Harvard Divinity School

Full Title: Black Religion and Mental Health Symposium Keynote, "Black Freedom and the Racialization of Religious Excitement in American Psychiatry” by Dr. Judith Weisenfeld Professor Ahmad Greene-Hayes (Harvard Divinity School) and Professor George Aumoithe (FAS, History and African and African American Studies) proposed this two-day interdisciplinary symposium, integrating mind, brain, and behav...

This event was sponsored by the Women's Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School. This lecture, "More Babies and More Birth Control: American Jews and the Politics of Reproduction," was given by Samira K. Mehta, who is the Visiting Associate Professor of North American Religions. This event took place on February 29, 2024. For more information, see: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/ Full...

Full title: Refuge in the Storm Webinar Series, Part III: Caring for Crisis Workers- Buddhist Approaches to Stress Management and Self-Care This webinar is the third in a series offered by the Buddhist Ministry Initiative at Harvard Divinity School and featured a panel discussion of contributors to part III of Refuge in the Storm: Buddhist Voices in Crisis Care, edited by Nathan Jishin Michon. The...

This was the fourth event in the six-part Religion in Times of Earth Crisis Series. Human-caused climate change already contributes to manifold global disasters. As the planet inevitably continues to warm, these disasters will be routine and unrelenting. Addressing the reality of loss must become a basic spiritual task of our climate present and future, along with summoning the resolve to respond...

Dr. Luis Eduardo is the Director of Wasiwaska, a research center in Brazil for the study of psychointegrator plants, visionary art and consciousness. Dr. Luna spoke about the ethnobotanical research at his Center, learning with and from the local communities and speaking with and to the plants. He also explored the relationship between his research work and art and how the greater-than-human world...

This is the third event is a six-part series that took place live on Zoom discussing religion in times of earth crisis. Across the Indian Ocean world, communities have shared stories while encountering legacies of modern state-centrism, colonial capitalism, post-colonial environmental destruction, and religious reform. Muslim communities, among others, have shared stories of religious environments...

Full event title: Religion, Conflict, and Peace Book Series Spring 2024: The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance & End of Days Ethics, Tradition, and Power in Israel This joint book talk will feature “The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance” by Shaul Magid and “End of Days Ethics, Tradition, and Power in Israel” by Mikhael Manekin. “The Necessity of Exile” is a progressive collection...

This is the second event in a six-part series about religion in times of earth crisis. Two hundred years ago, the residents of metropolitan Boston faced a climate crisis. White settlers had destroyed the region’s pine forests, triggering dangerous disruptions to both water and carbon cycles. Activists responded by creating forest parks on previously disrupted landscapes. But many of these activist...

This is the first event is a six-part series that will take place live on Zoom and is free and open to the public. Environmental catastrophes can create a break in the experience of time, they can rupture the possibility of collective meaning. Yet, for communities shaped by colonialism and racism, this rupture can only be understood in relation to the past, as an event in the “unceremoniously arch...

Join this author discussion about the book "Decolonizing Religion and the Practice of Peace." The book is an investigation of what consolidating religion as a technology of peacebuilding and development does to people's accounts of their religious and cultural traditions and why interreligious peacebuilding entrenches colonial legacies in the present. Throughout the global south, local and interna...

Pop Apocalypse, hosted by Matthew J. Dillon, postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School, explores the mystical and the mythic, the paranormal and the psychedelic in popular culture. For our sixth episode, we welcome the spirit channel, teacher, and playwright Paul Selig. We explore Selig’s early career as a playwright and professor, his spiritual...

We invite you to listen to the special evening celebrating the life and writings of Enheduana, also En-hedu-Ana; (c. twenty-third century B.C.E.) who is the first named author in human history. Enheduana, an Akkadian princess and daughter of King Sargon I, was appointed high priestess of the moon god Nanna (Sîn) in the holy city of Ur. Her poems and hymns offer unique, first-hand accounts of her p...

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 (ephem...

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...

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 an...

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...

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 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 welcom...

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 a...

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 K...

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...

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 Dea...

Full title: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion: Panel discussion on Race and Exoticism in Global Psychedelic Spirituality with Professors Lucia and Saldanha Drawing from their respective perspectives and scholarship, Professors Lucia and Saldanha led a conversation around the racialized politics/ethics of the hallucinogenic experience (or discourses thereof) within the context of modern spiri...

Major religious traditions call on their adherents to respond to the causes of suffering, those who suffer, and the prevention of suffering. The ways we respond and serve can take many forms including activism and holding political office. How does spiritual practice support the difficult work of speaking truth to power as well as being in positions of power without losing focus on the relief of s...

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 explores the mystical and the mythic, the paranormal and the psychedelic in popular culture. The show features interviews with musicians, artists, and writers about how their spiritual experiences and practice...