Lectures
"Rhetorical Construction of Solidarity in Mahāyāna Sūtra Literature, or: You're So Vain, You Probably Think This Sūtra Is About You"
May 1, 2018
Lecture presented by Christian Wedemeyer, Associate Professor of the History of Religions; Associate Faculty in South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago Divinity School
“A Little of that Human Touch: Why Anthropomorphize?”
April 19, 2018
Presented by Professor David L. Haberman, Professor, Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University
"The Materialization of Native American Religions: Cultural Science in an Era of Assimilation"
January 23, 2018
Presented by Sarah E. Dees, Luce Postdoctoral Fellow in Religion, Politics, & Global Affairs, Department of Political Science and Department of Religious Studies
"Performance and Text in Jewish Ritual"
January 22, 2018
By Yair Lipshitz, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Theatre Arts in Tel Aviv University
"Modernity in Tibetan Buddhism"
October 31, 2017
A lecture presented by a leading Tibetan Buddhist teacher Khenpo Sodargye from Larung Five Sciences Buddhist Academy in Tibet.
“The Hexing of Donald Trump: Brujería as Collective Action”
October 25, 2017
Lecture by Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesus, Associate Professor of African American Religions, Harvard Divinity School
"Elephant, King and Holy Man"
April 18, 2017
EDMUND PERRY LECTURE presented by Thomas Trautmann, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Professor Emeritus of History, University of Michigan
"Can Tibetan Buddhist Institutions Map 'Tibetan' Culture?"
April 5, 2017
Presented by Professor Tuttle
"The Political Theology of late Capitalism: On Neoliberalism"
February 16, 2017
Presented by Adam Kotsko, Professor in the Humanities at Shimer College
"Muhammad Qasim Zaman: Islamist Violence, The State, and Counter-Islamist Narratives in Pakistan"
February 1, 2017
Presented by Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religion; Chair, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
"Strolling in the Garden of Desire: Sadi's (Homo)erotic conversations"
October 26, 2016
Presented by Professor Fatemeh Keshavarz, Director of Roshan Institute for Persian Studies and Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Studies, University of Maryland
"Hinduism and Its Others in Bollywood Film of the 2000s""
April 27, 2016
EDMUND PERRY LECTURE presented by Diana Dimitrova, Associate Professor
Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies
The University of Montreal
"What Perfection Demands: An Irenaean Account of Kant on Radical Evil"
April 20, 2016
Presented by Jacqueline Mariña, Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University
"The Return of Confucianism in Contemporary China"
April 13, 2016
Presented by Anna Sun, Associate Professor of Sociology and Asian Studies, Kenyon College
“Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: A View from Larung Gar, the Largest Buddhist Institute in the World”
April 7, 2016
Presented by Khenpo Karma Jamyang Gyaltsen, Buddhist institute in Tibet (Larung Gar in Eastern Tibet)
"Expertly Secular."
April 6, 2016
Presented by Matthew Engelke, Professor of Anthropology at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
"Maya's Death The Buddha's Mother Then and Now..."
February 8, 2016
Presented by Kim Gutschow, lecturer, Department of Anthropology/Sociaology and Religion, Williams College
"Dialectic of Darkness: The Magical Foundations of Critical Theory"
November 18, 2015
Presented by Jason Josephson, Professor of the Department of Religion, Williams College
RS Graduate Student Association presents Proffesor Constance Furey and her work "Love Triangles Eroticism, Spirituality, and Selfhood in Early Modern Protestant Poetry"
June 3, 2015
"Challenging the Motherland: Religion, Terrorism, and the Violence of non-Violence in Western China"
May 27, 2015
EDMUND PERRY LECTURE by Antonio Terrone, Assistant Professor of Tibetan Buddhist Studies, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
"A Political Theology of Climate Change."
