Faculty
Marianne Florian
Visiting Assistant Professor of Instruction
CONTACT
Office: CPR 468D
BIO
I am currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Religious Studies at USF where Iteach courses on religion and health. I recently earned my Ph.D. in American Religious Cultures from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia where, in collaboration with the Mascaro Lab in Family and Preventive Medicine and the department of Spiritual Health at Emory Healthcare, I conducted qualitative research with hospital chaplains who were learning to practice a compassion meditation protocol based on Tibetan Buddhist techniques for strengthening thoughts and emotions that lead to compassion. I also hold a Master of Theological Studies degree from Emory’s Candler School of Theology and a M.A. and B.A. in French from the University of South Carolina. In support of my graduate studies, the Laney Graduate School awarded me a Woodruff Fellowship and later a Dean’s Teaching Fellowship funded through the Mellon PhD Interventions Project. My abiding academic interest is in contemplative and introspective religious (and religion-adjacent) practice through which people train themselves to be more virtuous, contented, and/or healthy. I have been fortunate to work with practitioners as they recount the moment-to-moment experiences of contemplative learning that have made a difference in their self-understandings as well as their interactions with others and with their surroundings.