Department of Religion News & Events
Karen McCarthy Brown receives the 2011 Department of Religion Distinguished Alumnus Award
The 2011 Temple University Department of Religion Distinguished Alumnus Award is tendered to Dr. Karen McCarthy Brown, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Drew University. The Award comes in recognition of the numerous important contributions that Brown has made to the academic study of religion and to the public understanding of religion. It also recognizes her most laudable service to religious communities whose faith traditions are often misrepresented and maligned in American public discourse. In such a capacity has Brown helped to assure the respect of religious freedom in the United States, one of the cherished principles on which our nation was founded. One would thus be hard pressed to find among the more than 400 graduates of our storied doctoral program – among whom are counted, some of the brightest luminaries in the academy – anyone who better exemplifies Temple’s mission “to create new knowledge that improves the human condition and uplifts the human spirit.”
Brown’s scholarly achievements and standing in the field bring further distinction to her alma mater, where in 1975 she successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on the symbolic system of Haitian Vodou, "The Veve of Haitian Vodou: A Structuralist Analysis of Visual Imagery,” under the direction of the late, great scholar of Caribbean religions Professor Leonard Barrett. Brown would later, in 1990, publish Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, which is widely considered a classic in the anthropology of religion and in feminist anthropology, and which is widely used in college and university classes throughout the United States. The book is now in its third edition and currently being translated into French. The Department of Religion is honored to count Karen McCarthy Brown among its most distinguished alumni.
Previous Recipients of the Temple University Department of Religion Distinguished Alumnus Award:
2010: Dr. Alwi Shihab, Special Indonesian Envoy to the Middle East and the Organization for Islamic Unity and formerly Foreign Minister for Indonesia (Ph.D. 1995)
2009: Dr. Joseph M. Murphy, Paul J. (C'62) and Chandler M. Tagliabue Distinguished Professor in Interfaith Studies and Dialogue, Georgetown University (Ph.D. 1980)
2008: Dr. Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Multifaith Studies and Initiatives, Reconstructionist Rabbincal College (Ph.D. 1990)
2007: Dr. James Zogby, President and Founder, Arab-American Institute (Ph.D. 1975)
2006: Dr. Colleen McDannell, Professor of History and Sterling M. McMurrin Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Utah (Ph.D. 1984)
ALSO:
Thanks to all who were able to join us at the Temple University Breakfast Reception at the AAR/SBL meetings in San Francisco! We look forward to seeing you again at future gatherings. Happy Thanksgiving to all!