Full Time Faculty
Iqbal Akhtar, Associate Professor
Email: iakhtar@fiu.edu
Office: DM359B
Areas of specialization: History, Linguistics, Islam, Jainism, Early Childhood Education, International Higher Education, Historical Preservation, Digital Humanities, and Religious Pluralism
Daniel Alvarez, Instructor
Email: alvarezd@fiu.edu
Office: DM304
Office hours: MW 2-3:30 PM
Areas of Specialization: Protestant Theology, Reformation, Evangelicalism, World Religions
Whitney Bauman, Associate Professor
Email: wbauman@fiu.edu
Office: DM301A
Areas of Specialization: Religion and Science, Religion in Nature
Ana María Bidegain, Professor
Email: anamaria.bidegain@fiu.edu
Office: DM305B
Areas of Specialization: Christianity in Latin America, Women in Latin American Religions, History of Religion in Latin America
Jeffery Gonzalez, Instructor
Email: Email
Areas of Specialization: Religions of the African diaspora in Cuba, Trinidad, Brazil and the United States. Impact of religion on women and gender in the Caribbean.
Carlos Grenier, Assistant Professor
Email: Carlos Grenier
Vitae: Curriculum Vitae Office: DM 301C
Areas of specialization: Late medieval and early modern Islamic intellectual and cultural history; piety in the Ottoman Empire; popular religion and Sufism in civic life; Mediterranean borderlands;confessionalization and canon formation; regional and local histories in early modern empires;the Ottomans and Iran; premodern science and occultism.
At FIU, Carlos teaches on Islam and other Abrahamic religions, and participates in the activities of the Muslim World Studies Center.
Steven Heine, Professor
Email: heines@fiu.edu
Areas of Specialization: Japanese Religions, East Asian Buddhism; History and Thought of Zen
Room: SIPA 504
Erik Larson, Chair and Associate Professor
Email: larsone@fiu.edu
Areas of Specialization: New Testament, Christian Origins, Ancient Judaism, Dead Sea Scrolls
Room: DM303
Tudor Parfitt, President Yitzhak Navon Professor of Sephardic-Mizrahi Studies and Distinguished Professor of SIPA
Email: tparfitt@fiu.edu
Office: DM369B
Areas of Specialization: The periphery of the Jewish world, Judaising movements, the myth of the Lost Tribes of Israel, Genetic discourses about Jews, Modern Hebrew Literature, Hebrew language, Muslim-Jewish Relations, the Jews of the Yemen, Jews of the Muslim world, the Sepharadi World, Conversos, Black Jews in Africa and the Americas.
Samani Chaitanya Pragiya Pragya, Visiting Instructor
Email: chaitanyapragya97@gmail.com
Room: DM320C
Field of Specialization:
Samani Chaitanya Pragya teaches courses that supports Jain Studies Programs, the first of its kind in North America. She is Professor in her home institution, Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, a “Deemed University” at Ladnun. She is also the Founding Director of Bhagawan Mahavira International Research Center.
Jain Studies Program website: http:/jainstudies.fiu.edu
Jeanette Smith, Undergraduate Program Director & Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor
Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor
Email: jesmith@fiu.edu
Office: DM359A
Vitae: Curriculum Vitae
Areas of specialization: Areas of specialization & interest: Society, Culture, & Ethics, including Faith & Community; Fieldwork in Religious Studies; Religion & Culture, including Religion & Fantasy and Religion & Science Fiction.
Oren Baruch Stier, Professor
Email: stiero@fiu.edu
Areas of Specialization: Holocaust Studies, Jewish Studies, Visual and Material Culture
Room: DM305A
Erin Weston, Associate Teaching Professor
Email: eweston@fiu.edu
Room: DM 322B
Areas of Specialization and Interest: New Religious Movements, Witchcraft and Neopaganism, Neoshamanism and Indigenous Religious Practices, Syncretism, Religious Aesthetics and Iconography, Magic in Religions, Intro to Asian Religions, and World Religions.
Albert Wuaku, Graduate Program Director and Associate Professor
Email:Wuakua@fiu.edu
Areas of Specialization: African and Caribbean Religions, Fieldwork in Religious Studies, Religion and Culture
Room: DM309A
