Vaia Touna

Biographic Data

ID2188565
NAMEVaia Touna
GIVEN NAMESVaia
FAMILY NAMETouna
SIGNATURETOUNA V
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Alabama
VERIFIEDNo
TOTAL WORKS15
TOTAL CITATIONS4
WORKS AS AUTHOR13
WORKS AS EDITOR2
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2014
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2024
H-INDEX2

  • Aarse Conversations about the Challenges of the Small Religious Studies Program

    Vaia Touna, Brandi Denison et al.ARTICLEBulletin for the Study of Religion2024

    The Conference presents scholarly dialogue pertinent to the field of Religious Studies. The piece in this issue of the Bulletin is taken from the March 2023 American Academy of Religions South East Conference at Mercer University in Atlanta, GA. Presiding over the discussion is Vaia Touna Associate Professor and Graduate Studies Director at the University of Alabama. Members of the panel include Matthew Baldwin, Professor Emeritus of Religion and…

  • Religious Studies Beyond the Discipline

    Andrew Ali Aghapour, Shannon Trosper Schorey et al.ARTICLEBulletin for the Study of Religion2023

    Relying on the collaborative input from doctoral graduates in the study of religion who have gone on to successful careers outside of academia, this essay offers a critique of the field for not adapting far quicker to the changing economic conditions of higher education over recent decades but also provides a variety of practical suggestions for how programs in our field can make tactical and substantive changes to better prepare graduate student…

  • Fieldnotes in the Critical Study of Religion

    Richard Newton, Vaia TounaEDITORBOOKFieldnotes in the Critical Study…2023

    This book introduces students to the so-called classics of the field from the 19th and 20th centuries, whilst challenging readers to apply a critical lens. Instead of representing scholars and their works as virtually timeless, each contributor provides sufficient background on the classic work in question so that readers not only understand its novelty and place in its own time, but are able to arrive at a critical understanding of whether its a…

  • Shifting Origins Tales and the Construction of Knowledge

    Vaia TounaARTICLEImplicit Religion2020

    Introduction to the Special Feature Shifting Origins Tales and the Construction of Knowledge: Papers from the Method and Theory section of the AAR Southeast Regional Conference

  • Distinguishing Our Object of Study

    Vaia TounaARTICLEMethod & Theory in the Study of…2020Cited by: 2

    A response to Donald Wiebe’s Manifesto

  • Strategic Acts in the Study of Identity

    Vaia TounaEDITORBOOKStrategic Acts in the Study of…2019

    Strategic Acts in the Study of Identity is a multi-authored work that tackles the problem of how to examine the historicity of identity. Six scholars of religion, all members of the Culture on the Edge group, engage in a constructive dialogue mediating and critically cross-examining issues of identity formation, suggesting ways of achieving greater theoretical clarity in the study of identity—or better, identity claims—as it takes shape over time…

  • Distinction, Privilege and the Role of Code Switching

    Vaia TounaARTICLEReligion and Theology2018

    Code switching is a term used to describe switching between language systems and, more specifically, between informal and formal language. Although I see code switching as a daily practice and therefore quite mundane – although with stakes always high and in various degrees – it seems that the term is preserved for some switches and not for others. In this paper I explore the taxonomic implications of naming something, and not something else, as …

  • Fabrications of the Greek Past

    Vaia TounaBOOKFabrications of the Greek Past2017

    Taking seriously critiques of historiography produced in recent decades, Vaia Touna advocates for an alternative approach to the way the past is studied. From Euripides’ tragedy Hippolytus, to the notion of voluntary associations in the Greco-Roman world, to the authenticity of traditional villages in Greece, Fabrications of the Greek Past argues that meanings (and thus identities) do not transcend time and space, and neither do they hide deep in…

  • Epilogue

    Vaia TounaCHAPTERFabrications of the Greek Past2017

    In Fabrications of the Greek Past, Vaia Touna demonstrates that present-day meanings of historical artifacts are created by social actors through their ever-contemporary acts of identification, such as their interpretations, categorizations, representations, and classifications

  • Introduction

    Vaia TounaCHAPTERFabrications of the Greek Past2017

    In Fabrications of the Greek Past, Vaia Touna demonstrates that present-day meanings of historical artifacts are created by social actors through their ever-contemporary acts of identification, such as their interpretations, categorizations, representations, and classifications

  • Gloria Patri

    Vaia TounaCHAPTERFabrications of the Greek Past2017

    In Fabrications of the Greek Past, Vaia Touna demonstrates that present-day meanings of historical artifacts are created by social actors through their ever-contemporary acts of identification, such as their interpretations, categorizations, representations, and classifications

  • Traditioning Acts of Identification

    Vaia TounaCHAPTERFabrications of the Greek Past2017

    In Fabrications of the Greek Past, Vaia Touna demonstrates that present-day meanings of historical artifacts are created by social actors through their ever-contemporary acts of identification, such as their interpretations, categorizations, representations, and classifications

  • Matters of Classification

    Vaia TounaCHAPTERFabrications of the Greek Past2017

    In Fabrications of the Greek Past, Vaia Touna demonstrates that present-day meanings of historical artifacts are created by social actors through their ever-contemporary acts of identification, such as their interpretations, categorizations, representations, and classifications

  • Paul and the “Tradition” of the Founder-Figures

    Vaia TounaARTICLEReligion and Theology2014

    The article is a review/response to James C. Hanges’s book Paul, Founder of Churches . It presses further Hanges’s main thesis and challenges well-established traditions in the approach both to ancient Greece as well as Early Christianity

  • Keeping "critical" critical

    Open AccessCraig Martins, Russell T Mccutcheon et al.ARTICLECritical Research on Religion2014Cited by: 2

    In early March 2014, some of the members of Culture on the Edge-a scholarly research collaboration of seven scholars of religion, interested in more theoretically sophisticated studies of identity, and all of whom are at different career stages and at a variety of North American institutions-had a conversation online on the use of the terms "critique" and "critical," terms widely used in the field today but employed in such a variety of ways that…