The Department of Religion is very proud of its alumni from the Master’s program. Over the past ten years, approximately 40% of our alumni continued on with their graduate education, entering a Ph.D. program in Religion or a related field. Recently, we have had graduates heading off to Ph.D. programs at Princeton University, Duke University and the University of California Berkeley. Over the past five years, our students have entered programs at Claremont, University of Texas Austin, University of Stirling in the UK, University of Indiana, Ohio State and doctoral programs here at the University of Hawai‘i. Other alumni have taken administrative positions at universities, and many are teaching at community colleges here in Hawai‘i and on the mainland.

The Department of Religion tries to stay in contact with our alumni. We invite alumni to contact the Department chair, Helen Baroni and let us know of your recent accomplishments. If any graduates from the last three or four years would like to have a profile on this page, please send a picture and a short statement to our secretary.

Laura M. Fink

Graduated: Fall 2008, Plan B

As an undergraduate, Laura focused on Christianity and Islam. After living a year in Korea and then three years in Northern rural Japan, she developed an interest in Asian religions. After moving to Honolulu and living in the multi-ethnic milieu there, Laura became interested in ethnicity and religion, and specifically in the many ethnic churches in Honolulu. She very much enjoyed Professor John Charlot's course on the Hawaiian origin chant, the Kumulipo, and learning about other Polynesian origin traditions. Laura looks forward to teaching religion after completing the program – either in the classroom; or to Hawaii's visitors who are interested in religion.

Nick Franchini

Graduated: Summer 2006, Plan B

Nick came to the Department of Religion to study Japanese religion. After a semester, he shifted his focus to more immediate surroundings and began to explore Japanese religions as practiced in Hawai‘i and on the mainland. After graduating in summer 2006, he lectured in the Department of Religion and began working for the Colleges of Arts and Sciences Student Academic Services. He remains interested in religion (Japanese and otherwise) in American culture and enjoys country music.

Jessica Freedman

Graduated: Spring 2009, Plan B

Jessica studied Indian Religions, with primary interest in the colonial and post-colonial period. Recent research topics include religious nationalism, the construction of religion in conflict situations, and the history and dynamics of the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir. Jessica spent a semester in Bodh Gaya, India in 2003, and conducted a research project in Dharmsala about the influence of Gandhian ideals on Tibetan politics.

Mark Feroze Kanga

Graduated: Spring 2009, Plan B

Mark's research interests are in the pre-modern religious traditions of South Asia. He focuses on doctrinal history and ritual performance associated with Indian Mahayana Buddhism and Hindu Bhakta and Shaiva traditions.

Sarah Hadmack

Graduated: December 2005, Plan B

Sarah wrote her Plan B portfolio papers on Jain Asceticism, Non-Indian Representations and Interpretations of the Goddess Kali, and Chinese Religions and Ecology. She completed field work in India as a student of the first International Summer School for Jain Studies. Shortly after graduation, she earned positions as a religion lecturer at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a religion instructor at Windward Community College.

Ben Lewinger

Graduated: Summer 2008, Plan B

As an undergraduate, Ben was mostly interested in Indian and Chinese tantra, especially notions of the subtle body. He had the opportunity to pursue related topics at the M.A. level at UH, focusing on demons and daemonologies in China, as well as in new religious movements. Ben worked as program coordinator for a local Pureland Buddhist temple for two years, before he spent a year and a half in Taiwan working on his Mandarin and taking lots of photos. Ben currently lives and works in Honolulu.

Graduated: Spring 2008, Plan B

After graduating from the UH Manoa graduate program, Alan attained a position as a lecturer of religion at Kapi'olani Community College. He teaches undergraduate courses such as Introduction to World Religions and Religion and the Meaning of Existence. He enjoys teaching both face-to-face and online classes. He continues his interests in religions of the Eastern tradition and Native Hawaiian religion. Alan also teaches Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology classes under the UH Community College Outreach Program system.

