Skip to main content

Nudd family supports faculty research

Some time ago, the family of David E. Nudd gave a very generous gift to the Augustana religion department in support of faculty research projects and collaboration among faculty and students.

Over the years, the Nudd Fund has enabled faculty to attend national and international academic conferences, hire student collaborators, and produce compelling and noteworthy research and scholarship.

Three recent efforts have made use of the last of the fund, and we express our sincere thanks to the family of David E. Nudd, and share some information on these latest projects.

Dr. Jason Mahn

Dr. Jason Mahn published his second book, "Becoming a Christian in Christendom: Radical Discipleship and the Way of the Cross in America’s “Christian” Culture". The book unpacks problems of Christian identity and practice in a culture that easily makes Christianity normal and normative.

Arguing for a reconceptualization of the theology of the cross and radical communal practices, Dr. Mahn explores some pervasive dangers of America's new Christendom and provocatively imagines alternatives to conventional Christianity. The Nudd Fund enabled Mahn to work with 2014 graduate, Grace Koleczek, on research into “radical” religious communities, and with 2016 graduate, Kaity Lindgren, on final proofreading and edits.

Dr. Nirmala Salgado

This summer, the Nudd Fund will support a new project in the ongoing research of Dr. Nirmala Salgado. The professor is the author of "Buddhist Nuns and Gendered Practice: In Search of the Female Renunciant" on community, moral cultivation, and discipline among Sri Lankan Buddhist nuns.

Her upcoming research trip to Sri Lanka will center on a community of nuns in Dambulla that trains specifically for the higher ordination only in the month of June. Salgado will meet with key monastics from the center and interview them about how they engage written (and oral) training-texts. Through this research, she seeks to better understand how and why training-texts are translated, interpreted, and used differently by different communities of nuns.

Dr. Daniel Morris

Lecturer Dr. Daniel Morris, author of "Virtue and Irony in American Democracy," is at work on his second book: an examination offering historical and moral commentary on America’s ongoing racial crisis in light of the idea that America has been at war with the people of color who reside within its borders since the Colonial period forward.

Accepting this premise, Dr. Morris turns to just war theory to offer new historical and moral interpretations of black resistance against white supremacy. Just war theory can illuminate new dimensions of black resistance, because its central concerns—guilt and innocence, sin and justice, power and punishment—speak precisely to black experiences of oppression and white supremacy. The Nudd Fund will permit him to complete this writing project during the 2017-18 academic year.

Christmas at Augustana 2019

Christmas at Augustana, other holiday events planned

Augustana College celebrates the season with several events and performances open to the public.

Lindberg Center

1 in 2 Augustana grads has double (sometimes triple!) majors

Around the country, about 25% of college students double major. At Augustana, it’s much higher — 53.4% of the Class of 2020 had double or triple majors. What are the advantages?

Autumn Peele

Celebration of Learning showcases the work behind the future of students

From art and anthropology to philosophy and physics, nearly 100 students shared their research and creative projects during the first virtual Celebration of Learning.

Festival worship

Campus Ministries presents Sunday worship with Pastor Melinda Pupillo.

Festival worship

Campus Ministries presents Sunday worship with Pastor Melinda Pupillo.