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The Department of Religious Studies received a generous gift from Dr. Douglas Sparks, a frequent auditor of our courses and now a friend of the department.  Sparks’ gift will support undergraduate students and will create a mentorship program through which friends of the department will support students through grants and the students will have the opportunity to meet with the donors once a semester to discuss university life and how they seem themselves after graduation.  

Sparks earned his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin with a focus on China and later obtained a MBA and completed graduate work in computer science.  The anthropological perspective, including an appreciation of the role of religion in different cultures, was important in his building business relationships around the world.   Sparks held senior technology leadership roles in global companies in France, China, Canada, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya.  

He now calls Boulder home.  He has audited CU Boulder religion classes on Sufism; comparative study of Abraham in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; early Christian history; history of Judaism; and Hebrew.   His primary interests today are the comparative study of mysticism, reengaging with China and relearning Mandarin, and duplicate bridge.

With a multidisciplinary, multicultural interest in human behavior, Sparks sees religion continuing to play a critical role in cultural evolution.  And his business experience has emphasized the importance of having a cross-cultural understanding of the role of local belief systems when working internationally, particularly in the non-Western world.