Mathew N. Schmalz
associate professor of religious studies; director of the College Honors Program
Mathew N. Schmalz is an associate professor of religious studies and director of the College Honors Program at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. A member of the faculty since 1998, he graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College in 1987 and earned his Ph.D. in the history of religions from the University of Chicago. He received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for independent research in Pakistan and India, and was also awarded a U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Fellowship for his dissertation research on Catholicism in rural North India.
Schmalz is an expert in Catholicism in the non-Western world; new religious movements, including scientology; and religion and politics of India and Pakistan. Director of Asian studies at Holy Cross from 2001 – 2003, Schmalz studied in India and Pakistan for a total of four years. He is fluent in Hindi and has advanced knowledge of Bengali, Bhojpuri, and Urdu.
Schmalz is panelist for On Faith, an online conversation on religion produced jointly by the Washington Post and Newsweek. He has published opinion pieces in the Washington Post, Commonweal Magazine, The National Catholic Reporter, the Providence Journal and the Telegram & Gazette, and has provided expert commentary to USA Today, The New York Times, the Washington Post, ABC's Good Morning America, The Boston Globe, the Baltimore Sun, NPR, and U.S. News & World Report, among others. His work has also appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including: The History of Religions, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Religion, The Religious Studies Review, Teaching Theology and Religion, and Expecting Armageddon: Essential Readings in Failed Prophecy. He is co-editor of Engaging South Asian Religions: Boundaries, Appropriations, and Resistances, a volume of essays forthcoming from SUNY Press. Schmalz is on the board of directors for the Society for Hindu/Christian Studies, and on the editorial board of the Journal of Christian Higher Education.
Areas of Expertise:
Global Catholicism
- Catholicism in Asia
- Catholicism in Africa
- Catholicism/culture issues in the U.S.
- The Papacy
- Catholic spirituality
- New Catholic movements (Audrey Santo, Marian apparitions)
Religion and Politics in India and Pakistan
- Untouchables and untouchability in India
- Hinduism
- Religious violence in South Asia
- Christians in South Asia
New Religious Movements
- Mormonism
- Scientology
- Jehovah’s Witnesses
- Whether the term “Cult” is useful [he doesn’t think it is]
- Why people join new religions
Reporters seeking perspective on any of the issues listed above, should contact Schmalz at 508-793-2557/mschmalz@holycross.edu, or Kristine Maloney (associate director of national communications and media relations) at 508-793-2419/kmmalone@holycross.edu.
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Photography:
Download a high resolution/print quality headshot of Schmalz (.TIF/4.64 MB)
Note to editors/reporters: Please credit the above photograph to John Buckingham.