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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261015T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261015T173000
DTSTAMP:20260812T183937Z
CREATED:20260812T183937Z
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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:20260531T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260531T160000
DTSTAMP:20260413T202533Z
CREATED:20260413T201623Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260413T202533Z
UID:7058-1780236000-1780243200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:(De)medicalization and the Dying Body: Sallekhanā\, Kinship\, and the Limits of Liberal Bioethics
DESCRIPTION:In this talk\, Miki Chase (U of Wisconsin-Madison) explores how trajectories of illness and care\, such as terminal cancer or anticipated cognitive decline\, are reinterpreted through Jain doctrinal frameworks in the narratives of adult children of women who undertake the Jain ritual fast to death (sallekhanā or santhāra). Drawing on ethnographic accounts of women’s deaths in contemporary urban Jain households\, Chase traces how narratives of bodily decline are reframed not as losses to be managed through medical intervention but as conditions of spiritual possibility that invite ascetic detachment and renunciation. Rather than resisting biomedical or bioethical paradigms outright\, these narratives inhabit a complex zone of overlap where cognitive clarity is both a medical and religious ideal; the attenuation of pain is karmically elevated rather than clinically managed; and the logic of institutionalized care is subtly displaced not by the absence of obligation but by alternate forms of care. In tracing the limits of bioethical paradigms that presume the necessity of medicalization and institutional oversight\, this talk describes how “illness narratives” and “santhāra narratives” coalesce to challenge prevailing understandings of what it means to die well\, and how suffering\, pain\, and the medicalized body is accounted for in the lives—and deaths—of Jain women. \nRSVP here to attend in person \n(Parking information for Royce Hall) \nRegister here for Zoom link \nMiki Chase is Assistant Professor in South Asian Studies and holds the Śrī Anantnāth Endowed Chair in Jain Studies. Her research and teaching focuses on intersections of religion\, law\, and gender in questions of care around death and dying in India\, with a specific focus on Jainism. \nDr. Chase received her PhD from the Department of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University\, and her doctoral work received the Mohini Jain Presidential Chair in Jain Studies Best Dissertation Prize (2024). Her research focuses on the contemporary practice of the legally contested Jain voluntary ritual fast until death known variably as sallekhanā\, santhāra\, or samādhi-maraṇa\, examining how lay Jains reconcile ideals and concepts outlined in scripture with the interreligious pressures of urban life and modernization of death\, foregrounding the centrality of women’s moral subjectivities in such negotiations. Her research has been funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and the American Institute for Indian Studies (AIIS)\, including the Rachel F. and Scott McDermott Junior Research Fellowship. Her book in progress is tentatively titled The Ambiguity of the Vow: Law\, Kinship\, and Gender in Pathologizing the Jain Fast Until Death. \n 
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/demedicalization-and-the-dying-body-sallekhana-kinship-and-the-limits-of-liberal-bioethics/
LOCATION:Royce Hall 306
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260529T153000
DTSTAMP:20260506T192343Z
CREATED:20260506T192343Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260506T192343Z
UID:7083-1780063200-1780068600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Gods and the Abyss: Encountering Oceanic Agency at the Edge of the Ancient World
DESCRIPTION:This presentation examines how coastal communities in antiquity conceived of the sea not merely as a physical environment\, but as a powerful\, living force endowed with agency. Such perceptions became especially vivid in the aftermath of coastal catastrophes. The Gulf of Cádiz\, on the southwestern edge of the Iberian Peninsula\, serves as the primary case study. Its broad floodplains and pronounced tidal regimes made it highly vulnerable to extreme events\, including storm surges and tsunamis\, which repeatedly reshaped both the landscape and human experience. By tracing how societies from antiquity to the present have responded to episodes of catastrophic marine flooding through religious practice and ritualized forms of engagement\, the paper explores the complex interplay between human action and the more-than-human agency of the sea. \nManuel Álvarez-Martí-Aguilar is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Málaga (Spain) and currently a Getty Villa Scholar. His research interests include modern historiography of the ancient world and the cultural intersections between local Iberian communities—especially Tartessos—and the Phoenicians. His recent work focuses on the impact of earthquakes and tsunamis on coastal communities of the Iberian Peninsula\, as well as their resilient responses to these kinds of environmental shocks with often catastrophic consequences. He has co-edited\, with Francisco Machuca Prieto\, the volume Historical Earthquakes\, Tsunamis and Archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula (Springer\, 2022) and co-organised the workshop Fluid Horizons: Charting Ancient Environmental History and Blue Humanities (University of London\, 2024). \nCo-sponsored with the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures and the Kershaw Chair of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies \n 
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/gods-and-the-abyss-encountering-oceanic-agency-at-the-edge-of-the-ancient-world/
LOCATION:Kaplan 365
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260513T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260513T131500
DTSTAMP:20260408T175158Z
CREATED:20260407T205938Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260408T175158Z
UID:7048-1778673600-1778678100@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Music and Religion in Popular Culture:  The Case of Orthodox Jews and Christian Contemporary Music
DESCRIPTION:Since the 1960s religious practitioners have created their own music to express their beliefs and values to shield the community from popular culture.  The Irony is they use the popular culture that they reject from American culture in their music.  This presentation by Mark Kligman (UCLA) will highlight important composers and groups with audio and video examples of Orthodox Jewish and Christian Contemporary Music. \nRSVP required here for in-person attendance. \nRegister for Zoom link here. \nCo-sponsored by the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies and the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/music-and-religion-in-popular-culture-the-case-of-orthodox-jews-and-christian-contemporary-music/
LOCATION:Kaplan 365
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:20260309T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260309T183000
DTSTAMP:20260305T032911Z
CREATED:20260120T191150Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260305T032911Z
UID:7000-1773077400-1773081000@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:EVENT POSTPONED: The Complex Interplay of Religion\, Law and Politics in Israel
