In this episode of the Hope Podcast, we sit down with second year MDiv candidate Ivy Wang. Together we talk about her journey through different Harvard schools and what it may feel like to find a new home in beauty and mystery. Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/02/20/hope-podcast-featuring-ivy-wang-mdiv-candidate
In this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from Joyce Cheng, a first year MTS student. This in episode we discuss Joyce's idea of hope, her faith, and what brings her to HDS. Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/02/20/hope-podcast-featuring-joyce-cheng-mts-candidate
Creative practice and religious experience overlap in this week’s Praxis podcast with Jack Tripp, MTS’ 25. In sharing about his artistic practice, Jack offers his perspective on the surrender required for his ceramics and his spiritual life. Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/03/03/ceramics-and-surrender-praxis-podcast-featuring-jack-tripp-mts-25
In this long read from Harvard Divinity Bulletin, a 'Divine Comedy' reading group with two artist friends deepens the author’s understanding of Dante’s transcendent friendship with Virgil. This is a special audio version of "On Assignment, Virgil Rescues Dante from the Wilderness," a feature written and read by Diane Mehta and appearing in the Autumn/Winter 2024 issue of Harvard Divinity Bulletin. Read or follow along on the Harvard Divinity Bulletin website: https://bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/on-...
This week’s Praxis episode features Rebecca Oreskes, who recently graduated HDS with her Master of Theological Studies degree. After a 25 year career in the forest service, she decided to return to school to become a chaplain, focusing on end of life care. Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/10/24/intersection-of-healing-veteran-service-and-motherhood-a-praxis-podcast-with-Amy-Sexauer.
For Episode 11 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome Jennifer Higgie. Jennifer is the author of several books, including Bedlam, a novel about the artist Richard Dadd; The Mirror and the Palette, a history of women’s self-portraits; and The Other Side: A Story of Women in Art and the Spirit World, a beautiful and personal study of the relationship between spiritual experience and art in the lives of modern women. In this career-spanning chat, Jennifer and I discuss her early career in painting, what ins...
Each year the HDS Women's Studies in Religion Program brings scholars in gender from around the country to enrich the experience of HDS students. 2024 Orientation offered students the opportunity to hear from the 2024–25 WSRP visiting faculty, who shared their thoughts on the ethical responsibility of scholars to be engaged in the study of gender. Speakers: S. Zahra Moballegh, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and Islam Wendy Mallette, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studie...
Part of the "Symposium on Religion and American Democracy," held September 27, 2024. The Importance of HBCUs in the Making of American Democracy Speakers: -Jelani M. Favors, Henry E. Frye Distinguished Professor of History, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University -Tony Frazier, Assistant Professor of History, The Pennsylvania State University -Crystal R. Sanders, Associate Professor of African American Studies, Emory University -John Silvanus Wilson, Jr., MTS ’81, EdM ’82, EdD...
“Media, Religion, and the Nation,” featured Zeba Khan, San Fransisco Chronicle, Jesse Holland, George Washington University, and Syreeta McFadden, Borough of Manhattan Community College. Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life, Hussein Rashid, served as moderator. For decades, news media in the U.S. has been critiqued as reproducing structures of power and exclusion, including those in religions. While entertainment media has worked towards more inclusive storytelling recently, historically ...
On October 1, 2024, HDS hosted a celebration of "Hindu and Catholic, Priest and Scholar: A Love Story," the new memoir from HDS Professor Francis X. Clooney, S.J. Joining Prof. Clooney on a panel of respondents were: Rajeev Persaud, MTS ’24, Andrea Bischoff, MTS ’24, and Jonathan Makransky, multireligious ministry initiatives coordinator at HDS. The event was introduced by Kerry Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life. Sponsored by the Office of the Chaplain and Religious ...
At Harvard Divinity School's 209th Convocation ceremony, HDS Dean Marla F. Frederick delivered the address "And, Yet...We Hope" to the HDS and Harvard community, friends, alumni, and distinguished guests. This event took place on September 26, 2024. Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/09/30/harvard-divinity-school-2024-convocation.
The Women's Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) at Harvard Divinity School was delighted to host Erminia Ardissino as she presented on biblical exegesis in Renaissance Venice aimed at rehabilitating the image of Eve. Ann D. Braude, Director of WSRP and Senior Lecturer on American Religious History at Harvard Divinity School, introduced Ardissino. Erminia Ardissino is Professor Emerita of Italian Literature at the Università di Torino. She received her MA in romance languages at the University of ...
“Political Futures,” featured RPL Organizing Fellow, Josh Wolfsun, and RPL Arts and Popular Culture Fellow, Angélique Roché. Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life, Hussein Rashid, served as moderator. Moving from the exigencies of the moment, this conversation focused on creating new communities, generating solidarity, imagining different economies, and asked how we can make the politics of the possible a reality. This was the first of four sessions in the Religion and Democratic Ideals se...
“Reproductive Healthcare Access and White Nationalism,” featured founder of Funky Brown Chick, Twanna Hines, and Melissa Deckman, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life, Hussein Rashid, served as moderator. Access to reproductive healthcare engages with explicitly religious language. This session positioned that language in the broader framework of white nationalism, which is often undergirded by Christian nationalism. The session tied toget...
In Zionism: An Emotional State, author Derek J. Penslar demonstrated how the energy propelling the Zionist project originates from bundles of feeling whose elements have varied in volume, intensity, and durability across space and time. Penslar examined the emotions that have shaped Zionist sensibilities and practices throughout the movement’s history. Featuring Derek J. Penslar, William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University Moderated by Shaul Magid, HDS Visiting Professor ...
