Professor

Balsillie School, Global Studies / Religion and Culture (WLU)

Contact Information

Office Number: Alvin Woods 5-120A
Phone Number: 519-884-0710, ext. 3323
Email Address: mdesjardins @ wlu.ca
Personal Websites: www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=72&p=1418

Education

PhD, University of Toronto, 1987
MA, University of British Columbia, 1976
BA, University of Alberta, 1972

Areas of Specialization

Comparative Religions
Food and Religion
Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Baha'i
The Academic Study of Religion

Short Bio

Michel Desjardins spent his academic career exploring ways that humans are religious. He was trained in graduate school to read ancient religious texts of the Mediterranean world, learning the requisite ancient (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Coptic) and modern (German, Italian, in addition to my mother language, French) languages. In recent years he has tried to access people's religious lives through their use of food. In that context he has interviewed people around the world, including throughout North America.

Dr. Desjardins has also been interested in how scholars imagine, then study religion. And another love has been teaching.