DESCRIPTION:We regret to inform you that this March 9th on-campus event featuring Orly Erez-Likhovski as been postponed\, as the speaker is unable to fly to us from Israel due to the war with Iran. We will notify you when/if we can host this event in the future. \n______________________________ \nWithout the protections of a written constitution and a clear separation of religion and state\, Israelis face unique challenges in securing fundamental rights to equality and religious freedom under Israeli law. Although Israel’s Declaration of Independence commits to “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion\, race\, or sex” the authority of the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate and the disproportionate influence of Orthodox political parties within Israel’s parliamentary system have contributed to violations of the rights of women\, non-Orthodox Jews\, members of the LGBTQ+ community and Palestinian citizens of Israel. Israeli lawyer and activist Orly Erez-Likhovski will discuss key legal battles in Israel to protect and advance Israeli democracy and religious pluralism. \nSpeaker: Orly Erez-Likhovski\, Director of Israel Religious Action Center\nModerator: Carol Bakhos\, Robert E. Archer Chair in the Study of Religion\, Director\, UCLA Center for the Study of Religion \nCLICK HERE for more information and to register for this in-person event. After registering\, you will be emailed an RSVP confirmation. If you do not receive your email confirmation\, please check your spam or junk mail folders. \nAbout the Speakers \nOrly Erez-Likhovski has served as an attorney at the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) since 2004\, as Director of the Legal Department from 2014–2021\, and Director of IRAC since 2021. In these roles\, she has brought about significant legal achievements such as making gender segregation on public transportation illegal\, ending the Orthodox monopoly on state-funded salaries to rabbis\, filing (and winning) the first-ever class action suit regarding exclusion of women\, and disqualifying racist candidates from running to Israel’s parliament. Orly holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Tel Aviv University and a master’s degree in law with a focus on human rights law from Columbia University in New York. She is a member of the Bar Association in Israel and New York. \nCarol Bakhos (moderator) is Professor of Late Antique Judaism and Jewish Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and teaches for the Study of Religion IDP.  Since 2012 she has served as Chair of the Study of Religion program and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion at UCLA. Her most recent monograph\, The Family of Abraham: Jewish\, Christian and Muslim Interpretations (Harvard University Press\, 2014)\, was translated into Turkish (2015). In 2018\, Bakhos received an NEH Summer-Institute grant to direct “Religious Landscapes of LA: Teaching and Exploring Religious Diversity Through Civic Engagement\,” for K-12 educators. \n  \nOrganized by the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. This event is part of the Center’s series “Religion in Israeli Society.” Co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for the Study of Religion.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/the-complex-interplay-of-religion-law-and-politics-in-israel/
LOCATION:Bunche Hall 10383
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260305T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260305T173000
DTSTAMP:20260220T195351Z
CREATED:20260220T012102Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260220T195351Z
UID:7023-1772726400-1772731800@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Who are the Tanguts and why do they matter? Writing\, Religion\, and Cultural Exchange in the Xia Kingdom
DESCRIPTION:The Tangut Xia kingdom flourished in the Ordos region and the Gansu Corridor between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. This talk will provide an introduction to the Tangut Xia kingdom\, its unique writing system\, and its dynamic religious traditions\, highlighting the complex Chinese and Tibetan cultural interactions that shaped its historical development. By integrating elements of Chinese and Tibetan cultures\, the Tanguts forged a unique religious and cultural amalgam. \nThe Tangut Xia kingdom flourished in the Ordos region and the Gansu Corridor between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Despite its relatively brief existence\, it developed a distinctive literary culture and produced a rich textual heritage that deserves thorough and sustained academic study. During the early stages of state formation\, Tangut emperors actively adopted and adapted elements of Chinese-style governance and bureaucratic institutions. At the same time\, the Tangut rulers sponsored the acquisition\, translation\, and dissemination of the Chinese Buddhist canon. By integrating elements of Chinese and Tibetan cultures\, the Tanguts forged a unique religious and cultural amalgam. \nBy the twelfth century\, the introduction of Tibetan Buddhist texts further expanded the kingdom’s intellectual and religious horizons\, bringing Tangut culture into close contact with Tibetan civilization. This talk will provide an introduction to the Tangut Xia kingdom\, its unique writing system\, and its dynamic religious traditions\, highlighting the complex cultural interactions that shaped its historical development. \nSpeaker: Nikita Kuzmin is a historian of the Middle Period China. He joined Elling Eide Center in August 2025 as a visiting scholar after graduating from a Ph.D. program from the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania in 2023. Prior to coming to UPenn\, Nikita have lived and studied in Russia\, China\, Germany\, Nepal\, and Japan. He has a strong research interest in the history of the Tangut period (11th-13th centuries) of the greater Dunhuang area\, as well as circulation of people\, books\, and thoughts along the Silk Roads. \nREGISTER HERE for this in-person event. \nThis event is organized by and co-sponsored with the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/who-are-the-tanguts-and-why-do-they-matter-writing-religion-and-cultural-exchange-in-the-xia-kingdom/
LOCATION:Royce 243
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260224T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260224T200000
DTSTAMP:20260206T202639Z
CREATED:20260128T203528Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260206T202639Z
UID:7013-1771956000-1771963200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:A Multifaith Conversation on Justice\, Forgiveness and Compassion
DESCRIPTION:In our deeply fractured world\, religion serves both to connect and offer wisdom and to foster conflict and division.  Over the course of centuries\, it has been frequently invoked to justify brutal violence\, but can it be an effective tool to advance justice?  To explore different perspectives on the topic of faith\, forgiveness\, and justice\, we will be joined by a distinguished panel of religious leaders: Father Greg Boyle\, Rabbi Sharon Brous\, Valarie Kaur\, and Imam Dr. Jihad Turk. \nFather Greg Boyle is a Jesuit priest and director of Homeboy Industries\, the world’s largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program. Rabbi Sharon Brous is the senior and founding Rabbi of IKAR\, a Jewish spiritual community in Los Angeles. Valarie Kaur is a civil rights leader and activist\, filmmaker\, educator\, best-selling author\, and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project\, a movement to reclaim love as a force for justice. Imam Dr. Jihad Turk is the founding President of Bayan Islamic Graduate School\, a preeminent Muslim institution of higher education. \nRSVP here \nOrganized by and co-sponsored with the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute as part of their Compassionate Conversations series.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/a-multifaith-conversation-on-justice-forgiveness-and-compassion/
LOCATION:UCLA California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)\, 570 Westwood Plaza
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:20260127T143000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260127T163000
DTSTAMP:20260121T223058Z
CREATED:20260107T002825Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260121T223058Z
UID:6989-1769524200-1769531400@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Satellite Ministries: The Rise of Christian Television in the Middle East
DESCRIPTION:In this book talk\, Febe Armanios (Middlebury College) will present on her recently-published monograph Satellite Ministries\, which explores how modern expressions of faith\, technology\, and political power intersected and clashed across the Global South and beyond through the analysis of sixteen Christian television channels in the Middle East. In 1981\, a satellite television station called Star of Hope began broadcasting from Israeli-occupied South Lebanon. Later renamed Middle East Television (METV)\, its programming included American soap operas\, sports\, and evangelical content alongside innovative Arabic Christian televangelism. METV spurred the growth of competing Christian broadcasters and reshaped the Middle East’s media and religious landscape over the next four decades. Through extensive fieldwork and archival research\, Febe Armanios explores how Western evangelicals and indigenous Christians harnessed terrestrial and satellite technologies to promote Christian television in the Middle East. \nThis is a hybrid event   \nIn- person RSVP – click here. \nRegister here to attend online. \nCo-sponsor: Center for Near Eastern Studies
