The Dreamer and the Dream: Afrofuturism and Prophetic Visions of Blackness

Haines 279

A talk by Dr. Roger Sneed: Afrofuturism as a way of Black people expressing their identity through speculative fictions is fairly new, and yet it is not new. We can trace the Black use of speculative fiction to articulate visions of Blackness and critique white supremacy back to W.E.B. DuBois’s 1920 short story “The Comet.”...

CHESUCRISTO: The Fusion in Image and Word of Che Guevara and Jesus Christ

Kaplan 365

After his death, Che Guevara became an icon and was even compared to Jesus Christ. Many images, poems, plays, and films bear witness to this remarkable process, which made studious use of Christian iconography. In this way, Che Guevara became a Christ figure for our times. In order to explain their real affinity, the author...

The Seventeenth Century Judeo-Persian Adaptation of the Buddha Biographies

Royce 306

Elisha ben Shemuel’s Shahzadeh va-Sufi or The Prince and The Sufi is a seventeenth century Judeo-Persian adaptation of the life of Buddha, known in the west as the story of Barlaam and Josaphat. The plot, that of the prince who abandons a life of privilege and opulence for spiritual enlightenment, has traveled through centuries in...

On the Soul

Royce 306

This discussion of the soul departs from the concept of the soul that for thousands of years has occupied the attention of philosophers and theologians and pervaded religious discourse. Morris is concerned with what William James referred to as ‘the popular soul,’ the soul as it is invoked by expressions such as ‘an expansive soul,’...

Between Bible and Qur’an

Royce Hall, Rm 314

The Qur’an draws on three major earlier traditions, those of Judaism, Christianity tradition, and pre-Islamic paganism, and while the Qur’an presents itself as a continuation and confirmation of the Torah and the Gospel, its style deviates significantly from that found in Biblical texts. Western scholarship has focused on Biblical influence in terms of the characters...

Symposium: “On the Matter of Blackness in Europe: Transnational Perspectives”

Charles E. Young Research Library and Royce Hall

Organized by the UCLA Department of African American Studies Co-Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Religion A Symposium featuring Keynote Speaker Gloria Wekker, Professor Emerita at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and a renowned scholar of Black feminism, Dutch anticolonialism, and diaspora. Key Symposium questions will include: How do marginalized experiences of Blackness within...

Fall 2019 Welcome Reception

Royce Hall, Rm 306

You are cordially invited to attend the Center for the Study of Religion Fall 2019 Welcome Reception. We look forward to seeing you there!   Event Flyer RSVP Below:    

Secular Rituals: How Nonreligious People Make Religion Less Religious

Royce 306

As more Americans become nonreligious, life-cycle rituals and other ceremonies that religious experts once performed are increasingly the responsibility of everyday people and ritual experts for hire. Very secular people avoid rituals or work hard to minimize their resemblance to religion. Secular people who have left strict religious groups often rebel by inverting the rituals...