Harvard Divinity School

Peripheries Journal: A Journal of Word, Image, and Sound is celebrating the release of Issue 6. This 2024 edition includes work from Victoria Chang, Angie Estes, Aracelis Girmay, Joanna Klink, Sam Messer, Geoffrey Nutter, Sharon Olds, Alice Oswald, Rowan Ricardo Philips, Tracy K. Smith and many more. General pages are joined by a folio, “Anti-Letters,” that comprises the “personal” writings (ephemera, letters, lists, notes, recordings, photographs etc.) of poets such as Cody-Rose Clevidence, David Grubbs, Susan Howe, Jill Magi, and Jane Miller, among others. This year’s publication featured readings from Victoria Chang, Jorie Graham, and Alice Oswald. This event took place November 30, 2023. For more information, https://hds.harvard.edu/ A transcript is forthcoming.

Watch an interview with author Mike Jay about his two most recent books, "Psychonauts: drugs and the making of the modern mind," and "Mescaline: a global history of the first psychedelic." "Mike Jay has written widely on the history of science and medicine, with a specialist interest in the mind sciences, mental health and psychoactive drugs. Alongside Mescaline and Psychonauts, his books include High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture and This Way Madness Lies: The Asylum and Beyond, both of which accompanied exhibitions he curated at Wellcome Collection in London. He writes regularly for New York Review of Books and London Review of Books and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Humanities, University College London." More at his website, mikejay.net This event took place on November 27, 2023. For more information, https://hds.harvard.edu/ Full transcript here: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/01/02/video-psychedelics-and-future-religion-mescaline-and-psychonauts-mike-jay

Full title: LGBTQ+ Rights Under Attack - Session 2: Protecting Against Violence and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: A Global Perspective This is the second event in the three-part series “LGBTQ+ Rights Under Attack: The Weaponization of Religious Freedom and Free Speech." In this session, "Protecting Against Violence and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: A Global Perspective," Victor Madrigal-Borloz presented the “Report of the UN Independent Expert on Protection against Violence and Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity,” which he released in June 2023 while fulfilling his appointment. In conversation with Susie Hayward, Madrigal-Borloz shared his perspective on the global dynamics and trends related to the assault on LGBTQI+ Rights and Freedom of Religion or Belief and how they are feeding in/out of what’s taking place in the United States. Speakers: Victor Madrigal-Borloz, Lecturer on Law and the Eleanor Roosevelt Senior Visiting Researcher at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program Susie Hayward, Associate Director for the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative and former senior advisor for Religion and Inclusive Societies at the U.S. Institute of Peace Moderator: Diane L. Moore, Associate Dean of Religion and Public Life Overall Series: After over a decade of steady progress to protect and advance the rights of sexual and gender minorities in the US, a coordinated campaign to halt this progress and even unwind these protections has taken place in state legislatures, courts, and schools across the country. From “bathroom bills” passed to prevent trans people from using the bathroom that matches their gender identity to the illegalization of gender-affirming care for minors to Supreme Court rulings offering constitutional protection for business owners withholding their services to LGBTQ+ people, this legislation is often argued as a matter of religious freedom or free speech. A dominant claim of those pushing back against LGBTQ+ rights is that the accommodation of such legislation requires violating their ability to practice their sincerely held religious beliefs. Religion and Public Life will host a series of three events that engage this vital topic from a variety of angles and perspectives, asking, “What can the academic study of religion and religious literacy work offer to organizers, legal advocates, and other concerned citizens seeking to protect and advance justice in this critical moment for the LGBTQ+ rights movement?” This event took place on November 16, 2023. For more information, https://hds.harvard.edu/ Full transcript: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/video/2023/11/16/lgbtq-rights-under-attack-session-2-protecting-against-violence-and-discrimination

Full title: Book Launch and Discussion: Dr. Keith Edward Cantú, Like a Tree Universally Spread Sri Sabhapati Swami and Śivarājayoga Watch this discussion with author and CSWR Research Affiliate Keith Cantu on his recently released book, "Like a Tree Universally Spread Sri Sabhapati Swami and Śivarājayoga." Cantu will be in conversation with three respondents, Srilata Raman, Professor and Associate Chair, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto Aaron Michael Ullrey, Lecturer, Religious Studies, University of Houston, and CSWR Research Affiliate, T&T Database Manon Hedenborg White, Associate Professor at Malmö University This event took place on November 11, 2023. For more information, https://hds.harvard.edu/ A transcript is forthcoming.

