Curriculum Vitae

Thomas S. Bremer

Department of Religious Studies

Rhodes College

2000 North Parkway

Memphis, Tennessee 38112

Phone: (901) 843-3139 E-mail: bremert@rhodes.edu

EDUCATION

· Ph.D., Princeton University, Department of Religion, 2001.

· M.A., Princeton University, Department of Religion, 1999.

· B.A., Ohio State University, Division of Comparative Studies, 1996 (Summa cum laude with Honors in the Liberal Arts and Distinction in Religious Studies).

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

· Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee, 2007-Present.

· Co-Director of The Memphis Music and Religion Archive of the Mike Curb Institute for Music, Rhodes College, 2008-present.

· Faculty Fellow for Teaching Mentorship, responsible for administration of the Teaching Mentors Program and Teaching and Learning Seminar at Rhodes College, 2009-present.

· Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee, 2001-2007.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

· Being Religious in Wonderland, a monograph on the history of religions in Yellowstone National Park.

· Formed from This Soil: The Diversity of Religious Life in American History, a textbook of American religious history with special attention to religious diversity. Under contract with Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.

PUBLICATIONS

Book:

· Blessed with Tourists: The Borderlands of Religion and Tourism in San Antonio, University of North Carolina Press (2004).

Articles:

· “The Modern Religiosity of the Newark Earthworks,” in The Newark Earthworks and World Heritage: One Site, Many Contexts [working title], ed. Lindsay Jones (forthcoming).

· “Tourism and Pilgrimage,” in Encyclopedia of Religion in America, ed. Charles Lippy and Peter Williams, CQ Press (2010).

· “The Brother of Jesus in Toronto,” in Resurrecting the Brother of Jesus: The Rise, Fall and Religion of the James Ossuary, ed. Bernadette McNary-Zak and Ryan Byrne, University of North Carolina Press (2009): 31-58.

· “A Touristic Spirit in Places of Religion,” in Faith in America: Changes, Challenges, New Directions, Volume 2: Religious Issues Today, ed. Charles H. Lippy, Greenwood (2006): 37-57.

· “Lorraine Motel,” in American Icons: An Encyclopedia of the People, Places, and Things that have Shaped Our Culture, ed. Dennis R. Hall and Susan Grove Hall, Greenwood (2006): 419-424.

· “Sacred Spaces and Tourist Places,” in Tourism, Religion, and Spiritual Journeys, ed. Dallen Timothy and Daniel Olsen, Routledge (2006): 25-35.

· “Tourism and Religion,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition, vol. 13, Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Jones, Macmillan Reference (2005): 9260-64.

· “Reading the Sahagún Dialogues,” in Sahagún at 500: Essays on the Quincentenary of the Birth of Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, ed. John Frederick Schwaller, Academy of American Franciscan History (2003): 11-29.

· “Il Genius Loci Ignotus di Eranos e la Creazione di un Luogo Sacro,” in Eranos, Monte Veritá, Ascona, ed. E. Barone, M. Riedl, and A. Tischel, Edizioni ETS, Pisa, Italy (2003): 71-76.

· “Tourists and Religion at Temple Square and Mission San Juan Capistrano,” in Journal of American Folklore volume 113, issue 450 (Fall, 2000): 422-35.

· “Pilgrimage,” “San Juan de los Lagos, Nuestra Señora de,” “Talpa, Nuestra Señora del Rosario de,” and “Zapopan, Nuestra Señora de,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, ed. Davíd Carrasco, Oxford University Press (2000).

· “Sacrificial Slaughter and Dressing Up: Gender Articulations in Muslim Rituals,” in Religious Studies Review volume 22 (July, 1996): 209-13.

Reviews:

· Religion and Tourism: Crossroads, Destinations, and Encounters by Michael Stausberg, in Religion (forthcoming).

· Holy Hills of the Ozarks: Religion and Tourism in Branson, Missouri by Aaron K. Ketchell, in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, volume 76, number 3 (September, 2008).

· A Christian Theology of Place by John Inge, in Scottish Journal of Theology, volume 61, issue 2 (May 2008).

· Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith by Timothy K. Beal, a book note in Religious Studies Review, volume 32, number 1 (January 2006).

· The Secret Life of Puppets by Victoria Nelson, in The Journal of Religion, volume 84, number 1 (January, 2004).