Matthew McDonald

Graduated: December 2005, Plan A
M.A. Thesis: Imagining Mediums: The Iconography of Chinese Spirit Mediumship

Matthew is currently a second year Ph.D. candidate in the UHM Department of History. He is interested in Chinese language and religions, and he is primarily focused on the history of Daoism and its iconography. Matthew is a member of the Daoist Iconography Project developmental team.

Matthew McMullen

Graduated: Summer 2008, Plan A
M.A. Thesis: Raiyu and Shingi Shingon Sectarian History

Matthew entered the program in the Fall of 2004 with a focus on Japanese Religion. Through an exchange program available to graduate students in the department, Matthew spent two years studying at Taisho University in Tokyo. At Taisho, Matthew studied Japanese Language as well as Esoteric Buddhist history and doctrine. His research in Japan accumulated in a thesis entitled Raiyu and Shingi Shingon Sectarian History. Matthew’s academic interests include esoteric Buddhism, Buddhist doctrinal debate, and religious education in pre-modern Japan. He plans to continue his studies in the Fall of 2008 as a Ph.D. student in Buddhist Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.

Matthew Mitchell

Graduated: Summer 2008, Plan A
M.A. Thesis: For a Rainy Day: Rain Practices in Northern Nagano Prefecture

Matt joined the Department of Religion at UH Manoa after teaching and studying in Japan for six years. His thesis was on religious rain practices in Northern Nagano Prefecture, Japan. He is working on his Ph.D. in the Religion Department at Duke University.

Adam D. Pave

Graduated: Spring 2007, Plan B

Justin Stein

In his M.A. coursework and research, Justin studied modern Japanese religion and contemporary American spirituality. He specifically focused on the use of shamanic or magical practices, including healing and spirit possession, by new religious movements and cultures. His thesis on diverse representations of Reiki by its practitioners in Japan and America builds upon research he began as a Watson Fellow in 2001 and 2002. He is currently a lecturer in religion at Windward Community College."

John A. Sweeney

After completing the M.A. program, John began lecturing at UHM and Kapi'olani Community College, where he has taught REL150: Introduction to the World's Major Religions, REL151: Religion and the Meaning of Existence, & REL207: Understanding Buddhism. While working for a local company involved in the sustainability movement, John decided he wanted to pursue further studies involving spirituality, sustainability, and society. In the Fall 2009 semester, he began a doctoral program in Alternative Futures/Political Theory at UHM. He is confident that his training in the two things that one is not supposed to talk about at cocktail parties (religion and politics) will assist him in achieving his professional and personal goals of teaching and living in Hawai'i.

Jolyon Baraka Thomas

Jolyon specializes in Japanese religions in modernity, and he is particularly interested in questions of religion and civil society, the genesis of the concept of religion in Japan, and connections between religion, fiction, art, and drama. Jolyon spent two years in Tokyo on the Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship studying language and taking classes in the Religious Studies department at the University of Tokyo while conducting research for his M.A. thesis. In the thesis, Jolyon utilized the fictional illustrated media of manga and anime to point to the conflation of religion and entertainment in contemporary Japan and to highlight the imaginative similarities between religion and fiction. Jolyon has been accepted to the Ph.D. program in Religion at Princeton University, and will continue his studies in East Asian Religions there under the tutelage of Jacqueline Stone and Stephen Teiser.

Christine Walters

Christine specializes in American Buddhism with an emphasis on constructions of religious and ethnic identity in these communities. Her thesis research traced the development of the "Two Buddhisms" binary of identity in scholarship and proposed a model of denominationalism to account for religious identification and affiliation with these communities. Christine is a member of the American Academy of Religion and is currently an adjunct instructor in the Religious Studies department at the University of South Florida.

Joe Waters

Joe studied the religions of India and focuses specifically on ancient Hinduism and early Buddhism. He is also interested in Native American religions and culture, and mysticism.