Harvard Divinity School

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/

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/

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. In this talk, Brenda Shaughnessy examined why some “first words” last, what trusting your voice means, and how inchoate feelings can be transformed into art. This event took place on April 19, 2022. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

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 symposium centered the political nature of Stendahl's legacy by engaging the following subtheme: "Solidarity, Resistance, and Liberation In and Through Religious Difference." This event took place on April 19, 2022.

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 era of AI, post-truth polarization, the simulation hypothesis, and the explosion of digital occultism, from Insta-witches to TikTok “reality shifters." This event took place on April 13, 2022. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

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 anti-racism, feminism, and anti-imperialism could help overcome restrictive binaries and lead to decolonial futures. This event took place on April 6, 2022. Learn more: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/programs/religion-conflict-peace

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

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 to transcend the strictures and the structures of gender. This event took place on April 11, 2022. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

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.edu/programs/religious-literacy-professions

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 art, artists, and the audience. This event took place on March 30, 2022. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

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_exhibit22. This event took place on March 29, 2022. Learn more: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/programs/religion-conflict-peace

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/

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. This event took place on March 22, 2022. Learn more: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/programs/religion-conflict-peace

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.edu/

On February 24-25, a convening of Religion and Public Life and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University brought together a small group of scholars and activists to assess the normative frameworks that shape how U.S. foreign policy thinks about the role of religion in world affairs. This public follow-up event, moderated by Peter Mandaville, George Mason and Georgetown Universities, and Susie Hayward, Religion and Public Life, featured several workshop participants as they shared insights and recommendations generated from the February discussion about how religion can be reimagined in policy and activist responses to meet the challenges of the present day. This event took place on March 4, 2022. Learn more: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/

This event is part of the RCPI Fellows' Spring Series, "Disrupting Injustice and Promoting Moral Imagination in Israel/Palestine." Conflict and Peace Fellows at Religion and Public Life (RPL) talk about their projects illuminating transnational solidarities, reimagining Jewish identity, Palestinian steadfastness (Sumoud), and cultivating moral imagination and creative possibilities for a just peace in Israel/Palestine. Salem Al-Qudwa, RCPI Fellow and Architect, in conversation with Sara Roy, Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. Salem Al-Qudwa showcased his work focusing on community and people with an emphasis on ethics, social injustice, and architecture in conflict zones such as the Gaza Strip. He also introduced his work on gender and in-between spaces exploring barriers, exploitation, and the relationship of widowed women to space and architecture. Co-sponsored by The Middle East Forum at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard. This event

“The Writing of Wisdom: Divine Sophia in Russia” is part of the CSWR’s new initiative, “Transcendence and Transformation". In this presentation, Judith Deutsch Kornblatt analyzed ancient icons of Divine Wisdom along with many other influences on the pivotal religious philosopher and poet Vladimir Solovyov and, through him, on his heirs in Russian religious thought in the 20th century. This event took place on March 10, 2022. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

This conversation is part of a ten-week series of online conversations with poets, writers, public servants, theologians, biologists, scholars, and activists who are engaged in the spiritual reckoning and awakening surrounding climate collapse, sacred land protection, and planetary health. Kim Stanley Robinson’s thriller "The Ministry for the Future" (2020) is science fiction that reads as hard-edged journalism. With short chapters and a myriad of characters, Robinson creates a kaleidoscope of perspectives on a global climate collapse coming in 2025. Bill McKibben writes “In Kim Stanley Robinson’s anti-dystopian novel, climate change is the crisis that finally forces mankind to deal with global inequality.” At heart an optimist, Robinson lays out a possible path to move forward with faith in what we can create together in a post-capitalist world. Respondent: Sarah Dimick, Assistant Professor of English, Harvard University This event took place on November 22, 2021. Sponsored by: Harvard Divinity School,

Vladimir Putin's invasion and war on Ukraine is a crisis. It's a crisis that is unfolding before our very eyes across social media and cable and online news, and it's more than just a political crisis, though that's likely what most of us are hearing about. Putin's war is crisis of humanity. It's a crisis of conscience … and it's a crisis with deep religious ties. I'm Jonathan Beasley, and in today's episode of the Harvard Religion Beat, I'm speaking with Sean Eriksen about the religious connection to Putin's war on Ukraine. Sean is a graduate student at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, specializing in contemporary Russian national identity and regime ideology. Sean is originally from Australia. He holds degrees in law and international relations, and he's lived in Kyiv, Ukraine, and has travelled throughout the former Soviet Union. Full episode transcript: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2022/03/10/putin-unholy-war

Virtual Voices of Divinity is an ongoing conversation series that showcases the unique impact of HDS alumni in the world. This talk featured Palwasha Kakar, MTS ’04, Interim Director of Religion and Inclusive Societies at US Institute of Peace, Rick Santos, MTS ’92, President and CEO at Church World Service, and Karen Tse, MDiv ’00, Founder and CEO of International Bridges to Justice. This event took place on March 1, 2022. Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/alumni-friends