Graduate Supervisors
Meet our Supervisors
The Department of Religious Studies is home to diverse faculty members available to supervise graduate students in a variety of specializations.
To connect with prospective supervisors, please contact the Graduate Administrative Assistant Doreen Drew.
Asian Field
Our research explores various topics across Buddhist studies and the study of East Asian Religions. Various approaches and methodologies are encouraged, including textual, literary, social historical, art historical, sociological and anthropological.
We study Buddhist literature in Chinese, Japanese, Sanskrit, Pali, and Tibetan; Modern and Contemporary Buddhism in Japan; Medieval Chinese Buddhism; Buddhist thought; doctrine and practice in East Asian Buddhism.
Research covers a wide range of topics, including: Taoist canonical literature, the construction of Shinto, Chinese science, alchemy and medicine, the New Religions of Japan, the relationship of Buddhism with indigenous East Asian traditions (Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto), religion and modernity in East Asia and popular religion in East Asia as seen in literary works.
James Benn
PhD
Professor, Religious Studies
Director, McMaster Centre for Buddhist Studies
Chair of Graduate Affairs, Religious Studies
Judaism & Christianity in Antiquity
We focus principally on the study of ancient Jewish texts from the Babylonian Period (586 BCE) to the early rabbinic period (200 CE) as well as the New Testament and early Christian literature. We encourage a variety of methodological approaches to these materials.
Early Judaism: Research is concentrated on the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of the “Apocrypha” and “Pseudepigrapha,” early Rabbinic and Greco-Roman period Jewish sources and ancient Jewish biblical interpretation.
Early Christianity: Research includes the writings included in the New Testament, particularly the gospels, Pauline literature, Hebrews and the early Greek Church Fathers.
Hanna Tervanotko
PhD
Associate Professor, Religious Studies
Graduate Chair, Religious Studies
Western Field
Research in this area is sponsored in various topics across the four main fields of study: Religion & Politics, Religion & Culture, Western Religious Thought and Islamic Studies.
Religion & Politics: We study accounts of the interrelations between religion, ethics, and politics from ancient Greece to the modern West.
Western Religious Thought: Research examines philosophy of religion, theology, and ethics (Islamic, Jewish, Christian, secular) in the classical and modern periods.
Religion & Culture: Focus is primarily on the anthropology of religion. Students acquire a thorough knowledge of the historical development, contemporary theory and methodological approaches of the field.
Jewish Studies: Stay tuned! More details coming soon.
Islamic Studies: Study Islamic texts and peoples. We also offer the opportunity to study Arabic.
Dana Hollander
PhD
Associate Professor, Religious Studies
Member, MA Program in Cultural Studies & Critical Theory
Associate Member, Department of Philosophy
Travis Kroeker
PhD
Professor, Religious Studies
Adjunct & Associate Member, Institute on Globalization & the Human Condition
Zdravko Planinc
PhD
Associate Professor, Religious Studies
Celia Rothenberg
PhD
Associate Professor, Religious Studies
Adjunct & Associate Member, Anthropology
Adjunct & Associate Member, Institute on Globalization & the Human Condition
Chair, Religious Studies
Chair of Undergraduate Affairs, Religious Studies
Liyakat Takim
PhD
Professor, Religious Studies
Adjunct & Associate Member, Institute on Globalization & the Human Condition
Sharjah Chair in Global Islam
Ellen Amster
PhD
Adjunct & Associate Member, Religious Studies
Adjunct & Associate Member, Anthropology
Adjunct & Associate Member, Institute on Globalization & the Human ConditionJason A. Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine, McMaster University Medical Centre
Associate Professor, Family Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences
Member, McMaster Institute for Research on Aging (MIRA), McMaster University
Associate Member, Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, Faculty of Health Sciences
Jason A. Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine, McMaster University Medical Centre
Information Box Group
Research in Religious Studies Explore Our Research
We actively encourage the research interests of our students. While the faculty and areas of research expertise have changed over the years, the Department’s commitment to the open, critical, and multidisciplinary study of religion — past and present, East and West, theoretical and practical — remains passionate and strong.