A yearly tradition at HDS, the Stendahl Symposium honors the memory of former professor Krister Stendahl, who tirelessly sought to repair fractions between Jews and Christians, supported the ordination of women, and pushed for the full inclusion and participation of women and minority voices in academia and interfaith work.

Opening Remarks: Given by Samirah Jaigirdar, HDSSA Academics Chair

Panel 1: Conversations Across Religious Boundaries

"Christian Zen: Innovative Syncretism or Cultural Appropriation?" by Jeffrey Ng

"Are You My Mother: Redefining Adoptive Relationships Through a Comparative Study of Western-Christian and Neo-Confucian Ethics" by Grace Sill

"They said that he was the image of Tezcatlipoca: Dress and iconography in technologies of ritual remembrance in 1500s Texcoco" by Marisol Andrade Muñoz

"Humanism in the Eastern and Western Philosophy and Religion: Concerning Confucius/Mencius and Kant" by Juye Han

Panel 2: Religion and the Digital Age

"Meme-ing Making: Our Newest Testament" by Maddison Tenney

"Religion’s On Her Lips: Exploring the “Good Girl Faith” of Taylor Swift’s Lyricism" by Olivia Hastie and Anna Guterman

"New Media, New Narratives, New Nuns: Catholic Nuns Making a Habit of Social Media" by Lauren Tassone

"The Spiritual Value of Slasher Films: Watching Horror Movies as a Sacred Practice" by Kristen Maples

Panel 3: Religion and Current Affairs

"From Haven to Hazard: Examining the Role of Family as Sanctuary in Mormon Discourse" by Perlei Toor

""We Are Both First Responders and Vulnerable": Religious Actors as Implementing Partners for Climate Adaptation in Kenya" by Miriam Israel

"Vacation to Auschwitzland: The Commodification of Grief and Fear in Auschwitz Dark Tourism and its Implications for the Divine" by Hannah Eliason

"Is QAnon a Cult? An Analysis of Religious Rhetoric in Q Drops" by Brady W Schuh

"The Transformative Power of Humility: The Irony of American History and a Reorientation of American Foreign Policy in the 21st Century" by Ailih Weeldreyer

Panel 4: Studying Religion

"“Christian Writers on Judaism” at Harvard: Who Studies Whom in the Academic Study of Religion?" by Rachel Florman

"Rassenfrage, Judenfrage, Schwarzen-frage: Liminal Identities in W.E.B. Du Bois’s Prayers for Dark People" by Becca Leviss

"Reimagining Religious Studies: Wilfred Cantwell Smith’s Revolutionary Legacy" by Yanchen Liu

Panel 5: Religion and Identity

"Thus Spoke the Child " by Micah Rensunberg

"Coming Out as Evangelical, Converting to Queerness" by Karina Yum

"Heritage Judaism, Race Science, and the Embodied Past: Searching for the Anti-Zionist Jewish Body" by Shir Lovett-Graff

"Building a Theological Home for Korean Queers: The Possibilities for Korean Queer Theology through the Eyes of Korean Christian Queers" by Jihyun Son

This event took place on April 19, 2024.

For more information: https://hds.harvard.edu

Full transcript: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/video/2024/04/19/stendahl-symposium-2024-new-horizons-new-resistance