Religious Studies at The University of Texas at Austin

Congratulations to Katarina Jakimier, who just obtained her B.S. and B.A. with a double major in Psychology and Religious Studies.

She is a double honors student with a thesis supervised by Dr. Jason Roberts called "What Never Leaves: The Persistence and Scaffolding of Religious Magical Belief in Late Childhood.” Read more about her below:

https://news.utexas.edu/2026/05/14/a-longhorn-on-pointe/

Visit the Religiology blog to read about our recent event with the Caribbeanist Labs on Religion, as Dr. Maya Berry spoke about her award-winning monograph, Defending Rumba in Havana: The Sacred and Black Corporeal Undercommons.

https://tinyurl.com/2zkpz2vr

The Harry Ransom Center’s new exhibit “Lives and Literacy in Ancient Egypt” provides a glimpse into the past with documents and artifacts from the Greco-Roman period that have been rarely seen by the public. The exhibition opened on Saturday and will run through Aug. 2, allowing visitors to learn about the culture, religion and day-to-day lives of the Ancient Egyptians.

https://thedailytexan.com/2026/04/13/new-exhibit-provides-glimpse-of-ancient-egyptian-life/

Check out RS faculty Dr. Geoff Smith and Dr. Katherine Taronas talking about the new exhibit on “Lives and Literacy in Ancient Egypt” they’ve co-curated at the Harry Ransom Center!

Lives and Literacy in Ancient Egypt Curatorial Panel Discussion Join a roundtable discussion with curators of the upcoming Ransom Center exhibition, Lives and Literacy in Ancient Egypt.Learn more about the people, literat...

🚨The Lives and Literacy in Ancient Egypt exhibition is opening this weekend at the Harry Ransom Center and will run from April 11th to August 2nd. The exhibit is co-sponsored by ISAC and the Department of Religious Studies and focuses in part on manuscripts of religious texts, including P52, a fragment of the Gospel of John widely considered one of the earliest surviving manuscripts of the New Testament; a fragment of the Gospel of Mary; a third-century fragment of the Odyssey; and an early copy of Greek Deuteronomy. The exhibition is a collaboration with the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England, and grows out of Dr. Geoff Smith’s annual summer papyrology seminars with graduate students from RS, Classics, and MES. Dr. Smith and Dr. Katherine Taronas have co-organized this exhibition and co-authored the catalogue with Dr. Aaron Pratt of the HRC and Dr. Jeremy Penner of the Rylands Library. RS grads Rikki Liu and Jordan Swanson also contributed to the analysis and write-up of one of the objects on display.

Come check it out! 🏺

Harry Ransom Center

College of Liberal Arts - University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin

Visit the Religiology blog to read about our recent colloquium with Dr. Jerome Copulsky about his book American Heretics: Religious Adversaries of Liberal Order.

https://tinyurl.com/4hx82362

Visit the Religiology blog to read about Dr. Mallory Matsumoto and her event from February discussing her recently published book, The Maya Myths: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, and Ancestors.

https://tinyurl.com/4cnjrwtu

Vist the Life and Letters online magazine to read an interview with Dr. Brent Landau about his love of the cosmos and his popular UGS course "Religion and Outer Space."

https://lifeandletters.la.utexas.edu/2026/03/figures-in-the-firmament

Visit the Religiology blog to read about our colloquium last month with Dr. Ahmad Greene-Hayes centering on his recent book, Underworld Work: Black Atlantic Religion-Making in Jim Crow New Orleans.
https://tinyurl.com/ybtbnj3h

Join us in congratulating Dr. Christian Blake Pye, who was recently elected as a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows!

Read more about his studies and the appointment at https://tinyurl.com/4yjm3bjs