Ken Derry

Biography:

As an undergraduate student, Ken Derry wandered a few different paths. He spent two years immersed in biophysics, and then turned to English and Japanese literature before finally discovering his true calling: the study of religion.

Dr. Derry’s academic focus is on the ways in which modern cultural products relate to more “traditional” religious beliefs and practices. What might the Bible tell us about Iron Man, for example – and vice versa? He has examined a range of topics including Christian symbolism, ghosts, Hong Kong film, superheroes, and Disney stories, and has drawn on research in such areas as colonialism, gender, hermeneutics, history, myth, narrative, politics, and ritual studies. Dr. Derry’s Ph.D. thesis examines issues of religion and violence in modern Canadian Native writings, and is the first full Religion and Literature monograph to consider the works of North American Indigenous authors. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Religion & Film and is the pedagogy editor for Religious Studies Review.

Teaching:

Ken Derry has been teaching courses at UofT since 1996, when he was still a graduate student. His approach emphasizes the importance of student experience, creativity, and critical engagement. To this end he has assigned an essay topic based on visiting a local religious site; conducted a class field trip to the Remembrance Day service in Streetsville; trained students to create, film, and edit interviews; and brought guest speakers to UTM such as Richie Mehta, director of the films Amal, Siddharth, and I'll Follow You Down.

This interest in experiential learning was first sparked by participation in the UofT undergraduate student exchange program at Kwansei Gakuin University. Dr. Derry’s year in Japan convinced him of the incredible, transformative power of such programs, and since 2000 he has been involved in administering, developing, and promoting study abroad opportunities at UofT. In 2012 and 2014, he had the great privilege to teach a course on religion as part of the university’s Summer Abroad Program in Hong Kong.

Awards:

Dr. Derry was incredibly honoured to be named as the recipient of the 2013 UTM Teaching Excellence Award. From 2011 to 2014 he also received the Dean’s Excellence Award and the Small Groups Award each year. While working as a full-time administrator on the St. George campus, he was presented with the 2009 University of Toronto "Stepping Up" award for enhancing the student experience, and the 2008 Arts & Science Student Union Urmila (Uma) Sarkar Award for Outstanding Service.

Other:

Dr. Derry’s academic work has been supplemented and enhanced by critical encounters outside of the university context. He helped lead a summer camp on Lake Scugog for homeless men from Regent Park; passed on life skills to hearing impaired children near Christie Pits; taught English to students in Japan; and worked as a science and math instructor at an alternative elementary school in downtown Toronto. 

Publications
Books and Journals:

• Festschrift on Teaching and Learning Religion in Honour of Michel Desjardins. Co-edited with Elysia Guzik. Special Double Issue of Religious Studies and Theology 38.1–2 (2019)
• The Myth Awakens: Canon, Conservatism, and Fan Reception of Star Wars. Co-edited with John Lyden. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade, 2018
• Commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Centre for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto. Co-edited with Valerie Heuchan. Special issue of Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 27.4 (1998).

Articles and Book Chapters:

• “Flipping (and Giving) the Script: Using Short Films in Religion Exams,” Journal for Religion, Film, and Media 8.2 (2022): 65–82.
• "Writing Home: Diaspora, Identity, and Religion in Halfbreed and In Search of April Raintree" in Relation and Resistance: Racialized Women, Religion and Diaspora (Montréal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021), 45–73.
• "Reinvented Rituals as Medicine in Contemporary Indigenous Films: Maligluitt, Mahana, and Goldstone," Reassembling Democracy. Ritual as Cultural Resource (London: Bloomsbury, 2020), 193-209.
• "Messing Around with Introductory Religion Courses in Canada,” Religious Studies and Theology 38.1–2 (2019): 141–69.
• "Myth and Monstrosity: Teaching Indigenous Films," Journal of Religion and Film 22.3 (2018).
• “Blood on the Wall: Christianity, Colonialism, and Mimetic Conflict in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye.” Religion and Literature 48.3 (2016).
• “Bulletproof Love: Luke Cage and Religion” (with Daniel White Hodge, Laurel Zwissler, Stanley Talbert, Matthew J. Cressler, and Jon Ivan Gill), Journal for Religion, Film, and Media 3.1 (2017):123-155. 
• “Problem-Based Learning and Two Studies of the Journal of Religion and Film: Self-Sacrifice and Music,” Journal of Religion and Film 21.1 (2017). 
• “Interpreting Oz,” The Hooded Utilitarian 6 July 2015 
• “‘Like You Could Read What Was Inside of Me.’ Genocide, Hermeneutics, and Religion in The Wizard of Oz,” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 26.3 (2014): 293-309.
• "Indigenous Traditions,” in World Religions: Western Traditions, fourth edition (Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2014), 296-361.
• “Say What You Will: Further Adventures in Grade Renunciation,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 82.2 (2014): 356-364. 
• “A Buddhist, a Christian, and an Atheist Walk into a Classroom: Pedagogical Reflections on Religion and Humor,” Bulletin for the Study of Religion 42.3 (2013): 37-42. 
• “Believing is Seeing: Teaching Religion and Violence in Film,” in Teaching Religion and Violence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 185-217. 
• “Of the 49th and Other Parallels: Thomas King’s Fluid Boundaries,” in ‘Survivance’ Beyond Canons: Mapping Canadian First Nations Literatures (Chennai: Emerald, 2007), 43-55. 
• “Religion and (Mimetic) Violence in Canadian Native Literature,” Literature and Theology 16.2 (2002): 201-19. 
• “On the Pedagogical Benefits of Using John Woo’s The Killer as a Model of René Girard’s Theory on Religion and Violence” (with Tony Michael), The Journal of Religion and Film 5.1 (2001). 
• “One Stone on Another: Towards an Understanding of Symbolism in The Epistle of Barnabas.”  Journal of Early Christian Studies 4.4 (1996): 515-28. 

Film Reviews:

• Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe (dir. Robert McCallum), Journal of Religion & Film 27.2 (2023).
• Hey, Viktor! (dir. Cody Lightning), Journal of Religion & Film 27.2 (2023).
• Limbo (dir. Ivan Sen), Journal of Religion & Film 27.2 (2023).
• This Place (dir. V.T. Nayani), Journal of Religion & Film 26.2 (2022).
• Stellar (dir. Darlene Naponse), Journal of Religion & Film 26.2 (2022).
• Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (dir. Rian Johnson), Journal of Religion & Film 26.2 (2022).
• Where Is Anne Frank (dir. Ari Folman), Journal of Religion & Film 25.2 (2021).
• “The Semi-Anti-Apocalypse of Black Panther,” Journal of Religion & Film 22.1 (2018)
• Waru (dir.  Briar Grace-Smith et al.), Journal of Religion & Film 21.2 (2017).
• The Shape of Water (dir. Guillermo del Toro), Journal of Religion & Film 21.2 (2017).
• “The 41st Toronto International Film Festival,” Journal of Religion and Film 20.3 (2016). 
• Arrival (dir. Denis Villeneuve), Journal of Religion and Film 20.3 (2016). 
• Gimme Danger (dir. Jim Jarmusch) and Leehom Wang's Open Fire Concert Film (dir. Homeboy Music, Inc.), Journal of Religion and Film 20.3 (2016). 
• Goldstone (dir. Ivan Sen), Journal of Religion and Film 20.3 (2016). 
• Mahana (dir. Lee Tamahori), Journal of Religion and Film 20.3 (2016).

Media:

• How Jesus Christ Superstar went from blasphemous to beloved, CBC Radio (2023).