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/satellite-ministries-the-rise-of-christian-television-in-the-middle-east/
LOCATION:Bunche Hall 10383
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: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:20251110T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251110T183000
DTSTAMP:20251022T233204Z
CREATED:20251022T232521Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251022T233204Z
UID:6943-1762794000-1762799400@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Islamic China: An Asian History - Book Talk
DESCRIPTION:For more than a millennium\, Islam has been a Chinese religion\, and native-born Chinese Muslims have played important roles in their homeland—as butchers\, merchants\, and farmers; diplomats\, scholar-officials\, and royal astronomers. Yet the Muslims of China have often been understood as inherently foreign\, incompatible with Chinese culture. In this reappraisal\, Rian Thum recaptures the ordinariness of Chinese Muslims. In doing so\, he suggests that these communities\, whose classification has so often been seen as problematic\, can teach us about the ways social categories are made and maintained in the first place. \nDr. Rian Thum is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Manchester. A contributor to the New York Times\, the Washington Post\, Foreign Affairs\, and The Nation\, he is the author of The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History\, winner of the Fairbank Prize for East Asian History from the American Historical Association and the Hsu Prize for East Asian Anthropology from the American Anthropological Association. \nSponsor(s): Program on Central Asia\, APC\, Asia Pacific Center\, Center for the Study of Religion\, Islamic Studies
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/islamic-china-an-asian-history-book-talk/
LOCATION:UCLA Public Affairs Bldg.\, Rm 2270\, 337 Charles E Young Dr E\, Los Angeles\, CA\, 90095\, United States
CATEGORIES:CSR
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://religion.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/The-Great-Mosque-in-Xian-China_Chinese-style-minaret.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250523T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250523T170000
DTSTAMP:20250522T235349Z
CREATED:20250311T192451Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250522T235349Z
UID:6788-1748008800-1748019600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Symposium - Women and Goddesses in Jainism
DESCRIPTION:Photo credit: Samyak Modi \n  \nThroughout the history of Jainism\, one of the world’s oldest living religions\, Jain women have played a crucial role. Jain renouncers\, whose self-denying lifestyle is revered as the highest ideal\, are predominantly female\, while Jain laywomen tend to be significantly more religiously active than their male counterparts. In this symposium\, speakers will provide a range of perspectives on human and divine womanhood in Jain life and thought. Talks will cover the definition of gender in Jain philosophical texts\, Jain goddess-worship and changing gender roles in the contemporary Jain diaspora. \nRSVP here for this in-person event. \nRegister here for a Zoom link. \nDirections to event venue – Hershey Hall Salon\, Room 158 \nSYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE: \n2:00 – 2:05: Welcome and introduction\, Anahita Hoose (UCLA)\, symposium organizer & moderator \n2:05 – 2:45: Ana Bajželj (UC Riverside): Defining Gender in Śvetāmbara Texts \n2:45 – 3:30: Venu Mehta (Claremont School of Theology): Reconceptualizing “Goddess” in Jainism: Devotional Practices for the Jain Goddess Padmāvatī among the Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains in Gujarat \n3:30 – 3:45: Break \n3:45 – 4:30: Shivani Bothra (Cal State Long Beach): Spiritual Equality or Social Boundaries: Redefining Gender Roles in Diasporic Jainism \n4:30 – 5:00: Concluding Discussion \n  \nSYMPOSIUM PRESENTERS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THEIR PAPERS: \n  \nAna Bajželj is Associate Professor and Shrimad Rajchandra Endowed Chair in Jain Studies in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of California\, Riverside. She was previously a research fellow at the University of Rajasthan and the Polonsky Academy (Van Leer Jerusalem Institute)\, and she taught at the University of Ljubljana and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on Jain philosophy\, particularly metaphysics\, ethics\, and philosophy of mind. She is the author of The Nature of Change in Jaina Philosophy (Ljubljana University Press\, 2016\, in Slovenian) and the co-author of Insistent Life: Principles for Bioethics in the Jain Tradition (UC Press\, 2021). She is currently working on a monograph study of the Tattvārthasūtra and its commentaries. \n“Defining Gender in Śvetāmbara Texts” \nThis presentation analyzes Jain canonical definitions of the term “man” (puruṣa) from a set of standpoints listed in the Sthānāṅga (Ṭhāṇaṃga). These include (1) name (nāman)\, representation (sthāpanā)\, and potentiality (dravya); (2) knowledge (jñāna)\, view (darśana)\, and conduct (caritra); (3) sexual orientation (veda)\, mark (cihna)\, and (verbal) expression (abhilāpa); and (4) superiority (uttamapuruṣa)\, mediocrity (madhyamapuruṣa)\, and inferiority (jaghanyapuruṣa)\, each with three further subcategories. The presentation explores the semantic range of the term indicated by these standpoints by examining similar passages in other Śvetāmbara texts and considers its significance within the broader context of the Jain discussions on gender. \n  \nDr. Venu Mehta is an Assistant Professor of Jainism and Comparative Spiritualities at the Claremont School of Theology. Her research primarily focuses on Jainism\, with a specialization in Jain regional-vernacular devotional literature\, narratives\, and practices. Her doctoral dissertation examines the devotion to the Jain goddess Padmāvatī among Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains in Gujarat\, highlighting the interplay between regional devotional expressions and broader Jain theological frameworks. \nBeyond her work on Jain goddess traditions\, Dr. Mehta’s scholarship extends to the Jain concept of forgiveness and the intersections of aparigraha (non-possessiveness) with human dignity\, sustainability\, and Gandhian economic thought. Her recent research and publications also engage in Jain-Hindu comparative theologies and spiritualities\, particularly in relation to goddess traditions. \nIn addition to her expertise in Jain studies\, Dr. Mehta teaches courses on South Asian religious traditions\, comparative spiritualities\, and gender and women in spiritual practices. Her methodological approach integrates ethnographic research with textual analysis\, emphasizing the lived experiences\, devotional expressions\, and ritual practices of Jain communities. \n“Reconceptualizing “Goddess” in Jainism: Devotional Practices for the Jain Goddess Padmāvatī among the Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains in Gujarat” \nThis presentation explores how Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains in Gujarat reconceptualize the goddess Padmāvatī through their devotional practices\, positioning her as a central female form of divinity within Jain religious tradition. Though Jainism primarily emphasizes the worship of the Tīrthaṅkars\, Padmāvatī\, a śāsanadevatā (guardian deity) and yakṣī of Pārśvanāth\, has been accorded exceptional devotion. By examining vernacular literature\, narratives\, and regional practices from the late sixteenth century to contemporary times\, I argue that Jains in Gujarat have actively shaped a distinct space for goddess worship\, elevating Padmāvatī from an attendant deity to Śakti\, the Great Goddess\, and the Mother Goddess. This process of reimagining Padmāvatī involves a synthesis of universal Jain values with regional devotional expressions\, contributing to the dynamics of democratization\, universalization\, and regionalization in Jain religious life. Lay Jains play a crucial role in this transformation\, engaging with Padmāvatī’s legacy through non-esoteric devotional practices and literature\, thus reaffirming her place within their religious framework. Ultimately\, this presentation highlights how Padmāvatī’s evolving identity reflects broader patterns of Jain devotionalism\, redefining the boundaries of feminine divinity