Harvard Divinity School

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

Monica Sanford, Assistant Dean for Multireligious Ministry and Lecturer in Ministry Studies at HDS, talks about the evolution and importance of multireligious ministry and setting students up for success. Faculty Focus is a special podcast series from Harvard Divinity School, where we speak with HDS professors about their courses and research interests. Full episode transcript: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/6/3/faculty-focus-monica-sanford-multireligious-ministry Learn more about HDS: hds.harvard.edu/ Music track: "Old Dog New Tricks"; Extreme Music Limited

The 1619 Project spawned an unprecedented national conversation in and outside the classroom on slavery’s ongoing afterlives in American society. The enthusiastic response to the project was not universal. A few historians noted in a letter to the Times that the project reflected “a displacement of historical understanding of ideology.” The challenge raised here underscores central ethical concerns at the center of American national identity: who is responsible for slavery? What role does religion play in addressing the lingering “afterlives” of African enslavement in the United States? Do African and African American scholars play a unique role in public debates and scholarship on slavery? HDS Professor Terrence Johnson examined how the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois and Toni Morrison established a framework for exploring the role of religion and ethics in grappling with the memory and history of African enslavement. 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 February 27, 2023 Learn more about Religion and the Legacies of Slavery: A Series of Public Online Conversations: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/religion-and-legacies-slavery

In this event, Dr. Amy Hale and Dr. Christa Shusko present their book Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses, edited by Amy Hale. They discuss some of the latest and pressing topics in the study of (Western) Esotericism and talk about some of the opportunities and challenges of inhabiting this field of study as women and scholars. This conversation is part of the Gnoseologies series. This online series focuses 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. Going beyond dichotomies such as body and mind, ordinary and extraordinary, reason and experience, and matter and spirit, this series hosts scholars of different disciplines and practitioners interested in exploring and expanding the boundaries of what counts as “knowledge” today. This event took place on February 22, 2023 Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/ Full transcript: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/3/25/video-essays-women-western-esotericism-beyond-seeresses-and-sea-priestesses

As a state-of-the-art “wearable technology” of the time, talismans provided protection, perquisites, and prescriptions for the devotees of premodern Korean Buddhism. Among a varied array of talismans discovered from tombs, stupas, and spell books, this talk focuses on a collage of the twenty-four Buddhist talismans to illustrate how they provided a vocabulary and structure to address believers’ soteriological concerns and transform their cosmological views. By examining these talismans as a crucial part of the Korean Buddhist mortuary ritual, the talk argues for the pervasiveness of talismanic culture in Chosŏn Buddhism, which allowed its followers to manage the fears of disease, demons, and death. My findings further suggest that multiple layers of ambiguities built around talismans, such as tensions between text and image, legibility and illegibility, as well as accessibility and inaccessibility, played a key role in enacting the efficacy and potency of talismans, and that the twenty-four talismans occupied a central place in Chosŏn Buddhist devotional practice. Challenging the common view of Chosŏn Buddhism as being dormant and defeated, this talk presents a surprisingly vibrant and dynamic picture of Chosŏn Buddhism through these little-studied materials. This event took place on February 6, 2023 Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/ Full transcript: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/3/4/video-wearing-divine-protection

Randy Chung Gonzales was leading an ordinary life in his hometown of Lamas, Peru, when his employer, anthropologist Frédérique Apffel-Marglin, asked him to accompany her to an ayahuasca ceremony led by a local shaman. There, to everyone’s great surprise, Randy was initiated by discarnate entities, who instructed him and gave him healing powers. In this unique book, Randy tells his story to Frédérique, who offers cultural context and describes how she herself has been transformed from an academic anthropologist into an advocate for the sharing of indigenous wisdom and ecospirituality. Initiated by the Spirits argues powerfully that shamanic sacred plants can heal the epidemics of mental illness in Western societies, as well as the global ecological crisis. This event took place on February 9, 2023 Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/ Full transcript: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/3/4/video-initiated-spirits-fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9rique-apffel-marglin-phd-randy-chung-gonzales