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On March 2nd and 3rd the Religious Studies Department hosted visiting scholars for two frutiful sessions on religion and digital media in conjunction with the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture. The visiting scholars--depicted in the photograph above with Reliigous Studies and Journalism faculty--are: Dr. Chris Helland (Sociology of Religion, Dalhousie University), Dr. Heidi Campbell (Communications, Texas A&M), and Dr. Piotr Bobkowski (Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, UNC-Chapel Hill) .

The discussion touched on following questions:

• "What constitutes an authentic or inauthentic conversion online?"
• "How do people represent their religious beliefs (or non-belief) in a social networking profile?"
• "Is the iPhone confession app seen as a supplement or replacement to in-person practice?", "What makes a cell phone kosher?"
• "If a computer is rotating a prayer wheel, is there merit generated for the person who owns the computer?"
• "How are in-person religious communities influenced by online religious communities?"

These and other issues were debated by students, faculty, and visiting scholars. Attendees left the sessions with new research ideas, new ways of looking at virtual pilgrimages, and wondering how to fill out that "religion" box on Facebook.