Harvard Divinity School

Black Studies and Critical Race Theory constitute some of the most theoretically sophisticated conversations in the Humanities today on issues of individual and collective identities. The results have not yet been brought to bear on Jewish Studies, in general, or research on antisemitism, in particular. This talk, delivered by Shaul Magid and part of the Albert & Vera List Fund for Jewish Studies Lecture Series at the Center for the Study of World Religions, makes the case that antisemitism can be better theorized through engagement with theories of anti-Blackness, particularly Afropessimism. It focuses on how Jews write about antisemitism, how it is perceived in contemporary America, and how this discussion relates to race and Jewish identity. This event took place on April 3, 2023 Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/ Full transcript: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/4/18/video-judeopessimism-antisemitism-history-and-critical-race-theory-shaul-magid

The Harvard Psychedelics Project at Harvard Divinity School, a student organization, presented this conference to gather faculty, researchers, and students from across Harvard University to explore their diverse, interdisciplinary, and promising research on psychedelics. Speakers came from across the University’s Schools, units, and departments, including the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Business School, Harvard College, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and POPLAR at the Petrie-Flom Center. This first series of talks featured Charles Stang, Natalia Schwien, Rachael Petersen, Andrea Lerner, Ned Hall, Justin Williams, Jeffrey Breau, and Paul Gillis-Smith. This event took place on April 1, 2023 Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

This lecture is the third of a four-part series this academic year. This series explores the moral and ethical questions surrounding the global climate crisis and the role of religious institutions, organization and members of the general public, outside the scientific community focused on saving the planet. Dekila Chungyalpa is a religion and ecology expert, having worked with faith and Indigenous leaders around the world on developing faith-led environmental and climate projects for 15 years. This event took place on March 22, 2023 Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

This lecture on Jewish midwives was given by Visiting Assistant Professor of Judaism and Women's Studies in Religion Program 2022-23 Research Associate Jordan Katz. This event took place on March 22, 2023 Learn more: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/

In this special episode of Faculty Focus, HDS professors John P. Brown and Charles Hallisey talk about why this summer’s Making Change Professional and Lifelong Learning program is such a valuable experience for those looking to make an investment in themselves and gain a new perspective on the challenges they face. Held across five lively and concentrated days of collaboration, close reading, and multilayered exercises, a team of faculty members from Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Business School will share their insights and reflections about religious and non-religious meanings of “the graciousness of the world” and its relevance for how we think about making change in a “world on fire.” To be held June 4-8, 2023, at Harvard Divinity School. Apply by May 1. Learn more about Making Change and apply: https://hds.harvard.edu/academics/professional-lifelong-learning Full transcript forthcoming:

There are two distinct concepts of translation at work in the encounter between an Amazonian Indigenous people, the Wari’, and the New Tribes Mission evangelical missionaries. While the missionaries conceive translation as a process of converting meanings between languages, conceived as linguistic codes that exist independently of culture, for the Wari’, in consonance with their perspectivist ontology, it is not language that differentiates beings but their bodies, given that those with similar bodies can, as a matter of principle, communicate with each other verbally. Translation is realized through the bodily metamorphosis objectified by mimetism and making kin, shamans being the translators par excellence, capable of circulating between distinct universes and providing the Wari’ with a dictionary-like lexicon that allows them to act in the context of dangerous encounters between humans and animals. This conversation with Aparecida Vilaça, Professor of Social Anthropology at Brazil’s Museu Nacional, aims to

This conversation was the last of the six-part series Religion and the Legacies of Slavery | A Series of Public Online Conversations. The featured speakers were HDS professors Karen L. King, David F. Holland, Dan McKanan, Terrence L. Johnson, and Tracey Hucks. This session was a discussion among presenters reflecting upon the insights shared throughout the series. In addition to identifying themes and throughlines among sessions, we returned to the overarching questions that framed this collaboration: What does the academic study of religion teach us about the complex histories and legacies of slavery? How can a deeper understanding of the roles of religion enhance our commitment to reparative action in our contemporary times? This event took place on March 20, 2023 Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

