Harvard Divinity School

“Thank you, George Floyd, for giving your life for justice.” These words, uttered by former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, were offered in memory of George Floyd. Pelosi would eventually apologize for her words, but the question remains: why did she make this claim? What was it—what is it—about antiblack state-sanctioned violence that lends itself so easily to justifying this violence? Which is to say, what is it about state-sanctioned antiblack violence that lends itself so easily to theodicean claims steeped in atonement logics? In this talk, Biko Mandela Gray suggests that one of the reasons this is possible is because blackness—and therefore black life—operates as a structure of dis/appearance. To an antiblack world, blackness appears largely in the moments that it is dead—which is to say, in the moments that it has disappeared. This (ghostly) structure of dis/appearance is, Gray argues, how religious ideas—such as theodicy, atonement, and yes, even justice—are steeped in (a need for) black death.

This event took place on April 6, 2023

Transcript available here: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/05/04/greeley-lecture-disappearing-black-life-theodicy-study-religion-biko-mandela-gray

Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

This panel presented an opportunity to learn from the critical work being done by students to advance justice through analysis, reflection, and action at the intersection of race and climate. Mayra Rivera, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Religion and Latinx Studies, will offer an opening address.

This event was part of HDS's Climate Justice Week. It took place April 11, 2023.

Panelists

Phil Scholer, MTS '24

Tracey Robertson Carter, HDS Special Student

Nathan Samayo, MDiv '23

Eve Woldemikael, MDiv '24

Moderator

Aliyah Collins, MDiv '23

Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

Full transcript: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/5/11/video-climate-justice-racial-justice-student-panel

How does religion shape the political, social, and economic systems that have contributed to climate collapse, in both explicit and embedded ways? How can a critical understanding of religion help us reimagine and develop effective responses to climate collapse?

RPL Fellows with expertise in policy, environmental science, Native and Indigenous rights, and education discussed the ways religious and spiritual literacy can enhance policy and scientific efforts to understand the drivers of climate collapse and advance climate justice.

This event was part of HDS's Climate Justice Week. It took place April 14, 2023.

Panelists

Cynthia Wilson: RPL Native and Indigenous Rights Fellow

Teresa Cavazos Cohn: RPL Climate Justice Fellow

Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart: RPL Government Fellow

Moderator

Sarabinh Levy-Brightman: RPL Education Fellow

A full transcript can be found online: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/05/11/video-religious-literacy-and-climate-justice

Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

Join Research Associate Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani in a conversation with Dr. Natalie Dyer. Dr. Dyer is a Research Scientist with Connor Whole Health at University Hospitals, the President of the Center for Reiki Research, and a practicing Reiki master. In this discussion they talk about the role of Reiki and energy healing in improving health and well-being, the possibility of a non-materialist scientific paradigm, and Dr. Dyer’s latest research on universal love.

This event took place on April 5, 2023

Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

Full transcript: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/05/03/video-reiki-energy-medicine-and-post-materialism

In this conversation Catherine Brekus, Chair of the Committee on the Study of Religion, discusses the process and possibilities when applying to doctoral programs in religion.

This event took place on April 14, 2023

Transcript available here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/4/14/2023/applying-doctoral-programs-religion

Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

What role does religion play in the movement for climate justice? How can religious communities serve as sites of organizing and activism? Panelists will discuss these questions through the lenses of religious literacy, climate grief, climate ministry, and practices to guide communities through the perils of climate catastrophe. This panel will feature:

Terry Tempest Williams, HDS Writer-in-Residence

Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church and the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, MDiv '08, PhD '13

Rev. Vernon K. Walker, Program Director of Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW)

Anna Del Castillo, MDiv '21, Climate Justice Researcher for Religion and Public Life

This event took place on April 14, 2023.

A full transcript can be found online: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/07/24/video-examining-religious-and-spiritual-implications-climate-change

Learn more: https://hds.harvard.edu/

The question of Palestine and the Palestinians is shifting more and more from an external matter to an internal question of Israel, Zionism, and the Jewish people writ large. Religion and Public Life Visiting Scholar in Conflict and Peace Raef Zreik interrogates the ways questions of war and peace, borders, security, or the ‘two state’ solution become more and more internal to Israel. Related intimately to the state's identity, character and constitutional structure and democratic nature, these questions highlight the merging conversation of existence and essence.

This event took place on March 23, 2023

Learn more: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/

Full transcript: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/5/9/video-palestinian-question-jewish-question

The Harvard Psychedelics Project at Harvard Divinity School, a student organization, presented this conference to gather faculty, researchers, and students from across Harvard University to explore their diverse, interdisciplinary, and promising research on psychedelics. Speakers came from across the University’s Schools, units, and departments, including the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Business School, Harvard College, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and POPLAR at the Petrie-Flom Center. This first series of talks featured Franklin King, Yvan Beaussant, Grant Jones, Fernando Espi Forcen, Stephen J. Haggarty, Jeffrey Breau, and Paul Gillis-Smith.

This event took place on April 1, 2023

Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

A full transcript is here: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/transcript-explorations-interdisciplinary-psychedelic-research-group-two

Charles Hallisey, Yehan Numata Senior Lecturer on Buddhist Literatures, talks about Buddhist Studies at Harvard, his path to teaching, and the beauty of the world.

Faculty Focus is a special new 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/2023/4/14/faculty-focus-charles-hallisey-beauty-world-buddhist-studies-harvard

Learn more about HDS: hds.harvard.edu/

Music track: "Old Dog New Tricks"; Extreme Music Limited

Black Studies and Critical Race Theory constitute some of the most theoretically sophisticated conversations in the Humanities today on issues of individual and collective identities. The results have not yet been brought to bear on Jewish Studies, in general, or research on antisemitism, in particular. This talk, delivered by Shaul Magid and part of the Albert & Vera List Fund for Jewish Studies Lecture Series at the Center for the Study of World Religions, makes the case that antisemitism can be better theorized through engagement with theories of anti-Blackness, particularly Afropessimism. It focuses on how Jews write about antisemitism, how it is perceived in contemporary America, and how this discussion relates to race and Jewish identity.

This event took place on April 3, 2023

Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/

Full transcript: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/4/18/video-judeopessimism-antisemitism-history-and-critical-race-theory-shaul-magid