Religious Studies Ideas Series (RSIS)
The Religious Studies Department hosts the "Religious Studies Ideas Series" (RSIS) on an annual basis. This lecture series is open to students, faculty, and members from the community.
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Previous Lectures in this series
2011
Nights at Round Tables:
The Dining Room and Religious Community in Late Antiquity
Michelle Berenfeld is a classical archaeologist who works on the material culture of cities in the Greco-Roman world. She is particularly interested in the intersection of public and private life in the ancient urban context, the social and political function of houses, and how transformations of civic and religious practice in late antiquity were reflected in the physical environment of cities. She has worked at the World Monuments Fund (WMF), an international non-profit organization dedicated to preserving cultural heritage sites around the world. At WMF, she ran the organization's major thematic programs, including an initiative focused on protecting cultural heritage in Iraq, the World Monuments Watch, and a sustainable tourism program. She received her Ph.D. in classical archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, and since 1997 has been part of the excavation team at Aphrodisias, the Greco-Roman site in southwestern Turkey. She is currently assistant professor of Classics at Pitzer College, Claremont CA.
ABSTRACT:
Although late antiquity can be defined as a period of transformation, transition, and even conflict between the vestiges of Greco-Roman paganism and eventually victorious Christianity, it was also a period of coexistence and even continuity. In the fourth and fifth centuries, particularly, pagans and Christians, however defined, were members of the elite classes and lived within and negotiated a shared physical environment, along with a common social and cultural context as upper class citizens of the late Roman empire. In this environment, pagans and Christians developed and transformed their conceptions of sacred space, community, and religious practice. This project explores this dynamic social and religious climate through the lens of a small, but significant architectural development that gained distinct popularity in this period-the triple-apsed room-and its relatively quick transformation from an elite dining space in the villas of the western provinces and townhouses of north Africa to a sanctuary space in monasteries in Italy and Egypt. This paper presents an analysis of the form and function of the triple-apsed room in late Roman houses, its social function as a space of self-identification and religious practice for both pagans and Christians in late antiquity through communal dining, and its adaptation for use as a sanctuary in monastery churches. It proposes that not only the shape of the triconch room, but also its spatial relationships with other rooms in late Roman elite residences were replicated to some degree in Christian complexes and that these architectural relationships were significant in the formulation and reinforcement of social connections in Christian collective religious environments, particularly purpose-built complexes like those founded by Paulinus of Nola in Italy and Shenoute of Atripe in Egypt.
Stephania Travagnin
Friday, Feb 4 @ 2:30
Location: CL 407
ABSTRACT
My research developed from the observation of a considerable presence of children in religious cinema, and aims at assessing the roles that children and childhood play in it. My work focuses on movies that have been produced in East Asia, directed by East Asian (religious and otherwise) directors, and whose religious contents include messages coming from the traditions of Christianity, Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism. Some of the movies that will be taken in consideration as case-studies are Bae Yong-kyun's Why has Bodhi-dharma left for the East? (1989), Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring (2004), Julia Kwan's Eve and the Fire Horse (2005), Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001).
This research investigates which dimensions of faith and religiosity are visualized through the children's experience of religion. In this way, based on the psychological dynamism behind and within children's spiritual experience, my paper analyzes the recovery of myths, the performance of rituals and the formulation of religious quests in the "fantasy world" of the childhood. The first part of the paper will thus underline the interplay of adults and children in the recovery of the pure religious teachings, as well as in the ongoing journey of self-discovery of the main characters of the films.
The second part of my study will shift the attention to the fields of visual arts and visual culture, and focus on the aesthetic dimension of those religious experiences. This part will develop a discussion on religious symbolism, colors, visual metaphors and effects that define what I have called ‘innovative religious iconography', where the innovative borrowing of traditional religious iconography is integrated with the adoption of innovative symbols. The power of images, which in this case are images in motion, and visual messages redefine the religious narrative of the film, therefore a study of the aspects of visual culture will reveal a modern interconnection between faith and art.
