Associate Dean for Ministry Studies Teddy Hickman-Maynard talks about preparing future leaders, innovative teaching, and trauma theology. Faculty Focus is a special new 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/2022/10/17/faculty-focus-teddy-hickman-maynard-preparing-future-leaders-peace-justice Learn more about HDS: https://hds.harvard.edu/ Music track: "Old Do...
Oct 17, 2022•18 min
This Leading Toward Justice webinar 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 will discuss the critical importance of ethical practices and religious literacy in government and public service fields. Moderated by Susan O. Hayward, MDiv ’07, associate director for the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative (RLPI) at Harvard Divinity School Panelists: Gar...
Oct 13, 2022•1 hr
Writer and human rights activist Simran Jeet Singh, MTS '08, discusses his new book, The Light We Give, and his ongoing work as a public scholar and educator on Sikhism and religious pluralism. Event participants discussed the intersections between Singh’s work, public understanding about Sikhism, and Religion and Public Life approaches to teaching and learning about religion. This discussion focused on educators working with students from 7th grade through college. This event took place on Sept...
Oct 07, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Harvard Divinity School and the Center for the Study of World Religions host this panel discussion to inaugurate the second year of the CSWR's “Transcendence and Transformation” initiative, hosted by Director Charles M. Stang. The panel features the initiative's newest post-doctoral fellows and research associates as well as discussions of the history of “shamanic” healing practices in Central Asia; how best to teach embodied contemplative practices in the classroom; early Christian controversie...
Oct 07, 2022•1 hr 27 min
Presented by the Women’s Studies in Religion Program, these five new and one returning research associates for 2022-23 shared their thoughts on the ethical responsibility of scholars to be engaged in the study of gender. This event was held August 24, 2022. A full transcript can be found on the WSRP website: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/news/2022/10/06/video-ethical-scholarship-gender-religion-difference-womens-studies-religion-panel Learn more: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/
Oct 06, 2022•1 hr
In this first episode of Faculty Focus, HDS Professor Charles M. Stang discusses psychedelics and spirituality, early Christianity and demonology, and why Dune makes for good academic inquiry. Faculty Focus is a special new podcast series from Harvard Divinity School, where we’ll speak with HDS professors about their courses and research interests. Full transcript of this episode available on the HDS website: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2022/10/3/faculty-focus-charles-stang-why-dune-makes-good-...
Oct 03, 2022•22 min
Harvard Divinity School and the Swartz Hall Art Committee celebrate the unveiling of "Earth Bound," an original creation by artist and Mashpee Wampanoag tribal member Ramona Peters. The ceremony included remarks by HDS Dean David N. Hempton, Peters, Mashpee Wampanoag Historic Preservation Officer David Weeden, and others. "Earth Bound," is an ahkuhq or cooking vessel, which will have a permanent home on display inside Harvard Divinity School’s Swartz Hall. The work was commissioned by HDS and th...
Sep 26, 2022•1 hr 12 min
Harvard Divinity School marked the opening of the 2022-23 academic year with its 207th Convocation. Harvard Radcliffe Institute Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin delivered the address, titled "Legacies of Slavery: Bondage and Resistance." Brown-Nagin chaired the Presidential Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery, which issued its report earlier this year. The ceremony included a welcome from HDS Dean David N. Hempton, an introduction by Tracey E. Hucks, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Africana Rel...
Sep 08, 2022•1 hr 8 min
Curiously, the English language lacks a word for “the belief that human beings only live once.” In this talk, Professor Steven Arrigg Koh discussed this long-held belief in the United States, prevalent amongst those with both sacred and secular views. “Univitalism” (the term coined by Professor Koh to describe this phenomenon) is so common that it is assumed by American Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists, and agnostics alike—and is thus implicitly or explicitly integral to the reasoning of many...
Aug 18, 2022•1 hr 28 min
What is the role of Palestinian universities in the struggle for freedom and justice? Rana Khoury, Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative Fellow and Vice President for Development at Dar Al-Kalima University, shares her exploration of developing a dedicated curriculum and the experience of Dar Al-Kalima University in shaping Palestinian students as cultural activists. Khoury is in conversation with Hilary Rantisi: Associate Director of the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative at Harvard Di...
