Is sacred space protective space? This question lies at the heart of the Sanctuary Movement. From the 1980s to the present, this practice has protected undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation by offering them refuge in churches, where federal immigration agents to this day still fear to tread. In this lecture, Lloyd Barba, Assistant Professor of Religion and Core Faculty in Latinx and Latin American Studies at Amherst College, asks how these houses of worship in the 1980s protected migran...
Jul 26, 2025•55 min
What paradoxes arise when victims of related persecution tell their stories next to, and after, each other? This question is at the heart of Ari Joskowicz’s highly acclaimed book “Rain of Ash,” which examines the unlikely entanglement of the histories of Jews and Romani people—the only two racialized groups the Nazis targeted for wholesale extermination. Joskowicz, professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University, explores the encounters between Jews and Romani people on the killing fields o...
Jun 28, 2025•1 hr 6 min
John A. Pérez, Regent Emeritus of the University of California, sits down with Robert Williams, Ph.D., CEO and Finci-Viterbi Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation, for a critical conversation about the rise of antisemitism on college campuses. They explore how history shapes present-day challenges, the dangers of misinformation, and the role of higher education in confronting hate. Drawing on lessons from the Holocaust and other historical atrocities, they discuss the urgent need for co...
Apr 04, 2025•1 hr
Through a focus on Spanish-speaking Catholics, Amanda Baugh sheds light on environmental actors hiding in plain sight. Drawing from ethnographic research conducted across Los Angeles, Baugh, Professor and Associate Chair of Religious Studies and Director of the MA Program in Sustainability at California State University, Northridge, demonstrates that minority communities are not merely victims of environmental problems. Instead, many Spanish-speaking Catholics embrace what Baugh calls “la tierra...
Mar 03, 2025•49 min
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence went viral in conservative media in June 2023 when the L.A. Dodgers announced plans to honor the local house of the order at the team’s annual Pride Night. Reporting on the ensuing scuffle focused largely on sports, politics, and culture wars, not on religion, and it largely misrepresented or overlooked the international order of queer and trans nuns at the heart of the story. In this program, Melissa M. Wilcox, Professor and Holstein Family & Community Ch...
Feb 03, 2025•1 hr 24 min
The modern world is not disenchanted. On the contrary, it is full of gods and heroes and myths and magic. In this talk, Philip Gorski sketches out a new narrative of Western modernity that can account for this state of affairs: the fragmentation of the sacred. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 39810]
Sep 10, 2024•48 min
As part of a special series celebrating the legacy of humanist and professor Walter H. Capps, this program examines Capps’ scholarly contributions and the study of religion today, featuring renowned scholars of religion who were Walter’s graduate students: Tomoko Masuzawa, Professor Emerita of History and Comparative Literature, University of Michigan, Julie Ingersoll, Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Florida, and Sarah McFarland Taylor, Associate Professor of Religious Studie...
Jul 15, 2024•1 hr 15 min
As part of a special series celebrating the legacy of humanist and professor Walter H. Capps, this program examines Capps’ scholarly contributions and the study of religion today, featuring renowned scholars of religion who were Walter’s graduate students: Edward Linenthal, Professor Emeritus of History, Indiana University Bloomington and Wendy M. Wright, Professor Emerita of Theology, Creighton University. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs...
Jul 10, 2024•1 hr 3 min
In this program, Lerone Martin, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, discusses his recent book, The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover, which reveals how Hoover and his FBI teamed up with leading white evangelicals and Catholics to bring about a white Christian America by any means necessary. His research draws on thousands of newly declassified FBI documents, including a civil lawsuit against the U....
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr 18 min
Prominent journalist E.J. Dionne, known for his op-eds in The Washington Post and essays in Commonweal Magazine, advocates for bridging societal divides by addressing issues like social isolation and loneliness. As part of the Burke Lectureship at UC San Diego, Dionne, a distinguished professor at Georgetown University, invites audiences to contemplate solutions transcending political boundaries. Joining Dionne is Dean Nelson, journalism professor at Point Loma Nazarene University, and Edward Wa...