BIO
Stefania Travagnin is Lecturer of East Asian Buddhism in the Department of History and Religious Studies Program at Penn State University. She holds a PhD in the Study of Religions from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (2009), has been visiting scholar at the Center for Chinese Studies of the National Central Library and at the Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, has extensive fieldwork experience within several Buddhist communities in East Asia, and has previously taught at the University of London (SOAS and Goldsmiths College), University of Missouri and University of Saskatchewan. Her research and publications focus on different aspects of Buddhism in twentieth-century China and Taiwan, Buddhist women in East Asia, theories and methods in the study of religion, and religion and film. She is currently working on a book on the revival of the Madhyamaka school in twentieth-century China.
2010
Amir Hussain
From Islamophobia to Misoislamia: Muslims, Violence and Religion
Nov 25, 2010@ 2:30 in CL 408
BIO
Dr. Amir Hussain is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he teaches courses on world religions. His own particular speciality is the study of Islam, focusing on contemporary Muslim societies in North America. Although born in Pakistan, Amir came to Canada with his family when he was four. His academic degrees (BSc, MA, PhD) are all from the University of Toronto where he received a number of awards, including the university's highest award for alumni service. Amir's PhD dissertation was on Muslim communities in Toronto. For 2011 to 2015, Amir has been appointed as the editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, the premier scholarly journal for the study of religion.
He has a deep commitment to students, and holds the distinction of being the only male to serve as Dean of Women at University College, University of Toronto. Before coming to California in 1997, Amir taught courses in religious studies at several universities in Canada. He is active in academic groups such as the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion and the American Academy of Religion (where he is co-chair of the Contemporary Islam group, and serves on the steering committee of the Religion in South Asia section). He is on the editorial boards of three scholarly journals, the Journal of Religion, Conflict and Peace; Contemporary Islam: Dynamics of Muslim Life and Comparative Islamic Studies. Amir is also interested in areas such as religion and music, religion and literature, religion and film and religion and popular culture. In 2008, he was appointed as a fellow of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities.
Prior to his appointment at Loyola Marymount University, Amir taught at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) from 1997 to 2005. Amir won a number of awards at CSUN, both for his teaching and research. In 2001 he was selected for the outstanding faculty award by the National Center on Deafness. For the academic year 2003-04, he was selected as the Jerome Richfield Memorial Scholar. In both 2008 and 2009, Amir was chosen by vote of LMU students as the Professor of the Year. He is the editor for the third edition of World Religions: Western Traditions, a textbook published by Oxford University Press in 2010. Prior to that book, he wrote an introduction to Islam for North Americans entitled Oil and Water: Two Faiths, One God (Kelowna: Copper House, 2006).
Kenneth MacKendrick
We have an imaginary friend in Jesus: What Imaginary Companions can teach us about religion
Friday, April 9 @2:30 in CL 408
ABSTRACT:
This paper investigates the relation between imaginary companions and religious thought, inquiring whether studies of imaginative play (Taylor, Harris, Gopnik)can be used to illuminate and explain the prevalence and popularity of informal interior religious conversation. Caution is required in such an analogy since, as Marjorie Taylor and Pascal Boyer warn, the difference between the playful creation of imaginary companions by children (fantasy) and the postulation of supernatural agents and institution of rituals by religious adherents (belief) is no insignificant matter. Nonetheless, the analogy gains plausibility based on recent studies in the neuropsychology of religion showing that casual interior religious conversation is intimately related to non-religious forms of social cognition. As a further means of assessing the fruitfulness of the analogy by means of bridging concepts, a survey of cognitive studies of religion positing the intuitive or naturalness of theism will be addressed (Barrett, Boyer, Kelemen, Whitehouse). Based on research assessed thus far, it is argued that imaginative play has a much larger role in the development of religious attitudes and practices than is often assumed.
BIO
Kenneth MacKendrick is Associate Professor in the Department of Religion, University of Manitoba. His doctoral thesis on the early writings of Jürgen Habermas was completed at the Centre for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto and is published by Routledge as Discourse, Desire, and Fantasy in Jürgen Habermas' Critical Theory (2008). He has published articles on critical theory and religion, discourse ethics, thanatology, evil in world religions, and the writings of Chuck Palahniuk. MacKendrick's teaching interests include: contemporary Christianity(fundamentalism and charismatic movements, secularization), evil in world religions, method and theory in the study of religion, and rituals of death and mourning. His current research focuses on the relation between cognition, imagination, and religion. He is also co-editing an anthology with Karen Wilson Baptist on deathscapes, (funerals, festivals, memorials, cemeteries). He is a member of the editorial review board for the series Studies in Critical Research on Religion in association with Brill Academic Publishers and Haymarket Books and editor of the "Theory & Method" section of the journal Religion Compass (Blackwell).