within the Jain tradition in Gujarat. \n  \nShivani Bothra is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at California State University\, Long Beach. Before this\, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Rice University in Houston\, USA\, and taught as a lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of California\, Santa Barbara. She earned her doctorate from the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Her focus is South Asian traditions\, Jainism\, and Nonviolence. Shivani’s primary research areas are religious education and transnational Jainism\, emphasizing Contemporary Jains. \n“Spiritual Equality or Social Boundaries: Redefining Gender Roles in Diasporic Jainism” \nThis paper critically examines how gender roles in Jain diasporic communities are being redefined or reframed in ways distinct from traditional Indian contexts. How do education\, modern professions\, business ethics\, and transnational networks influence the agency and status of Jain laywomen? In what ways do diasporic Jain women navigate their identities\, negotiating between Indian religious traditions and evolving feminist discourses in their new sociocultural environments? Drawing on structured interviews with early Jain diaspora women\, this research aims to shed light on the evolving spiritual and social roles of Jain women in a transnational context\, assessing the extent to which diasporic Jainism fosters new models of gender participation and leadership. \nThis event is presented by the UCLA Center for the Study of Religion. It is co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for the Study of Women | Barbra Streisand Center.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/symposium-women-and-goddesses-in-jainism/
LOCATION:Hershey Hall Salon\, 801 Hilgard Av\, Los Angeles\, 90095\, United States
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250513T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250513T133000
DTSTAMP:20250509T174241Z
CREATED:20250212T204940Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250509T174241Z
UID:6746-1747139400-1747143000@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Power and Alterity in Black Religious Thought
DESCRIPTION:Who is the human? What is legitimate religion? Who is left out of these discourses? Questions of power\, humanity\, and alterity animate religious discourse and responses to oppression. Leveraging the Rastafari movement and interrogating religious racism this talk will allow us to grapple with 20th century Black religious discourses and their continued relevance for thinking about how to protect religious freedom in the contemporary moment. \nRSVP here for in-person event. \nRegister here for Zoom link. \nShamara Wyllie Alhassan is Assistant Professor of African American Studies at the University of California – Los Angeles. Alhassan comes to UCLA from Arizona State University where she was Assistant Professor of Religious Studies in the School of Historical\, Philosophical and Religious Studies. As a transdisciplinary Africana Studies scholar of religion\, philosophy\, and gender theory\, Alhassan transnational ethnographic work focuses on Black women’s radical epistemologies in Africa and the Caribbean. She is interested in the healing communities Rastafari women form to combat anti-black gendered racism and religious discrimination. Her forthcoming book tentatively titled\, Re-Membering the Maternal Goddess: Rastafari Women’s Intellectual History and Activism in the Pan-African World is the winner of the National Women’s Association and University of Illinois Press First Book Prize. She is the co-editor of the book\, Black Women and Da Rona: Community\, Consciousness\, and Ethics of Care\, published with the Feminist Wire Series Books at the University of Arizona Press in 2023. Her published work also appears in Callaloo\, the National Political Science Review\, Religions\, The Black Scholar\, IDEAZ journal\, Political Theology Network\, the Immanent Frame\, and Caliban’s Readings. She is a Crossroads Arts Fellow with The Crossroads Project Black Religious\, Histories\, Communities and Cultures at Princeton University. Currently\, she serves as the Secretary of Rastafari Thought at the Caribbean Philosophical Association\, on the board of the Religion\, Medicines\, and Healing Unit at the American Academy of Religion\, and an organizer of the Collaborative for Research on Black Women and Girls.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/power-and-alterity-in-black-religious-thought/
LOCATION:Kaplan 365
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250508T111500
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250508T121500
DTSTAMP:20250225T191558Z
CREATED:20250129T163652Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250225T191558Z
UID:6722-1746702900-1746706500@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Progressive Activists and the Bible
DESCRIPTION:Some of America’s most effective reformers did not just refer to the Bible\, but fused their own struggles with its narratives\, seeing themselves as part of a cosmic divine battle within history. Claudia Setzer will have us consider how abolitionist Frederick Douglass\, Civil Rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer and others used multiple methods of biblical interpretation to make sense of their struggles and to reject despair. We will also consider contemporary activist groups that root themselves in the Bible and religious traditions. \nRegister here for the Zoom link.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/progressive-activists-and-the-bible/
LOCATION:Online on Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250428T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250428T170000
DTSTAMP:20250417T193005Z
CREATED:20250222T001612Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250417T193005Z
UID:6736-1745848800-1745859600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Symposium - (Mis)using the Bible: White Evangelicalism & Christian Nationalism in America
DESCRIPTION:White Evangelicalism and Christian Nationalism has occupied an increasingly prominent position since—and in many ways before—the first Trump administration. Events such as January 6 and the second Trump presidency have highlighted the entanglement of politics and religious belief that is central to Christian Nationalism. This symposium brings together several scholars to discuss various aspects of white Evangelicalism and Christian Nationalism\, particularly as they connect to modern and contemporary American politics. The symposium serves as a forum for investigating topics such as tolerance and religious pluralism\, the use of anti-abortion protests\, and the intersection of race and Christian Nationalism. Further\, the symposium opens a discussion on how Evangelicalism and Christian Nationalism use and misuse biblical and historical material to bolster their narratives. \n  \nSpace is limited. RSVP here for the in-person event. \nRegister here for the Zoom link. \n  \nSymposium Schedule: \n2–2:10: Welcome – Carol Bakhos\, Chair\, Study of Religion \n2:10-2:30: Introduction and Opening Remarks by Gina Konstantopoulos\, Symposium Moderator – “Evangelizing Antiquity: The Museum of the Bible and the Appropriation of the Past” \n2:30-3:00 Sophie Bjork-James – “To Be Pro-life in an Age of Extinction: Abortion\, Christian Nationalism\, and Ecological Denial” \n3:00-3:20: Break \n3:20-3:50: Brooklyn Walker – “Counterpoint in the Heavenly Choir:  Christian Nationalism\, Anti-Christian Nationalism\, and the Multivocality of American Christianity” \n3:50-4:20: Michael R. Fisher\, Jr. – “Race\, Politics\, and Christian Nationalism in the Second Era of Trump” \n4:20-5: Discussion and Q&A \n  \nOpening Remarks: “Evangelizing Antiquity: The Museum of the Bible and the Appropriation of the Past” \nFounded in 2017 by David Green\, the Museum of the Bible stands as an impressive institution: it boasts seven floors and 430\,000 square feet of exhibition space\, all located two blocks from the National Mall in Washington DC. The museum presents a narrative wherein historical and religious evidence and artefacts are utilized to bolster an evangelical perspective. This talk discusses how the Museum of the Bible\, as well as other evangelical institutions\, utilize the past in particular in their attempt to craft—and moreover legitimize—their own\, often very specific\, narrative. \nGina Konstantopoulos is an associate professor in Assyriology and Cuneiform studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California\, Los