Richard Newton

@seedpods.bsky.social has been working with many of our students for several years to produce a brand new initiative. Go see. #decodingdiaspora

decodingdiaspora.org

The INFORMATION Drop in Religious Studies Programs Are you coming to the REL Strategy Group tomorrow? Friday at Noon Central, Dr. Leslie Dorrough Smith of Avila University compares the state of the field from the view of HigherEd administation and the professorate. Join other program leaders to learn how to better document the impact we make on students.

Are you coming to the REL Strategy Group tomorrow? Friday at Noon Central, Dr. Leslie Dorrough Smith of Avila University compares the state of the field from the view of HigherEd administation and the professorate.

“What Does It Mean To Be Mormon and American?: Scripturalizing John J. Stewart’s Pamphlets Program!”

This Friday at Noon Central, Casey A’Hearn presents at Off-Script: Conversations on Scriptures, and Our Subfield. Register at sowingtheseed.org/off-script!

Poster for Off-Script advertising Casey A’Hearn’s presentation.

Noon Friday 11/14. Off-Script is on its way! Join us for conversation on scriptures, scholarship, and our subfield! @caseylogan0122 will lead us in asking “‘What Does It Mean To Be Mormon and American?’ Scripturalizing John J. Stewart’s Pamphlet Program.” Scholars and graduate students come join us.

Episode 21: Gender Violence in Late Antiquity with Dr. Jennifer Barry Dr. Jennifer Barry (Associate Professor of Religious Studies at University of Mary Washington) discusses her latest book, Gender Violence in Late Antiquity: Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagina…

Great chat with Dr. @jennisifire.bsky.social about her latest book, Gender Violence in Late Antiquity: Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagination (Univ Cali Press). It’s on Broadcast Seeding now! sowingtheseed.org/podcast/epis...

Finding Your People at Off-Script In Dare to Lead , there is a story about a center director at a research university who was facing a confidence problem. He had apirations of completing his doctorate, but his life went another direction. Grad school din't pan out. His family fell apart. He moved back home and had to restart his life. Brick by bring, he rebuilt his sense of self--new family, new career, new institution.

One of my favorite things is that Off-Script has been one of those rare places where scholars-- at least for a moment --have been able to rest in having found some people with whom they can be, listen, work, and build together.

Please reskeet: CFP is open for the North American Patristics Society meeting, May 21-23, 2026 in Chicago

Submit abstracts either for the general call or to a pre-arranged theme, or you can submit a whole planned session!

Deadline is Nov 19th, details at link:

www.patristics.org/annual-meeti...

Vegetal, Anyone? I submitted an article last week, so I'm back on the grind for my next book. Yesterday, one of my students was saying how hard it was to disabuse oneself of scholarship as finished work. We all know (and hope for) that finality to be an illusion if we want our work to actually be engaged. I want to write things that will give people something to talk about.

Learning new words. Writing new words. What is it all for anyway?

Closed a billion tabs on my phone on accident. Feels so good. Do it.Trust me!

May be over the hump on one of my book projects. We’ll see. It’s too early to call. #amwriting

Strategies to strengthen the academic study of religion Strategy group meeting and REL Toolbox to help departments remain strong in a challenging time

@seedpods.bsky.social is now steering the RELtoolbox and has linked it to something new he’s cooking up and he needs your help.

religion.ua.edu/blog/2025/10...

ListServ, Who Knew? Off-Script Newsletter I had no idea ListServ could produce HTML newsletters. Who knew? If you haven't signed up for the Off-Script Newsletter, drop your email in the form below so you can stay up on all the news happening in the critical comparative study of scriptures.

ListServ, Who Knew?

Off-Script Newsletter I had no idea ListServ could produce HTML newsletters. Who knew? If you haven't signed up for the Off-Script Newsletter, drop your email in the form below so you can stay up on all the news happening in the critical comparative study of scriptures.

Well said! I think there’s a lot of crosstalk in this AI moment about what we (students, teachers, admins) think is going on in the classroom.

