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Russell T. McCutcheon, who came to the University
of Alabama's Department of Religious Studies as its Department
Chair in the summer of 2001 (and who stepped
down at the end of the 2008-9 academic year), was trained
at Queen's
University (Kingston, Ontario) and the University
of Toronto, where he received his Ph.D. in the academic
study of religion in 1995. He came to the U.S. from Canada
in 1993, to teach full time as an Instructor at the University
of Tennessee, Knoxville (1993-96); from 1996 to 2001 he
was an Assistant and then Associate Professor at Southwest
Missouri State University (Springfield; now known as Missouri
State University). Although a Canadian citizen, in early 2001
he obtained Permanent Residency status in the U.S.
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His areas of interest include the history of scholarship
on myths and rituals, the history of the publicly-funded academic
study of religion as practiced in the U.S., secularism, as
well as the relations between the classification "religion"
itself and the rise of the nation-state.
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From 1990-2001, and then again for 2012, McCutcheon served
as one of the editors of the quarterly periodical, published
by Brill of the Netherlands, Method
& Theory in the Study of Religion; from 1997-2001
he also edited the Bulletin
of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion.
In the Fall of 2007 he stepped down after having served three
years as the Executive Secretary, Treasurer, and webmaster
for the North
American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR)--the
U.S. affiliate of the International
Association for the History of Religions (IAHR).
McCutcheon was also the longtime webmaster for his Department's
website (until August 2009).
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In November of 2005, McCutcheon was elected to a three year
term as the President of the Council of Societies for the
Study of Religion (CSSR),
headquartered at Rice University. The Council ceased existence
at the end of 2009.
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Apart from his earlier works on theory
of religion, his current interest focuses more on the
history and uses of the category religion itself. He has also
published on teaching and written or edited a variety of classroom
and references resources.
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He is the founder and series editor for Equinox
Publishing's anthology series, "Critical
Categories in the Study of Religion." His most recent
editing project is a new monograph series, also with Equinox
Press, UK, entitled "Religion
in Culture: Studies in Social Contest and Construction."
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A recent copy of his cv
can be found here
(PDF).
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Classes Taught
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McCutcheon regularly teaches such courses as REL
100, REL
105, REL 213,
REL 237,
REL 341, REL
360, REL
370, REL
373, REL
419, REL
480, REL 482,
REL 490,
and UH 120.
And, along with Vaia
Touna, he taught a revised version of REL
480.
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If you are interested in reading samples
of McCutcheon's recent work...
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"Three
Dots and a Dash"--web essay posted at The Immanent
Frame, commenting on Frequencies:
A Genealogy of Spirituality.
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"Africa
on Our Minds," a chapter from The
African Diaspora and the Study of Religion (2007).
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An essay
on secularism published in the Fall of 2007 in Method &
Theory in the Study of Religion.
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A review
essay on handbooks in religious studies published in the
Fall of 2007 in Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
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"The
Problem of Religion and the Lust for Dogmatic Rule"
(PDF)--lecture, based on chapter one of Religion
and the Domestication of Dissent, presented
at the University of Regina, the University of Edmonton, the
University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, Nebraska Wesleyan
University, and Rice University.
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Chapter 12 from The Discipline of Religion (Routledge,
2003), "'Religion'
and the Governable Self" (PDF)
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A brief handout
(PDF) on the politics of discourses on religious pluralism
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A lecture
(PDF) delivered at Wilfrid
Laurier University and the University
of Chicago (both in the Spring of 2004), and which is
a chapter of Religion
and the Domestication of Dissent.
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A lecture
(PDF) delivered at Syracuse
University (February 2005), the University
of Regina and the University
of Alberta, Canada (Fall of 2004) and at Arizona
State University (Spring of 2004), and which is also a
chapter of Religion
and the Domestication of Dissent.
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Comments delivered at the University of Alabama, January
18, 2003: "Introductory
Remarks on the Academic Study of Islam" (PDF)
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An excerpt
from Introduction to an edited anthology (see the book cover,
below left): The Insider / Outsider Problem in the Study
of Religion
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An earlier version of a chapter in The Discipline of Religion
(Routledge, UK, 2003) appears in the on-line Journal
of Mundane Behavior; see: "Like
Small Bumps on the Neck...": The Problem of Evil as Something
Ordinary
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An article on the history of work carried out by members
of the International Association for the History of Religions
(IAHR): "'The
Common Ground On Which Students of Religion Meet": Methodology
and Theory Within the IAHR"
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An article co-written with Christina Lapel (Immigration Tax
Specialist, Southwest Missouri State University), "Canadian
Scholars Working in the US: An Unofficial Primer on the INS"
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An essay that represents some of his recent work on the politics
of classification: "The
Category 'Religion' and the Politics of Tolerance" (PDF),
published in the multi-authored book, Defining
Religion: Investigating the Boundaries Between the Sacred
and Secular
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A 2004 essay
(PDF) in the Journal
of the American Academy of Religion on controversies
over recent research on the category "religion"
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A 2004 essay
(PDF) on recent trends in the study of religion in the US,
from the edited book, New Approaches to the Study of Religion
(Berlin: Walter
de Gruyter)
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