Angeles. Her research centers on religion\, magic\, and literature in Mesopotamia\, with a focus on the role of demons and monsters. She is the author of The Divine/Demonic Seven and the Place of Demons in Mesopotamia (Brill\, 2023). She has authored articles on demons and monsters in Mesopotamia\, translations of Sumerian and Akkadian texts\, and the reception of Mesopotamia in later pre-modern and modern contexts. \n  \n“To Be Pro-life in an Age of Extinction: Abortion\, Christian Nationalism\, and Ecological Denial” \nWithin Christian Nationalism\, anti-abortion and anti-environmental politics are united. Since white evangelicals adopted an anti-abortion stance between the late 1970s and early 1980s\, they have sought to make it the most significant moral issue of our time. Abortion can then act as a moral pivot\, re-directing concern away from other problems\, especially environmental ones. Drawing on long-term research on white evangelical politics in Colorado\, this talk shows how within Christian Nationalism concern about abortion often serves to occlude care about the environment and the climate crisis. The significance of this is hard to overstate in our current era of climate crisis and species collapse. \nSophie Bjork-James is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University. She has over ten years of experience researching both the US based Religious Right and the white nationalist movements. She is the author of The Divine Institution: White Evangelicalism’s Politics of the Family (Rutgers 2021\, winner of the Anne Bolin & Gil Herdt Book Prize) and the co-editor of Beyond Populism: Angry Politics and the Twilight of Neoliberalism (2020). She has been interviewed on the NBC Nightly News\, NPR’s All Things Considered\, BBC Radio 4’s Today\, and in the New York Times. Her work has received support the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research\, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion\, the American Academy of Religion\, the National Science Foundation\, and the Mellon Foundation. She is currently working on a new book exploring how young people understand abortion in a state that has implemented a total abortion ban. \n  \n“Counterpoint in the Heavenly Choir:  Christian Nationalism\, Anti-Christian Nationalism\, and the Multivocality of American Christianity” \nThe Bible has been used to give voice to the concepts of rule by religious precept and ethnocentrism central to Christian nationalism. But\, in opposition to religious nationalism\, the Bible has also been used to proclaim themes of pluralism\, equality\, and liberty. Using data drawn from a survey of American Christians\, I explore the extent to which both Christian nationalist and anti-Christian nationalist ideas derived from the Bible have taken hold in the public. Among American Christians\, support for Christian nationalism and anti-Christian nationalism are positively linked. While anti-Christian nationalist ideas have the potential to improve tolerance\, feelings of threat can silence these messages supportive of religious pluralism. \nBrooklyn Walker is an Instructor of Political Science at Hutchinson Community College and will be joining the University of Tennessee-Knoxville as Assistant Professor in the fall of 2025. Brooklyn is interested in how people come to think of themselves as members of politicized groups and in the effects of politicized identities on intergroup relations and public opinion. Her projects have explored the intersections of Christian nationalism and religious and racial group identities. She also researches in the areas of political psychology\, racial and ethnic politics\, and gender and politics. \n  \n“Race\, Politics\, and Christian Nationalism in the Second Era of Trump” \nAlthough Christian nationalism ideology resonates across the United States\, it’s important to recognize that\, like many demographic groups\, supporters of Christian nationalism don’t universally subscribe to the same ideas. Existing research focuses almost exclusively on White Americans who qualify as Christian nationalism adherents and sympathizers (hereafter Christian nationalists) and does so through observational analysis with few exceptions. This presentation leverages observational analysis and causal inference to examine the ideological and political differences between Black\, White\, and Latine Americans who qualify as Christian nationalists. \nMichael R. Fisher Jr.\, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the political economy of race/racism in the Department of African American and African Studies and is a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for the Study of Religion at The Ohio State University. Trained as an interdisciplinary scholar\, Dr. Fisher’s areas of specialization include race\, policy\, and socio-economic inequality and race and religion. He holds research appointments at the Metropolitan Policy Center at American University\, the National Initiative of Mixed-Income Communities at Case Western Reserve University\, and the Institute for Gender Studies at the University of South Africa. He is also a 2023–25 Public Fellow with the Public Religion Research Institute and is editor of Confronting Racism and White Supremacy in the US: Twenty-First-Century Theological Perspectives (Friendship Press\, 2024). \n  \nOrganized by Gina Konstantopoulos\nCo-sponsored by the Joyce Appleby Endowed Chair of America in the World at UCLA and the Department  of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/symposium-misusing-the-bible-white-evangelicalism-christian-nationalism-in-america/
LOCATION:Royce Hall 306/Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250416T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250416T133000
DTSTAMP:20250129T163642Z
CREATED:20250129T163642Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250129T163642Z
UID:6676-1744806600-1744810200@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Spread and Stack: The Development of the Roman Catholic Church from 33-461
DESCRIPTION:In this talk by Gabriel Rossman\, he attempts to explain the development of Christianity over its first six centuries from a highly localized charismatic sect to a hierarchical structure spanning much of the world. Rossman conceives of the formation of the Catholic Church as an illustrative case of large social structures forming in three overlapping stages. In the first stage\, an organizational form diffuses via imitation\, as with the Greek-speaking churches of Acts and the epistles. In the second stage\, what had been horizontal relations develop hierarchies\, but only of local scope\, in this case the “monarchical bishops” of the early second century attested in Ignatius. In the third stage\, local hierarchies themselves concatenate into a hierarchy of hierarchies\, with the Christian case being metropolitan bishops and eventually the pope having authority over other bishops. Rossman compares the Church to other large-scale organizations that developed more recently via a similar pattern\, such as the Federalist Party\, the Guadalajara Cartel\, and the National Food Truck Association. He will also discuss his attempt to digitize the Series Episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae\, a dataset from which he estimates the number of dioceses over time. \nRSVP here for this in-person event \nRegister here to join via Zoom.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/spread-and-stack-the-development-of-the-roman-catholic-church-from-33-461/
LOCATION:Kaplan 365
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250409T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250409T150000
DTSTAMP:20250312T230658Z
CREATED:20250212T000438Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250312T230658Z
UID:6738-1744207200-1744210800@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Seeking Liberation: Contemporary Female Ascetic Orders Among the Jains
DESCRIPTION:Present day records show an overwhelming numerical preponderance of nuns in Jain mendicant orders. Their striking presence demands that we question the androcentric models of renunciation in South Asia\, as well as interrogate the commonsensical assumptions about the attraction that a lifetime of mendicancy may hold for women. By privileging the voice of the nuns\, themselves\, this presentation looks at how the Indic concept of liberation as spiritual deliverance (moksa) may sometimes overlap\, or approximate the more this-worldly idea of women’s liberation. \n  \nRSVP here for in-person event in Royce Hall 150. \nRegister here for Zoom link. \nManisha Sethi\, Associate Professor\, Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies\, Jamia Millia Islamia\, New Delhi.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/seeking-liberation-contemporary-female-ascetic-orders-among-the-jains/
