The Department of Religious Studies has held the Annual E.P. Adler Awards Luncheon in the spring semester for over 50 years. After three years of meeting virtually for this big event, we were thankful to be back in person to celebrate our wonderful students and faculty.
The E.P. Adler Awards Luncheon is held to honor the memory of E.P. Adler, one of the department's founders. This event was established and endowed through the generosity of the late Philip and Henrietta Adler, with ongoing support provided by the family of Lloyd and Betty Schermer. We wish to thank Lloyd and Betty Schermer and all of our generous donors who give to the Department of Religious Studies. The department is honored to use some of these funds to award our bright and gifted students as shown here.
Congratulations to each one of our awardees, and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors!
2020 Awardees
E.P. Adler Award
Established by Betty and Lloyd Schermer to honor Betty’s grandfather, E.P. Adler, one of the department’s founders, and awarded to a graduate or undergraduate student in the Department of Religious Studies.
Awardee
Jocelyn Williams: Jocelyn was nominated by Diana Cates who writes, “Jocelyn was one of the brightest, most engaged, and committed students in my Happiness in a Difficult World class last fall. She was a true leader who inspired the other students to think more deeply than they thought possible. She is a political science major who recently added a religious studies minor—to her other two minors, Spanish and philosophy. Jocelyn plans to go to law school in a year and a half to prepare for a career in immigration law. As soon as she took a religious studies course, she understood what a huge impact a religious studies degree could have on her ability to deal compassionately and wisely with diverse and vulnerable people.”
Alice Marguerite Blough Award
Established in 1994 with a gift from the Estate of Alice Marguerite Blough in memory of her parents, Rev. Albert P. Blough and Estelle M. Blough, and awarded for the best graduate student research paper.
Awardee
John Sheridan: John was nominated by Kristy Nabhan-Warren who writes, “John’s paper for my Fall 2019 graduate seminar Gender and Religion, “Moving Beyond Monoliths: Hutterites, Feminism, and Religion” was an excellent examination of how media can distort the complex realities of non-mainstream religious groups. John asserts that in order to more fully comprehend the relationship between religion and gender within the context of the National Geographic television show American Colony: Meet the Hutterites, we must analyze “the broader discursive dichotomies (traditionalist verses modern, faith verses tradition, and traditionalist verse progressive liberal feminist) that National Geographic propagated and reified, as well as utilized to bolster and legitimize their program.” John is currently working on editing and revising his paper to submit for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.”
John P. Boyle Award in Catholic Studies
Established in 1998 in honor of John P. Boyle who served as a professor in the Religious Studies Department from 1972-98, and director from 1979-89. This award is given to a graduate or undergraduate student in religious studies, based on academic excellence and outstanding work in some area of Catholic Studies.
Awardee
Jan Rippentrop Schnell: Jan was nominated by Diana Cates who writes, “Jan came to the UI with little background in Catholic studies. She worked incredibly hard with me to master in a year what takes many students several years to gather, which is Thomas Aquinas’s moral psychology and his ethics of virtue. While very skeptical at first that Aquinas could have anything to do with the thoughts of 21st century women social justice organizers, she came to appreciate the central role that Aquinas’s work has had on the history of Christian ethical thinking about anger. Her study of Catholic thought culminated in a highly original paper that she co-published with me in the journal Religions, titled “Rethinking Anger as a Desire for Payback: A Modified Thomistic View.”
Catholic Studies Scholarship
This award is given to a graduate or undergraduate student who has expressed an interest in the general area of Catholic studies regardless of religious background.
Awardee
Carlos Ruíz-Martínez: Carlos was nominated by Kristy Nabhan-Warren who writes, “Carlos has done a phenomenal job his first year of the Ph.D. program conducting research on Latinx Catholic histories. His work on Midwestern Latinx Catholicism has been recognized and supported by The University of Notre Dame’s Jean and Anna Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism and St Louis University’s Lived Religion in the Digital Age (LRDA). Carlos’s paper for my Gender and Religion seminar in the fall 2019, “Discerning Sanctuary: The Adorers of the Blood of Christ in the 1980s Sanctuary Movement,” demonstrates Carlos’ skill in ethnohistorical methods. In his first month in the graduate program here, Carlos published his first essay, “Two Years Too Long: Pilgrims Honor Alex García’s Sanctuary Journey with 14,000 Steps of Joyful Resistance” with Latino Rebels.”
