Full Time Faculty
Iqbal Akhtar, Undergraduate Program Director & Associate Professor
Email: iakhtar@fiu.edu
Office: DM359B
Areas of specialization: South Asian and diasporic history, Khoja Studies, Sindhic philology, and Islamic mysticism.
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. She has organised many national and international conferences on Jain philosophy in India and abroad. She has published more than five books and more than 35 research papers in various journals. Her research interest includes, Jainology and Comparative Philosophy and Religion. She researches primarily in Jainism, secondarily in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and Western Philosophy: Classical, Modern and Post-modern thinkers. Within and between these traditions she focuses on the history, epistemology, ethics, conflict theories, violence and non-violence studies. She is interested in the scientific and social innovative studies and research in the field of Jainism and works on various projects related to such studies. She also works on conflict and conflict resolution theories and non-violence and peace studies. She has offered programs in ‘Training in Non-violence’ and ‘Preksha Mediation’ and has been an advisor of Preksha Mediation club at FIU since 2010 to 2013 and 2019 onward.
Jain Studies Program website: http:/jainstudies.fiu.edu
Oren Baruch Stier, Professor
Email: stiero@fiu.edu
Areas of Specialization: Holocaust Studies, Jewish Studies, Visual and Material Culture
Room: DM305A
Steven Vose, Religious Studies Assistant Professor and Bhagwan Mahavir Assistant Professor of Jain Studies
Email: svose@fiu.edu
Room: DM359A
Areas of Specialization: Religions of India; Jainism; History of Religions; Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Gujarati Languages and Literatures; Art and Architecture; Devotionalism; Conflict and (Non-)Violence.
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
Erin Weston, Online Instructor
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.
