Pr. Leona Anderson appointed honorary title of Professor Emerita of Religious Studies by Faculty of Arts at University of Regina

Prof. Leona Anderson, retired as of June 30, 2013, has been appointed by the Faculty of Arts at University of Regina to the honorary title of Professor Emerita of Religious Studies. Professor Anderson’s contributions, both to the field of Religious Studies in general, and especially to our department specifically, have been enormous. More than anyone, she has ensured the survival and development of religious studies as a viable field within University of Regina’s Faculty of Arts, having served as head multiple times and over many years, having organized the development of a departmental textbook for RLST 100, having shepherded us through at least one unit review, at least one curriculum revision, and more besides. Dr. Anderson’s current scholarship focuses on popular visual culture in three very different locations: 1) India: (she has recently completed editing a video documentary on the Ashtavinayakas [pilgrimage places associated with Svayambhu Ganesha] near Pune and is now focussing on making a visual record of the ritual worship of Ganesha as it is transformed in Southeast Asia [especially in Cambodia]); 2) ritual images and ritual image worship in popular culture in Cuba and Mexico (she is making a videotape on the popular worship of la Virgen de Regla in Havana and in Santiago, Cuba and one on Espiritismo in Havana and in Mexico, as well as editing footage of the worship of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City); and 3) popular religious images in Yunnan and their ritual worship (she has written an essay in collaboration with Guoxian Xie on an image of Guanyin in Dali, Yunnan, China and they are currently planning an extended essay on female deities among the Bai people in Yunnan). There is a significant gender component in each of these projects. The Department of Religious Studies is well-served by her continued affiliation with us, and views this as an honor reflecting on all of us.

Dr William Arnal,
Head, Department of Religious Studies, University of Regina