Contact Tennyson Welllman

Education:
B.A., University of Delaware;
M.A., Syracuse University; Ph.D., (in process) University of Pennsylvania

Tennyson Wellman Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Tennyson Jacob Wellman
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies

Specializations:

• Comparative religion, history & practice thereof
• Method & theory in the study of religion
• Ancient Greek religion (Orphika, mystery cults, relation to philosophy)
• Late antique Mediterranean religions
• Early Christianities & Judaisms

Tennyson Jacob ("TJ") Wellman joined the faculty at Connecticut College in 2009 as a visiting professor of religious studies.

Wellman's research areas include the comparative study of Abrahamic and Chinese religions, Native American religions in the contact & shatter zones, gender and ethnicity in the study of religion, orthodoxy and heresy as analytical and hermeneutical categories, diachronic variation in religious traditions, and religion as embodied practice.

Wellman's courses at Connecticut College include Ancient Greek Religions, Buddhist Traditions, Christian Traditions, Hindu Traditions, Introduction to Mysticism, Native American Religions, New Testament, Religion and the Spirit of Politics, and the Supernatural in American Popular Culture.

Wellman's recent publications include:

• “Making Tradition of an Ass: Zênôn the Alexandrian, a White Donkey, and Conversion to Hellenism,” Religion & Theology 15.3-4 (2008)
• “Rectifying ‘Orthodoxy’ by Examining the Platonists of Late Antiquity: Strategic Deployments vs. Passive Reflections of Reality,” Religion & Theology (in press)
• "Misdiagnosing Medieval Christianities: Beyond Heresy, Superstition, and Orthodoxy," (in press)

Presentations and conferences Wellman has recently attended include:

• "Paradosis or Akoê? Or, Making a Tradition of an Ass." Society of Biblical Literature 2007annual meeting in San Diego, CA
• “Turning Myth Into History: Livy’s Anti-Tragedic Account of the Bacchanalia.” Society of Biblical Literature 2009 annual conference, New Orleans (invited)
• "A Question of Unities: Heresies, Syncretisms, Folk- and Popular Christianities in Modern Scholarly Imaginations." Kalamazoo Medieval Studies 2010 annual conference (invited)

Wellman is a member of these professional associations: American Academy of Religion, American Philological Association, North American Association for the Study of Religion, Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins, Society for Biblical Literature.

Visit the religious studies Web site.