Torang's Research

Torang Asadi completed her MA in Religious Studies in 2013, before pursuing her Ph.D at Duke University. Torang applied to KU to work with Dr. Tim Miller, who specializes in new and alternative religious movements in the United States.  Torang found a supportive environment in Religious Studies: "KU Religious Studies has a unique master's program in which students are trained for Ph.D programs.  And the professors are a key part of students' success.... If I weren't groomed by the department and prepared for doctoral work, I wouldn't have been admitted to good programs and I wouldn't have been able to pass my doctoral exams in less than three years.  A lot of what I've accomplished today is rooted in the training I received at KU."

Funding from KU's Department of Religious Studies allowed Torang to spend a summer doing research in Europe, where she visited Twelve Tribes communities in France and Germany (Torang is pictured with members of one such community above), and wrote her master's thesis on the religious movement.