Sommervogel Archive is Relocated

Michael Donahue's excellent resource, the Sommervogel Archive, is now hosted on Division 36's new webspace. To access it, go there with this link. You also can reach it through the Resources link on my main page.

Independent Lens - PBS

For those of you who are in the US, check your television listings to view Independent Lens. The series is showing two films that are of interest to psychologists who study religion. One is Scenes From a Parish, about racial tensions in a Massachusetts parish over a four-year period. The other, Knocking, offers a look at the Jehovah's Witnesses who are known for their door-to-door proselytizing efforts. Your local show times will vary. Look at this page to locate times in your area.

Essays Related to Religion

Here are two outstanding essays related to religion:

A fascinating examination of the intellectual and social history of Central Asia is found at Wilson Quarterly in an essay by Frederick Starr. He writes about the region's intellectual heights achieved about 1000 years ago, and the religious and other social factors responsible for its decline.

For something concerning morality, take the time to read David Grann's account of Cameron Todd Willingham's conviction for murder. Willingham's children died in a fire; he was convicted of setting the blaze and eventually was put to death for the act. The evidence seems clear, however, that he did not commit the crime, and Texas put to death an innocent man.

An IRB Nightmare

Institutional Review Boards are intended to ensure that people participating in research are being treated ethically, but sometimes their decisions seem senseless. Here is a story of a doctoral student required by her university's IRB to undergo 80 separate reviews of a project that, by all appearances, should have been exempt from review. Read her account of a process gone awry.

Sigh.

Kim Peek Dies

If I were to begin my psychology career now, and if I studied something other than the psychology of religion, it would be to study people like Kim Peek. Born without a corpus callosum, Peek was the inspiration for the movie Rain Man. His amazing ability to memorize left him with an estimated 9000 - 12000 books committed to memory, but at the cost of learning conceptual things with tremendous difficulty. Peek died December 19, 2009, of a heart attack at the age of 58. If you are interested in psychology, do yourself a favor and read about this remarkable person. His hometown newspapers offer stories here and here. This wikipedia biography also includes links to several media appearances that are worthwhile.

A Controversial Op-Ed at the Boston Globe

If you teach students, you may find this post at The Boston Globe to be of interest. The author, a professor of rhetoric and history at Babson College, compares her foreign students with her U.S. students, and finds the U.S. students falling well short of their foreign classmates.

SIPR News

The new edition of the SIPR News is now available. If you speak a language other than Italian, you can use Google Translator to view it in a language you probably do speak. The google translator will show about half of the newsletter in English; the latter half remains in Italian but you can copy & paste the remaining text into the translator to see it with a little more effort. There may be other online translation tools that work better, but when I tried Yahoo's "Babelfish" it was not able to translate the .pdf file. At any rate, the SIPR News is well worth reading for the summary of the recent IAPR conference summary it provides, including abstracts of presentations from the Italian scholars who attended.

Religion's Place in History

The study of religion in history is on the rise according to a report issued by the AHA. Nearly 40% of AHA graduate students, assistant- and associate-professors surveyed indicated that religion was one of the three most important areas of their work. Most other areas of study in history showed a decline in importance since 1992, the first date that data were collected; only religion, African-American, and cultural history showed increases.

I am not aware of comparable data in other disciplines, but the extent to which religion may be part of academic study deserves our attention. Like psychology more generally, the psychology of religion has natural connections to disciplines across the academic spectrum, from biology to sociology. Of course, the role of religion in psychology itself has been an important area of interest to psychologists of religion, who often see religion's place in psychology as being under-appreciated. One good example of this is Michael Donahue's work documenting religion's neglect in social psychology. You can download his 2005 article on this subject, Disregarding (and disrespecting?) religion in social psychology: The case
of the 1998 Handbook of Social Psychology from his site. It makes for interesting reading, whether your focus is social psychology or another aspect of psychology.

IAPR Highlights

Do you wonder what you missed at the recent IAPR meeting? Satisfy your curiosity by viewing abstracts and photos from the IAPR meeting, kindly hosted by SIPR.

Insight Turkey

The editor of Insight Turkey seeks people interested in reviewing books relevant to social and religious aspects of life in Turkey. as well as article manuscripts. If your research investigates Islam, religion and politics, or related topics, you may wish to consider Insight Turkey. This peer-reviewed journal publishes articles that address a broader range of topics than the title might seem to imply. The current issue includes such articles as:

• A Research Note on Islam, Democracy, and Secularism
  
• Democracy in Muslim Contexts: What Africa Can Bring to the Discussion?
  
• Islam and Democracy in Indonesia
  
• and Peacemaking between America and the Muslim World: A New Beginning?

Request from Turkey

The availability of sources on the psychology of religion varies greatly by region. A researcher in Turkey seeks books or other sources dealing with psychopathology and religion. If you happen to have something that you would be willing to send to him, please email me so that I can put you in touch. The field will be better for your willingness to share your materials.
Thanks!
mnielsen /at/ georgiasouthern.edu
(substitute @ for the /at/)

More from Mario Aletti

Earlier this year Professor Mario Aletti kindly sent me three books he and his colleagues edited. I posted a summary of the first of those books in March, but it has taken some time to finish work on the other two. They now are available on my website, where you can read abstracts of the chapters.

Religious Identity, Pluralism and Fundamentalism is a compilation of 36 articles on this common theme. Religion: Culture, Mind and Brain includes a wide range of pespectives on religion, from neuroscience to psychoanalysis. Particularly noteworthy articles by Belzen, Antonietti, Reich, Aletti, and De Paiva appear in both English and Italian translations. It is well worth reading, as these abstracts show.

Teaching vs. Research in UK Universities

The Times Higher Education reports on a study of promotion decisions in UK Universities. Among the findings is that research far outweighs teaching in evaluations of faculty seeking promotion. Teaching plays some role in promotion from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer, but even at that level research is weighted more heavily. This section from the article caught my eye:

One academic, speaking anonymously, said that while teaching and learning criteria were included in their university's promotion policies, they were not aware of anyone promoted on that basis.

An associate dean for teaching and learning in a traditional university, who also chose not to be identified, agreed there was a "real problem".

"In my experience, this has a direct impact on the perceptions of academics as to what is most important. Many are ruthlessly prioritising their own research over teaching commitments, even though it is the latter that financially sustains their departments," they said.

Beyond what they say, the fact that these scholars felt that they had to criticize the status quo off-the-record speaks volumes. Not that it is necessarily different in the US. Many institutions claim that excellence in teaching is central to tenure and promotion decisions, but it is far simpler to count the publications on a c.v. than to measure teaching excellence.

Circumcise Me: The Comedy of Yisrael Campbell

Yisrael Campbell, an Irish American Catholic who converted to Judaism, is a comedian in Israel. His film, Circumcise Me, offers a humorous and personal look at life as a Jewish convert. Several of my favorite lines are in this youtube clip, but if you can, see the film in its entirety. I caught it on the The Documentary Channel, available through the Dish Network. It may be available through other sources, too.

New Study: Prejudice in Europe

Researchers at the University of Bielefeld have released a study of prejudice in Europe. They surveyed opinions of 1000 respondents in each of eight countries: Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Poland and Hungary. Among the more important findings are that half of Europeans agree with the statement that their country has too many immigrants, and nearly a quarter agree that Jews have too much influence in their country. Slightly over half believe that Islam is a religion of intolerance.

There are substantial differences between countries as well. Lower levels of prejudice were observed in The Netherlands; higher levels in Poland and Hungary. Read more about the research.