, and the Digital Turn,” sponsored by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate discussed his book, A History of Religion in 5½ Objects, at the University of Pennsylvania. He also published an article about teaching a MOOC (massive open online course) in Beacon Broadside.

Professor Kevin Trainor of the University of Vermont will present a lecture on his research on relics in the Buddhist traditions of South Asia on Thursday, March 5, at 4 p.m., in the Red Pit, Kirner-Johnson  Building. Trainor’s talk is sponsored by the Religious Studies Department and is free and open to the public.

“Robert Knight: In God’s House,” a collection of photographs and video by Assistant Professor of Art Robert Knight, is on display Feb. 24 through Sept. 13 at Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute (MWPAI) in Utica, N.Y. The exhibition focuses on the adaptation of religious spaces in the Utica area.

Although our nation prides itself on the separation of church and state, one needs only look at the Christian ideologies against marriage equality for same-sex couples, the conservative right’s pro-life movement, and the anti-Muslim rhetoric of politicians to understand that these connection was never truly cleaved.  Richard Newton, assistant professor of religious studies at Elizabethtown College, visited the Hill on Feb. 16 for a discussion about African Americans’ connection to the Bible.