Faculty List

Steven J. Friesen

Professor; Louise Farmer Boyer Chair in Biblical Studies

friesen@mail.utexas.edu  |  (512) 471-8629  |  BUR 418

Education   

Ph.D., Harvard University

Interests

  Social history of the early Christian churches; Roman imperial cults; Revelation and apocalypticism; indigenous religions; social locations and functions of religion

J. Patrick Olivelle

Professor; Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities

jpo@uts.cc.utexas.edu  |  512-475-6032  |  WCH 4.112

Education   

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Interests

  Ancient Indian religious history; ancient Indian legal tradition of Dharmasastra; Sanskrit

Thomas A. Tweed

Gwyn Shive, Anita Nordan Lindsay, and Joe and Cherry Gray Professor of the History of Christianity

tomtweed@austin.utexas.edu  |  512-232-8382  |  BUR 422

Education   

Ph.D., Stanford University

Interests

  Catholicism in America; Asian religions in America; religion and transnationalism; religion and place; method and theory in the study of religion

L. Michael White

Professor; Ronald Nelson Smith Chair in Classics and Christian Origins

lmwhite@mail.utexas.edu  |  512-232-1438  |  WAG 212

Education   

Ph.D., Yale University

Interests

  New Testament and Christian origins; social context of Jews and Christians in the Graeco-Roman period; Graeco-Roman Religion

Joel P. Brereton

Associate Professor

jpb@austin.utexas.edu  |  512-475-6024  |  WCH 4.114

Education   

Ph.D., Yale University

Interests

  Religion and literature of early India; Vedic studies; Sanskrit; Asian religions

Alison K. Frazier

Associate Professor

akfrazier@mail.utexas.edu  |  512-475-6375  |  GAR 2.148

Education   

Ph.D., 1997, Columbia University

Interests

  Premodern saints' lives; biblical exegesis; manuscript and print culture (bibliography); Machiavelli and torture; consolatoria

Virginia Garrard-Burnett

Associate Professor

garrard@mail.utexas.edu  |  512.475.7822  |  GAR 2.204

Education   

Ph.D., 1986, Tulane University

Interests

  Religion in Latin America with focus on Protestantism and new religious movements; intersection of religious and ethnic identity among the Maya; neo-pentecostalism in Brazil

G. Howard Miller

Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor

hmiller@mail.utexas.edu  |  512-475-7212  |  GAR 3.220

Education   

Ph.D., 1970, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Interests

  Religion in America; American intellectual history; religion and film

Martha G. Newman

Chair, Department of Religious Studies; Associate Professor

newman@mail.utexas.edu  |  512-475-8660  |  BUR 406 / GAR 3.408

Education   

Ph.D., 1988, Stanford University

Interests

  Medieval Christian monasticism; monastic miracle collections and monastic attitudes toward women and the poor

John W. Traphagan

Associate Professor

jtrap@uts.cc.utexas.edu  |  512-232-0874  |  BUR 426

Education   

Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh

Interests

  Religion and ritual; Japanese religion and society; medical anthropology; gender and aging; globalization; family and kinship

Oliver Freiberger

Assistant Professor

ofreiberger@mail.utexas.edu  |  512-471-8239  |  WCH 5.110

Education   

Ph.D., University of Göttingen, Germany

Interests

  History of early Buddhism in India; asceticism; comparison in the study of religion

David Lambert

Assistant Professor

dlambert@mail.utexas.edu  |  BUR 404

Education   

Ph.D., Harvard University

Interests

  History and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible; Classical and Rabbinic Judaism; early Christianity