Religion in Culture Lunch Series

At noon on February 23, 2006, the recent work of Prof. Darlene Juschka--of the Women's Studies Program, and Department of Religious Studies, at the University of Regina (Saskatchewan, Canada)--provided an opportunity for REL majors, faculty members, and Women's Studies graduate students to meet for a lunchtime discussion. In Gorgas Library, the previous day, Prof. Juschka presented the first Religion in Culture Lecture of the Spring 2006 semester. (For more on this lecture, please visit this page.)

Co-sponsored by Women's Studies (click their logo to visit their site), Prof. Juschka's visit to Alabama coincided with Prof. Bill Arnal's visit, involving his own Religion in Culture lunch and lecture.

Prof. Juschka's article, "Gender," published in The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion, was the focus for the discussion and those attending the lunch read it in advance. Opening with comments on the process by which essays get into print--drawing specific attention to the manner in which the interests of editors and publishers can impact a writer--Prof. Juschka moved on to discuss such topics as the difference in scholarship between using such terms as "gender" and "sex," as well as indicating that rather different theories of meaning inform the use of the term "sign" as opposed to "symbol." Noting her preference for "sign" (in light of the role played by Roland Barthes's work in her thinking), she elaborated on the manner in which "symbol" often implies that images or texts somehow carry inherent meaning that is simply expressed or projected onto the viewer (a popular position in the study of religion, where experiences--which are sometimes thought to comprise the basis for proof of religion's authenticity--are generally assumed to be expressed publicly in actions known as rituals), who recognizes their meaning. Instead, based on her work in semiotics (an academic field whose members study how acts of signification work), Prof. Juschka made clear that, for her, the term "sign" signals a far more complex interaction in which the viewer is actively constituting the image as meaningful.

Because of her dual role, as Director of a Women's Studies program, as well as a cross-listed faculty member in her campus's Department of Religious Studies, Prof. Juschka's lunch nicely provided an opportunity for Women's Studies graduate students to raise a variety of issues, from the role played by religious assumptions and background in their classes to the possible pros and cons of the locating identity issues of sex and gender within a specific Department (the so-called ghettoization debate).

Thanks again to Betty Dickey and Donna Martin for helping to make this event possible, and to Samantha Sastre for taking pictures that captured the enduring essence of the event.

Holding up an issue of Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, a publication once co-edited by Prof. Juschka, Prof. McCutcheon (left) introduces our guest (who is seated at the end of the table).

Prof. Bill Arnal (far right), also from the University of Regina, accompanied Prof. Juschka on the trip from the Great White North to Tuscaloosa.

Religion in Culture lunches are held in the Department's seminar room (where upper-level classes are also held), where framed flyers from all Religion in Culture lectures are hung, along with Aronov Lecture flyers. Pictured to Prof. Arnal's left are Profs. Maha Marouan and Steve Jacobs.

While looking to the heavens for inspiration, Prof. Arnal is closely watched by Jennifer Goodman, a graduating English major and REL minor.

Among the WS graduate students who attended the lunch were (left to right): Ethan Livingston, Beth Robinson, and Ashley Cox.

Seated to Prof. Juscshka's right is Dot Franklin, also a graduate student in the Department of Women's Studies.