Russell McCutcheon
@McCutcheonSays
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It all began in 1961 & the rest is history—from being a longtime Dept. Chair at the Univ. of Alabama to playing the accordion as a kid.
Tuscaloosa, AL
Joined October 2014
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Last Seen Profiles
Pinned Tweet
Just published in Religious Studies Review’s 50th anniv issue.
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Anybody notice that the people having real problems calling her Dr. Biden are having no trouble calling him Dr. Seuss? Go figure.
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You could build a whole course around this clip.
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Aaron Hughes and I are almost done editing nearly 20 well-known senior scholars’ essays replying critically to each others’ definitions of religion. Our hope is that readers get to eavesdrop on scholars talking to each other.
@OUPReligion
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I thought friends on social media would appreciate knowing that Prof. Jonathan Z. Smith passed away Sat, December 30 from complications from lung cancer. He requested cremation and no funeral or memorial service. An obituary will appear in the Chicago Tribune and NY Times.
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Author's copies arrived--time for another new book giveaway: by Dec 24 I'll be looking for some gifs posted to this thread that tell us what you're doing during the winter break. The two with the most likes get a copy. (So visit the thread and vote.)
@erringhughes
@OUPReligion
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Coming this February from
@BloomsburyRS
-- a book written by a team of scholars of religion but one that will be of use to almost anyone now teaching undergraduate classes.
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Another recent book for which I’ve seen no review yet: a diverse group of 17 int’l scholars are the contributors, each defining religion & then debating each others’ def’ns. Our substantive appendix then discusses other classic & contemporary def’ns.
@erringhughes
@OUPReligion
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@CharlesWMcKinn2
@jehiahdowdy
Too many syllabi treat students as if they're colleagues, making them read what faculty members themselves are reading/interested in, rather than faculty imagining themselves at 19 or 20, long before any of their current interests even developed. It's call teaching.
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And people say studying how “religion” gets used is navel-gazing.
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I'm from a generation schooled on Edward Said's _Orientalism_ etc., so I'm kind'a amazed by how resilient "West/Western" is, even among otherwise critically-minded scholars who today frequently use the designation unironically, as if it actually names something in the world.
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I found out the other day that the Int’l Association for the History of Religions awarded me an Honorary Lifetime Membership—wasn’t even aware I’d been nominated. It’s a real honor that int’l colleagues recognized my work in this way. Very appreciative.
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@pedantka
Call me crazy but despite not driving on all roads I'm happy to pay taxes to help paint lines on them all.
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In honor of conferences past I present you with the Atlanta Hyatt’s carpet, lower level, Fall 2010.
@NAASReligion
@AARWeb
@SBLsite
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Being a scholar isn’t about knowing everything. Instead, it’s about knowing your limits, being curious, and knowing how to find things out.
#methodnotdata
As academics, it’s really alright to say “I didn’t know this information” or “I’ve never read that.” Intellectual competitions breed further ignorance when we pretend to be privy to knowledge we really don’t know. And it’s alright not to know.
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We will greatly miss her. Izzy (2006-2022)—her age and health challenges just proved too much for our old girl, so this morning we said goodbye.
#boxersaregreatdogs
@hay_marcia
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@profsamperry
The degree to which faculty internalize measures placed on them by the admin & credentialing agencies — and then employ them in assessing their own peers — tells you just how right Foucault was when discussing governmentalité.
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New, expanded edition. Just published by Routledge.
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Just heard that the paperback edition is now being printed by
@degruyter_TRS
--it's $23 US. Not sure who's interested, but if you think the study of religion needs to be revamped, esp. in terms of how Depts function, you might want to give it a look.
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Now’s a good time to put in a plug for a still important book, no?
#ancienttraditions
#CoronationDay
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About 144 dept chair meetings, over 18 years, under my belt with the last of them today.
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Those working in a subfield of the study of religion, interested in what gets to count as religion, should find in recent US court decisions much to study. 1/
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Want a copy of my new
@degruyter_TRS
book? Reply here with a story of a classroom experiment that worked really well--or failed spectacularly--and whoever gets the most likes by Sat June 12 gets a copy mailed to them.
