BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Center for the Study of Religion - UCLA - ECPv6.17.4.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Center for the Study of Religion - UCLA
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://religion.ucla.edu
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Center for the Study of Religion - UCLA
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Los_Angeles
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20250309T100000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20251102T090000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20260308T100000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20261101T090000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20270314T100000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20271107T090000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20280312T100000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20281105T090000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260115T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260115T160000
DTSTAMP:20260112T184254Z
CREATED:20241101T155359Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260112T184254Z
UID:6670-1768492800-1768492800@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:CANCELLED: And God Laughed: Humor in the Bible
DESCRIPTION:Due to unforeseen circumstances\, And God Laughed: Humor in the Bible with Joel Kaminsky has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and will re-list if the event is rescheduled. \nSince the Hebrew Bible is a sacred text for Jews and Christians many readers naturally assume it cannot contain any humor. This talk will explore several biblical narratives that employ humor to make serious theological points. Becoming aware of such biblical humor can enrich our understanding of these stories and of certain theological ideas the ancient biblical writers wished to emphasize. \nJoel Kaminsky is the Morningstar Family Professor of Jewish Studies and a professor of Bible in the Religion Department at Smith College where he has taught since 1997. His research explores the intersection between narrative and theological currents in the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic literature and seeks to illuminate the distinct ways that Jews and Christians over the past two millennia have interpreted the Hebrew Bible. \nJoel Kaminsky (Smith College)\nModerator: Carol Bakhos (UCLA) \nThe Bible and the Ancient World Seminar Series\nSponsored by The UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies \nCo-sponsored by the UCLA Center for the Study of Religion
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/and-god-laughed-humor-in-the-bible/
LOCATION:Royce Hall 306
CATEGORIES:CSR,NELC
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260121T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260121T173000
DTSTAMP:20260115T195931Z
CREATED:20251120T195150Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260115T195931Z
UID:6961-1769011200-1769016600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:A Tattered Leaf Covers the Torn: Class Dynamics of Buddhist Charity in Vietnam
DESCRIPTION:Professor Sara Ann Swenson (Dartmouth College) presents new research on how global trends in humanitarianism are enacted at the local level through the everyday ethics and informal practices of low-income and middle-class Buddhist volunteers in Vietnam. \nStudies of humanitarianism tend to focus on the large-scale. They analyze disaster relief\, international diplomacy\, development politics\, and privatized welfare. These studies highlight trends and policies that suggest generosity is becoming homogenized into “industrialized philanthropy.” Yet when global trends actualize in local communities\, diverse ethics and interpretations of care reemerge. Differences flourish and conflicts arise over how to best care for others.  \nSara Ann Swenson’s research examines the point at which national trends toward philanthropy are enacted on the ground by focusing on the role of low-income and middle-class Buddhist volunteers in Vietnam. Informal giving and “random acts of kindness” are difficult to quantify\, meaning they are often overlooked among large-scale studies of humanitarianism. Yet these everyday ethics of care are also a major way that citizens—particularly low-income earners and middle-class workers—transform ethics of care into civic engagement and moral citizenship. Moreover\, as volunteers draw on Buddhist teachings and practices to explain care in Vietnam\, their religious ethics permeate secular and public institutions such as hospitals\, universities\, and social service programs. Close qualitative research shows how—even as processes of giving are increasingly globalized—the motivations\, experiences\, and relationships that arise from giving can vary greatly by context\, depending on intersectional dynamics between donors and recipients. Researchers must always attend to questions of who is giving to whom and why for a comprehensive understanding of how social service needs are being met amid high-speed development and privatization in late socialist countries like Vietnam. \nRegister here. \nSara Ann Swenson is an Assistant Professor in Religion at Dartmouth College. She researches contemporary Buddhism in Vietnam. She holds a PhD and MPhil in Religion from Syracuse University\, an MA in Comparative Religion from Iliff School of Theology\, and a BA in English from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Her book Near Light We Shine: Buddhist Charity in Urban Vietnam is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. \nSponsor(s): Center for Buddhist Studies\, Center for the Study of Religion\, Center for Southeast Asian Studies
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/a-tattered-leaf-covers-the-torn-class-dynamics-of-buddhist-charity-in-vietnam/
LOCATION:Royce 243
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260205T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260205T170000
DTSTAMP:20260122T231222Z
CREATED:20251202T005806Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260122T231222Z
UID:6970-1770307200-1770310800@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Between Discordant Shores: Dante’s Francis\, the Book of Islam and the Orient