What is dignity? Is it something conferred upon us externally by others, or an inner quality that we all possess? Drawing from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Phakchok Rinpoche provides a fresh understanding of dignity as the power that arises when we know decisively that our nature is inherently pure. With dignity, we know that we are fundamentally whole and complete. We gain an unshakeable confidence in who we are that enables us to meet the challenges of today’s world with greater compassion and wisdom. But many of us have lost contact with dignity. In this talk, Rinpoche offered practical and poignant advice for awakening and cultivating our own inherent dignity through contemplative exercises he calls “dignity training.” This even took place on March 20, 2023 Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

Amahl A. Bishara, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Tufts University, and author of "Back Stories: U.S. News Producation and Palestinian Politics," discusses her book "Crossing a Line: Laws, Violence and Roadblocks to Political Expression." The book looks to sites of political practice, such as journalism, historical commemorations, street demonstrations, social media, in prison, and on the road, to analyze how Palestinians create collectivities in circumstances of constraint. Drawing on firsthand research, personal interviews, and public media, Crossing a Line illuminates how expression is always grounded in place, and how a people can struggle together for liberation even when they cannot join together in protest. The discussion was moderated by Raef Zreik, Religion and Public Life Visiting Scholar in Conflict and Peace. The event was co-sponsored by The Center for Middle Eastern Studies Harvard University. Full transcript forthcoming.

In this lecture Visiting Assistant Professor of African Religions and Women's Studies in Religion Program 2022-23 Research Associate Elyan Hill discusses embodied visualities and domestic enslavement in Togolese sacred arts. This event took place on February 22, 2023. Learn more: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/ Full transcript: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/3/25/video-dancing-altars

Join Research Associate Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani in her conversation with Dr. Grace Nono as they discuss Dr. Nono’s work as an ethnographer and performer, about shamanism in the Philippines, and some of the possible connections between sound and healing. This event is part of the Gnoseologies Series focused on ways of knowing that are often labeled as “non-rational.” Traditionally referred to as gnosis in Western philosophical and religious traditions, and often understood in contraposition to science (episteme), these ways of knowing are becoming more and more influential in contemporary societies, popular culture, and academic research. This event took place on March 8, 2023 Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

Slavery is most readily associated with the U.S. American South with the geographies of the North often eclipsed. Tracey Hucks, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Africana Religious Studies at HDS and Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, led a discussion on slavery and the slave trade that focuses on New England and the DeWolf family of Rhode Island. The DeWolf family was understood as the largest slave trading family in the United States and Dain Perry, a direct descendant, was featured in this webinar. The event will also highlight the reparative and healing workshops co-facilitated by Dain and his wife Constance Perry conducted throughout the U.S. at religious, social, and educational institutions. Hosted by Dr. Diane L. Moore, Faculty Director, Religion and Public Life, and Dr. Melissa Wood Bartholomew, Associate Dean of the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. This event took place on March 6, 2023. Full transcript forthcoming. Learn more about Reli

On March 2, 2023, a cohort of Harvard Divinity School students engaged in an evening of storytelling, poetry, and photography as they shared their experiences of joy and resistance from their summer in Israel/Palestine. Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

The Leading Toward Justice webinar series features panel discussions spotlighting alumni impact in the world and the ways alumni leverage their HDS training while working in secular or public professions. This session discussed the critical importance of ethical practices and religious literacy in community organizing and advocacy fields. Panelists: - Ryan Andersen, MDiv ’04 - Lead Organizer, Calgary Alliance for the Public Good - Jasmine Beach-Ferrera, MDiv ’10 - Executive Director, Campaign for Southern Equality - Erica Williams, MRPL ’22 – Spiritual Leader, Community Organizer, and International Human Rights Activist Moderated by Susan O. Hayward, MDiv ’07, Associate Director for the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative (RLPI) at Harvard Divinity School This event took place on February 10, 2023. Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