Let the games begin.
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I can't imagine ever again seeing someone with such field-wide expertise and impact, let alone with the wide ethnographic/language skills that Jonathan acquired. A tremendous loss.
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I’ll soon be releasing photos of myself signing my name to a blank sheet of paper with a Sharpie to allay fears that I’m not working this weekend.
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Baffled by something you unearth? Claim it was used for ancient magical, ritual, or religious practices and then everyone will nod in agreement, like we now understand the past.
#data
4,400-year-old life-size wooden snake unearthed in Finland may have been a staff used in “magical” rituals by a Stone Age shaman, according to a new study.
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The final ms. for this ed. book has just been submitted to
@EQUINOXPUB
and it'll be out later in 2024 -- an edited collection that will hopefully add real momentum to a long overdue conversation in our field concerning a variety of interesting futures for our graduate students.
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Our Dept collaborated with the National Museum of American History, with REL's team led by
@MichaelJAltman
and the grad students in our public humanities foundations course, to produce this online resource, featuring the work of some familiar scholars.
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Tell me you’ve never read any philosophy of science without telling me you’ve never read any philosophy of science.
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The second edition is due out later this year--with a new opening chapter and new introductions to all of the previous edition's chapters. Awaiting proofs.
@Routledge_Phil
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Does anyone really ever need any other examples of how definition is a strategic act, all about the consequences and not at all about the substance of the things being defined...?
#micdrop
President Trump will sign an executive order defining Judaism as a nationality, not just a religion, thus bolstering the Education Department's efforts to stamp out "Boycott Israel" movements on college campuses
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About 100 people dialed in today to hear updates on the state of the study of religion at WVU & Miami of Ohio, where big cuts & reorganizations are happening/impacting our field. Thanks to Aaron Gale & Nathan French, my guests.
@AARWeb
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Welcome home, Cora & Bella — sisters who now live with us.
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@pedantka
..., and what about sidewalks on — wait for it — BOTH sides of EVERY street, even if you don’t walk on them.
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@AOHSUsometimesY
I’m editing a book now, soon off to
@EQUINOXPUB
, on the need to revamp how we train doctoral students in our field, preparing them for diverse careers. And, on this topic, you know about the ci-written book, The New PhD (2021)…?
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The trouble is we’ve all known this for a long time but universities keep using them to provide the semblance of empirical assessments of teaching.
"Teaching evaluations, Stroebel concludes, fail to measure actual learning, illegitimately reward teacher attractiveness, penalize minorities and women, and trigger cascading grade inflation."
@GutkinLen
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That first morning, waking up in the conference hotel, a little jet lagged, no coffeemaker and you didn't think to bring a granola bar with you.
#SBLAAR2022
#naasr2022
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Word is that almost no one attended
@AARWeb
’s recent panel on alternate careers for students in our field. If you don't think that we have an internal (i.e., an inability to think creatively about the point higher ed is now at) then just mull that over for a moment.
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TFW you read something written in one specialty, far removed from your own, and understand it to be illustrating a general principle that cuts across sub-fields and is therefore relevant to your own work. That's what scholarship ought to be, if you ask me.
@ATobolowsky
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Yes, we're diving back into the pet pool by getting two 7 week old kittens in a week. Yes, we've stocked up on supplies. Yes, I put the heavy kitty litter bag down a little too hard. Yes, it split. Yes, I'm already walking barefoot in crunchy litter before the cats are even here.
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@alixabeth
“Countless professors” is a close cousin to starting an essay with “Since the beginning of time…”
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Proof arrived—upcoming in MTSR. The title is a quote from Bruce Lincoln’s 1995 reader’s report on that book’s ms when
@OUPReligion
sent it to him for an assessment.
@Brill_Religious
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Remember that time an MA advisee of mine was interviewing to join a PhD program elsewhere and a faculty member there put them on the spot in a public venue to defend what it is I do in my own work? That's the level of professionalism we get from some in the field.