LOCATION:Online on Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://religion.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Jain-nuns.png
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250219T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250219T170000
DTSTAMP:20250210T195859Z
CREATED:20241018T184832Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250210T195859Z
UID:6628-1739980800-1739984400@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:The Great Search with John Philip Newell
DESCRIPTION:The story of Adam and Eve’s fall from innocence in the Garden of Eden is a mythical account of humanity’s broken relationship with the divine\, with Earth\, and with themselves. \nIn contrast\, Celtic wisdom is built on a strong bond with Earth. In the prophetic figures that author John Philip Newell draws from in his book The Great Search\, the Garden of Eden represents the inner garden of our souls and the outer garden of Earth\, which are seen as essentially one. To live in relation to what is deepest in us is to live in relation to the ground from which we and all things have come. Where are we today\, in relation to our true selves and the sacredness of Earth? And how are we to find our way home again? \nNewell’s talk will explore some of these questions raised in his book at this moment of great spiritual awakening\, an era characterized by religious exile on a vast scale. \nRSVP here for the in-person talk (Royce 314). \nRegister here for the Zoom link for the event \nJohn Philip Newell is a Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of Earth and every human being. His PhD is from the University of Edinburgh and he has authored over fifteen books\, including his award-winning publication\, Sacred Earth Sacred Soul\, which was the 2022 Gold Winner of the Nautilus Book Award for Spirituality and Religious Thought of the West. His new book is The Great Search (August 2024)\, in which he looks at the great spiritual yearnings of humanity today in the context of the decline of religion as we have known it. \nNewell speaks of himself as ‘a wandering teacher’ following the ancient path of many lone teachers before him in the Celtic world\, ‘wandering Scots’ (or scotus vagans as they were called) seeking the wellbeing of the world. He has been described as having ‘the heart of a Celtic bard and the mind of a Celtic scholar’\, combining in his teachings the poetic and the intellectual\, the head as well as the heart\, and spiritual awareness as well as political and ecological concern. His writings have been translated into seven languages. In 2020 he relinquished his ordination as a minister of the Church of Scotland as no longer reflecting the heart of his belief in the sacredness of Earth and every human being. He continues\, however\, to see himself as ‘a grateful son of the Christian household’ seeking to be in relationship with the wisdom of humanity’s other great spiritual traditions. \nIn 2016 he began the Earth & Soul initiative and teaches regularly in the United States and Canada as well as leading international pilgrimage weeks on Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/the-great-search-with-john-philip-newell/
LOCATION:314 Royce Hall/Zoom
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241203T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241203T153000
DTSTAMP:20241101T161815Z
CREATED:20241015T220504Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241101T161815Z
UID:6620-1733234400-1733239800@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes
DESCRIPTION:Who wrote the Bible? Its books have no bylines. Tradition long identified Moses as the author of the Pentateuch\, with Ezra as editor. Ancient readers also suggested that David wrote the psalms and Solomon wrote Proverbs and Qohelet. Although the Hebrew Bible rarely speaks of its authors\, people have been fascinated by the question of its authorship since ancient times. In Who Really Wrote the Bible\, William Schniedewind offers a bold new answer: the Bible was not written by a single author\, or by a series of single authors\, but by communities of scribes. The Bible does not name its authors because authorship itself was an idea enshrined in a later era by the ancient Greeks. In the pre-Hellenistic world of ancient Near Eastern literature\, books were produced\, preserved\, and passed on by scribal communities. \nBill Schniedewind (UCLA) draws on ancient inscriptions\, archaeology\, and anthropology\, as well as a close reading of the biblical text itself\, to trace the communal origin of biblical literature. Scribes were educated through apprenticeship rather than in schools. The prophet Isaiah\, for example\, has his “disciples”; Elisha has his “apprentice.” This mode of learning emphasized the need to pass along the traditions of a community of practice rather than to individuate and invent. Schniedewind shows that it is anachronistic to impose our ideas about individual authorship and authors on the writing of the Bible. Ancient Israelites didn’t live in books\, he writes\, but along dusty highways and byways. Who Really Wrote the Bible describes how scribes and their apprentices actually worked in ancient Jerusalem and Judah. \nRSVP here for this in-person event. \nWilliam M. Schniedewind (UCLA)\nModerator: Carol Bakhos (UCLA) \nPresented by the Alan D Leve Center for Jewish Studies as part of the Bible and the Ancient World Seminar Series. Co- sponsored by the Center for the Study of Religion.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/who-really-wrote-the-bible-the-story-of-the-scribes/
LOCATION:314 Royce Hall
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241120T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241120T170000
DTSTAMP:20241113T174435Z
CREATED:20231010T174848Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241113T174435Z
UID:6290-1732118400-1732122000@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:How Religion Matters in an Age of Extinction
DESCRIPTION:In person (Kaplan 365) or on Zoom \nCould knowledge about biodiversity loss be advanced through inquiry into the study of religion? Emerging from a lab that integrates humanities\, arts\, and sciences into research on coastal change in Virginia\, this talk shows how different conceptions of religion and spirituality open unique lines of inquiry into human dimensions of environmental change. \nRSVP here for the in-person event. \nRegister here for the Zoom link to the event. \n  \nWillis Jenkins is John Allen Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. Jenkins writes along intersections of ethics\, religion\, and environment\, including The Future of Ethics\, which won an American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion. Current research focuses on climate justice and ethics amidst extinctions and biodiversity loss. Jenkins also co-directs the Coastal Futures Conservatory which integrates arts and humanities into coastal change research at the Virginia Coast Reserve Long-Term Ecological Research site.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/the-sparrow-the-swarm-the-crossing-how-understanding-religion-matters-for-confronting-anthropocene-challenges/
LOCATION:Kaplan 365
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241027T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20241027T190000
DTSTAMP:20241014T192448Z
CREATED:20241014T190639Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T192448Z
UID:6612-1730048400-1730055600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Cappella Romana - "In the Footsteps of St. Demetrios"