Monica Sanford, Assistant Dean for Multireligious Ministry and Lecturer in Ministry Studies at HDS, talks about the evolution and importance of multireligious ministry and setting students up for success. Faculty Focus is a special podcast series from Harvard Divinity School, where we speak with HDS professors about their courses and research interests. Full episode transcript: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/6/3/faculty-focus-monica-sanford-multireligious-ministry Learn more about HDS: hds.harvard.edu/ Music track: "Old Dog New Tricks"; Extreme Music Limited

The 1619 Project spawned an unprecedented national conversation in and outside the classroom on slavery’s ongoing afterlives in American society. The enthusiastic response to the project was not universal. A few historians noted in a letter to the Times that the project reflected “a displacement of historical understanding of ideology.” The challenge raised here underscores central ethical concerns at the center of American national identity: who is responsible for slavery? What role does religion play in addressing the lingering “afterlives” of African enslavement in the United States? Do African and African American scholars play a unique role in public debates and scholarship on slavery? HDS Professor Terrence Johnson examined how the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois and Toni Morrison established a framework for exploring the role of religion and ethics in grappling with the memory and history of African enslavement. Hosted by Dr. Diane L. Moore, Faculty Director, Religion and Public Life, and Dr. Melissa

In this event, Dr. Amy Hale and Dr. Christa Shusko present their book Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses, edited by Amy Hale. They discuss some of the latest and pressing topics in the study of (Western) Esotericism and talk about some of the opportunities and challenges of inhabiting this field of study as women and scholars. This conversation is part of the Gnoseologies series. This online series focuses on ways of knowing that are often labeled as “non-rational.” Traditionally referred to as gnosis in Western philosophical and religious traditions, and often understood in contraposition to science (episteme), these ways of knowing are becoming more and more influential in contemporary societies, popular culture, and academic research. Going beyond dichotomies such as body and mind, ordinary and extraordinary, reason and experience, and matter and spirit, this series hosts scholars of different disciplines and practitioners interested in exploring and expanding the

As a state-of-the-art “wearable technology” of the time, talismans provided protection, perquisites, and prescriptions for the devotees of premodern Korean Buddhism. Among a varied array of talismans discovered from tombs, stupas, and spell books, this talk focuses on a collage of the twenty-four Buddhist talismans to illustrate how they provided a vocabulary and structure to address believers’ soteriological concerns and transform their cosmological views. By examining these talismans as a crucial part of the Korean Buddhist mortuary ritual, the talk argues for the pervasiveness of talismanic culture in Chosŏn Buddhism, which allowed its followers to manage the fears of disease, demons, and death. My findings further suggest that multiple layers of ambiguities built around talismans, such as tensions between text and image, legibility and illegibility, as well as accessibility and inaccessibility, played a key role in enacting the efficacy and potency of talismans, and that the twenty-four talismans occupied

Randy Chung Gonzales was leading an ordinary life in his hometown of Lamas, Peru, when his employer, anthropologist Frédérique Apffel-Marglin, asked him to accompany her to an ayahuasca ceremony led by a local shaman. There, to everyone’s great surprise, Randy was initiated by discarnate entities, who instructed him and gave him healing powers. In this unique book, Randy tells his story to Frédérique, who offers cultural context and describes how she herself has been transformed from an academic anthropologist into an advocate for the sharing of indigenous wisdom and ecospirituality. Initiated by the Spirits argues powerfully that shamanic sacred plants can heal the epidemics of mental illness in Western societies, as well as the global ecological crisis. This event took place on February 9, 2023 Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

This lecture, given by Visiting Lecturer on Islam and Women's Studies in Religion Program 2022-23 Research Associate Rahina Muazu, discusses awra (an Arabic word that is translated as nakedness, genital organs, private parts, genitalia, blemish, defects, etc.) and the female voice in Islamic law. This event took place on October 27, 2022 Learn more: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/