Alumni

Alphabetical by last name.

  • The results are being filtered by the character: P
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z
Don Parris
  • Area:  Buddhist Studies
  • MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara 2023
  • Juris Doctorate, UC Los Angeles
Tracy Pintchman
  • BA, Film Studies, Cornell University, 1984.
  • MA, Religious Studies, Boston University, 1987.
  • PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1992.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: Hindu Studies, South Asian Religions.
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Deciphering the Goddess: The Feminine Principle in Brahmanical Hindu Cosmogony and Cosmology.”
  • Current Employment: Professor and Director of International Studies, Loyola University, Chicago.
Anna Pokazanyeva
  • BA, English and French Literature, Rutgers University, 2008.
  • MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2011.
  • PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2015.
  • Primary faculty advisor: Barbara Holdrege
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: South Asian Religions, Religions in North America, Religion and Culture.
  • Title of Master’s Thesis: “Sacrifices Gone Wild: Eschatology in the Sauptikaparvan of the Mahabharata.”
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Here Comes The Yogiman: Tales of Enlightenment and (Super)power with Particular Reference to the Life and Work of Paramahansa Yogananda”
  • Current Employment (as of 10/1/2015): Lecturer in the Religious Studies Program, Department of Philosophy, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Kelly Pollock
  • BA, Religious Studies, Northwestern University, 2000.
  • MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2003.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: Nature Religion in the United States, Women and Religion, Theories of Sacred Space and Ritual.
  • Title of Master’s Thesis: “‘Between the Worlds’: Ritual Constructions of Sacred Space in Feminist Wicca.”
  • Current Employment: Dean of Students, Division of Social Sciences, University of Chicago.
Katherine Komenda Poole
  • BA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1991.
  • MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1995.
  • PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2001.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: Religions of South Asia.
  • Title of Master’s Thesis: “From Battle Queen to Mother: The Rise of Daksina Kalika in Bengal.”
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Sojourn Through Saffron: The Life of Sadhvi Uma Shri Bharati and the Rise of Hindutva Religion and Politics in India.”
  • Current Employment: Director, Shruti Institute for Vedic Arts.
Or Porath

M.A. East Asian Languages and Cultures, with Departmental Honors, 2012
Columbia University, New York, 2010-2012
Area of Specialization: Japanese History

Samuel C. Porter
  • BA, Religious Studies, University of Oregon, Eugene, 1977.
  • MDiv, Pacific School of Religion/Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, 1981.
  • MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1985.
  • PhD, Religion, Ethics & Society, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 1996.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: Religion in America, Sociology of Religion.
  • Title of Master’s Thesis: “Religious Studies and Educational Reform in the 1980s: A Critical Analysis of Five National Commissioned Reports on Higher Education.”
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “‘The Wisdom of the Owl at Dusk’: Cultural Conflict and Moral Disagreement Over the Oregon Forests.”

Current Employment: Staff Interviewer, University of Oregon Survey Research Laboratory; Research Associate, Policy Interactive

Ellen Posman
  • BA, Philosophy/Religion, Stanford University, 1992.
  • MTS, Harvard Divinity School, 1995.
  • PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2004.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: History of Judaism, Southeast Asian and East Asian Buddhism, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, History of Religions/Comparative Methodology.
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “There’s No Place Like Home: An Analysis of Exile in Judaism and Tibetan Buddhism.”
  • Current Employment: Associate Professor of Religion, Baldwin-Wallace University.
M. Alyson Prude
  • BA, Philosophy, Pomona College, 1998.
  • MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2005.
  • PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2011.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: South Asia, Tibetan studies, Anthropology of Religion.
  • Title of Master’s Thesis: “Celibate Women, Empty Gompas: Leadership, History, Education, and the Status of Buddhist Nunneries in Nepal.”
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Death, Gender, and Extraordinary Knowing: The Delog (‘das log) Tradition in Nepal and Eastern Tibet.”
  • Current Employment: Lecturer, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Maria del Rosario Jazmin Puignau
  • BA, Theology,  Universita Gregoriana di Roma, 2002.
  • BA, Political Science, University of the Republic, Uruguay, 2003.
  • MA, Political Strategy, National Institute for Higher Studies, Uruguay, 2004.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: Islamic and Christian Political Theology, Arabic, Islamic and Christian Philosophy, Qur’anic Studies.