Alphabetical by last name.
Don Parris
- Area: Buddhist Studies
- MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara 2023
- Juris Doctorate, UC Los Angeles
Tracy Pintchman
- BA, Film Studies, Cornell University, 1984.
- MA, Religious Studies, Boston University, 1987.
- PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1992.
- Areas of Study at UCSB: Hindu Studies, South Asian Religions.
- Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Deciphering the Goddess: The Feminine Principle in Brahmanical Hindu Cosmogony and Cosmology.”
- Current Employment: Professor and Director of International Studies, Loyola University, Chicago.
Anna Pokazanyeva
- BA, English and French Literature, Rutgers University, 2008.
- MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2011.
- PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2015.
- Primary faculty advisor: Barbara Holdrege
- Areas of Study at UCSB: South Asian Religions, Religions in North America, Religion and Culture.
- Title of Master’s Thesis: “Sacrifices Gone Wild: Eschatology in the Sauptikaparvan of the Mahabharata.”
- Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Here Comes The Yogiman: Tales of Enlightenment and (Super)power with Particular Reference to the Life and Work of Paramahansa Yogananda”
- Current Employment (as of 10/1/2015): Lecturer in the Religious Studies Program, Department of Philosophy, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Kelly Pollock
- BA, Religious Studies, Northwestern University, 2000.
- MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2003.
- Areas of Study at UCSB: Nature Religion in the United States, Women and Religion, Theories of Sacred Space and Ritual.
- Title of Master’s Thesis: “‘Between the Worlds’: Ritual Constructions of Sacred Space in Feminist Wicca.”
- Current Employment: Dean of Students, Division of Social Sciences, University of Chicago.
Katherine Komenda Poole
- BA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1991.
- MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1995.
- PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2001.
- Areas of Study at UCSB: Religions of South Asia.
- Title of Master’s Thesis: “From Battle Queen to Mother: The Rise of Daksina Kalika in Bengal.”
- Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Sojourn Through Saffron: The Life of Sadhvi Uma Shri Bharati and the Rise of Hindutva Religion and Politics in India.”
- Current Employment: Director, Shruti Institute for Vedic Arts.
Or Porath
M.A. East Asian Languages and Cultures, with Departmental Honors, 2012
Columbia University, New York, 2010-2012
Area of Specialization: Japanese History
Samuel C. Porter
- BA, Religious Studies, University of Oregon, Eugene, 1977.
- MDiv, Pacific School of Religion/Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, 1981.
- MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1985.
- PhD, Religion, Ethics & Society, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 1996.
- Areas of Study at UCSB: Religion in America, Sociology of Religion.
- Title of Master’s Thesis: “Religious Studies and Educational Reform in the 1980s: A Critical Analysis of Five National Commissioned Reports on Higher Education.”
- Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “‘The Wisdom of the Owl at Dusk’: Cultural Conflict and Moral Disagreement Over the Oregon Forests.”
Current Employment: Staff Interviewer, University of Oregon Survey Research Laboratory; Research Associate, Policy Interactive
Ellen Posman
- BA, Philosophy/Religion, Stanford University, 1992.
- MTS, Harvard Divinity School, 1995.
- PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2004.
- Areas of Study at UCSB: History of Judaism, Southeast Asian and East Asian Buddhism, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, History of Religions/Comparative Methodology.
- Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “There’s No Place Like Home: An Analysis of Exile in Judaism and Tibetan Buddhism.”
- Current Employment: Associate Professor of Religion, Baldwin-Wallace University.
M. Alyson Prude
- BA, Philosophy, Pomona College, 1998.
- MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2005.
- PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2011.
- Areas of Study at UCSB: South Asia, Tibetan studies, Anthropology of Religion.
- Title of Master’s Thesis: “Celibate Women, Empty Gompas: Leadership, History, Education, and the Status of Buddhist Nunneries in Nepal.”
- Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Death, Gender, and Extraordinary Knowing: The Delog (‘das log) Tradition in Nepal and Eastern Tibet.”
- Current Employment: Lecturer, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Maria del Rosario Jazmin Puignau
- BA, Theology, Universita Gregoriana di Roma, 2002.
- BA, Political Science, University of the Republic, Uruguay, 2003.
- MA, Political Strategy, National Institute for Higher Studies, Uruguay, 2004.
- Areas of Study at UCSB: Islamic and Christian Political Theology, Arabic, Islamic and Christian Philosophy, Qur’anic Studies.