Philosophers Prof. Christine Hauskeller and Dr. Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes presented a multi-perspectival hermeneutics of psychedelic-occasioned experiences. They discussed the question: How do we make sense of the myriad of experiences and extraordinary states of being that psychedelics can evoke through lenses ground from the discipline of Philosophy? Sjöstedt-Hughes introduced his Metaphysics Matrix as a framework through which to interpret certain psychedelic experiences—covering systems such as physicalism, idealism, dualism, and neutral monism, panpsychism, and cosmopsychism—a “menu” that opens possibilities of interpretation beyond the restricted options imposed by implicit inculcation. Prof. Hauskeller drew upon Critical Theory and on feminist ethics to question the framing of experience as mystical and consider decolonial ways of meaning making. This event took place November 6, 2023. A full transcript is forthcoming. Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

As part of the Transcendence and Transformation initiative, the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School is proud to announce its first ever podcast. Pop Apocalypse, hosted by Matthew J. Dillon, postdoctoral fellow at the CSWR, explores the mystical and the mythic, the paranormal and the psychedelic in popular culture. For episode five of the pod, we are honored to welcome Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Chair of Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. In this career-spanning chat [10:36], we discuss Kripal’s Catholic upbringing, psychoanalysis, and the ecstatic experience in Calcutta that changed the direction of his career. From there, we touch on Jeff’s role at Esalen, historical mystics and paranormal powers, telepathic insects, and how the study of religion and popular culture come together in film, comedy, and comics. The show features interviews with musicians, artists, and writers about how their spiritual experiences and practices inform their work. We also explore the mythological universes in film and fiction with show-runners, writers, and directors. These candid, first-person reflections will be complemented by interviews with scholars who situate these artistic products in the study of mysticism and esotericism. Together, the podcast offers descriptive, interpretive, and theoretical scholarship on religion and popular culture in real-time that will be of interest to scholars and laypersons alike. Full transcript: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/11/06/audio-video-pop-apocalypse-podcast-episode-five-ecstatic-knowledge-and-study-religion Learn more: cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

This webinar is the second in a series offered by the Buddhist Ministry Initiative at Harvard Divinity School. It featured a panel discussion of contributors to part II of Refuge in the Storm: Buddhist Voices in Crisis Care, edited by Nathan Jishin Michon. The panel included Kin Cheung (George) Lee and Lourdes Argüelles (Lopon Dorje Khandro), and was co-moderated by Rev. Dr. Nathan Jishin Michon and Rev. Dr. Monica Sanford. Bios: Kin Cheung (George) Lee Dr. Kin Cheung (George) Lee is a California licensed psychologist (PSY28022), a California Board of Psychology recognized clinical supervisor, and a registered clinical psychologist of the Hong Kong Associations of Doctor in Clinical Psychology. Clinically, he is a fellow member of the Asian Academy of Family Therapy, certified therapist in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and certified therapist in Managing and Adapting Practice. In the past 17 years, he has provided psychological services to individuals, couples, and families in various non-government agencies, community mental health centers, and schools in Hong Kong and the United States. Academically, Dr. Lee is a lecturer at The Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong and a founding member of the Master of Buddhist Counselling program as well as the Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Practice of Buddhist Counselling. He is the former assistant chair of the Department of Psychology at University of the West and former Director of Clinical Training at Alliant International University, Hong Kong program. He is the author of the The Guide to Buddhist Counseling and 小空間(translated: "A Little Emptiness"). Lourdes Argüelles (Lopon Dorje Khandro) Born in Cuba and educated around the world, Lourdes Arguelles, PhD (Lopon Dorje Khandro) is a Ngkma ordained by HE Garchen Rinpoche and a Lopon installed by HH Chetsang Rinpoche, the head of the Drikung Kagyu tradition. She is also Professor Emerita of Education and Cultural Studies at Claremont Graduate University in California as well as a retired California licensed psychotherapist and community organizer who worked pro-bono with survivors of domestic and political violence in the US-Mexico Borderlands. Lopon-la currently lives in retreat except when she is attending dying beings or teaching at Drikung Kyobpa Choling, a Tiberan Buddhist monastery in Escondido,California and to its Sangha in Latin America. Monica Sanford Monica Sanford joined Harvard Divinity School as assistant dean for multireligious ministry in September 2021. Sanford comes to HDS from the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she became one of only two Buddhists in North America to lead a multireligious life department at a college or university. Sanford is one of the first full-trained Buddhist practical theologians in the United States, having earned her PhD in practical theology from Claremont School of Theology. Sanford also holds an undergraduate degree in design from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a master of divinity degree from University of the West. Sanford is an ordained Buddhist lay minister in a Chan lineage and trained as a Buddhist chaplain. Her recent book, Kalyāṇamitra: A Buddhist Model for Spiritual Care (January 2021), is the first textbook for Buddhist chaplains. Nathan Jishin Michon Nathan Jishin Michon is a JSPS visiting scholar focused on Buddhist chaplaincy at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan. Jishin is editor of Refuge in the Storm: Buddhist Voices in Crisis Care and A Thousand Hands: Guidebook to Caring for Your Buddhist Community, among other works. Jishin especially focuses their research on Japanese Buddhist chaplaincy, chaplain training, and contemplative forms of care. They previously helped in disaster relief and hospice care. This event took place November 14, 2023. Full transcript: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/video/2023/11/14/refuge-storm-webinar-series-part-ii-sickness-aging-and-death-caring-life-cycle