In their book, “Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism,” Shane Burley and Ben Lorber, two activist journalists, present a progressive, intersectional approach to the vital question: What can we do about antisemitism? Using personal stories, historical deep-dives, front-line reporting, and interviews with leading change-makers, Burley and Lorber help us break the current impasse to understand how antisemitism works, what’s missing in contemporary debates, and how to b...
This special HDS Buddhist Ministry Initiative event commemorated Dhamma Chakra Day, the anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism along with 500,000 of his followers. Dr. Ambedkar’s peaceful, egalitarian, and grassroots movement of social liberation left an indelible mark on Indian society, embracing Buddhism as a powerful method for marginalized people to denounce the caste system and to gain true equality and dignity. Moderated by Buddhist Ministry Initiative Post-Doctoral Fell...
"Rematriation, Land, and Healing," featured co-founder of Women of Bears Ears, Cynthia Wilson, and board member of Women of Bears Ears, Doreen Bird. Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life, Hussein Rashid, served as moderator. How we steward our land—and the lands of others—brings up essential questions of belonging, indigeneity, and spiritual and political governance. How do different types of stewardship impact how we enact democracy in and with the land we occupy? This session examined ho...
There was a presentation and brief film screening with Eileen Moncoeur, Executive Director of HRDC Sabal Foundation in Nepal, which harnesses global support so that the poorest children with disabilities in Nepal can access surgery, rehabilitation, and loving care. Eileen guided us through an exploration of the ways in which global principles of compassion can be put into action on the ground in community settings, using the Sabal Foundation’s work as a case study. HDS Buddhist Ministry Initiati...
Naomi Saks, MDiv ’10, Chaplain at University of California, San Francisco Medical Center offered remarks via Zoom about her new book, "Intentionally Interprofessional Palliative Care." Naomi was joined by one of her co-authors Chaplain Paul Galchutt. Sponsored by the Office is Religious and Spiritual Life Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/10/30/video-interprofessional-palliative-care.
Stephanie Paulsell delivered a moving lecture about her life in scholarship before her retirement in December 2024. Paulsell has been a member of the HDS faculty since 2001. She is the author of "Religion Around Virginia Woolf" (2019), co-editor (with Davíd Carrasco and Mara Willard) of "Goodness and the Literary Imagination" (2019), and has served as a regular columnist for The Christian Century since 2007. Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/10/22/video-lost-mystery-god-reme...
For episode 10 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome the musician, composer, and producer Trey Spruance. We discuss Trey’s early musical and occult explorations and how reading the philosopher Henry Corbin changed the course of his life. Trey then takes us through the esoteric dimensions of Secret Chiefs 3 and how albums like Book M and Book of Horizons are filled with correspondences to Kabbalah, astrology, Hermetic magic, and Pythagorean musicology. Along the way, we touch on Trey’s work with Jim Zorn...
In our second episode of Praxis, we meet Marisol Andrade Muñoz, a Master of Theological Studies student, graphic designer, and historian, whose archival research looks at the relationship between time and people in Central Mexico. Join us as we look deeper into the student experience at Harvard Divinity School. Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/11/20/from-visual-storytelling-to-historical-imagination-featuring-marisol-andrade-munoz
In this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from Taylon E. Lancaster, a third-year MDiv candidate at HDS and pastor at Third Baptist Church in Springfield, MA. We discuss his pursuits as a drum major for justice, the role of rest, and what hope looks like in community. Learn more about religion and spiritual life at Harvard Divinity School here: https://hds.harvard.edu/community-life/religious-and-spiritual-life Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/11/19/hope-podcast-featuring-tayl...
In this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from Eve Schwartz, a third-year MDiv candidate at HDS. We discuss blending the personal and the academic, building community, and the power of ritual. Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/11/12/hope-podcast-featuring-eve-schwartz-mdiv-candidate Learn more about religion and spiritual life at Harvard Divinity School here: https://hds.harvard.edu/community-life/religious-and-spiritual-life Transcript forthcoming.
For episode nine, we welcome to the show Diana Pasulka, professor of Religious Studies at UNC – Wilmington. Her books American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology and Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences are both classics in the field of Religion and Technology studies. We discuss how Pasulka’s early work on Catholic purgatory led her to the study of UFOs, the spiritual practices of experiencers, and the role of government (dis)information and popular culture in the rise of UFO rel...
In this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from Hiatt O'Connor, a second-year MDiv student at HDS. He discusses his journey from a Christian upbringing to Zen Buddhist practices, reading the Tao Te Ching, and his relationship with Quakerism. Learn more about religion and spiritual life at Harvard Divinity School here: https://hds.harvard.edu/community-life/religious-and-spiritual-life Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/10/31/hope-podcast-featuring-hiatt-oconnor-mdiv-26.
Terrence Johnson, Charles G. Adams Professor of African American Religious Studies at HDS, interviews Corey Brettschneider about his new book, "The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought To Defend It." Brettschneider is professor of political science at Brown University, where he teaches constitutional law and politics, as well as a visiting professor at Fordham Law School. Editor's note: We experienced a microphone issue during the interview...
We are excited to launch our new podcast Praxis, which looks deeper into the student experience at Harvard Divinity School. This episode featuring Amy Sexauer, MDiv ‘26, explores being a veteran and mother while attending HDS. More episodes are coming!
In this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from Jordan Ahmed, a first-year MDiv student at HDS. We discuss his relationship to Islam, community organizing, and the joy of embodied practice. Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/10/23/hope-podcast-featuring-jordan-ahmed-mdiv-candidate