Jun 21, 2024•53 min
What role do the humanities - history, art, philosophy, language, religion - play in the modern world? Prominent leaders of humanities organizations discuss the contributions of noted humanist and professor Walter H. Capps and the value of the humanities today. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 39705]
Jun 19, 2024•1 hr 53 min
Among the most striking exhibits at the Auschwitz museum are undoubtedly the mountains of loot stolen from Jews murdered upon arrival. Shoes, suitcases, spectacles, and more fill entire rooms in the former barracks of the main camp. Surviving the Shoah when their owners did not, they constitute a potent proof of the Nazis’ abiding concern with material gain. In this talk, author and historian Peter Hayes traces the ways by which the German corporate world became deeply implicated in—and in many ...
Jul 10, 2023•1 hr 29 min
Political philosopher and Harvard professor Michael Sandel talks about his latest book, "The Tyranny of Merit: Can We Find the Common Good?" Sandel reflects deeply on the fundamental moral principles behind our political institutions and democratic society. His books on justice, democracy, ethics, and markets have been translated into more than 30 languages. He has been described as “a rock star moralist” and “the world’s most influential living philosopher.” Series: "Burke Lectureship on Religi...
Apr 13, 2023•1 hr 28 min
Cornel West, Ph.D., is a prominent and provocative intellectual. He is Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary and has written 20 books and edited 13. He's best known for his classics, "Race Matters and Democracy Matters," and for his memoir, "Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud." His most recent book, "Black Prophetic Fire," offers an unflinching look at nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. As part of the annual Writer's S...
Apr 01, 2022•1 hr 16 min
Jesuit priest and editor at large of America Magazine, Father James Martin, SJ, talks about his personal journey ministering to the LGBTQ community. For Martin, working with people on the margins, walking with the excluded, has always been part of his Jesuit life. Early in his career, he began writing about the LGBTQ community because he felt these were people in the church who had very few people to advocate for them. Then, after the 2016 nightclub massacre in Florida, he was deeply concerned a...
Mar 23, 2022•59 min
David Beckmann reviews what we've learned from the Poverty, God & Politics series, talks about the students in his UC Berkeley class, and thanks the people—about 3,000 a week—who have watched webcasts and read the companion blog posts. He stresses the importance of advocacy with Congress this year and active participation in next year's elections. Series: "The Goldman School - Berkeley Public Policy" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36998]
Jul 04, 2021•20 min
Eugene Cho, president of Bread for the World, explains how this nationwide Christian citizens' movement repeatedly wins large-scale change for people struggling with hunger in this country and around the world. He concludes with Bread's current campaign to strengthen U.S. support for progress against child malnutrition worldwide. Eugene is introduced by David Beckmann, who served as president until a year ago. These two leaders are different in many ways and Eugene is leading Bread for the World...
Jun 27, 2021•45 min
John Carr provides a witty and incisive assessment of the liabilities and strengths of the Catholic community and its role in the politics of poverty. Its strengths include the leadership of Pope Francis and the rich tradition of Catholic social teaching. Carr is director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Teaching and Public Life at Georgetown University. Their educational programs are influential among Catholics in the United States and extend to thousands of people around the world. John pr...
Jun 21, 2021•32 min
Tom Hart, acting CEO and North American Executive Director of the ONE Campaign, explains how a strong advocacy community, including people of faith and faith-based organizations, have helped to reduce poverty, hunger, and disease around the world over the last generation. David Beckmann and Tom Hart open and close with lively discussions of two advocacy campaigns—debt relief for poor countries in the year 2000 and global child nutrition right now. Tom concludes with ambitious proposals to addres...