Aug 18, 2022•58 min
In conversation with Daniel Boyarin, Rabbi Brant Rosen interrogated the ways that Zionist hegemony is expressed through the Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) that has become a staple on the American Jewish holiday calendar, projecting themes of militarism, colonialism, and empire on to sacred religious tradition. He also presented an alternative framing of this day as a religious observance – one that expresses remembrance, repentance, and reparations. Presenters: Brant Rosen: Topol Fell...
May 23, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Sixty years ago on Good Friday, a famous experiment took place at Boston University's Marsh Chapel conducted by Harvard Divinity School student Walter Pahnke, where he tried to answer the question: Do psychedelic drugs occasioned mystical experiences? In 2022, conversations about the connections between psychedelics, science and medicine, and spirituality are again top of mind, from Harvard and the academy to research hospitals and beyond. In this episode, Harvard Divinity School student Paul Gi...
May 12, 2022•25 min
Our year-long, intentional engagement with our Common Read text, "Red Nation Rising: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation," by Nick Estes, Melanie K. Yazzie, Jennifer Nez Denetdale, and David Correia, concluded with a powerful session with all four authors who engaged in conversation with HDS faculty, staff, and students. Dean Teddy Hickman-Maynard, Dean Steph Gauchel, and MDiv candidates Rebecca Mendoza Nunziato and Emma Thomas explored the themes of this urgent text with the authors a...
May 06, 2022•1 hr 58 min
Jocelyne Cesari, J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding, discussed her recent publication, "We God's People: Christianity, Islam and Hinduism in the World of Nations" with David F. Holland and Ousmane Kane. This event took place on April 21, 2022. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/
May 04, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Each spring, the Office of Ministry Studies organizes the Billings Preaching Prize Finals, an annual preaching competition open to second- and third-year MDiv students. Congratulations to MDiv candidate Mauricio Bruce, the 2022 Billings Preaching Prize Competition winner, and to finalists Sharon Christner and Erica Williams for their incredible talents. The finals were held during Noon Service on April 20 in Williams Chapel. The event also featured a reading from Carolyn Beard, the Massachusetts...
May 04, 2022•35 min
Spiritual leader, human rights activist, and grassroots organizer Erica Williams’ project for the MRPL was to launch the “Set It Off Movement” which is aimed at ending the dehumanization, destruction, and death-dealing of poor Black women in America. The movement was inspired by the 1996 film Set It Off, which follows four Black women friends in Los Angeles, California, who plan to execute a bank robbery—each doing so for different reasons—to achieve better for themselves and their families. Thi...
May 02, 2022•1 hr 47 min
Nurhaizatul Jamil, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women's Studies and Islam and 2021-22 Women's Studies in Religion Program Research Associate, delivered the lecture, "Islamic Self-Help, Gendered Anxieties, and Racial Capitalism in Singapore." This event took place on April 12, 2022. Learn more: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/
May 02, 2022•1 hr 9 min
In this webinar, speakers showcased the unique impact of Divinity School alumni in the world, discussing the critical importance and need for ethical practices and religious literacy in the field of journalism today. This event took place on April 27, 2022. Learn more: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/
May 02, 2022•58 min
As writers and poets, we often wonder: who is this porous and gullible and hungry person writing my poems, who is feeding her and is she for real? Is it truly me who wrote this? Is that my story, my voice? Why don’t I sound like myself—or worse, why does my self sound…not quite right? These questions can be painful, discouraging, silencing. Let’s move beyond them and go deeper into the real mysteries, the useful ones, the ones that help us write and propel us further into our journey as writers....
Apr 27, 2022•59 min
A yearly tradition at HDS, the Stendahl Symposium honors the memory of former professor Krister Stendahl, who tirelessly sought to repair fractions between Jews and Christians, supported the ordination of women, and pushed for the full inclusion and participation of women and minority voices in academia and interfaith work. Each year, the symposium carries Stendahl’s legacy forward by presenting student papers centered around the topic of “Conversations Across Religious Boundaries.” This year's ...
