Dr. Michael McNally is a professor of religion at Carleton College. He became involved with the Pluralism Project while doing his doctoral studies at Harvard University. He was instrumental in developing the Native Peoples' Traditions section of the first edition of On Common Ground: World Religions in America CD-ROM in 1997 and served as a senior academic reviewer of that section in the 2013 updated and online version. He became an affiliate of the Pluralism Project in 2004 with a project on Native American religious and cultural freedom.
Dr. Vasudha Narayanan is distinguished professor of religion at the University of North Florida. She was instrumental in the founding of the Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions at the University of Florida. Dr. Narayanan became a Pluralism Project affiliate in 1998 and profiled Hindu temples in Georgia, Florida, Michigan, and California.
Dr. Corrie Norman is the associate director of the religious studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was formerly an assistant professor of religion at Converse College in North Carolina. During her time at Converse, Dr. Norman became an affiliate of the Pluralism Project and engaged her students in "Gender, Food, and Meaning: Mapping Religious Diversity in Charlotte, NC," a two-part study of religious diversity in the city of Charlotte and of ritual and festival life of new immigrant religious communities.
Dr. Paul Numrich is Professor in the Snowden Chair for the Study of Religion and Interreligious Relations at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. He became a Pluralism Project affiliate in 1998 while a research assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His first affiliate research project (1998-2001) focused on the landscape of Buddhism in Chicago; the second (2010) was on mosques in the same city.
Dr. David Odell-Scott and Dr. Surinder Bhardwaj became Pluralism Project affiliates in 1999. Together, Drs. Odell-Scott and Bhardwaj engaged their students in a study of immigrant religious communities in northern Ohio. Dr. David Odell-Scott is an associate dean at Kent State University and directs the College of Arts and Science's Center for Comparative and Integrated Programs. Dr. Surinder Bhardwaj is professor emeritus in the geography department at Kent State University. Upon Dr. Bhardwaj's retirement, Dr. Odell-Scott was joined in 2013 by Rev. Lauren M. Odell-Scott in the continuation of this project.
Dr. Eboo Patel is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), based in Chicago, Illinois. He received his PhD from Oxford University. IFYC works with colleges and universities across the country to make "interfaith cooperation a social norm." Pluralism Project funding helped support the second youth and interfaith conference in the spring of 2004.
Dr. Karen Pechilis led a group of researchers in mapping the historical religions new to the American context in northern and central New Jersey. Their work began in 1999 and with an emphasis on communities that had built, or were currently engaged in building, houses of worship. The project focused on Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism and explored issues of community and identity in these traditions in the American context. Issues of the continuity with tradition and the challenge to traditional formulations as well as the American context informed the inquiry. A group of six academics at Drew University constituted the core working group for this study, including:
Dr. David Reis is a visiting assistant professor in the Religious Studies department at the University of Oregon. He became a Pluralism Project affiliate in 2001 while teaching in the religious studies department at Wells College in Aurora, New York. His research mapping the religious diversity of Central New York ran from 2001 to 2002. As part of this project, Dr. Reis and students enrolled in his "Introduction to World Religions" course visited religious sites, attended services, and interviewed community members.
Dr. Russell Rhoads is an associate professor of anthropology at Grand Valley State University. He became a Pluralism Project affiliate in 1998. Together... Read more about Russell Rhoads
rhoadsr@gvsu.edu
Grand Valley State University
Allendale, MI
Dr. Brent Plate a professor of religious studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. He is author of several books and co-founder and managing editor of... Read more about S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate
Ms. Colleen Rost-Banik became a Pluralism Project in 2002 with her research on religious diversity and civil society in Maine. After graduating from...
Dr. Thomas Russell and Dr. Lawrence Snyder became Pluralism Project affiliates in 1999 while both were teaching in the religion department at Western...
Dr. Omid Safi is the Director of the Islamic Studies Center at Duke University and specializes on Islamic mysticism, contemporary Islamic thought, and...
Dr. Steven Schroeder became a Pluralism Project affiliate in 1998 while teaching religion and philosophy at Capital University, Dayton Center. His project...