Source: https://www.latinorebels.com/2019/09/26/pilgrimshonoralexgarcia/
Pres. and Mrs. Eugene Gilmore Scholarship
Established in 1985 to support the study of culture, humanistic values and the quest for new symbols in contemporary culture. This award was named for Eugene Gilmore, past president of the University of Iowa and supporter of the department. This award is given to a doctoral student in religious studies who has an interest in the relationship of religion and culture, especially the visual arts.
Awardee
Kaitlyn Lindgren-Hansen: Kaitlyn was nominated by Diana Cates who writes, “Kaity recently advanced from our MA program to our PhD program with an award-winning master’s thesis. She is an excellent and engaged student who is an inspiration to others. She is now fully invested in preparing a prospectus for a dissertation that explores the entanglement of religion, creative literature, and emotion in the maintenance of racist patriarchy and also in movements that aim to promote greater social justice in the U.S.”
Helen Goldstein Undergraduate Research Paper/Project Award
Established in 2012 to honor Dr. Helen Goldstein, who specialized in medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophy, and awarded to the best undergraduate student research paper or project.
Awardee
Clara Reynen: Clara was nominated by Jordan Smith and Kristy Nabhan-Warren who write, “Clara wrote an excellent paper entitled “Warm-up Practices and the Rituals of Performance.” Among performers across many disciplines, it is common convention to have an individual warm-up practice. Although there are similarities across these practices and among performers, the variation present among them signals a deeper connection to performance than simply readying their physical being for activity. This research paper seeks to explore the connection between warm-up practices and performances, their roots within these communities, and ultimately asserts that treating such practices as a ritual can help performers achieve a spiritual connection to their mode of performance. We should also mention that she graduated with Honors in Theatre with a project that focused on the lack of diversity within stand-up comedy.”
Alice Lampe Heidel and John B. Heidel Memorial Award
Established in memory of M. Willard Lampe, the founding director of the department and Mrs. Heidel's father; honors a graduate teaching assistant whose commitment to undergraduate teaching is evidenced by the outstanding performance of assigned teaching duties, and exceptional interest in and service to undergraduate students.
Awardee
Peter Miller: Peter was nominated by Robert Cargill who writes, “In addition to being one of the brightest students I’ve ever had the privilege of teaching, Peter Miller is one of the best teaching assistants I have ever had in my nine years at The University of Iowa, as underscored by his recent designation as a recipient of a 2019–2020 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award by the University of Iowa’s Council on Teaching. This is not only due to his phenomenal classroom and discussion section teaching ability, but also because of his knowledge of the vast subject material that my course covers. Peter is the kind of teacher who invites students to learn; he is not polarizing, but rather seeks to find some point of common ground with every student in an effort to get them to engage on their terms, and welcomes students wherever they are in their academic journey. He is a wonderful scholar, mentor, and person.”
Karl Hoffman Award
This award goes to an outstanding junior Religious Studies major who exhibits academic excellence, strength of character, and a broad and conscientious concern for ultimate and spiritual questions.
Awardee
Kaityn (Val) Timke: Val was nominated by Ellen Holstein who writes, “Val is in a class of 45 students (Quest) where the grade is based upon a midterm, a final and an essay and she is performing at the top of the class in the grades which have thus far been submitted (essay, midterm). More than that, her paper on 2001: A Space Odyssey was remarkably coherent and filled with thoughtful observations. It is one of the best papers I have read in Quest. There are a number of very good students in Quest this time around, which makes Val's performance on the paper and the exam all the more commendable. Moreover, she is both conscientious and diligent and has periodically checked with me to see that she is on the right track. It is a pleasure to recommend her for this award.”
M. Willard Lampe Scholarship Fund
Established in 2016 to honor the first Director of the School of Religion, this scholarship will fund a graduate student whose scholarship is likely to engage the public in ways that recognize and acknowledge diverse religious beliefs and foster religious tolerance.
Awardee
Darcy Metcalfe: Darcy was nominated by Diana Cates who writes, “Darcy’s dissertation project is engaging a broad and inclusive public on a critical issue of religious ethics, namely, the role that profound gender and racial discrimination have played historically in the U.S. in shaping medical research and the development and use of biomedical technologies. Drawing insight from a creative engagement with the thought of Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, Darcy argues that black women in the U.S. are particularly vulnerable to continued unjust harm at the hands of genetic science, most notably the science of genetically engineering human embryos. What Darcy aims to promote is a dramatic rise in social consciousness and conscience among genetic researchers, bioethics scholars, and the public.”
Barbara W. and Rex Montgomery Award
Prof. Rex Montgomery was a long-time supporter of the Department and past President of the Advisory Board This award is given to a graduate or undergraduate student in Religious Studies based on academic merit.
Awardee
Holly Alessio: Holly was nominated by Diana Cates who writes, “Holly is a fourth year Nursing major and Honors Student who is minoring in both Spanish and Religious Studies. She is the only student who has received a rare A+ in both of my Hard Cases in Healthcare courses. She is sure to prove the department right in holding that the best possible nursing care will be provided by people who have keen insight into the role that religion plays in shaping the imagination and the concerns of individuals who are facing matters of life and death."
Rev. Louis P. Penningroth Scholarship Award
Established by Rev. Penningroth's wife to honor her husband, this award goes to a graduate student who demonstrates a concern for fellow students through her or his teaching practices and skills as a mentor.
Awardee
Naiara Inacio Leão: Naiara was nominated by Ray Mentzer who writes, “A large measure of the Graduate Teaching Assistant’s charge is to provide guidance and support for undergraduates – and to do so in encouraging and genial fashion. Indeed, this approach and its application goes to the heart of the Penningroth award. Naiara has consistently and conscientiously displayed these crucial qualities. Her efforts to help students have been exemplary. Indeed, there have been but a handful of times when I have passed her office that she is not working with a student to fine tune an essay or prepare for an examination. Naiara’s dedication to student success is remarkable.”
Sonia Sands Scholarship Award
This scholarship was established in 1982 from donations to honor Sonia Sands, house-mother of the Phi Epsilon Pi Fraternity for over 20 years. The award recognizes talented students in the area of Jewish Studies.
Awardee
Traci Cruz: Traci was nominated by Ellen Holstein and Jay Holstein who write, “Deciding to go to college at the age of fifty-five is not for the faint of heart, but that is what Traci did. She is enrolled in the Bachelor of Liberal Studies with a track in families, community and social support and is now in her third year. She has been a wonderful student in our classes and is currently on the dean’s list with a GPA of 3.93. Traci has studied the influence of religion through intersecting parts of culture, society, and the political realm; and has gained the insight and knowledge that is, as she says, “needed to be a conscientious, informed and thoughtful individual in a multicultural world.”
Charles Schoen Interfaith Scholarship Award
This scholarship honors the late Charles Schoen, who served on the department’s Advisory Board for 11 years. The award is given to an undergraduate religious studies major, based on the student's academic record.
Awardee
Natalie Holmes: Natalie was nominated by Kristy Nabhan-Warren and Ellen Holstein:
Kristy notes: “Natalie is a wonderful student and all-around individual, and I am happy to be able to nominate her. Natalie was in my Religions in America Today in the Fall 2018 and was an excellent student. She has visited my office hours several times since taking the course and she is a fine representative of our major.”
Ellen notes: “Natalie is an outstanding student. She received a perfect score on her paper in Quest which has only happened 2 to 3 times out of the 25 semesters that I have taught the course and her overall performance in the course placed her at the top of the class.”
Robert and Mary Ann Small Stenger Religious Studies Scholarship
This scholarship was established in 2014 by a department alumna to provide support to a graduate student in religious studies.
Awardee
Michael MacDougall: Michael was nominated by Robert Cargill who writes, “In his first year at the University of Iowa, Michael has proved to be an excellent student making outstanding progress toward his degree studying Second Temple Judaism. He performed extremely well in my Dead Sea Scrolls and Flavius Josephus courses, as well as in my Biblical Hebrew I and II courses, and has shown himself to be an excellent researcher and superb writer. He has also proved to be an excellent TA for both Professors Cates and Souaiaia. Michael has also quickly become known as an affable member among the cohort of graduate students in Religious Studies and Classics, and is a constant presence in both the Jefferson Building and Gilmore Hall. He is encouraging to all around him and has rapidly become one of the leaders in our program, despite being a first-year student.”