Harvard Divinity School

In this special episode of Faculty Focus, HDS professors John P. Brown and Charles Hallisey talk about why this summer’s Making Change Professional and Lifelong Learning program is such a valuable experience for those looking to make an investment in themselves and gain a new perspective on the challenges they face. Held across five lively and concentrated days of collaboration, close reading, and multilayered exercises, a team of faculty members from Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Business School will share their insights and reflections about religious and non-religious meanings of “the graciousness of the world” and its relevance for how we think about making change in a “world on fire.” To be held June 4-8, 2023, at Harvard Divinity School. Apply by May 1. Learn more about Making Change and apply: https://hds.harvard.edu/academics/professional-lifelong-learning Full transcript is here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/4/5/faculty-focus-graciousness-world-and-life-well-lived

There are two distinct concepts of translation at work in the encounter between an Amazonian Indigenous people, the Wari’, and the New Tribes Mission evangelical missionaries. While the missionaries conceive translation as a process of converting meanings between languages, conceived as linguistic codes that exist independently of culture, for the Wari’, in consonance with their perspectivist ontology, it is not language that differentiates beings but their bodies, given that those with similar bodies can, as a matter of principle, communicate with each other verbally. Translation is realized through the bodily metamorphosis objectified by mimetism and making kin, shamans being the translators par excellence, capable of circulating between distinct universes and providing the Wari’ with a dictionary-like lexicon that allows them to act in the context of dangerous encounters between humans and animals. This conversation with Aparecida Vilaça, Professor of Social Anthropology at Brazil’s Museu Nacional, aims to engage these issues of translation. This event took place on March 30, 2023 Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/ Full transcript: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/4/18/video-translation-linguistical-and-bodily-metamorphosis

This conversation was the last of the six-part series Religion and the Legacies of Slavery | A Series of Public Online Conversations. The featured speakers were HDS professors Karen L. King, David F. Holland, Dan McKanan, Terrence L. Johnson, and Tracey Hucks. This session was a discussion among presenters reflecting upon the insights shared throughout the series. In addition to identifying themes and throughlines among sessions, we returned to the overarching questions that framed this collaboration: What does the academic study of religion teach us about the complex histories and legacies of slavery? How can a deeper understanding of the roles of religion enhance our commitment to reparative action in our contemporary times? This event took place on March 20, 2023 Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/ A full transcript is located here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/4/2/video-reflecting-religion-and-legacies-slavery

What is dignity? Is it something conferred upon us externally by others, or an inner quality that we all possess? Drawing from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Phakchok Rinpoche provides a fresh understanding of dignity as the power that arises when we know decisively that our nature is inherently pure. With dignity, we know that we are fundamentally whole and complete. We gain an unshakeable confidence in who we are that enables us to meet the challenges of today’s world with greater compassion and wisdom. But many of us have lost contact with dignity. In this talk, Rinpoche offered practical and poignant advice for awakening and cultivating our own inherent dignity through contemplative exercises he calls “dignity training.” This even took place on March 20, 2023 Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/ A full transcript is located here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/4/14/video-what-does-it-mean-awaken-our-dignity

Amahl A. Bishara, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Tufts University, and author of "Back Stories: U.S. News Producation and Palestinian Politics," discusses her book "Crossing a Line: Laws, Violence and Roadblocks to Political Expression." The book looks to sites of political practice, such as journalism, historical commemorations, street demonstrations, social media, in prison, and on the road, to analyze how Palestinians create collectivities in circumstances of constraint. Drawing on firsthand research, personal interviews, and public media, Crossing a Line illuminates how expression is always grounded in place, and how a people can struggle together for liberation even when they cannot join together in protest. The discussion was moderated by Raef Zreik, Religion and Public Life Visiting Scholar in Conflict and Peace. The event was co-sponsored by The Center for Middle Eastern Studies Harvard University. A full transcript is here: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/audio-book-event-crossing-line-laws-violence-and-roadblocks-political-expression

In this lecture Visiting Assistant Professor of African Religions and Women's Studies in Religion Program 2022-23 Research Associate Elyan Hill discusses embodied visualities and domestic enslavement in Togolese sacred arts. This event took place on February 22, 2023. Learn more: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/ Full transcript: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/3/25/video-dancing-altars

Join Research Associate Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani in her conversation with Dr. Grace Nono as they discuss Dr. Nono’s work as an ethnographer and performer, about shamanism in the Philippines, and some of the possible connections between sound and healing. This event is part of the Gnoseologies Series focused on ways of knowing that are often labeled as “non-rational.” Traditionally referred to as gnosis in Western philosophical and religious traditions, and often understood in contraposition to science (episteme), these ways of knowing are becoming more and more influential in contemporary societies, popular culture, and academic research. This event took place on March 8, 2023 Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/ A full transcript is located here: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/4/14/music-voice-healing-conversation-grace-nono

Slavery is most readily associated with the U.S. American South with the geographies of the North often eclipsed. Tracey Hucks, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Africana Religious Studies at HDS and Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, led a discussion on slavery and the slave trade that focuses on New England and the DeWolf family of Rhode Island. The DeWolf family was understood as the largest slave trading family in the United States and Dain Perry, a direct descendant, was featured in this webinar. The event will also highlight the reparative and healing workshops co-facilitated by Dain and his wife Constance Perry conducted throughout the U.S. at religious, social, and educational institutions. Hosted by Dr. Diane L. Moore, Faculty Director, Religion and Public Life, and Dr. Melissa Wood Bartholomew, Associate Dean of the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. This event took place on March 6, 2023. Full transcript forthcoming. Learn more about Religion and the Legacies of Slavery: A Series of Public Online Conversations: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/religion-and-legacies-slavery

On March 2, 2023, a cohort of Harvard Divinity School students engaged in an evening of storytelling, poetry, and photography as they shared their experiences of joy and resistance from their summer in Israel/Palestine. Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/ A full transcript is located here: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/4/8/video-displacement-and-belonging-israelpalestine

The Leading Toward Justice webinar series 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 discussed the critical importance of ethical practices and religious literacy in community organizing and advocacy fields. Panelists: - Ryan Andersen, MDiv ’04 - Lead Organizer, Calgary Alliance for the Public Good - Jasmine Beach-Ferrera, MDiv ’10 - Executive Director, Campaign for Southern Equality - Erica Williams, MRPL ’22 – Spiritual Leader, Community Organizer, and International Human Rights Activist Moderated by Susan O. Hayward, MDiv ’07, Associate Director for the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative (RLPI) at Harvard Divinity School This event took place on February 10, 2023. Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/ A full transcript is located here: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/4/8/video-leading-toward-justice-intersections-religion-ethics-and-community-organizing