Jun 13, 2021•43 min
Many faith bodies and faith-related groups organize legislative advocacy. Amy Reumann, director of Witness and Society for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), explains how the ELCA's legislative advocacy is rooted in faith and theology, collective study of policy concerns, and ELCA ministries at the local, national, and international levels. The ELCA, its churches, and people are active in advocacy with state governments, the United Nations, and corporations as well as with the fe...
Jun 06, 2021•29 min
Anna Eng, a senior organizer for the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), explains from experience how faith-based community organizing works. David Beckmann argues that the faith-based community organizing movement has contributed to increasing political participation among low-income Americans. He also talks about the Poor People's Campaign and the positive impact of social media. Series: "The Goldman School - Berkeley Public Policy" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36993]
May 30, 2021•40 min
Galen Carey, Vice President for Government Relations for the National Association of Evangelicals, explains the Evangelical movement, its ministries to people in poverty, and its relationship to politics. Then David Beckmann probes how it's possible that most White Christians, including a large majority of White Evangelicals, voted repeatedly for Donald Trump. Series: "The Goldman School - Berkeley Public Policy" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36992]
May 23, 2021•53 min
Eric Sapp, a pioneer in the use of digital communications for good purposes, explains uses of digital technology to repair the divide between the Democratic Party and many faith-based voters, to communicate with vaccine-hesitant people, and to counter Russian digital propaganda. He stresses the importance of really listening to people. Series: "The Goldman School - Berkeley Public Policy" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36991]
May 16, 2021•58 min
Henry Brady, Dean of Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, draws a data-based picture of how religious attendance affects politics. Churchgoers tend to be more charitable and engaged in civic organizations than other Americans. But they tend to prefer elections and negotiations to conflict and protests -- even though conflict is important in overcoming the country’s deep racial and economic divisions. In general, churchgoers are much more inclined than other Americans to be pro-life and an...
May 09, 2021•39 min
Rev. Gabriel Salguero, Founder and President of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition (NALEC), explains the religious and political diversity among Latinos. Although Latinos are an important source of support for immigration reform, it is not a top priority political issue for most Latinos. Salguero explains how NALEC has amplified the voice of Latino evangelicals on immigration and other poverty-related issues. Series: "The Goldman School - Berkeley Public Policy" [Public Affairs] [Show ID:...
May 02, 2021•52 min
Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner and U.S. Representative Barbara Lee speak from the heart about how the Black Church has helped to build African American electoral power. It’s a powerful story with practical lessons for present times. Dr. Williams-Skinner is head of the Skinner Institute and Co-convener of the African American Clergy Network. Rep. Lee represents Berkeley, California. She is a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and now Chair of the House of Representatives’ foreign affair...
Apr 24, 2021•58 min
Hear remarks by Joshua Dickson to Berkeley's graduate seminar "Poverty and Communities of Faith in the Politics of 2021," taught by David Beckmann. Josh was the National Faith Engagement Director of the Biden-Harris campaign and is now Deputy Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Josh discusses the importance of persuading, mobilizing, and listening to faith voters; presents data on voting patterns across faith groups; and explains the Biden-Harris camp...
Apr 18, 2021•42 min
Experts address altered states of the mind that are deliberately induced by humans. We will address what is known about origins and mechanisms of these mind-altering practices. In doing so, we hope to gain new insights into the origins and workings of the human mind. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 36670]
Apr 15, 2021•19 min
David Beckmann explains the purpose of his “Poverty, God, Politics” series—to highlight spiritual and political strategies that can move us from the current crisis in a way that puts us on track to end hunger and poverty. They are drawn from a joint seminar on poverty, communities of faith, and politics cosponsored by UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. David then discusses two foundational insights from his years as president of Bread for t...
Apr 11, 2021•26 min
Experts address altered states of the mind that are deliberately induced by humans. We will address what is known about origins and mechanisms of these mind-altering practices. In doing so, we hope to gain new insights into the origins and workings of the human mind. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 36673]
Apr 11, 2021•20 min