DESCRIPTION:(Image: Coppo di Marcovaldo\, St. Francis before the Sultan\,” Sultan Malek al-Kāmil and his philosophers\, Bardi Altarpiece\, c. 1260s\, Basilica di Santa Croce\, Florence.) \nMarking the 800th anniversary of St. Francis’s death in 2026\, this talk draws on Morosini’s recent study Dante\, Moses and the Book of Islam (2024) to explore Dante’s Francis and their shared conception of the Book of Islam and of the Orient. At its center is the Book’s role within the Commedia and in Dante’s representation of Francis\, offering a new perspective on the Orient as a geographic space of dialogue rather than dehumanizing alterity. \nThis perspective\, as emerged in Dante\, Moses and the Book of Islam\, calls for a reevaluation of Dante’s “discordant shores” of Paradiso IX\, 85. In Dante’s vision\, the Book becomes a bridge between cultures and faiths\, a medium of transmission and encounter that links distant shores within a Mediterranean network of knowledge. \nRSVP here to attend in person. \nPrior to joining UCLA’s Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies in July 2024\, Professor Morosini was Professor of Italian at the Università L’Orientale di Napoli since 2022 and the 2024 Chair of Italian Culture at UC Berkeley.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/between-discordant-shores-dantes-francis-of-assisi-the-book-of-islam-and-the-orient/
LOCATION:Kaufman Hall Room 101
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260409T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260409T163000
DTSTAMP:20260330T213137Z
CREATED:20260330T213137Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260330T213137Z
UID:7043-1775748600-1775752200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:The Dread Heights: Tribulation and Refuge after the Syrian Revolution
DESCRIPTION:Muslim charities and community organizations have assumed a significant role in refugee support since the Syrian catastrophe: in Jordan and Canada\, as elsewhere\, they deliver food aid\, house orphans\, and organize remedial education. But Islam is more than just a resource for humanitarian projects. The Dread Heights details how the Islamic tradition guides refugees\, relief workers\, and religious scholars in a world of brutal sieges and mass displacement. Even as refugees become objects of humanitarian concern suspended between national orders\, this ethnography brings another suspension into view: a form of life whose gestures are illuminated by the Quranic figure of the Heights. In the shadow of war\, beyond humanitarian order\, Islam offers an orientation to the devastation of the present. \nBasit Kareem Iqbal is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Associate Member in the Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University. An anthropologist and longtime academic editor\, his research explores the difficulty of the present within and across distinct traditions and forms of life. He is author of The Dread Heights: Tribulation and Refuge after the Syrian Revolution (2025) and editor of collaborative journal issues on tribulation (2022)\, the destruction of loss (2023)\, the incapacitations of tradition (2026)\, and the unmooring of the present (2027). His current projects include translating a book on the representation of violence and writing a series of essays on evil in creation. \nREGISTER HERE \nSponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies\, Center for Middle East Development\, Center for Study of International Migration\, Islamic Studies\, and the Center for the Study of Religion
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/the-dread-heights-tribulation-and-refuge-after-the-syrian-revolution/
LOCATION:Bunche Hall 10383
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261015T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261015T173000
DTSTAMP:20260812T183937Z
CREATED:20260812T183937Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T183937Z
UID:7197-1792080000-1792085400@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Study of Religion Welcome Reception
DESCRIPTION:Lift a glass to the new academic year and meet friends old and new! \nWelcome remarks by Dean Stern and Professor Bakhos at 4:30p. \nRSVP required by October 11. See you there!
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/study-of-religion-welcome-reception/
LOCATION:Royce Hall 306
CATEGORIES:CSR
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://religion.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/autumn-leaves_2.resized.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261026T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261026T171500
DTSTAMP:20260814T170818Z
CREATED:20260812T184127Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260814T170818Z
UID:7157-1793030400-1793034900@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:The Paradox of Pointless Suffering
DESCRIPTION:Why do we suffer? Why do people die young? Is there any point to our excessive pain\, physical or emotional? This talk explores the ways that we have tried to minimize or eliminate suffering\, and examines people’s attempts to find ways to live with pointless suffering. Ultimately\, to be fully human—and to have healthy culture—means to acknowledge a mysterious paradox: we must simultaneously accept suffering and oppose it. \nRSVP to attend in person \nRegister for Zoom link \nScott Samuelson studied philosophy at Grinnell College (BA\, 1995\, valedictorian) and Emory University (PhD\, 2001).  He is currently a Professor of Practice in the Departments of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Iowa State University. In 2014\, he was named Distinguished Humanities Educator by the Community College Humanities Association.  Inspired by his students\, he wrote his first book The Deepest Human Life: An Introduction to Philosophy for Everyone (University of Chicago Press\, 2014)\, which has been well received not just by prominent reviewers but by numerous non-philosophers who found their philosophical voice with its help.  The book has been translated into Chinese and Portuguese.  Samuelson has published articles in the Wall Street Journal\, the Huffington Post\, the Chronicle of Higher Education\, The Philosopher’s Magazine\, and Christian Century.  His article “Why I Teach Plato to Plumbers” in The Atlantic has been widely circulated.  He’s been interviewed on NPR and given various public lectures and talks\, including a TEDx talk “How Philosophy Can Save Your Life.” \nScott Samuelson was the recipient of the 2015 Hiett Prize in the Humanities. \nCo-sponsored by the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/the-paradox-of-pointless-suffering/
