Professors Brian Karafin, Rachel Wagner and Amanullah De Sondy attended the annual conference of the American Academy of Religion in Montreal from 6-10th November. They were accompanied by students John Borchert, Shannon Sly, and Christa Petruzzi, supported by an Ithaca College Educational Grant Initiative award. Amanullah presented a paper within the Men’s Studies in Religion Group on the topic of his forthcoming monograph on ‘Islamic Masculinities in Texts, Traditions, Societies and Culture’ and participated in the Study of Islam Section of the conference. Rachel presented twice, once at the Wabash Center for Teaching and Theology's luncheon on pedagogies of virtual reality, and a second time on rituals and gaming in a blended session of the Ritual Studies Group and the Religion, Media and Culture Group.

I got to play video games for 15 weeks one semester -- and I got credit for it! But the course I took was a bit more sophisticated than a round of Mario Kart -- and that’s an understatement. It was actually a fascinating, mind-boggling class called Religion, Ritual, and Virtual Reality.

In every class we explored the digital universe -- for example, by playing in the world of...

PlayStation III and computer games aren’t common in most classrooms or on most syllabi. But in assistant professor Rachel Wagner’s Religion, Ritual, and Virtual Reality course, which was offered for the first time in spring 2008, these games are essential to the class’s research and are used to facilitate class discussions. 

Rachel Wagner, assistant professor of philosophy and religion, began teaching at Ithaca College last August. She is currently conducting research (in collaboration with Kim Gregson of the Park School and television- radio grad Austra Zubkovs ‘07) on religious ritual in Second Life, a virtual world entirely created by its users.