Harvard Divinity School

The Islamic tradition and Muslim communities have rich and long legacies of teachings, practices, and precedents for prioritizing nonviolent approaches to conflict transformation.

Two leading scholar-practitioners discuss theological, spiritual, and practical resources for peace in Islamic scripture and tradition, historical cases, and implications for our contemporary world.

Dr. A. Rashied Omar speaks on “Justice and Compassion: Embodying the Core Values of Peacebuilding in Islam”

Afra Jalabi speaks on “In Search of the Lost Hero: The ‘Muslim’ as a Peace-Maker: Reflections on the Theory and Practice of Islamic Nonviolence and its New Possibilities”

Moderated by Prof. Jocelyne Cesari

Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Zachary Wright, Associate Professor of History, Northwestern University Qatar

Visionary Knowledge: Encounters with the Prophet in Islamic Africa, 18th Century to the Present

Khaled Esseissah, Ph.D. student, History Department, Indiana University-Bloomington

The Ulama of Bilad Shinqiti (Mauritania) and their Roles in Disseminating Islamic Learning Outside Africa

Ahmed Chanfi, Senior Lecturer, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany

Northeastern African `ulama' and Salafism in Mecca and Medina: The Case of the Ethiopian Born Shaykh Muhammad ʿAli Amin al-Jami and the al-Jamiyya Movement in Saudi Arabia

Dahlia Gubara, Assistant Professor, American University of Beirut

Black Magic, White Magic, and the Man from Katsina

Panel chair: Oludamini Ogunnaike, College of William and Mary

Texts, Knowledge, and Practice: The Meaning of Scholarship in Muslim Africa website:

http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/islamafrica

Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Iqbal Akhtar, Associate Professor, Florida International University, “The Indic Chronicle of Light from Zanibar”

Kim Wortmann, PhD Student, Harvard University, “Zanzibar and Oman: Ibadi Revival in an East Africa town”

Caity Bolton, PhD Student, Graduate Center CUNY, “Divine Science: Knowledge, Islamic Education and Development in Zanzibar”

Ahmed Sharif, PhD student, NYU, “Somalia, Sudan, and the rise of Scholar Politics in the ICU”

Panel chair: Kai Kresse, Columbia University

Texts, Knowledge, and Practice: The Meaning of Scholarship in Muslim Africa website:

http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/islamafrica

Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Anthony Pinn, MDiv ’89, delivered the William James Lecture on March 9, 2017, at HDS. Pinn, the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of religion at Rice University, discussed “the problem soul.” Pinn calls it an important but underappreciated dimension in The Souls of Black Folk, one of the most well-known books by W.E.B. Du Bois.

Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at www.hds.harvard.edu.

Robert C. Neville, Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at the Boston University School of Theology, gave the CSWR's Annual Comparative Theology Lecture on March 6, 2017.

Professor Neville discussed the nature of comparative theology and the different approaches one could take: being grounded in a home tradition versus using a comparative approach to inform one’s own ideas about religion.

Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Robert C. Neville, Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at the Boston University School of Theology, gave the CSWR's Annual Comparative Theology Lecture on March 6, 2017.

Professor Neville discussed the nature of comparative theology and the different approaches one could take: being grounded in a home tradition versus using a comparative approach to inform one’s own ideas about religion.

Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

This discussion will consider social scientific research shedding light on religion’s role in advancing cooperation within groups, as well as its complex role in competition and cooperation among groups.

Speakers: Omar Sultan Haque, MD, PhD, MTS, Program in Psychiatry and the Law; Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University; and Joseph Henrich, PhD, Professor, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard; codirector of the Centre for Human Evolution, Cognition and Culture and the Cultural Evolution of Religion Consortium, University of British Columbia.

Moderator and Respondent: Jeff Seul, JD, MTS '97 HDS, LLM '01 HLS, Lecturer on the Practice of Peace, Harvard Divinity School; cochair, Peace Appeal Foundation.

Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

On March 2, 2017, Rev. Jim Mitulski, Mark D. Jordan, and Lynne Gerber explore the profound challenges AIDS has made to Christian theologies, both liberal and conservative, and the constructive possibilities of an AIDS Theology of Liberation.

The Rev. Jim Mitulski has been engaging AIDS theologically, liturgically, and pastorally since the first days of the epidemic. He served as pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco from 1986 to 2000 where he was deemed the “compassion of the Castro.” Rev. Mitulski is currently the Interim Senior Pastor of the Congregational Church of Needham.

Mark D. Jordan is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Christian Thought and a Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality.

Lynne Gerber is a Visiting Scholar in the Women’s Studies in Religion Program.

Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

This discussion will consider social scientific research shedding light on religion’s role in advancing cooperation within groups, as well as its complex role in competition and cooperation among groups.

Speakers: Omar Sultan Haque, MD, PhD, MTS, Program in Psychiatry and the Law; Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University; and Joseph Henrich, PhD, Professor, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard; codirector of the Centre for Human Evolution, Cognition and Culture and the Cultural Evolution of Religion Consortium, University of British Columbia.

Moderator and Respondent: Jeff Seul, JD, MTS '97 HDS, LLM '01 HLS, Lecturer on the Practice of Peace, Harvard Divinity School; cochair, Peace Appeal Foundation.

Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Larycia Hawkins, Abd el-Kader Visiting Faculty Fellow at University of Virginia, delivered the annual Greeley Lecture for Peace and Social Justice on February 23, 2017.

Hawkins discussed the meaning of solidarity in the context of political and theological spaces. Drawing largely from Christian theology and political theory and focusing on racism in the U.S., she explored how these ideas must be enacted practically and not remain theoretical works in the academy.

Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.