This discussion followed the screening of Oscar-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin's extraordinary film "Wild Life". The film is a story of love, wildness, and restoration in Chile and Argentina, recording the life of Kris Tompkins through an epic decades-spanning love story as wild as the landscapes she dedicated her life to protecting. Special guests in this conversation include Kris Tompkins and Chai Vasarhelyi, with guest curator Geralyn Dreyfous and HDS writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams. This event took place November 13, 2023. For more information: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/ Transcript: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/video/2023/11/13/wild-life-film-screening-and-discussion

In this project, Elena Guzman explored the way Black women and non-binary people through the Caribbean and its diaspora use spiritual and ritual performance within African Diasporic Religions, including Santeria, Haitian Vodou, Puerto Rican Espiritismo, 21 Divisions, and Obeah, as a means to forge interstitial geographies of the African diaspora. Elena Guzman is an Afro-Boricua filmmaker, educator, and scholar raised in the Bronx with deep roots in the LES. She received her PhD in Anthropology from Cornell University and is an Assistant Professor in the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department and Anthropology at Indiana University Bloomington. Her manuscript, "Chimera Geographies: Black Feminist Borderland Performances," focuses on the way Black women and non-binary people throughout the African diaspora use ritual performance in African diaspora religion as a means to forge Black feminist borderlands through spiritual crossings. Her work has been published in Feminist Anthropology, NACLA, and Cultural Anthropology’s Screening Room. This event took place October 31, 2023. For more information: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/home Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/video/2023/10/31/chimera-geographies-black-spiritual-borderland-performances-caribbean

Full Title: From Ms. Marvel to the Smithsonian: A Conversation on Teaching Religious Literacy through Arts and Popular Culture with Dr. Hussein Rashid In this conversation, Dr. Rashid discussed his work and its uses in the classroom, with a particular focus on the Children’s Museum of Manhattan exhibit "America to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and Far?" Dr. Hussein Rashid is the new Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life and brought to RPL with a wealth of experience as an educator in public and classroom settings. He has particular expertise in integrating the arts into the study of religion. From work with museums to film, documentary, and comics, Rashid has long engaged the power of images and art to highlight complexity and captivate learners when teaching religious literacy. Among other projects Dr. Rashid executive produced the Times Op-Doc "The Secret History of Muslims in the US" and co-edited a volume on Ms. Marvel, the first Muslim to have her own comic series with Marvel Comics. This event took place October, 24, 2023. For more information, https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/home Full transcript here: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/11/27/video-ms-marvel-smithsonian-teaching-religious-literacy-through-arts-and-popular-culture