Teaching Lessons from the Mat I have never had the type of hobbies that are shared by the masses. I have played golf once. I've never been confident enought to play pickup basketball. (I'm not whether the flesh is willing and the sprit is weak or the other way around.) I played one disastrous season of league softball, but that's a story for another time. 😉 …

Teaching Lessons from the Mat

I have never had the type of hobbies that are shared by the masses. I have played golf once. I've never been confident enought to play pickup basketball. (I'm not whether the flesh is willing and the sprit is weak or the other way around.) I played one disastrous…

Off-Script Off-Script is a monthly Zoom conversation for graduate students and scholars interested in the critical comparative study of scriptures. Think of it as a get-together for our subfield to conne…

Dr. Rachel Schwaller (@universityofkansas) will kickoff our first Off-Script of Fall 2025! Get ready to learn about her new project, “(Un)scripted (Un)settlement: Mapping the Language of Homeless Encampment in Lawrence, KS.”Fri. 9/12, Noon-1pm Central. Register at sowingtheseed.org/off-script

Off-Script is Back, Jack! Throughout 2025, we hosted Off-Script, a monthly conversation on scriptures, scholarship, and our subfield. Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, the Institute for Signifying Scriptures, and the Society for Comparative Research on Iconic and Performative Texts, these Zoom discussions have been a great place to both develop and showcase a critical comparative approach to the study of scriptures.

Off-Script: Conversations on Scriptures, Scholarship, and Our Subfield is back this Fall! Our first gathering will be with Dr. Rachel Schwaller (University of Kansas) on Sept 12.

6 Little Ways I Fought Back Against Our Technological Present I’m not anti-tech. I’m just wantonly old school.

6 Little Ways I Fought Back Against Our Technological Present

Scriptures Everywhere: Barracoon The Institute for Signifying Scriptures is launching a monthly, online seminar. The theme for this Fall 2025 is Memory and we'll be reading Zora Neale Hurston's Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo." The meetings will take place on the first Friday of each month at 10am Pacific. ISS asks that you register at signifiyingscriptures.org. While you're there, check out previous episodes of their podcast…

The Institute for Signifying Scriptures is launching a monthly, online seminar. The theme for this Fall 2025 is Memory and we'll be reading Zora Neale Hurston's Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo."

aarweb.org/news/the-rel...

Coming soon from @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social

still got a few left. interested grad students & contingent folks, email me your mailing address and i’ll send you a free hard copy.

“Multiplicity and the Idea of Scripture.” Last semester at Off-Script, Dr. David Lambert shared how he was reconceptualizing his understanding of "scripture" in light of assemblage theory. Happy to share that you can find his thoughts on this in print!

Last semester at Off-Script, Dr. David Lambert shared how he was reconceptualizing his understanding of "scripture" in light of assemblage theory. Happy to share that you can find his thoughts on this in print!

Get Off My Lawn and Leave my Footnotes Alone! The story of my writing career in one scene. Please convert your footnotes to in-text citation? Fine, I'll make the switch. Can you meet me halfway with chapter endnotes? Book endnotes! Isn't that a lot of work for the reader, sifting back through the bibliography to find the endnote section? ...not if there isn't a bibliogrpahy. You gotta be kidding me.

Long live the footnote--and the index too!

Dramatizing Religion in Anastasia: The New Broadway Musical The medium isn’t the only the adapted in the film to musical prodcution of Anastasia.

The medium isn't the only thing adapted in the film to musical production of Anastasia. My latest on the blog.

sowingtheseed.org/2025/08/04/d...

Biz Markie, Sampling, and Signification Theory Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy declared, "Thou shalt not steal" in his 1991 decision in the civil case Grand Upright Music Limited v. Warner Brothers Record, Inc.. How does signification theory help to unde...

Glad to see this piece of student-scholarship on a key development in intellectual property law. Religion in Culture MA student Maggie Weatherwax uses signification theory to break it down. religion.ua.edu/blog/2025/06...

Criminally underrated: research databases that actually work with institutional logins and bring you directly back to the desired document.

Cover of An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives by Inger Furseth and Pal Repstad. Second Edition. The cover image is a mosque and a church.

Prepping my new Sociology of Religion course and pleased to see @suzanneowenphd.bsky.social referenced!

What’s the word for refusing to do something because even though you might actually like doing the thing you hate bandwagons more? Um…asking for a friend.

1 Samuel 3 is about little children refusing to sleep at night and the parents who have given up. “I did not call for you!” is my new motto. #biblicalstudies #parenting

Has anyone seen studies on academic conference attendance over the past decade (esp. since 2019)? I'm especially interested in seeing trends religoius studies and the humanities. #highered #religiousstudies #humanities