From UCalgary to Malibu

When Dr. Dyron Daughrity, PhD'05, reflects on his time at the University of Calgary, one word surfaces repeatedly: discipline.

Today, Daughrity serves as Divisional Dean of Religion and Philosophy at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, where he has taught for nearly two decades. An accomplished scholar of global Christianity and world religions, he has authored more than twenty books and continues to publish actively while serving in senior academic leadership.

That commitment to sustained scholarship, he says, was forged during his doctoral years at the University of Calgary.

“If you’re going to be a true scholar, you need to produce.” He recalls being told while he pursued his PhD.

Formation in religious studies

Daughrity completed his PhD in 2005 in the Department of Religious Studies. 

He remembers the faculty who shaped his development: Virginia Tumasz, Eliezer Segal, Ronald Neufeld, Leslie Kawamura, and his doctoral supervisor, Douglas Shantz. Surrounded by scholars who were actively publishing, reviewing, and contributing to international conversations, Daughrity internalized an expectation of rigor.

“I learned that scholarship is not optional,” he says. “It’s central to the vocation.”

The intellectual climate demanded seriousness. Research was not a secondary task; it was the foundation. Long hours in the library, deep archival work, and disciplined writing were part of daily life.

That training continues to define his career. Even as a dean, he remains active in conferences and global research.

“You’re a better teacher when you’re engaged in current scholarship,” he notes. “Students benefit when you’re still in the conversation.”

Teaching as calling

During and immediately after his doctoral studies, Daughrity taught extensively at the University of Calgary. He estimates that he taught or assisted in more than thirty courses, including Nature of Religion, Western Religions, Science and Religion, Death and Afterlife in World Religions, and Modern Christianity (1600–Present).

He also received a major university teaching award, voted on by students. It’s an affirmation that remains meaningful to him.

Teaching, for Daughrity, has always been intertwined with public speaking and community leadership. Alongside his academic career, he has served as a pastor for more than three decades, including during his time in Calgary. The classroom and the faith community, he explains, have never been separate spheres.

“The scientific study of religion and life in a faith community complement each other,” he says. “They ask different questions, but they inform one another.”

A global curiosity

Daughrity’s scholarly interests reach far beyond any single tradition. Raised in New Mexico among Native American communities, many of whom navigated Catholicism alongside Indigenous spiritual traditions, he developed an early fascination with how religions shape worldview and identity.

That curiosity evolved into a career.

He has led study abroad programs in India, conducted research in Israel and Jordan, studied Eastern Orthodox monastic communities on the island of Crete, and examined Hindu ritual practices in Varanasi. These experiences are not, for him, exotic excursions; they are expressions of a lifelong intellectual question: Why do people believe what they believe, and how do those beliefs shape the world?

“I am fascinated by religion,” he says simply. “I truly have the best job in the world.”

Campus life in Calgary

Daughrity describes the University of Calgary as an ideal environment for doctoral formation. As with many research-intensive institutions, his world was concentrated within his department. Relationships were built through seminars, supervision meetings, and shared intellectual commitments.

He remembers frequent hours in the library which was of course a necessity in the pre-digital research era. Winters were long and cold, a sharp contrast to his current home in coastal California. Yet, the academic climate was energizing.

“It was a wonderful place to do a PhD,” he says.

After completing his doctorate, he remained in Calgary for two additional years, teaching extensively before accepting a position at Pepperdine in 2007.

Integrating passion and profession

For Daughrity, the most important lesson he would share with current students is about integration.

“It’s daunting to get a degree in your passion,” he says. “Because often your passion is not the obvious path to a salary.”

Yet his career demonstrates that such integration is possible. His enduring fascination with world religions has become both vocation and livelihood.

“Very few people get to integrate their deepest interests with their work,” he reflects. “I’m grateful that I have.”

That gratitude extends back to Calgary. The intellectual discipline he acquired here at the University of Calgary continues to shape his scholarship, leadership, and teaching philosophy.

Two decades after defending his dissertation, Daughrity remains what he set out to become: an engaged scholar who is still writing, still teaching, and still asking questions.