At Harvard Divinity School's 209th Convocation ceremony, HDS Dean Marla F. Frederick delivered the address "And, Yet...We Hope" to the HDS and Harvard community, friends, alumni, and distinguished guests.

This event took place on September 26, 2024.

Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/09/30/harvard-divinity-school-2024-convocation.

In their book, “Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism,” Shane Burley and Ben Lorber, two activist journalists, present a progressive, intersectional approach to the vital question: What can we do about antisemitism? Using personal stories, historical deep-dives, front-line reporting, and interviews with leading change-makers, Burley and Lorber help us break the current impasse to understand how antisemitism works, what’s missing in contemporary debates, and how to build true safety through solidarity, for Jews and all people.

Featuring co-authors Ben Lorder and Shane Burley

Moderated by Shaul Magid, HDS Visiting Professor of Modern Jewish Studies

This is the first event in RPL's Religion, Conflict, and Peace 2024-25 Book Series.

Full transcript: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/10/01/video-safety-through-solidarity-radical-guide-fighting-antisemitism.

This special HDS Buddhist Ministry Initiative event commemorated Dhamma Chakra Day, the anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism along with 500,000 of his followers. Dr. Ambedkar’s peaceful, egalitarian, and grassroots movement of social liberation left an indelible mark on Indian society, embracing Buddhism as a powerful method for marginalized people to denounce the caste system and to gain true equality and dignity.

Moderated by Buddhist Ministry Initiative Post-Doctoral Fellow Dr. Santosh Raut, this program included a presentation by Professor Charles Hallisey and a panel discussion on Dr. Ambedkar’s legacy as it resonates with Isabel Wilkerson’s "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents," featuring Dean Melissa Bartholomew and Professor Stephanie Sears.

Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/11/07/video-celebrating-dhamma-chakra-day-buddhism-emancipation.

There was a presentation and brief film screening with Eileen Moncoeur, Executive Director of HRDC Sabal Foundation in Nepal, which harnesses global support so that the poorest children with disabilities in Nepal can access surgery, rehabilitation, and loving care.

Eileen guided us through an exploration of the ways in which global principles of compassion can be put into action on the ground in community settings, using the Sabal Foundation’s work as a case study. HDS Buddhist Ministry Initiative instructors Chris Berlin and Dr. Santoshkumar Raut offered a response and commentary.

Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/10/24/video-what-it-takes-manifest-compassion-talk-sabal-foundation.

"Rematriation, Land, and Healing," featured co-founder of Women of Bears Ears, Cynthia Wilson, and board member of Women of Bears Ears, Doreen Bird. Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life, Hussein Rashid, served as moderator.

How we steward our land—and the lands of others—brings up essential questions of belonging, indigeneity, and spiritual and political governance. How do different types of stewardship impact how we enact democracy in and with the land we occupy? This session examined how we relate to the natural world around us and the possibilities—and obstacles—for strengthening those relationships through our democratic institutions.

This was the fourth of four sessions in the Religion and Democratic Ideals series. This series focused on where religion intersects with democratic ideals and institutions.

Sponsored by Religion and Public Life

Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/10/22/video-religion-and-democratic-ideals-rematriation-land-and-healing

For episode 10 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome the musician, composer, and producer Trey Spruance. We discuss Trey’s early musical and occult explorations and how reading the philosopher Henry Corbin changed the course of his life. Trey then takes us through the esoteric dimensions of Secret Chiefs 3 and how albums like Book M and Book of Horizons are filled with correspondences to Kabbalah, astrology, Hermetic magic, and Pythagorean musicology. Along the way, we touch on Trey’s work with Jim Zorn and Kronos Quartet, his conversion to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and the afterlives of Saint Cyprian the Mage.

Naomi Saks, MDiv ’10, Chaplain at University of California, San Francisco Medical Center offered remarks via Zoom about her new book, "Intentionally Interprofessional Palliative Care." Naomi was joined by one of her co-authors Chaplain Paul Galchutt.

Sponsored by the Office is Religious and Spiritual Life

Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/10/30/video-interprofessional-palliative-care.

Stephanie Paulsell delivered a moving lecture about her life in scholarship before her retirement in December 2024.

Paulsell has been a member of the HDS faculty since 2001. She is the author of "Religion Around Virginia Woolf" (2019), co-editor (with Davíd Carrasco and Mara Willard) of "Goodness and the Literary Imagination" (2019), and has served as a regular columnist for The Christian Century since 2007.

Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/10/22/video-lost-mystery-god-remembered-wisdom-retirement.

In our second episode of Praxis, we meet Marisol Andrade Muñoz, a Master of Theological Studies student, graphic designer, and historian, whose archival research looks at the relationship between time and people in Central Mexico.

Join us as we look deeper into the student experience at Harvard Divinity School.

Full transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/11/20/from-visual-storytelling-to-historical-imagination-featuring-marisol-andrade-munoz

In this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from Taylon E. Lancaster, a third-year MDiv candidate at HDS and pastor at Third Baptist Church in Springfield, MA. We discuss his pursuits as a drum major for justice, the role of rest, and what hope looks like in community.

Learn more about religion and spiritual life at Harvard Divinity School here: https://hds.harvard.edu/community-life/religious-and-spiritual-life

Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/11/19/hope-podcast-featuring-taylon-e-lancaster-mdiv-candidate