DESCRIPTION:Cappella Romana presents a world première program – IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST. DEMETRIOS – Directed by Alexander Lingas\, Founder and Director of Cappella Romana. \nSunday\, October 27\, 2024 / 5:00 PM / Reception following the performance \nThis concert brings to life the vibrant soundscape of medieval Thessaloniki\, Byzantium’s second largest city. Hear ancient hymns honoring the city’s patron\, the ever-popular St. Demetrios\, sung on the weekend of his annual feast day. Experience ecstatic Byzantine chants for the saint adorning the Cathedral Rite of Constantinople\, sung by the women and men of Cappella Romana. \nSaint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral\n1324 S Normandie Ave\nLos Angeles\, CA 90006 \nTickets: $25 General Admission (including service fees)\nFree for children under 18 \nAll students age 18+ with valid ID:\nUCLA students can reserve free tickets online with UCLA logon ID\nNon-UCLA students: Free tickets can be obtained at UCLA Central Ticket Office in advance\, or at event \nBuy Tickets \nThis  performance is presented by the UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture\, the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral. It is held under the auspices of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco and the Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles\, is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)\, the Peter J. and Caroline B. Caloyeras Endowment for the Arts\, and the Mary Calfas Janos Program Fund. This program is co-sponsored by Gefyra (Bridge)\, the UCLA College Humanities Division\, UCLA Center for the Study of Religion\, and the UCLA CMRS Center for Early Global Studies. \nGefyra (Bridge) is a collaborative program established by the UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture and the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University with support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Gefyra’s mission is to connect students\, faculty\, and communities along the West Coast of North America with Greek scholars\, artists\, and other creators\, so that they can together explore expansive and imaginative approaches to Greek culture and knowledge production. The program additionally supports academic conferences and cultural projects that bridge the West Coast and Greece.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/cappella-romana-in-the-footsteps-of-st-demetrios/
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240523T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240523T173000
DTSTAMP:20240516T182532Z
CREATED:20240516T182434Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240516T182532Z
UID:6563-1716481800-1716485400@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Signs of Faith Against Fascism
DESCRIPTION:In this book talk\, Eric Martin will explore how people of faith can connect their religious traditions with the rise of overtly fascist violence in the United States. With first-hand accounts from the largest white supremacist gathering in modern American history at Unite the Right in Charlottesville\, Virginia\, Martin will share how the clergy resisting Nazis and the KKK point a way forward for Christians in particular. His book expands outward to ask what churches can learn from antifascists\, Black Lives Matter\, and those working on the ground to combat the continuing coalition of far-right militias and gangs that promise to endure. It also invites the faithful to imagine a counter-witness that does more than merely preach against hate. Using biblical exegesis\, storytelling\, interviews\, thought experiments\, art\, and theology\, Martin explores how we can rethink notions of civil disobedience\, nonviolence\, love\, prayer\, and liturgy to enflesh a worthy faith in the face of a fascist creep. \nRSVP to this in-person event here. \nRegister for a Zoom link here. \nEric Martin is a lecturer at UCLA for Study of Religion where he teaches about the Bible\, justice and liberation movements\, and spirituality. He also teaches at Loyola Marymount.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/signs-of-faith-against-fascism/
LOCATION:Kaplan 365
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240514T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240514T170000
DTSTAMP:20240507T175902Z
CREATED:20240313T154349Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240507T175902Z
UID:6432-1715702400-1715706000@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:EVENT CANCELLED - Confusion of the Babels: Multilingualism and Translation in Ancient Judaism
DESCRIPTION:EVENT CANCELLED.\nWhile the usual rendering and  understanding of the Tower of Babel narrative (Gen 11:1–9) presumes the existence of one unified divine and human language (usually Hebrew\, but with other candidates) between Eden and Babel\, an alternative narrative imagines there having already existed a totality of ‘seventy” languages from the beginning\, and only at Babel having been “dispersed\,” “confused\,” or should we say\, “babbled”?  We will explore the basis for this confusion in Scripture and its translations\, Second Temple texts\, early rabbinic teachings\, and\, by extension\, into early Christianity and Islam.  What are the implications of this alternative understanding for the status of Hebrew as a distinctly “Jewish” yet universal language\, and for the conception of language(s) and translation(s) more broadly\, culminating in the seminal article by Walter Benjamin\, “The Task of the Translator”? \nRSVP to this in-person event here.\n  \nSteven D. Fraade\, Mark Taper Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and the History of Judaism at Yale University. Until his retirement in 2022\, Steven Fraade taught for forty-three years courses on rabbinic literature\, the history of Second Temple and early rabbinic Judaism\, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. He regularly offered seminars on midrashic\, mishnaic\, and talmudic texts\, and topics in ancient Jewish history. His research interests include the history of Judaism (in its varieties) in Second Temple and early rabbinic times; biblical translation and exegesis in ancient Judaism and Christianity; the history and rhetoric of ancient Jewish law; the Dead Sea Scrolls; literary-rhetorical analysis of tannaitic and amoraic rabbinic texts; attitudes towards ascetic piety in early Judaism; and multilingualism in ancient Jewish culture.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/confusion-of-the-babels-multilingualism-and-translation-in-ancient-judaism/
LOCATION:Royce Hall 306
CATEGORIES:CSR
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://religion.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Tower-of-Babel.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240506T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240506T173000
DTSTAMP:20240506T183338Z
CREATED:20240313T193205Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240506T183338Z
UID:6423-1715011200-1715016600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:My Grandfather's Altar
DESCRIPTION:Registration closed. The room is at capacity. \nVENUE CHANGE: This event will now be held at the UCLA Faculty Center. \nRichard Moves Camp\, in conversation with the editor and producer of his book My Grandfather’s Altar: Five Generations of Lakota Holy Men\, shares stories from this oral-literary narrative account of five generations of Lakota religious tradition. Moves Camp is the great-great-grandson of Wóptuȟ’a (“Chips”)\, the holy man remembered for providing Crazy Horse with war medicines of power and protection. The Lakota remember the descendants of Wóptuȟ’a for their roles in preserving Lakota ceremonial traditions during the official prohibition period (1883–1934)\, when the U.S. Indian Religious Crimes Code outlawed Indian religious ceremonies with the threat of imprisonment. \nWóptuȟ’a\, his two sons\, James Moves Camp and Charles Horn Chips\, his grandson Sam Moves Camp\, and his great-great-grandson Richard Moves Camp all became well-respected Lakota spiritual leaders. My Grandfather’s Altar offers the rare opportunity to learn firsthand how one family’s descendants played a pivotal role in revitalizing Lakota religion in the twentieth century. \n  \n  \nRichard Moves Camp (Oglala Lakota) is a fifth-generation Lakota healer\, tribal historian\, and spiritual leader. He teaches at Sinte Gleska University and lectures on Lakota history\, culture and traditions. In 2021\, he was named a Luce Indigenous Knowledge Fellow. \nModerated by Jennifer Jessum\, book producer and founder of the Mitakuye Foundation and Simon Joseph\, book editor and Lecturer for UCLA’s Study of Religion IDP. \nCo-sponsored by the Mitakuye Foundation and Steve Aron/Autry Museum of the American West.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/five-generations-of-lakota-holy-men/
LOCATION:UCLA Faculty Center
CATEGORIES:CSR
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240409T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240409T153000
DTSTAMP:20240402T190009Z
CREATED:20240311T170753Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240402T190009Z
UID:6282-1712671200-1712676600@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel
