- Professor of Religious Studies and Cinema and Media Studies, by special appointment, Hamilton College
Professor Rodriguez-Plate's research revolves around one main idea: Religion is about bodies, not beliefs. Our bodily senses (smell, taste, touch, hearing, looking) effect the ways humans are religious, while religious traditions create power and influence by altering the ways we perceive. At the heart of religious life are sensual, bodily encounters.
Rodriguez-Plate's studies and courses range from developments in cultural anthropology, art history, film studies, and evolutionary science, along with religious studies. Among his 14 books are "Blasphemy: Art that Offends" (2006), "A History of Religion in 5½ Objects" (2014), and "Religion and Film" (2nd ed, 2017). He is co-founder and managing editor of Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art, and Belief, and serves on several editorial boards for journals and book series.
His essays have been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Religion Dispatches, The Christian Century, Huffington Post, Killing the Buddha, America, and elsewhere.
For more information, please visit: www.sbrentplate.net
Experience
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2008–presentVisiting Associate Professor, Hamilton College
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2007–2008Associate professor, Texas Christian University
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2001–2007Assistant Professor , Texas Christian University
Publications
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2017Religion and Film: Cinema and the Re-Creation of the World (2nd ed), Columbia University Press
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2017Religion in Museums. Co-edited with Crispin Paine, Gretchen Buggeln, Bloomsbury Academic
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2014A History of Religion in 5 1/2 Objects, Beacon Press
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2007The Religion and Film Reader. Co-edited with Jolyon Mitchell, Routledge
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2006Blasphemy: Art that Offends, Black Dog Press
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2004Walter Benjamin, Religion, and Aesthetics: Rethinking Religion Through the Arts, Routledge
Grants and Contracts
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2013Drums at the Smithsonian
- Role:
- Primary
- Funding Source:
- American Philosophical Society
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2009Japanese Gardens
- Role:
- Primary
- Funding Source:
- American Academy of Religion
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2006Baker Nord Humanities Center, Case Western
- Role:
- Fellow
- Funding Source:
- Case Western Reserve University
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2004Fulbright German Studies Seminar Grant
- Role:
- Primary
- Funding Source:
- Fulbright Commission
Contact S. for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Research collaboration
- Research supervision
- Location: Clinton, New York, U.S.
- Website
- X (formerly Twitter): @splate1
- Article Feed
- ORCID
- Joined