College of Arts and Sciences

The world mourns following the Monday morning news on April 21st, of the passing of Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Dr. Jonathan Tan, the Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan Professor of Catholic Studies, has been busy reflecting on the legacy of the inspirational late Pope and discussing what comes next. As one can imagine of such a groundbreaking individual, there is much to discuss. He was interviewed live by Singapore’s Channel News Asia (CNA), Ideastream’s Sound of Ideas (April 22, 2025), and BBC Newsday (April 24, 2025). He was quoted by USA Today and Time, and has written three op-ed’s for UCA News, “Conclave will reflect Church’s new-found global orientation: Pope Francis sowed the seeds for the internationalization of the papal office itself” (April 24, 2025), “The future of Vatican-China relations beyond Pope Francis” (April 28, 2025), and “Choosing the next pope after Francis.” (May 6, 2025). Dr. Tan additionally wrote a column for the People’s Reporter, “Remembering Pope Francis: A Pope for the World and Asia” (May 10 – 24, 2025)

Amid the anticipation, on the evening of Tuesday, May 6th (Wednesday, May 7th Singapore time), his expertise is again called upon in two Singapore morning news segments, BBC Newsday with Steven Lai and Singapore’s Channel News Asia CNA 938 radio news morning report, “CNA938 Rewind – Holy smoke: Who will be the next pope?” with Hairianto Diman and Susan Ng, both of which focus on the papal conclave, issues, and frontrunners.

To learn more about his extensive work, this page will be updated as more events and information become available, so stay tuned!

Dr. Tan continues to share his expertise following the announcement of the new Pope Leo XIV.

In the spirit of reflection, catch up on Dr. Tan’s involvement with Pope Francis’s Southeast Asia tour this past Fall.

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Pawo Choyning Dorji, will be visiting CWRU from Wednesday, April 23rd through Friday, April 25th, to screen his films and deliver a talk titled, “Untying Knots of Light and Sculpting Time: Storytelling in Bhutan”. This talk will focus on the themes of interdependence, impermanence, and the motivation behind storytelling. Drawing from personal experiences, along with spiritual and cultural insights, filmmaker, screenwriter, and director Dorji explores how Bhutanese stories are deeply interwoven with Buddhist principles, reflecting Bhutan’s unique perspective on creativity, existence, and happiness.

This event is presented in partnership with the Departments of Religious Studies and English and the Asian Studies Program.

Pawo Choyning Dorji is a 2025 Hildegarde and Elbert Baker Visiting Scholar in the Humanities.

First two events are free and open to the public
Registration for each is requested.

Film Screening and Discussion: Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
Wednesday, April 23rd; 7pm
Strosacker Auditorium

Untying Knots of Light and Sculpting Time: Storytelling in Bhutan 
Thursday, April 24th; 4pm
Eldred Hall Room 203

For “The Monk and the Gun,” get your ticket here

Film Screening and Discussion: The Monk and the Gun
Friday, April 25th; 7pm
Cinematheque at the Cleveland Institute of Art

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Adam J. Banks will be giving a talk on Thursday, March 20th at 2pm titled, “A Day in the Life of Al Green’s Internet, A Career of Studying It: Black Language, Culture and Technology – on Campus and in Community;” register below.

From texts to techne, from technological artifacts to discourses on science and technology, from participation and innovation to critique and resistance, from FUNK to the sermon and the need for a Black digital hermeneutic, we’ll explore how Black people in this society have engaged with the mutually constitutive relationships that endure between humans and their technologies.

Why can a rhetorical approach be an interdisciplinary hub for humanistic inquiry into technology and tech issues? Exactly what is a “Black digital rhetoric”? How do Black engagements with digital technologies illuminate—and trouble—tensions between liberatory possibilities and ongoing oppressions?

In his talk, Adam Banks, Bass Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and Professor of Education and African and African American Studies (by courtesy) at Stanford University, will use these questions, explorations, and provocations to share reflections on scholarship, teaching and pedagogy and his efforts to take intellectual work off campus and into local communities.

Thursday, March 20th at 2pm

Clark Hall Room 206

Registration requested

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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

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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.

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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

https://www.reed.edu/religion/events/

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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

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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.

Read the reflection here

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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

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