Home > Humanities

Humanities

Events

Events Search and Views Navigation

Event Views Navigation

Today

  • CANCELLED: And God Laughed: Humor in the Bible

    Royce Hall 306

    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. Since the Hebrew Bible is a sacred text for Jews and Christians many readers naturally assume it cannot contain any humor. This...

  • A Tattered Leaf Covers the Torn: Class Dynamics of Buddhist Charity in Vietnam

    Royce 243

    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. Studies of humanitarianism tend to focus on the large-scale. They analyze disaster relief, international diplomacy, development politics, and privatized...

  • Satellite Ministries: The Rise of Christian Television in the Middle East

    Bunche Hall 10383

    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...

  • Between Discordant Shores: Dante’s Francis, the Book of Islam and the Orient

    Kaufman Hall Room 101

    (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.) Marking 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...

  • A Multifaith Conversation on Justice, Forgiveness and Compassion

    UCLA California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) 570 Westwood Plaza

    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,...

  • Who are the Tanguts and why do they matter? Writing, Religion, and Cultural Exchange in the Xia Kingdom

    Royce 243

    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...

  • EVENT POSTPONED: The Complex Interplay of Religion, Law and Politics in Israel

    Bunche Hall 10383

    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. ______________________________ Without the protections of a written constitution...

  • The Dread Heights: Tribulation and Refuge after the Syrian Revolution

    Bunche Hall 10383

    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...

  • Music and Religion in Popular Culture: The Case of Orthodox Jews and Christian Contemporary Music

    Kaplan 365

    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...

  • (De)medicalization and the Dying Body: Sallekhanā, Kinship, and the Limits of Liberal Bioethics

    Royce Hall 306

    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...

MENU