LOCATION:Royce Hall 306
CATEGORIES:CSR
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://religion.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Scott-Samuelson-header.png
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261113T093000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261113T151500
DTSTAMP:20261013T214147Z
CREATED:20261013T213904Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261013T214147Z
UID:7220-1794562200-1794582900@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:D. T. Suzuki: Letters\, Lectures and Legacies
DESCRIPTION:This Workshop explores the cultural\, religious\, and intellectual legacy of Daisetsu Teitaro (D. T.) Suzuki (1870–1966)\, the preeminent figure who introduced Zen and Mahayana Buddhism to the modern Western world. This event brings together scholars\, curators\, and practitioners to discuss and reflect on Suzuki’s polymath contributions and their enduring\, cross-cultural impact. Discussions will span a broad range of topics\, including interpretations and evaluations of Suzuki’s Buddhist philosophy and translations\, archival discoveries of his lecture manuscripts and interpersonal correspondence\, and his connections with Japanese American communities and local religious institutions. \nGenerously funded by the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies\, this one-day workshop will feature several highlights: a keynote address by Professor Richard M. Jaffe of Duke University; an exhibition of Buddhist archival materials\, including artifacts and manuscripts related to Suzuki’s 1950-60s U.S. sojourns preserved in the UCLA Library Special Collections; and a roundtable dialogue bridging academic research with contemporary spiritual practice and community engagement. \nFind the Schedule of the day and register here. \nKeynote address: “Promoting Buddhism from West to East: D. T. Suzuki’s California Sojourns”: \nMost studies of D. T. Suzuki’s time in the United States focus on his extended residencies in LaSalle\, Illinois at the turn of the nineteenth–twentieth centuries and in New York City in the 1950s. California\, however\, due to its geographic location\, particularly in the era before convenient transcontinental air travel and concentration of Japanese Americans\, was a convenient way station and source of sustenance for Suzuki each time he traversed the American continent. In this paper\, Professor Jaffe explores Suzuki’s trips through and extended stays in California. Using archival documents\, some housed in the UCLA Libraries\, Jaffe will highlight the many exchanges Suzuki had with Californians as he adapted his presentation of Buddhism for diverse American audiences. \nSponsors: Center for Buddhist Studies\, UCLA Library\, Center for the Study of Religion.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/7220/
LOCATION:Charles E. Young Research Library\, Main Conference Room\, 280 Charles E Young Dr N\, Los Angeles\, 90095\, United States
CATEGORIES:CSR
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://religion.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/D.T.-Suzuk_updated-header.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261117T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261117T133000
DTSTAMP:20261019T232254Z
CREATED:20261019T223317Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261019T232254Z
UID:7247-1794918600-1794922200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Upheavals of Faith: Deconversion\, Value Conflict\, and Grief
DESCRIPTION:Why do people grieve a faith they have chosen to leave? If they no longer believe\, what exactly have they lost? Ultimately\, leaving a religion is rarely the simple loss of a world. Recent philosophical work has argued that deconversion can be an occasion for grief\, comparable to bereavement in its power to unsettle one’s experiential world (Williams\, 2024). Such accounts describe what this grief is like but leave unexplained why some deconversions take this experiential shape and others do not. This talk by Joshua Waugh (UCLA) aims to offer an explanatory account. \nRSVP here for the in-person event by Thursday\, November 12. \nRegister here for a Zoom link. \nA light lunch will be served.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/upheavals-of-faith-deconversion-value-conflict-and-grief/
LOCATION:Kaplan 365
CATEGORIES:CSR
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://religion.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/broken-faith-e1792452159659.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270112T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270112T171500
DTSTAMP:20261021T221711Z
CREATED:20261021T221711Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261021T221711Z
UID:7255-1799769600-1799774100@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Idol Talk: False Worship in the Early Christian World
DESCRIPTION:Are idols real? Do gods or demons dwell in them or around them? Or are they empty\, devoid of existence except in the mind of the idolater? Ancient Christians and Jews gave very different answers to these questions. \nRSVP for this in-person event. \nSonja Anderson (UCLA\, B.A.; University of Notre Dame\, M.T.S.; Yale University\, M.A.\, M.Phil.\, Ph.D.) teaches courses in ancient Christianity and Judaism\, religious violence\, gender and Catholicism\, apocalypticism\, and religion and medicine. Her current book project\, Idol Talk: False Worship in the Early Christian World\, will be published with Edinburgh University Press and explores how ancient Christians and Jews used idolatry polemic to claim a distinctive identity for themselves over against their pagan peers and how scholarly narratives have replicated this claim to uniqueness. Her training is in ancient biblical and parabiblical texts\, but lately she is interested in the history of Catholic book publishing in 20th–21st-century America\, and in being more anti-AI with every passing day. Her favorite place to be is in conversation with students and colleagues about the weirdness of how we imagine ancient religion. She is a Benedictine oblate of Saint John’s Abbey.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/idol-talk-false-worship-in-the-early-christian-world/
LOCATION:314 Royce Hall
CATEGORIES:CSR
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://religion.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Sonja-Anderson-talk-header.png
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR