News

"Religious Soundscapes" opens at OSU Urban Arts Space

Our audio exhibit "Religious Soundscapes" opened on Tuesday, May 24 at OSU's Urban Arts Space. This exhibition features audio collages created from the recordings in our archive, accompanied by interpretive texts to represent the sounds. In parallel with the exhibition opening, we hosted a symposium that included many of the people who have worked with us over the course of the project. We were thrilled to be able to continue our conversations about religion and sound with so many colleagues and friends. 

ARSP First Runner-Up "Best DH Pubic Engagement"

We are thrilled to announce that we have been named 1st runner up in the category of "Best DH Public Engagement” in this year's Digital Humanities Awards! 

Thanks to the DH Awards and to those who voted for us, and congratulations to the winner, "Representations of Cyprus." 

The other winners this year were:

New ARSP Partners Meet!

On October 24, the ARSP leadership team gathered at OSU for an all-day workshop with our four newest partners. Jake Johnson (Oklahoma City University) has already begun working with his students on the project this term, and in Spring 2020 he will be joined by Harold Morales (Morgan State University), Pierce Salguero (Penn State Abington), and Homayra Ziad (Johns Hopkins University).

Over the course of the day we discussed numerous aspects of managing the project from audio recording and editing to tagging and uploading materials into our archive. We shared experiences of incorporating digital humanities projects into our courses and discussed how best to support our students as well as the communities they study.

Kate Topham

Kate Topham joins ARSP as Digital Archivist

We are delighted to announce that, effective June 26, Kate Topham will be joining the American Religious Sounds Project in the role of Digital Archivist! Kate is uniquely qualified for this position, having just graduated from the University of Michigan’s School of Information with a MSI in Digital Curation and Archives and Records Management. Past projects include the “Michigan Latin Archive,” a digital exhibition of materials on Latin education at Michigan, and  “Music Time in Africa,” a tool to visualize data from recordings of the Music Time in Africa radio program, including interactive map and word cloud visualizations. Besides her 50% appointment with ARSP, she will be an Academic Specialist in DH@MSU, which includes faculty, staff, and students across the university and is housed in the College of Arts and Letters.

ARSP featured in Tricycle

Tricycle, the leading independent journal of Buddhism in the West, has featured the work of the American Religious Sounds Project in a May 16 article by Sheila Burt. 

ARSP at the AAR

The ARSP team recently traveled to Denver, Colorado, for the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Meeting, held this year at the Colorado Convention Center. Each November, the AAR conference brings together thousands of scholars, journalists, artists, publishers, and others from across the nation for several days of panel discussions, exhibits, and events.

ARSP Presentation at Art Institute of Chicago

In September, ARSP co-directors Isaac Weiner and Amy DeRogatis participated in a public conversation with artist James Webb at the opening of his sound exhibit “Prayer” at the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Co-PIs Isaac Weiner and Amy DeRogatis

ARSP Awarded Luce Grant

Official announcement by the Michigan State University College of Arts & Letters:

A joint, multidisciplinary project between Michigan State University and The Ohio State University that examines sounds of religion throughout the United States, and which first began in 2015, recently received a three-year, $750,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to support expansion of the project. The grant was approved in conjunction with a request for proposals issued by the Luce Foundation’s Theology Program.