Congratulations to our 2022 E.P. Adler Award recipients

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

In 2022 we continued to meet virtually for this event, and you may view the video of the 2022 celebration on our YouTube channel.

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

Carlos Ruiz Martinez: Carlos was nominated by Dr. Kristy Nabhan-Warren who says that he has been on fire in the American Catholic Studies circuit since he arrived at The University of Iowa two years ago. He has done an excellent job networking and has given several invited lectures this past year, including talks at Stanford, Amherst, and just this past week at the University of New Mexico, at a "Building Catholic Studies" event. Carlos was the Communications Assistant for the American Catholic Historical this past year. Currently, he is preparing to take his comprehensive doctoral exams in the fall of 2022 and was just named the Executive Director of the St. Louis-based Catholic Charities organization, Trabajador Social Clinico. Congratulations, Carlos on doing Catholic Studies in multiple venues and for your leadership in social justice and academia alike!

E.P. Adler Award

Awardee

Kendall Hostetler: Kendall was nominated by Dr. Diana Cates. She is an outstanding, senior RS major who stands out for her insatiable curiosity, her goodwill and collaborative spirit with fellow students, her intellectual excellence, and her ability to integrate her academic endeavors with the pursuit of a meaningful life and a promising future in service to 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

Peter Miller: Peter’s dissertation director Dr. Paul Dilley nominated him in recognition of his article, "Paper adoption and manuscript repair in Syriac cultural contexts," which will be published in the 2016-2018 Mellon-Sawyer seminar volume. It is at the intersection of book history, material culture, and group identity in its pioneering treatment of the adoption of paper, instead of parchment, by Syriac Christians in the Late Ancient and Medieval Eastern Mediterranean. Through comparison to the Arabic and Byzantine models of paper adoption, Miller argues that attention to linguistic and religious minority communities demonstrates a vital nuance lost in sole attention to the dominant language of a region. The article builds on data that he will make available online through a geospatial visualization user interface.

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

Tucker Gregor: Tucker was nominated by Dr. Kristy Nabhan-Warren who reports that he has hit the ground running since he arrived last summer. He has thrived in his coursework and has so impressed the Rhetoric Department, where he has a two-year TA ship, that he has been named a Department of Rhetoric Professional Development Program co-leader for this summer and the upcoming academic year. This is a big honor as it recognizes Tucker's teaching excellence. Tucker serves as the book series Where Religion Lives website coordinator and editor and has done a great job keeping the site fresh. Tucker’s research interests focus especially on how religious ideas, rituals, and representations shape young people’s attitudes and experiences of gender and sexuality in the U.S.

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

Andrea Scardina: Andrea was nominated by her dissertation director, Dr. Paul Dilley, who says that her research brings together visual culture, text analysis, and digital humanities in innovative and exciting ways. Dr. Dilley point to Andrea’s article, "Visual Culture as Evidence for Early Christian Book Preferences: A Study of Ambiguous Manuscripts on Christian Sarcophagi." The article approaches the longstanding problem of explaining the transition from the scroll to the codex in the ancient Mediterranean world by engaging a relevant piece of evidence that has been ignored in the scholarly conversation, namely, early Christian images of books, especially on sarcophagi. Andrea finds that Christians in fact still favored scrolls in this context, and carefully assesses the significance of this finding for the broader narrative surrounding the triumph of the codex.

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

John Sheridan: John was nominated by Dr. Raymond Mentzer who says that John is clearly among the best Graduate Teaching Assistants with whom he has worked in his twenty-one years at the University of Iowa. John’s expertise in working with undergraduate students in the development of their writing skills is especially noteworthy. He composed challenging and perceptive prompts for the essay assignments – and then helped the students to develop their responses as they interacted with one another in weekly discussion sections. Dr. Mentzer says, Thank you!

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

Rio Monk: Rio was nominated by Jacob Havel. She is open-minded and dynamic student. She is also studying psychology and regularly synthesizes psychological and religious studies viewpoints to make original contributions in class. Her scholarship is driven by the "big questions" of life that define work in religious studies and the humanities.

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

Osamamen Oba Eduviere: Osamamen was nominated by Dr. Kristy Nabhan-Warren, who says that she has done excellent, proactive work networking across campus units and disciplines since she arrived last summer. She has taken courses in GWSS, History, and Religious Studies, and is building a core committee of Africanists, ethnographers, and historians, here and outside the University of Iowa. Dr. Kristy notes that Osamamen had her first OpEd published on the topic of Boko Haram, which appeared in the Guardian, and that Osamamen manages the Twitter account of the University of North Carolina Press book series Where Religion Lives, proving updates on books that are under contract, in press, and published. Osamamen is building toward her eventual dissertation project on Nigerian women, gender, and religion.

