{"id":775,"date":"2018-05-04T09:18:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T13:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/?p=775"},"modified":"2018-05-04T09:18:31","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T13:18:31","slug":"senior-spotlight-2018-maire-gebhard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/2018\/05\/04\/senior-spotlight-2018-maire-gebhard\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior Spotlight 2018: Mair\u00e9 Gebhard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mair\u00e9 Gebhard \u201918 in the Spotlight:
\na series about our graduating seniors<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Why did you major in Religion?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mair\u00e9 Gebhard ’18<\/p><\/div>\n

This question, combined with a face full of confusion\/wonder, will forever haunt me. It\u2019s a hard question to answer, because so many things led to my decision. My father is a Presbyterian minister, my mother a self-proclaimed agnostic. I went to church every Sunday when I was growing up, however my parents were both constantly discussing and introducing other religions. I remember distinctly having a menorah, talking about Kwanza, my mom referencing different Hindu Gods, and my most fond memory of my mom reminding us every year on Christmas that the reason we celebrate the holiday when he we do actually because of ancient Indo-Iranian mythology and the God Mithras. I was constantly surrounded by discussions about religion.<\/p>\n

When I got into middle school I began to reject religion pretty fiercely. When I was in high school and began going on college tours I told everyone I wanted to study Political Science. It wasn\u2019t until my junior year when I took a religion course combined with a class called Human Geography (basically like a high school anthropology class) that my thoughts began to change. I distinctly remember the day I was touring colleges the summer before senior year and changed my answer to what I wanted to study. I said Religion. I came in declared and haven\u2019t regretted it a single day.<\/p>\n

Where do you imagine yourself in 10 years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have no idea. My mind changes every other day! Honestly, I still have no clue \u201cwhat I want to be when I grow up,\u201d but I\u2019ve come to realize (with the reminder of my mother and professors) that that\u2019s okay. I\u2019ll figure it out, or I won\u2019t, and I\u2019ll let you know in another 10 years.<\/p>\n

Imagine a first-year student has asked your advice about REL courses. What\u2019s the one she\u00a0shouldn\u2019t\u00a0dream about missing? Why?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Honestly, any class with Professor Morgenstein Fuerst. Seriously. I think that every single student, everyone in our country really, needs to take a course on Islam. Religion and Empire fundamentally changed the way I think.<\/p>\n

If you could write any book, what would it be?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This year for my religion practicum and colloquium I wrote a paper titled “With God on Our Side: The American Flag and Patriotic Symbols in the American Christian Church” and have never had more fun writing a paper. If I could write a book I would expand on this research.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Any fond memories of 481 Main Street you want to share?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

So<\/em> many. 481 Main feels like home: because I came in declared a religion major, I have been going to that building since my first year at UVM. There is something comforting about the department, and I feel incredibly scholarly sitting around the table in the seminar room. From long chats about classes and life with Professor Morgenstein Fuerst, to existential crisis about paper topics with Professor Borchert, to feeling like a real scholar discussing theory with my colleagues\u2014I will never forget my time at the religion department.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mair\u00e9 Gebhard \u201918 in the Spotlight: a series about our graduating seniors Why did you major in Religion? This question, combined with a face full of confusion\/wonder, will forever haunt me. It\u2019s a hard question to answer, because so many … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1096,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33374,110219],"tags":[165837,474648,122522,417,395783,449],"class_list":["post-775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-student-blog","tag-alumni","tag-class-of-2018","tag-graduation","tag-religion","tag-senior-spotlight","tag-uvm"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4woDM-cv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1096"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775\/revisions\/777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/religion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}