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Almost time to start Zoom for a grad seminar on the problem of defining religion.
#REL512
@StudyReligion
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Further evidence that "religion" is a designator of social affinity/alienation and not some ethereal, pre-social quality akin to faith, experience, or belief.
New in
@jssrjournal
. What makes politicians "religious" to Americans? It's not primarily evidence of devotion or even whether you know their religion at all. It's mostly about whether you share their partisan or ideological identity as well as expected alignments on race & CN. 1/
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I wonder if anyone will talk about every time we walk into a classroom we’re public intellectuals. We all are. We always have been, even if you’re not writing op-eds or appearing as a talking head on cable news.
This coming Thursday! Make sure to register for “Religion & the Public Intellectual”!
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I started my PhD wanting to minor in Buddhism…, until I met the prof who, when I showed up for a meeting at her office, angrily asked “Who are you and why are you here?” I never returned, changed interests, and never regretted it.
I once heard a story about a student who went to Gayatri Spivak’s office hours, and she just did not acknowledge the student for an entire hour.
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TFW you and Aaron Hughes submit the full ms. to
@OUPReligion
for an edited project on defining religion that the two of you cooked up in the early Fall of 2017 and which involves 17 other scholars.
#agoodday
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Am honored by this announcement.
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5 years ago seems pretty fresh to me. In fact, if someone wanted to talk about something I published back in 1990 then I’d be pretty impressed by their deep cut knowledge.
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Humanities academia has long been run by people who came up through increasingly dire job markets but, as far as I can see, no structural changes have been made in doctoral programs, apart from things like CV writing workshops.
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Proofs arrived--congrats Barbara (from a conf she organized a few years ago in Norway,
@EQUINOXPUB
#comingattractions
#JZSmith
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Very pleased to hear that Fabricating Religion comes out in an affordable paperback edition from
@degruyter_TRS
this December.
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2 copies of this new book need a good home--by next Fri (Oct 22) the 2 replies with the most get one. So tweet back to this thread about an article/book that you're reading--in our field or not--that everyone else ought to know about too. And tell us why.
@Routledge_Phil
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Journals tend not to review our work lately so I hope people discover these 2 volumes—not written explicitly for students but, instead, anyone (students too) wanting to sharpen their critical tools by knowing the debates & where/when they began.
@erringhughes
@Routledge_Phil
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The only positive thing about the President’s first debate is now most of his prep team.
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Thanks
@degruyter_TRS
— just arrived and it looks wonderful. With a cover photo from
#RELalum
Caity Bell.
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@euthyphro
You’re in good company—classicists pronounce Ancient Greek words/names as 19th C German scholars did and modern Greeks think it’s weirdly hilarious.
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You like using Religion in Five Minutes from
@EQUINOXPUB
? You may be pleased to know that Aaron Hughes and I have recruited editors to create volumes of their own, on a variety of topics regularly taught in classes. More news soon.
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Very pleased to be at
@BHMAirport
again to pick up a job candidate for a tenure-track position in
@StudyReligion
. Lucky to have done this a lot over the past 20 years, meeting lots of good young scholars. This time for social theory &
#digitalhumanities
.
#growingdepartment
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And thus we arrive at what I’d call the primary divide in our field today—coz for some of us the focus is instead on the local, practical implications of claiming such universality.
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Final proofs. Out soon from
@Routledge_Phil
— with a follow-up volume (50 More Words) out later in the fall.
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This week in the capstone grad seminar on origins.
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We'll be looking at handbooks in REL 504 this semester.
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We’ll be reading
@bradstoddard
’s edited
@EQUINOXPUB
book to start our MA’s REL 504 this Fall, and grad students will be looking at the current journal literature & handbooks to judge the shape of the field today.
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I’ve seen a few tweets/threads recently (some well known to you, for sure) that indicate that, despite some claims that we’ve left them behind, all of the old debates in our field are still very much alive—def’n of rel, in/out problem, understanding vs. explanation, etc.
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