RS Mixer Kicks off New Academic Year
On Thursday, October 1st, RS faculty, majors, and minors gathered to celebrate the start of a new year with a Welcome (Back) Mixer on Zoom. The event began with an unexpected group share-out about everyone's worst insect encounters. Faculty spoke about wasp stings and brown recluse bites, and Prof. David Gray shared a story about having leeches fall from trees onto his raincoat as he walked through jungles in Nepal.
Then, after a welcome by Professor Gray and the introduction of our two newest faculty members, Profs. Cathleen Chopra-McGowan (Hebrew Bible) and Daniel Morgan (Islam/South Asia), faculty and students shared stories about how they became interested in the study of religion. From senior Kelby Uebelhor's interest in existentialism and philosophy and Prof. Pearl Maria Barros's Portuguese/Azorean Catholic upbringing and time in the convent to Prof. Sarita Tamayo-Moraga and first-year student Daniel Martinez's Mexican-Catholic heritage and Prof. Chopra-McGowan's time on archaeological digs in Israel, participants bonded over facts and stories that have informed and inspired their interest in religion.
At the conclusion of the event, participants shared their answers to a special question: If you were a runway model, professional wrestler, or drag queen, what would be your walkout/walking music (what song would you walk out to)? Responses were collated into a playlist, which appears below:
Sally Vance-Trembath: "Read My Mind" by the Killers
Pearl Barros: Abba, “Dancing Queen"
Caitlin Fitter: "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand
Sarita Tamayo-Moraga: Anything from The Kinks
Vicky Gonzalez: Take Me Out to the Ballgame
Daniel Morgan: Queen, Another One Bites the Dust...
Paul Schutz: Savage Remix, by Megan Thee Stallion ft. Beyoncé
David Gray: Zombie by the Cranberries
Travis Stevens: DRAG QUEEN obvi: Annie Lennox, Walking on Broken Glass. I would wear heels and actually walk on broken glass on the runway.
Kelby Uebelhor: AC/DC Thunderstruck
Karen Peterson-Iyer: Last Dance (Donna Summer! Woo hoo!)
Akiba Lerner: Wilco, Whole Love
Clovis Karam: Hymn of the Light, St Ephrem the Syriac
Daniel Martinez: Canyon Moon by Harry Styles
Gene Schlesinger: "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse, "We Used to be Friends" by the Dandy Warhols, and "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince
Cathleen Chopra-McGowan: Flower, by Moby