Dr. Jonathan Tan presents his talk, “Beyond a Eurocentric Catholic Church: Insights and Reflections from Asian Catholicism,” Wednesday, February 5th at 8pm EST.
The presentation with a following discussion will be hosted via Zoom.
Scan the QR code in the flyer to participate.
Dr. Howard Chiang of the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Lai Ho & Wu Cho-Liu Endowed Chair in Tawan Studies and Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, will deliver his talk on Thursday, March 6th at CWRU. This talk uses the concept of “transtopia” in order to develop a new model of transness. Through three historical examples from the Sinophone Pacific—eunuchs, renyao, and adju — it challenges the assumption that gender nonconforming figures did not exist historically and the idea that the Western category of transgender delivers the best framework for understanding their experience.
Co-sponsored by the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities and the Departments of History and Religious Studies.
Thursday, March 6th
12pm – 1:30pm
Mather 100
Light lunch will be served
At the invitation of Reed College, Professor Sarma departs for Portland, Oregon to present their lecture “Epistemic Doubt: A Dream We Dreamed One Afternoon Long Ago.” Sarma has wondered if experiences are real or not and if perceptions are merely projections on an underlying undifferentiated and real substrate. Their own congenital epistemic confusion, compounded by a TBI in 1995, led to reflections about mysticism, consciousness and psychedelics. Sarma writes and researches about psychedelics, Cultural Theory, philosophy, post-colonial studies, museology, the Grateful Dead, “Hinduism,” contemporary Hinduism, bioethics, and Madhva Vedanta. Verily, their job is to shed light and not to master.
The lecture takes place January 29th, 2025
Dr. Deepak Sarma will be a panelist at the upcoming 2025 PULSE Conference, “Sacred Rights: Psychedelics, Law, and Spirituality,” at Harvard University.
“Scientific and commercial interest in psychedelics is exploding. In the flood of news about drug companies, clinical trials, and state and federal regulation, one might overlook the spiritual use of psychedelics. However, spiritual use long predates Western scientific applications and is seemingly expanding. The trend raises difficult questions for lawyers, ethicists, and religious practitioners. This in-person conference at Harvard Law School emphasizes the spiritual aspects of psychedelic experience. Speakers will explore the complex relationships between psychedelics, religious communities, courts, Congress, and federal agencies. They will discuss how psychedelic law previously impacted spiritual practice and how it should in the future.”
Dr. Sarma’s panel will discuss how constitutional doctrine, drug law, and bioethics affect the spiritual use of psychedelics.
The Conference takes place on February 14th, 2025 from 1-5pm
Registration is free and open to the public.
Following the event, a recording will be made available on the Petrie-Flom Center YouTube channel
Dr. Jue Liang published a short reflection with the Conversation (US) on a new course she taught in Fall 2024, titiled Ghosts, Zombies, and Monsters: What We Fear and Loathe in Religions. This course was supported by a Flash Grant from the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, and explored these fearsome and “other-than-human” beings as embodiment of the issues, concerns, hopes, and fears that have shaped our lives.
What if it’s too late to avoid some kind of ecological catastrophe? Maybe it’s not, and we should be doing everything we can so that it isn’t. Still, what if it is? Shouldn’t we also be talking about that? What kind of a future do we want to create for ourselves on such a horizon? What might it mean to collapse well?
Sylvester Johnson, Professor of Black Studies at Northwestern University, presents, “The Global South Is Our Future: Climate Collapse, Socio-Technical Innovation, and Global Governance after Democracy,” the final lecture in a series of free public lectures by internationally renowned scholars and public intellectuals made possible by the Henry Luce Foundation. In this talk, Dr. Johnson examines fundamental challenges to humanity posed by irreversible environmental harms amidst the global rise of authoritarianism and the accelerating pace of technological innovation. Taking his cue from the decades-long history of communities and institutions in the Global South that have tackled these issues, he proposes key lessons to be learned from the strategies and socio-technical innovations that have emerged in those contexts.
Read more about the lecture series and the Finite Futures project
Thursday, November 21st at 4:30pm
Clapp Hall, Room 108
2080 Adelbert Rd. Cleveland, OH 44106
Free to the Public, no registration required
Faculty members in the Department of Religious Studies will be presenting and participating in panel discussions on a wide range of interdisciplinary topics at the 2023 American Academy of Religion annual meeting.
Click here for more information
The topics and panels covered are as follows:
Professor Brian Clites is convening and presiding over the Contextualizing Sexual Abuse Seminar session, “Reconsidering Nuns as Both Victims and Perpetrators of Clergy Sex Abuse,” on Sunday, Nov. 24
Professor Jue Liang is the co-organizer of and a panelist at the roundtable “Author Meets Author: Multiple Truths in Buddhist Studies,” co-sponsored by the Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflection Unit and the Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion Unit, on Saturday, Nov. 23.
Professor Justine Howe is presenting, “Developing Student Voice and Expertise in the Islamic Studies Classroom,” on a panel entitled “Feminist Pedagogy in Islamic Studies,” on Sunday, Nov. 24. This panel focuses on developing feminist approaches to teaching Islam and gender.
Professor Timothy Beal is featured in the SBL Meta criticism of Biblical Scholarship round table discussion presenting “Review of Beal, The Book of Hiding: Gender, Ethnicity, and Annihilation in Esther”.
NPR sheds some light on India’s most widely celebrated holiday, Diwali, also known as Deepavali and the Hindu “Festival of Lights”. The celebration is observed around the world for 1 to 5 days, beginning this year on October 31st. Dr. Sarma shares their insight into its history and significance, as well as reminding us that you don’t have to be Hindu or Indian to celebrate Diwali. To learn more, read the article here: What is Diwali: Here’s all you should know : NPR
What if it’s too late to avoid some kind of ecological catastrophe? Maybe it’s not, and we should be doing everything we can so that it isn’t. Still, what if it is? Shouldn’t we also be talking about that? What kind of a future do we want to create for ourselves on such a horizon? What might it mean to collapse well?
Renowned speaker, Nadia Bolz-Weber, presents “Let There Be Snacks (and Sex and Songs): Finding a Defiant Hope in What Makes Us Most Human,” the fourth lecture in a series of free public lectures by internationally renowned scholars and public intellectuals made possible by the Henry Luce Foundation
Thursday, November 7th at 4pm
Thwing Center, Excelsior Ballroom
11111 Euclid Ave. Cleveland, OH 44106
An Explore Event, Free to the Public, Register Here
Nadia Bolz-Weber is an ordained Lutheran Pastor, founder of House for All Sinners & Saints in Denver, Co, creator and host of the podcast The Confessional (produced in conjunction with The Moth), and author of three NYT bestselling memoirs. She writes and speaks about personal failings, recovery, grace, faith, and really whatever the hell else she wants to. She always sits in the corner with the other weirdoes. Nadia can be found a couple days a week inside the Denver women’s prison where she is a volunteer chaplain.
You can subscribe to The Corners to receive her writing in your inbox weekly
Find her bestselling memoirs here: Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith Of A Sinner & Saint (2013, and re-released in 2021), Accidental Saints: Finding God In All The Wrong People (2015), and SHAMELESS: A Sexual Reformation (2019).
Dr. Justine Howe will be presenting her talk “Qurʾān Translations and US Muslim Pamplets: Lived Religion, Revivalist Aspirations, and the Culture Wars” as a part of the GloQur Conversations on Qurʾān Translations Online Talk Series.
Tuesday, October 29th 2024
9am – 10:20am EDT
Online: Zoom