Core Faculty

The Religious Studies Program The University of Missouri-Kansas City Core Faculty

	In addition to adjunct faculty drawn from the Consortium's participating institutions, the Religious Studies Program has three full-time, core faculty.
		Dr. Gary L. Ebersole Professor of History and Director of the UMKC Program in Religious Studies Dr. Ebersole is an expert in Japanese religions, and specializes in the comparative-historical study of religion. His current interests include religion and emotion, including the phenomenon of ritual weeping; religion and the body; and religion as it relates to issues of time and space. He is the author of Ritual Poetry and the Politics of Death in Early Japan (Princeton University Press), and Captured by Texts: Puritan to Postmodern Images of Indian Captivity (University Press of Virginia). 204 Haag Hall (816) 235-5704 Email Dr. Ebersole
		Jeffrey Bennett, Assistant Professor Ph.D., University of Chicago Social Theory, Historical Anthropology, Revitalization Movements, Tropes of Social and Bodily Disorder, Psychoanalysis, Portugal, India Jeff Bennett is an anthropologist interested in radical social change processes, including human attempts to revitalize disorganized lives and communities. He is a core faculty member in the Religious Studies Program at UMKC. He began exploring these themes in his Ph.D. dissertation, which examined the ways religious practice and popular pietism became coordinated with authoritarian politics in Portugal in the wake of the country’s 1910 Republican Revolution. At present he is revising the dissertation for book publication. Subsequent to doing ethnographic and archival research in Portugal, Jeff earned an International Diploma in humanitarian assistance from Fordham University and he served as an Assistant Collegiate Professor and Harper Fellow at the University of Chicago. Teaching Areas: Introduction to Anthropology Anthropology of Religion Methodological Approaches to the Study of Religion Visions, Dreams and Prophesies as Religious Phenomena Research Areas: Social Theory Historical Anthropology Revitalization Movements Tropes of Social and Bodily Disorder Psychoanalysis Portugal India
		Theresa Torres, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Ph.D., Catholic University Latinos/Hispanics in the United States, particularly in the Kansas City area, Diversity on College Campuses, Marian Devotion, Gender Issues, History of Latinos within the U.S. Roman Catholicism, Immigrants in the U.S., Hispanic Women and the Role of Religious Belief within Their Social and Civic Activism Research Areas: Dr. Torres is a core faculty member in the Religious Studies Program at UMKC. She has conducted ethnographic studies of the Latino community of the Kansas City Westside neighborhood from 1998-2000. She has recently returned to the area and is continuing her research and focus on Latinas and their religious and civic activism. She is also working on developing a history of the second and third generations of Latinos living on the Westside. Dr. Torres is also working collaboratively on a project that is studying the religious and cultural climate of campus life on three Midwestern campuses. One of the project’s goals is to assess the students’ perceptions of the university, e.g. the acceptance or rejection of diversity and the students’ perceptions of their comfort levels while on the campus. These perceptions will be one way to explain the development of the culture of the university and the level of comfort among students of diverse backgrounds. The purpose of the research is to assist college campuses in understanding the cultural and diverse climate of campus life and to develop ways to help all students feel comfortable and successful within the academic environment. Publication: “La Quinceñera: Traditioning and the Social Construction of the Mexican American Female,” in Futuring Our Past, ed. Orlando Espín and Gary Macy, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2006. Teaching Areas: Immigration and Culture: Latin American Immigrants and Refugees in the United States Cultural Anthropology Ethnicity (Religious Studies course: Gender and Religion)