Apr 27, 2022•1 hr 38 min
Erik Davis’ first book, the celebrated "Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information," was published almost twenty-five years ago. Still in print, this cult classic of media studies continues to inform conversations about technology, consciousness, and new digital expressions of religion and esotericism. In this Gnoseologies event, speakers discussed Davis’ intellectual trajectory, the relevant lessons of 1990s "cyberdelia," and how techgnostic themes continue to inform our e...
Apr 20, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Since the signing of Oslo, or the Declaration of Principles, in 1993, the question of Palestine has been rammed into the constricting paradigms of statehood and diplomatic negotiations. The peace process framework not only eschewed the consequential dimension of power from the question of Palestine but limited its possible futures by reducing it to a matter of, at best, equitable partitions. This conversation aimed to peel back those debilitating frameworks to consider how other approaches like ...
Apr 20, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Walking Through the Twilight is a photographic exploration of American Jewish activism in solidarity with Palestinians against the Israeli military occupation. The project explores the interplay between Jewish religious identity and activism, discussing issues of identity, faith, and action. This event took place on April 12, 2022. Learn more: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/programs/religion-conflict-peace
Apr 20, 2022•1 hr 1 min
The resurgence of the “divine feminine” as a discursive concept and framework in religious studies and in popular practice in Europe and the United States, raises the question of the salience of the concept in African Religions. In this talk, drawing from ethnographic research with Luba women whose religious practice informs their positionality in war, Georgette Mulunda Ledgister demonstrated the African indigenous orientation towards un-gendered expressions of religion that allow practitioners ...
Apr 16, 2022•1 hr 28 min
What drives people to join hate groups? And when they decide to leave, what comes next? "Healing from Extremism" was a panel event featuring former extremists, chaplains, and current Parents for Peace staff who work on the front lines of de-radicalization work. The panel and Q&A were moderated by Susie Hayward, Associate Director of the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative at Harvard Divinity School. This event took place on April 11, 2022. Learn more: https://rpl.hds.harvard.ed...
Apr 16, 2022•1 hr 52 min
For many years esoteric and occult practices in art have been sidelined as marginal and even taboo within art historical discourses. However, the recent cultural explosion of interest in esotericism and the occult is redefining the contributions of esotericism to the development of visual art, particularly from the late nineteenth century onward. In this illustrated talk and conversation, Dr. Amy Hale explored how our understanding of artists’ esoteric practice shapes the conversation between ar...
Apr 06, 2022•58 min
This presentation chronicled the evolution of the collaborative art exhibition, "Ye Shall Inherit the Earth & Faces of the Divine." The exhibition, featuring works of artists from the African Diasporic and Palestinian exilic communities, attempts to gesture towards some commentary about both the universality and specificity of conversations ranging from human rights, human dignity, and artistic production-as-a practice of resistance. Follow the Inherit exhibition on Instagram @inherit_exhibi...
Apr 06, 2022•1 hr
What is the paranormal? How can we make sense of out-of-the-ordinary experiences? How can we study the paranormal—anthropologically? In this talk, Dr. Jack Hunter and Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani discussed the anthropology of the paranormal. This event took place on March 23, 2022. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/
Mar 30, 2022•58 min
In this talk, Vivien Sansour shared excerpts of her upcoming autobiographical book weaving a poetic narration of people, plants, and other food stories from Palestine to South America, taking us on her journey of establishing the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library and the projects that resulted from it. Professor Bahhur explored how stories inform our political and social realities on a global level and how they can be catalysts for a new conversation about indigenous knowledge and spirituality. Th...
Mar 28, 2022•59 min
This event featured seven poets from Gaza-Palestine who in May 2021 were working to submit their poems to "Peripheries" while under Israeli attacks. Five of the poets write in Arabic while two, the co-editors of the special folio in 2021, are bilingual poets, writing in Arabic and English. The poets include Mosab Abu Toha, Tayseer Abu Odeh, Nasser Rabah, Waleed Al-Akkad, Hamed Ashour, Ne’ma Hasan, and Mona Al-Mosaddar. This event took place on March 21, 2022. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard...
Mar 28, 2022•56 min