DESCRIPTION:Presented by the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies. Co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for the Study of Religion and the UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures. \nThe story of the Twelve Tribes of Israel begins in the Hebrew Bible. But all around the world\, there are stories about what happened next – which tribes went where\, what might have happened to them\, what they might have become. This paper\, based on the book by the same name\, explores what happens when we think of all of these as part of the same phenomenon: a history of efforts to create new visions of ancient Israel from the twelve tribes tradition that now spans more than 2\,500 years and circles the globe. \nRSVP to this in-person event here. \nAndrew Tobolowsky is an Associate Professor in the Religious Studies Department at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of two books\, The Sons of Jacob and the Sons of Herakles\, and the book this talk will be based on\, The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. A third\, Between Israel and Greece\, is forthcoming. Dr. Tobolowsky has also written about the twelve tribes tradition for various online outlets – Ancient Jew Review\, TheTorah.com\, Bible Odyssey\, Ancient Near East Today\, and Biblical Archaeology Review – and has been a frequent guest on podcasts and YouTube series. \nModerated by Catherine Bonesho (UCLA)
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/the-myth-of-the-twelve-tribes-of-israel/
LOCATION:UCLA Faculty Center
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies":MAILTO:cjsrsvp@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240212T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240212T164500
DTSTAMP:20240122T182945Z
CREATED:20231114T010244Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240122T182945Z
UID:6313-1707751800-1707756300@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Making a Refuge of Resistance: A History of the U.S. Sanctuary Movement
DESCRIPTION:In person (Royce 314)\n \nIs sacred space protective space? This question lies at the heart of the Sanctuary Movement\, the most confrontational progressive religious social movement in the United States since the heyday of the Civil Rights Movement. Modern Sanctuary Movement activists adopted the ancient practice of protecting in designated sanctuaries individuals who stood in legally precarious conditions. From the 1980s to the present day\, this practice has protected undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation by offering them refuge in churches\, where federal agents to this day still fear to tread. The movement has distinguished itself over the past 40 years\, according to one historian\, as the “largest mass mobilization of civil disobedience against detention and deportation in US history.” \n“Making a Refuge of Resistance” asks how these houses of worship protected migrants from immigration enforcement authorities. What histories and testimonies rendered such spaces sacred and lent houses of worship qualities of safe refuge? This lecture is based on Professor Barba’s ongoing research on the Sanctuary Movement. \n\nLloyd Barba is an Assistant Professor of Religion and Core Faculty in Latinx and Latin American Studies at Amherst College. He is the author of Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California (Oxford University Press\, 2022). He is also the editor of Latin American and U.S. Latinx Religion in North America (Bloomsbury Academic\, 2023). Most recently\, he co-edited Oneness Pentecostalism: Race\, Gender\, and Culture (Penn State University Press\, 2023). He is now writing a religious biography of Cesar Chavez and several projects on the U.S. Sanctuary Movement from the 1980s to the present day. His work has been featured in the Washington Post\, The Conversation US\, and other media outlets. He is teaching a course on Latinx Religion for UCLA’s Center for the Study of Religion this winter quarter. \n[gravityform id=”146″ title=”true” description=”true”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/making-a-refuge-of-resistance/
LOCATION:314 Royce Hall
CATEGORIES:CSR
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://religion.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Olivares-Sanctuary-Declaration.jpeg
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240124T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240124T164500
DTSTAMP:20240117T174157Z
CREATED:20231114T003136Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240117T174157Z
UID:6315-1706110200-1706114700@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Colonial Encounters:  Sor Juana\, Guaman Poma\, and the Birth of the Brown Church
DESCRIPTION:In person (Kaplan 365)\n \nThis guest lecture examines the little known multicultural religious protests to the Spanish Conquest of colonial Latin America.  Such protests began in 1511 under the guidance of Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos and led to “The Great Debate” in which\, for the first time in recorded human history\, an entire nation paused to reflect on the moral injustice of war and colonization.  In the decades and centuries to come\, mestizo\, black\, indigenous\, female\, Spanish\, and Asian voices would arise to challenge the perverted racial and sexist logic of the Spanish colonial project. This talk further examines the lives and voices of three of these diverse leaders—Garcilaso de la Vega el Inca\, Guaman Poma de Ayala\, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.  Together\, these multicultural protests gave birth to the “Brown Church” and a 500 year tradition of Christian social justice in Latin America. \nRobert Chao Romero is an associate professor in the Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies and Central America Studies.  Romero is the author of “Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice\, Theology\, and Identity\,” and co-author of “Christianity and Critical Race Theory” and “God’s Resistance: Mobilizing Faith to Defend Immigrants.”  Romero is also an ordained minister and faith rooted community organizer. \n[gravityform id=”147″ title=”true” description=”true”]
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/colonial-encounters-sor-juana-guaman-poma-and-the-birth-of-the-brown-church/
LOCATION:Kaplan 365
CATEGORIES:CSR
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240116T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20240116T134500
DTSTAMP:20240105T194353Z
CREATED:20231114T000846Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240105T194353Z
UID:6310-1705408200-1705412700@religion.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:How Archaeologists Study the People of the Gospels
DESCRIPTION:In Person (Royce 306) or on Zoom\nRegister here \nHow do archaeologists unearth the daily life of people from Jesus’s time? \nContrary to popular belief\, archaeology of first-century Roman Galilee is not about illustrating or proving the gospels\, drawing timelines\, or hunting treasure. Rather\, it is about understanding the lives of people\, just like us\, who lived in the time of Jesus. How do we conceive of Jesus and his mission as part of a larger world? How did different groups in Roman Galilee understand their identities and values? How do we interpret material culture in conjunction with textual evidence from the gospels? On a more basic level\, how do we know where and how to dig? \nCo-sponsored by the Kershaw Chair of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies  \nJames Riley Strange teaches how to address these problems in his book Excavating the Land of Jesus. Drawing on professional experience as a scientific archaeologist in Israel\, Strange explains current methodology for ground surveying\, excavating evidence\, and interpreting data. James Strange received the Charles Jackson Granade and Elizabeth Donald Granade Chair in New Testament in the fall of 2017. He is a 2015 recipient of the Dean’s Award for Research\, Howard College of Arts and Sciences\, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi honor society. Strange is Director of the Shikhin Excavation Project in Israel and researches archaeology of Palestine in the Hellenistic through Byzantine periods\, early Christianity and post-biblical Judaisms. He teaches courses in New Testament\, ancient Greco-Roman Religions\, and the archaeology of Palestine.
URL:https://religion.ucla.edu/event/excavating-the-land-of-jesus/
LOCATION:Royce 306
CATEGORIES:CSR
ORGANIZER;CN="Center for the Study of Religion":MAILTO:csr@humnet.ucla.edu
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END:VCALENDAR