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

Kaitlyn Lindgren-Hansen: Dr. Diana Cates nominated Kaitlyn who is an excellent scholar and teacher who is now hard at work on her dissertation, which has the intriguing title, “A Medium’s Media.” The topic is 19th-century spiritualism in the U.S., a movement in which mediums communicated with and channeled the spirits of dead people through various media, such as seances. Kaity is especially interested in how some spirit mediums represented their knowledge of the spirit world through the medium of creative writing. Kaity’s work cuts brilliantly across multiple disciplines, including religious studies, ethics, literary studies, and communication studies. She was awarded a summer internship for the Humanities for the Public Good, a project sponsored by the University of Iowa Obermann Center for Advanced Studies.

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

Eleanor Bryant: Eleanor was nominated by Dr. Ahmed Souaiaia who says she has been an excellent student in Dr. Souaiaia's courses. Eleanor first grew interested in Middle Eastern culture in high school by having a friend whose family was from the middle east, she got to spend time with their family, learning from them and getting involved in some of their activities. She was excited to learn more about Middle Eastern culture here at the UI and has been a very engaged student in several courses in Middle Eastern studies.

Barbara W. and Rex Montgomery Award

Awardee

Cinnamon Roe: Cinnamon was nominated by Dr. Raymond Mentzer who states Cinnamon displays all the qualities envisioned by Rex Montgomery when he established the Barbara W. and Rex Montgomery Award for academic excellence. She is double majoring in Religious Studies and Political Science with a specialty in International Relations. She is minoring in Art and, not surprisingly, an active participant in University Honors. In all of this, she has maintained an enviable record of academic success.

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

Kefas Lamak: Kefas was nominated by Dr. Raymond Mentzer who says of Kefas, “ I can think of no one more deserving of the Rev, Louis P. Penningroth Scholarship Award. Kefas’s skills as a mentor to undergraduate students and concern for their success are unparalleled. Dr. Menzer says In working with Kefas this spring in “Modern Religion and Culture” I have been deeply impressed by the care he has taken in preparing students for each of the three examinations. Equally remarkable is how, in every one of the weekly discussion sections, he provides a series of precise and thought-provoking questions focused on the reading assignment. The students have benefited enormously, and I am exceedingly grateful.”

Sonia Sands Scholarship Award

This scholarship was established in 1982 from donations to honor Sonia Sands, housemother of the Phi Epsilon Pi Fraternity for over 20 years. The award recognizes talented students in the area of Jewish Studies.

Awardee

Mattison Belardo: Mattison was nominated by Dr. Jay Holstein. She is a junior at Iowa majoring in Business Analytics and Information Systems. Her favorite courses have in common that they all push her to think outside the box and look at problems from many different angles. She is a third-generation hawkeye and has been admitted into the Master’s Program of Business Analytics here at Iowa. She will graduate from the Masters program in the spring of 2024.

Sonia Sands Scholarship Award

Awardee

James Cummings: James was nominated by Dr. Jay Holstein who says James has been a very enthusiastic participant in several of Jay Holstein’s courses. James heard much praise of Prof. Holstein from alumni who had taken courses with Jay, even before coming to the UI. Eventually he had the opportunity to enroll in some of Professor Holstein’s courses where he has been a very thoughtful and reflective student.

Sonia Sands Scholarship Award

Awardee

Emma Perkins: Emma was nominated by Dr. Jay Holstein. She is a criminology major with a religious studies minor on the pre-med track. Emma has maintained a high GPA and made the Dean's List two out of three semesters at The University of Iowa. And I might add, she asks some of the best questions of any student I have ever had.

Charles Schoen Interfaith Scholarship Award

This scholarship honors the late Charles Schoen, who served on the department’s Advisory Board for eleven years. The award is given to an undergraduate religious studies major, based on the student's academic record.

Awardee

Sam Frost: Dr. Diana Cates nominated Sam who is a religion major (and also a major in classical languages) with a very high GPA. Sam was in my course, Living Religions of the East, last semester and stood out as a highly engaged student who made great contributions to the discussion, and who always came to class extremely well prepared. Other professors in the department have had similar experiences with Sam.

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

Hasan Degerli: Hasan was nomianted by Dr. Diana Cates who says, "While Hasan’s research focuses on Early Christianity, under the directorship of Dr. Dilley, I requested that Hasan serve as the Teaching Assistant for my online course on ethics at the beginning of life. I knew his dedication to teaching excellence because I worked with him in our required graduate seminar on teaching and public engagement. Hasan did such a fabulous job, that I requested him again as my T.A. this semester for my end-of-life course. Hasan can now tell you all about religion’s roles in shaping people’s ideas, perceptions, emotions, and decisions concerning matters of life and death. As a teacher, Hasan is exceptionally conscientious and caring. While holding students to high standards, he effectively communicates to them just how important they and their education are."