This is Ari Goldman's sixth year as a leader of the Scripps Howard studytour. In 2000, 2001 and 2005, he took the "Covering Religion" seminar to Israel and Jordan. In 2002 and 2003, he led trips to the former Soviet Union. Professor Goldman was educated at Yeshiva University, Columbia and Harvard. He is the author of three books on religion. Before becoming a professor, he was a reporter at The New York Times.

Sree Sreenivasan is delighted to be co-teaching the class with Prof. Goldman. He gladly gave up a semester of teaching new media courses to work on something he believes is really important: Getting American journalists to better understand India, its people and its religions. He has learned a lot more about his faith and himself through the course.

Mannika Chopra is a Delhi based journalist who has been associated with leading publications in senior positions like The Times of India, The Telegraph and The Sunday Observer. She was a Heinz fellow at University of Pittsburgh where she continues to lecture periodically. A media columnist with two Indian newspapers, Hindustan and The Statesman, she currently contributes regularly to various American publications like the Boston Globe and USA Today. A founding member of the Indian Women's Press Corp, a collective of Indian women journalists and a resource centre, she is also associated with the Hoot, a media ethics web site.

Sophia Chang is a sorry combination of Chinese chutzpah, Texas tomfoolery, and Brooklyn bombast, with the sum being assuredly less than the parts. She cut her journalistic teeth in the down-and-dirty world of Queens community newspapers, and hopes to continue reporting on all things metropolitan. This is her first visit to Asia without her mother as a chaperone, and Sophia is very, very excited.

Jesse Andrews Ellison came to Columbia with a background in social service non-profits. Originally from Maine, she graduated from Barnard College with a degree in creative writing. She has authored a book about formerly homeless men and women, covered the United Nations for United Press International, and her work has appeared in the Journal of Children and Poverty, Contribute New York, and Newsweek International.

Gregory Gilderman is an independent documentary film producer and a columnist for Metro New York. He has worked for ABC News, CBS "Sunday Morning" and, most recently, PBS. His first book, She's the One, will be published by Penguin/Perigee in January 2007, a fact even his mother finds hard to believe.

Dikla Kadosh, without her own choosing, has always been linked to holiness. Her last name means "holy" in Hebrew. Born in Israel and raised in Los Angeles, she was drawn to writing from an early age. She graduated from USC with one bachelor's degree in Creative Writing and another in Italian. After working for two years at a magazine publishing company, she decided she needed more education. After graduating, she hopes to work for any magazine in New York that's willing to hire her.

Carey King was raised in a Southern Baptist church in North Carolina. This past summer, she married a Jewish guy from New Jersey. She comes to Columbia after two years of reporting in Appalachia for The Sylva Herald & Ruralite, a weekly paper whose standard fare is stories of church-sponsored "poor man's suppers" and gospel sings.

Michal Lumsden has long searched for the unique in people's spirits. That quest led her a few years ago to pursue a career in journalism. Through covering religion, she hopes to deepen her understanding of humanity and share that with readers. Before attending Columbia, Michal wrote about education, food, politics and religion for a small Massachusetts daily and Mother Jones Magazine.

Mariana Martinez Estens is a Mexican journalist and poet based in the Tijuana/San Diego border region. For the past three years she was a reporter for La Prensa, a bilingual weekly newspaper, and Diario Latino, the first daily in Spanish in the area. Her beat was the border and included smuggling, drug dealing, environmental and immigration news. In 2004, Mariana won three San Diego press club awards, including best investigative report and second place in health coverage as well as a National Science Foundation scholarship to attend the Jack Ealy Science Journalism workshop.

Aili McConnon was born in Toronto, Canada. Estonian was her first language followed by English, French, Latin and Spanish. A graduate of Princeton University and Cambridge University, her work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Guardian (U.K), and the Montreal Gazette. She is currently a senior editor for Topic Magazine, www.topicmag.com. Her first book, an anthology called Blooming Through the Ashes, is coming out with Rutgers University Press in 2007.

Amanda Millner-Fairbanks was born and raised in southern California. Despite her eight years on the east coast, her soul is still rooted out west. She graduated from Smith College with a degree in politics and worked for two years as a Teach for America corps member in Washington Heights, where she taught her middle schoolers a steady diet of reading, writing and yoga. As much as she misses her students, she hopes to someday tell their stories: as an education reporter.

Ari Paul has written on politics and religion for The American Prospect, In These Times, Z, Tikkun, Time Out Chicago, and many other publications.

Stacey Samuel - With more than eight years experience in network television production, Stacey has worked on an Emmy-award winning documentary for HBO, and recently completed her latest project with them on child musicians. Working in news, entertainment and documentary has garnered her considerable experience in shooting, directing, interviewing and editing.

Shira Schoenberg is an Orthodox Jew from Silver Spring, Maryland. After graduating from Columbia University with a B.A. in history, she became senior staff writer at the Jewish Advocate in Boston. She has also written for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Virtual Library, and Jewish Telegraphic Agency. She wants to begin covering religions that are not her own.

Carolyn Slutsky covered the reemerging Jewish community in Poland for two years as a correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency before coming to Columbia. Originally from Philadelphia and raised a Conservative Jew, Carolyn enjoyed meeting for worship at Quaker summer camp and writes monthly letters to her childhood best friend who is now a Dominican nun in Nashville, Tennessee.

Aruna Viswanatha was raised a secular Hindu in New Jersey, and spent the semester covering Catholics after she realized she wasn't even sure who St. Joseph was. She now knows how to say "Lord, hear our prayer" in multiple languages, and when to say it.

Bruce Wallace graduated from Kenyon College with a degree in religion and literature and moved to San Francisco where he worked as a carpenter, managed a political campaign and wrote about music for the Bay Guardian, LiP Magazine, and several websites. More recently he wrote about housing for City Limits. He grew up Episcopalian and, when asked about his faith, sometimes says he's Quaker.

Erik Wander is a fine art photographer and filmmaker originally from Rochester, NY. He has a B.A. in English from SUNY at Buffalo and an MFA in Visual Studies from the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester. He has lived in Korea, China and, most recently, Singapore, where he taught photography and film at Ngee Ann Polytechnic School of Film and Media Studies.