April 9, 2015
Lecture by Professor Michael S. Northcott, University of Edinburgh
"With him my soul was ravished": Prayer & Intimacy in Modern French Catholicism & Study of Religion
February 25, 2015
Lecture by Brenna Moore
Associate Professor, Department of Theology
Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies, Rose Hill Campus
Fordham University
Finnish Eastern Orthodox Women and the Virgin Mary
February 18, 2015
Presented by Elina Vuola, Academy Professor, Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki
How Theological is Hegel’s Theology?” Hegel’s Lessons for Contemporary Philosophy of Religion
November 14, 2014
Presented by Nicholas Adams, Senior Lecturer in Theology and Ethics at the University of Edinsburg
What Are We up to When We Pray? An Ethnography of a Group of Muslim Women in Iran
October 15, 2014
Lecture by Niloofar Haeri, Professor and Chair, Department of AnthropologyJohns Hopkins University
Lutherrenaissance: Past & Present
April 12-14, 2012
International conference Lutherrenaissance: Past & Present, with Crain lecturer Michael Massing, and theologians from Germany, Denmark, and North America.
Concerning "Goodbye, Christ": Langston Hughes, 1930s America, and the Politics of Poetry
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 5:30 PM
McCormick Foundation Center (Map)
Reception following
Wallace Best is Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University. A Northwestern University PhD, Prof. Best's research and teaching center on African American religious history, religion and literature, Pentecostalism, the Nation of Islam, religion, gender and sexuality, and Womanist theology. He is the author of Passionately Human, No Less Divine: Religion and Culture in Black Chicago, 1915-1952, Princeton University Press.
He is currently at work on two books: an anthology entitled Elder Lucy Smith: Documents from the Life of a Pentecostal Woman Preacher and an exploration of the religious thought of the poet Langston Hughes, entitled Langston's Salvation: American Religion and the Bard of Harlem.
Religion, Suffering, and Medicine
May 12, 2010: 3:30-5 pm
John Evans Alumni Center (Map)
- David Cella, Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine (Northwestern University)
- Robert A. Orsi, Professor of Religious Studies and History (Northwestern University),Grace Craddock Nagle Chair of Catholic Studies
- Laurie Zoloth, Professor of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, and Director, Center for Bioethics, Science and Society, Feinberg School of Medicine, Professor of Religious Studies, Director, Brady Program in Ethics and Civic Life (Northwestern University)
Moderated by: Christine Helmer, Professor of Religious Studies (Northwestern University)
Psychology and Religion
March 3, 2010: 3:30-5 pm
McCormick Foundation Center (Map)
- Dan P. McAdams, Professor of Human Development and Social Policy and Professor of Psychology, Director, Foley Center for the Study of Lives (Northwestern University)
- James W. Jones, Professor of Religion, Adjunct Professor of Clinical Psychology (Rutgers University)
- Christine Helmer, Professor of Religious Studies (Northwestern University)
- Robert A. Orsi, Professor of Religious Studies (Northwestern University)
- Celia Brickman, Director, Center for Religion and Psychotherapy of Chicago
Moderated by: George Bond, Professor and Chair of Religious Studies (Northwestern University)
Moral Philosophy and Religious Studies
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009: 3:30-5:00 pm
John Evans Alumni Center (Map)
Reception following
- Robert Audi, Brady Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Ethics and Civic Life (Northwestern University)
- Sondra Ely Wheeler, Visiting Research Professor, Brady Program in Ethics and Civic Life (Northwestern University)
- Cristina Traina, Associate Professor of Religious Studies (Northwestern University)
Moderated by: Laurie Zoloth, Professor of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, and Director, Center for Bioethics, Science and Society, Feinberg School of Medicine; Professor of Religious Studies, Director, Brady Program in Ethics and Civic Life (Northwestern University)
Religion Meets ReligiousStudies@Northwestern
The Department of Religious Studies organized a series of panel discussions, one each quarter in 2009-2010, aimed at bringing together Northwestern scholars in various fields whose work engages topics of religion. Co-hosted by the Brady Program in Ethics and Civic life, and co-sponsored by the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, the series was very successful, and Religious Studies looks forward to continuing to foster interdisciplinary dialogue across Northwestern's many diverse and exciting communities.
Making of the Last Prophet
Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 5:00pm
The Perry Lecture in Religion
Block Auditorium map, Evanston Campus
Religion and Identity
April 24-25, 2009
A Graduate Conference at Northwestern University
ROBERT ORSI: Inaugural Lecture
Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies
"The Catholic Imaginary: Catholic Studies in the University "
Hardin Hall, Rebecca Crown Center Video
Thursday, November 6, 2008, 4:00 pm
The Global Luther
An International Conference at Northwestern University
Feb. 21-23, 2008
To view a list of events, visit the section of Plan-It Purple for the Department of Religious Studies.