· Myths in Stone: Religious Dimensions of Washington, D.C. by Jeffery F. Meyer, in The Journal of Religion, volume 82, number 4 (October, 2002).

· The San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, in The Journal of American History volume 87, number 3 (December, 2000).

· The Americanization of Religious Minorities: Confronting the Constitutional Order by Eric Michael Mazur, in Journal of Religion and Society 2 (2000) [http://www.Creighton .edu/JRS/].

· The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class by Dean MacCannell (Third Edition), in Journal of Religion and Society 2 (2000) [http://www.creighton.edu/JRS/].

RECENT CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

· “The Evangelical Origins of National Parks.” To be presented at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting, Chicago, Illinois, November 17, 2012.

· “National Parks in Nineteenth-Century Evangelical Imagination.” Presented at International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture conference “Nature and the Popular Imagination,” August 9, 2012, Malibu, California.

· “The Modern Religiosity of the Newark Earthworks.” Presented at “The Newark Earthworks and World Heritage: One Site, Many Contexts” symposium, May 3, 2011, Granville, Ohio.

· Chair and panelist, “Religion in the Parks: An Interdisciplinary Discussion.” George Wright Society biennial meeting, March 14, 2011, New Orleans, Louisiana.

· “Evangelizing in the Parks: Warren Ost and A Christian Ministry in the National Parks.” Presented at the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion annual meeting, March 7, 2010, Atlanta, Georgia.

· “American Journeys Toward Religious Freedom.” Keynote speech at the “Roger Williams and America's Journey Towards Religious Freedom” conference cosponsored by the John Nicholas Brown Center at Brown University, the Roger Williams National Memorial, and the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, Providence, Rhode Island, October 24, 2008.

· “ ‘All are of one army’: The Paradox of Pluralism in Postbellum America.” Presented at “Convivencia: Religious Identities in the New World,” a Lilly National Research Conference at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California, March 29, 2008.

COURSES TAUGHT

· Methods and Theories in the Study of Religion

· Religious Studies Senior Seminar

· Religious Diversity in America

· Religion in Colonial America

· Religion in Nineteenth-Century America

· Religion and Tourism in America

· American Sacred Space

· Music of Memphis Religions

· Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies (summer institute supervising students’ independent research projects)

FELLOWSHIPS, HONORS, AND AWARDS

National

· Participant in the seminar “Christian Hymnody in Historical Perspective,” directed by Edith Blumhofer, June 23-July 3, 2008, Seminars in Christian Scholarship program, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

· Giles W. and Elise G. Mead Foundation and Mayers Fellow of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 2008.

· Jacob K. Javits Fellow, United States Department of Education, 1997-2001.

· Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, 1996-1997.

Rhodes College

· Creative Plan for Public and Digital Arts Support grant to digitize the music and papers of Rev. William Herbert Brewster, Memphis composer and theologian, 2011-2012 (with Dr. Carole Blankenship of the Music Department).

· Mike Curb Institute for Music Grant for the Memphis Music and Religion Archive, 2008-2009, renewed 2010-2011 (with Dr. Carole Blankenship of the Music Department).

· Mike Curb Institute for Music Grant to develop new course “The Music of Memphis Religions,” 2007.

· Faculty Development Endowment Grant, “Worshipping Paradise: Yellowstone and Religion in America,” 2007.

· Faculty Development Endowment Grant, “Religion in Yellowstone,” 2006.

· Rhodes College Outstanding Career Mentor, presented by Rhodes Career Services, May 4, 2005.

· Mellon Cluster Grant for “Legitimating Relics: A Collaborative Project on the James Ossuary” (with Drs. Byrne, McNary-Zak, and Moreland), 2003-2004.

Princeton University

· Center for the Study of Religion Dissertation Research Award, 1999-2000.

· Summer Stipend in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Graduate School, 1999.

· Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project Research Assistant, 1999.

· Center for the Study of American Religion Research Fellowship, 1997-1999.

· Council on Regional Studies Pre-Dissertation Research Grant, 1998.

· Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni Summer Travel Fellowship, 1997.

· Council on Regional Studies Summer Research Grant, 1997.

· Latin American Studies Summer Research Grant, 1997.

The Ohio State University

· Phi Beta Kappa, 1995.

· Phi Kappa Phi Undergraduate Enrichment Award, 1995.

· Pressey Honors Endowment, 1995.

· Undergraduate Research Scholarship, 1994.

· Comparative Studies Spectrum Writing Award, 1994.