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Completed M.A. Thesis Topics

Christians and Covid-19: Church during a Public Health Crisis
Amelia Anderson – 2021

Rednecks, White Muslims, and Hillbilly Tafsir: Islam and Non-Normative White Religious Subjectivity in the American South
Zachary Faircloth – 2020

Natatur Ammal and the Prapanna Parijata: Exploring Connections to the Tenkalai and Vatakalai Schools of Srivaisnavism
Joshua McKinley – 2019

The Embodiment of Affirmation: Shiva in Tulsidas’ Ramacaritamanas as a Symbol of Sectarian Unity
Dustin Hall – 2019

The Red Line Republic: Ritual, Symbolism, Space, and Repression in Ba’athist Iraq
Megan McDaniel – 2018

Weapons of Science and Piety: Islamic and Muslim Environmentalism in the Muridiyya of Senegal
Aya Cockram – 2018

Southern Crescent: Muslim Youth in the American South
Robert M. Hartley – 2017

Heels, Hair, and Holiness Dress: Modesty and Fashion among the Women of the United Pentecostal Church
Megan Geiger – 2016

Steps to an Ecology of Religions: Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics in the Cognitive Science of Religion
John Balch – 2015

Spiritual Seeking: A Post-Structural Ethnographic Study
Caroline Reed – 2015

Is Spaghetti Vedic? Cooking for Krishna in America
Alysia Radder – 2014

Rounding up Christian Cowboys: Myth, Masculinity and Identity in Two Texas Congregations
Sarah Moczygemba  – 2013

Contemplating Modern Ecological Yoga: Wild Practices for the Preservation of the World
Keri Johnson – 2013

The Sustainability of the Catholic Worker Movement through Bioregionalism
Victoria Machado – 2013

Healing the Land: A Charismatic Environmental Theology
Melissa Richards – 2013

Engaging in the World: Seva in Hindu Bhakti Traditions
Ved Patel – 2012

Tea and the Hidden History of Islam
Jennifer Dick – 2010

Ritualizing Navaratri: The Power of Choice in the Performance of Identity in Gainesville, Florida
Carly Dwyer – 2009

Muslim Cultures and the Walt Disney World Theme Parks: The Spread of Religious Perceptions in a Global Market
Ann Marie Palmer – 2009

Latter-Day Anguish and the Epic of Greater Mormonism
Seth L. Bryant – 2008

Planet in Peril: The End of the World in Environmental Discourse
Robin Globus – 2008

The Making of an American Shinto Community
Sarah E. Spaid Ishida – 2008

Punk Rock Puja: (Mis)appropriation, (Re)Interpretation, and Dissemination of Hindu Religious Traditions in the North American and European Underground Music Scene(s)
James Wilson – 2008

The Only Paradise We Ever Need: Pantheism’s Sacred Geography in American Culture, with Case Studies Exploring the Writings of Edward Abbey, Thomas Berry, and Matthew Fox
Daniel Bernard Zaleha – 2008

Female Imagery in the Avadanasataka
Phillip Green – 2007

Hinduism in Cyberspace
Bradley Sterling Ackroyd – 2006

Celtic Christianity and the Future of New Religious Production
Joseph Dylan Witt – 2006

Meditation, Wisdom, and MRI Emotional Capacitance: Does Meditation Enhance Wisdom?
Marc Kurtzman – 2005

Adult Jewish Education: Historical Models and Contemporary Programs
Stacey Dyan Crandall – 2003

Bodies, Magic and Power: Transformative Milieux of Reclaiming Witchcraft Rituals Viewed Through Ritual Theory and Feminist Theories of the Body
Heather Joy Simpson – 2003

The Meaning of Environmental Ethics in J. G. Bennett’s ‘The Dramatic Universe’ 
Bruce W. Monserud – 2003

NeoPaganism: A Twenty-first Century Synthesis of Spirituality and Nature
Paul Chase – 2003

Religion and Politics in Films About the Vietnam War
Jay Michael Allbritton – 2003

Christian Thought as a Model of Religiously Informed Scholarship: Its Critique and Contribution Regarding the Epistemological Norms of the Academy
Todd Allen Best – 2002

Integrating Science and Religion: An Examination of Contemporary Efforts at Integration Offered by Giuseppe Del Re and Ken Wilber
Harold Gertner – 2002

Significance of Tristessa in Jack Kerouac’s Return from Buddhism
Thomas Jason Hunt – 2002

The Siksastaka of Sri Caitanya and the American Disciples of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Michael James Gressett – 2002

The Life of Ram Dass: A Perennial Interpretation
Sarah McCombs – 2001

Misreading American Religion
Paul Anthony Norman – 2001

Redefining the American Pagan Population
Sarah B. Cervone – 2001

A Past in Their Image: Christian Nationalist Reconstruction and Use of American History
Alexander V. Koster – 1999

Heavenly and Hellish Visitations: Implications of Lay Religiosity in Classical Pali Buddhism
Gregory Wise – 1998

Russian Icons: Religious Persistence of Ritual Illuminations and Templates of Authoritative Subterfuge
Jennifer A. Baum – 1998

Back from Damascus: The Evolution of American Unitarianism from Christian to Non-Christian Group
Van Eric Fox – 1998

Culture, Community, and Place: The Creation of a Thai American Religious Institution
Douglas M. Padgett – 1997

The Gelded Saint: Gay and Lesbian Identity in the Episcopal Diocese of Florida
Gregory Stephen Paxton – 1997

Holistic Nature: The Role of Science in the History of an Idea
Eric Lyons Thomas – 1997

Myth, Memory and Mimicry: The Animation of Eve/Mary Dualisms in American Culture Through Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Rebecca M. McKee – 1997

Searching for Community in a Border Zone: Transnational Migration and Collective Identity in a South-west Florida Catholic Parish
Marie Talbert Friedmann Marquardt – 1997

Who Speaks for God?: Intertextuality and 2 Samuel 16.5-14
Timothy Frederick Simpson – 1996

Mexican Retablos: The Art and Politics of Everyday Devotions
Lisa Breglia – 1996

Feminist Theo/Thealogy, Dialectical Thinking via Derridean Deconstructionism, and Starhawk’s Wiccan Goddess Symbolism:
Weaving the Multiplicities
Sun Chae – 1994

Luke’s Portrayal of the Jews and Judaism in Luke-Acts and its Relationship to the Sources of Anti-Semitism
Mary Ann Frederick – 1994

Siren’s Song: Evangelicalism and Civil Religion
Susan Lee Lewis – 1994

Women and Feminism in Islam and Judaism:  A Comparative Study of Two Feminist Thinkers, Judith Plaskow and Fatima Mernissi
Patricia J. Woods – 1991