Tim Dobe, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, has a B.A. from the Univ. of New Hampshire, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Th.D. from Harvard Divinity School. Prof. Dobe teaches courses on Hinduism, Sufism, Indian film and religion, Gandhi and Major Asian Religions. His research interests focus on methods of comparison of religions, sainthood, asceticism and colonialism, and he is currently writing about two saints of colonial north India. He is also the proud father of Cyrus, his recently-born, robust son.

Ed Gilday, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, has a B.A. from and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Prof. Gilday specializes in religions of Asia, and East Asian and Buddhist traditions in particular. He also teaches departmental core courses (REL 111, 311, and 394) on a rotating basis with other members of the department. His research interests are focused in ritual studies, and he is currently working on a long-term project examining the Japanese imperial ritual system.

Henry Rietz is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Grinnell College and an alumnus of the College. He received his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Princeton Theological Seminary and is the associate editor of the Princeton Theological Seminary Dead Sea Scrolls Project. His research interests revolve around three poles, Early Judaism-especially Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Christianity, and contextual biblical interpretation, especially in Asian American contexts from a "hapa" perspective. His regular cycle of courses include Mapping the Realm of Religion, Hebrew Bible, Christian Scriptures, and Apocalyptic "Sectuality." He is currently developing courses on religion and popular culture and the history of Grinnell. Besides work, his daughters, Maile and Katherine keep him busy.

Kathleen Roberts Skerrett is Associate Dean of the College and Associate Professor of Religious Studies. Her most recent essays are "Practice and Improvise: A Christian Response to the Politics of Morality" and "Sex, Law, and Other Reasonable Endeavors". She has the Ph. D in the Study of Religion from Harvard University and a Law degree from Dalhousie University Law School, Nova Scotia, Canada. Skerrett teaches and writes at the intersection of Christian theology, political theory and law. She grew up in Toronto and is a Canadian citizen.

Tyler Roberts, Professor of Religious Studies, has a B.A. from Brown University and an MTS and Th.D. from Harvard University. His area of specialization is religion and critical thought with a special interest in the historical, theoretical and political lines that have been drawn between the religious and the secular in the modern period. Prof. Roberts' first book was a study of Nietzsche's religious thought entitled Contesting Spirit and he is currently completing a book entitled Encountering Religion: Religius Studies and Humanistic Criticism. He teaches courses at Grinnell on major western religions, modern religious thought, religion and politics in the United States, and theory and method in the study of religion.