Your May 2026 reads
Books featured by the alumni website Cornellians for May 2026 include, y Cornell College of Arts and Sciences alumni and faculty, a ‘poetic memoir,’ a study of the Gospel of John, and the final mystery from a genre luminary.
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Religious Studies News
Admitted Class of 2030 seeks real-world impact
Cornell admits the Class of 2030 emphasizing real-world impact, enrolling 5,776 students from 102 countries. At Cornell University, the diverse cohort reflects the land-grant mission and applied learning goals across multiple colleges.
Historic and swift: Mullally’s rise to Archbishop of Canterbury
Sarah Mullally’s historic installation as the first woman Archbishop of Canterbury highlights rapid institutional change within Anglicanism. Cornell University sociologist Landon Schnabel emphasizes how incremental reforms built support for her swift rise.
End-times rhetoric in US military ‘didn’t infiltrate, was invited in’
Use of Christian apocalyptic language by commanders reflects a climate shaped from the top down, says one Cornell expert. Another adds: the belief that Christians should actively bring about the end times rests on a misreading of the Book of Revelation.
Making an impression: A new approach to classical concepts of the image
For the ancient Greeks, an image could be understood as a seal pressed on a material to leave a mark, as opposed to an inferior imitation (mimēsis), scholar Verity Platt argues in a new book.
Daniel Gold, professor of Asian studies emeritus, dies at 78
Daniel Gold, a professor of Asian studies emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences, died on Feb. 16 in Ithaca. He was 78.
John: The life and times of the ‘maverick’ Gospel
The fourth Gospel of the New Testament holds many of the Bible’s most well-known passages, but also some of its controversies.
Indonesian women created a political voice through gendered care work
In "Domestic Nationalism," Chiara Formichi argues that during the 1920s to 1950s, Indonesian women’s domestic activities contributed to nation-building as a political project.
Weiner Family Summer Fellowship
Eligibility: Cornell undergraduates
This fellowship is given in honor of Gelek Rimpoche. It supports funding for summer experiential learning and research for a Cornell undergraduate student studying Buddhist practice in Asia. Funding is limited to travel, research materials, and living expenses. Preference will be given to a student with strong coursework in religious studies and Asian religions.
Joseph E. Connolly ’72 Memorial Prizes
Memorial prizes for undergraduate essays on religion and politics/society.
Eligibility: Cornell undergraduates from all colleges are eligible to apply.
Throughout history and across the contemporary global sphere, religious practice and ideology interweave themselves in the political and social fabric of human life. The Joseph E. Connolly ’72 Memorial Prizes are awarded to undergraduates who have demonstrated exceptional scholarship at the intersection of religion and politics or society. The Connolly Prizes seek to support, recognize, and inspire imaginative, wide-ranging undergraduate research that addresses these themes in any area of the humanities, and relating to religion(s), religious beliefs, and religious practices in the broadest sense.
We explore religious traditions through comparative, contextual and thematic studies. Our courses are built on the established scholarly tradition of the study of religion as an academic, as opposed to a confessional, pursuit.