Background
Thomas Emil Homerin, who generally abbreviates his first name to "Th." for publication, is the son of Floyd and Miriam Homerin, and brother of John A. Homerin.
scholars Professor of Religion
Thomas Emil Homerin, who generally abbreviates his first name to "Th." for publication, is the son of Floyd and Miriam Homerin, and brother of John A. Homerin.
While growing up in Pekin, Illinois, Homerin attended Douglas Elementary School, Washington Junior High School, and Pekin Community High School. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Bachelor "77, Master of Arts "78), and completed his Doctor of Philosophy with honors at the University of Chicago ("87).
Homerin is one of the most notable scholars of religion in the United States and widely publishes, including books, essays, articles and entries in major encyclopedias such as Encyclopædia Britannica. Homerin married Nora Walter in 1977, and they have two sons, Luke (born 1987), and Elias (born 1991). The last of these books features a cover painting by fellow former Pekinite Mark Staff Brandl.
Homerin also authored several chapters on Islam in The Religious Foundations of Western Civilization (Abingdon Press, 2006), edited by Jacob Neusner.
Death and the afterlife have been a major focus of Homerin’s work, and he has carried out field work in Cairo"s al-Qarafah cemetery. This initiated his interest in American funerary customs and practice which evolved into his course Speaking Stones on Mountain.
Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New New York This course examines western funeral ritual and practice, with a particular focus on cemeteries in the United States, and how the iconography and epigraphy of graves and funerary monuments forge symbolic connections among the living and the dead.
Homerin has been the recipient of grants from the Mistress
Giles Whiting Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.