2009
Mark Rowe
Split Personality Buddhists: Priestly Identity in Post-War Japan
Friday, Oct 16 @2:30 in Luther College 211
ABSTRACT:
Despite the fact that there are currently over 300,000 officially certified Buddhist priests in Japan, there has hardly been any significant scholarly research into their lives and training. What are their backgrounds? How are they trained? What are their day-to-day activities? How do they mediate between the doctrinal ideals of their particular traditions and the real-world needs of parishioners? Through visual media, stories, and sectarian handbooks, this presentation will explore what it's like to be a Buddhist priest in Japan today.
BIO:
Mark Rowe is an Assistant Professor of Japanese Religions at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He received an M.A. from Kyoto University and his Ph.D. from Princeton. He is an ethnographer of Japanese Buddhism specializing in the current realities of Japanese temple priests. In 2004 he co-edited (with Stephen Covell) a special issue of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies focusing on contemporary Japanese Buddhism. He is currently completing a book manuscript titled "Death By Association: Temples, Burial, and the Transformation of Contemporary Japanese Buddhism," which traces the institutional realities of the "traditional" Buddhist sects through an exploration of Buddhist responses to radical shifts in contemporary burial practices.
Lori Beaman
Religious Freedom: From Tolerance and Reasonable Accommodation to Deep Equality
Thurs, April 2, 2009 @2:30 pm, Luther College 208
Dr. Beaman is also delivered a special luncheon lecture:
Defining the Limits of Religious Freedom: What's Wrong with Reasonable Accommodation
April 2, 2009 @ 12 pm, at the Ramada Hotel
ABSTRACT
Where do we draw the line on religious freedom? To what extent should we protect religious expression and at what cost? These are a couple of the questions being explored by Lori Beaman in her studies as a Canada Research Chair. She hopes that her answers will help define the sort of nation Canada is - and should be.
Beaman examines the ways in which we define religion and how these definitions are translated into interpretations of religious freedom. In the process, she takes a close look at the theoretical underpinnings of the limitation of religious freedom as it is currently viewed by Canada's courts.
Beaman is also analyzing the global implications of various definitions of religious freedom. This part of her research involves an examination of case law from Britain, the United States, and France because she recognizes that observations about religious freedom apply across national borders, and fit more broadly into the domain of human rights.
This research is helping to clarify various important religious and societal issues such as the application of Sharia law in a "secular" state, the legality of polygamy, and the role of religion in public debates over same-sex marriage. Beaman hopes that it will also produce the kind of academic tools that can be used in the assessment of such issues in Canada and elsewhere in the world.
BIO
Lori G. Beaman, Ph.D. is Canada Research Chair in the Contextualization of Religion in a Diverse Canada and Associate Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious studies at University of Ottawa. She is author of Defining Harm: Religious Freedom and the Limits of the Law (UBC Press, 2008), editor of Religion and Canadian Society: Traditions, Transitions and Innovations. (Toronto: Scholar's Press, 2006); and co-editor, with Peter Beyer of Religion, Globalization and Culture, (Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2007). Her research on religious freedom is regularly funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Her secondary research interest is on religious ritual and tourism, especially labyrinths.
2008
Lisa Alexandrin
Dream Diaries and Feminine Spirituality in Medieval Sufism
Lisa Alexandrin is Assistant Professor in Religious Studies at the University of Manitoba. Her paper focuses on the approaches to the study of mysticism in Religious Studies with particular reference to the narration of individual mystical experience and concepts of selfhood in the Islamic context.
Michel Desjardin
Michel Desjardin is Professor of Religion and Culture, Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.
2007
Hillary Rodrigues teaches Religious Studies and Anthropology at the University of Lethbridge.
