Harvard Divinity School Public Events

Public Research Talk: Transcendental Imagination: The Case for a New American Renaissance with Kristen Case

14 Sep 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions
42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA
Monday, September 14, 2026, 12 – 1:30pm

Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.

This talk explores the transcendentalist reimagining of sociality and temporality, aspects of human experience that underwent broad transformations in the late nineteenth century. In our own time, as we navigate unprecedented access to the globe and to one another while also experiencing ever-increasing loneliness and disconnection, the relationship between self and world is once more a site of contestation and cultural renegotiation.
At the same time, our hyperconnectivity means that our experience of time is ever more fragmented, accelerated, and homogenized. As human creativity and connection are threatened by AI and algorithmic determinism, the example of the transcendentalist writers can help us recommit to an imaginative reorganization of our experience.

Kristen Case is a poet and scholar whose books include American Pragmatism and Poetic Practice, Little Arias, Principles of Economics, Henry David Thoreau's Kalendar, and Daphne. She has co-edited several essay collections on American writers and is currently co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Henry David Thoreau with James Finley.
Case serves as Executive Director of the Monson Seminar, a residential arts and humanities program for Pell-eligible college students, and is visiting faculty at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. She lives in Maine.

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator, ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu
More info: cswr.hds.harvard.edu…

“So Pure and Bright a Light”*: Photographs in Praise of Place by Carl Austin Hyatt

14 Sep 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave.
Cambridge, MA
Monday, September 14, 2026, 4 – 5:30pm

Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.

*Title phrase drawn from Henry David Thoreau.
“That aim in life is the highest which requires … a lifetime to appreciate a single phenomenon! You must camp down beside it, as for life, having reached your land of promise, and give yourself wholly to it.”
—Henry David Thoreau

As Thoreau understood, perception is an intentional and participatory act—an act of intimacy sustained by the heart. It is a lived commitment. For New Hampshire Seacoast–based photographer Carl Austin Hyatt, reading Thoreau as a young man inspired a passion to find his own “land of promise.” The New England coast has become for Hyatt what Walden was for Thoreau.
“Today, as ever,” Hyatt says, “sustained intimacy with our natural surroundings generates a world of its own, reciprocally nurturing the soul of the artist and what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the World Soul.” As Hyatt has observed, “The fate of the world rests on humanity awakening to our ensouled world.”

Carl Austin Hyatt uses classical, film-based, large-format black-and-white photography to create images of profound formal beauty. He believes that art’s priceless gift is a form of “transmission.” This understanding informs his photographs of natural and human-made landscapes, stones, shorelines, and the human figure.
His images—including photographs of road-salt piles that resemble ancient mountains and sacred pyramids—elicit a visceral response to the world, suggesting the revelation of ineffable presences that transcend the factual. As Hyatt explains, “There are things we all know but dismiss because we distrust our believing. This is our cultural condition. It has taken me years to believe in what I know.”
Hyatt’s work is represented in collections throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and South America. His prints are held in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Addison Gallery of American Art; and other institutions. He is a MacDowell Colony fellow and a member of the National Parks Arts Foundation Advisory Board.

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator, ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu
More info: cswr.hds.harvard.edu…

Exploring Spirituality in Nature Writing: A Writing Workshop Series in Creative Nonfiction

16 Sep 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA
Wednesday, September 16, 2026, 4 – 6pm

This workshop is currently full. Thank you for your interest! If you'd like to be added to the waitlist, please contact Laurie Sedgwick at ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Registration was limited to 12 participants.

This workshop series meets on four consecutive Wednesdays—September 9, 16, 23, and 30—from 4:00–6:00 p.m. Because each session builds on the previous one, participants are expected to attend all four sessions.

When William Ellery Channing claimed in an 1828 sermon that “we are brought into harmony with the creation” in proportion to our pursuit of our own “likeness to God,” he could not have known that his theology would help inspire a literary tradition that continues to explore spiritual growth through encounters with the natural world. American nature writing developed some of its strongest roots in the ideas of Channing and the American Transcendentalists he influenced. Emerson explored selfhood and spirituality through nature, famously writing of standing in the woods and sensing that he was “part and parcel of God.” Thoreau likewise wrote of the spiritual expansiveness he experienced through his connection with the natural world. This tradition extends through writers such as John Muir, Rachel Carson, Annie Dillard, and Kathleen Dean Moore. Today, nature writers continue to explore the spiritual dimensions of life through encounters with the more-than-human world.
In this creative nonfiction workshop, participants will practice nature writing as an expression and exploration of spirituality. Before the first session, participants will be invited to read brief excerpts from texts central to the nature writing tradition. During the workshop, participants will discuss the readings and elements of writerly craft, focusing on strategies authors have used to explore, reveal, and experience spirituality through nature. Sessions will also include guided writing exercises and prompts. Between meetings, participants will be invited to complete writing exercises that may inform future discussions. At the conclusion of the series, the instructor will provide individual feedback on a short essay submitted by each participant.

Rochelle L. Johnson received the 2026 John Burroughs Nature Essay Award and the 2025 Georgia Review Prose Prize for her essay “Phantom Pains,” which was also featured by Longreads, Memoir Land, and Nature. A recipient of the Carnegie Foundation’s Idaho Professor of the Year Award and the 2024 Outstanding Achievement in the Humanities Award from the Idaho Humanities Council, Johnson is the author of numerous creative and scholarly works, including Passions for Nature: Nineteenth-Century America’s Aesthetics of Alienation. She has also coedited several volumes, including Thoreau in an Age of Crisis.
A leading scholar of nineteenth-century naturalist Susan Fenimore Cooper, Johnson’s research has been supported by fellowships from the Beinecke Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and other organizations. She holds the Bernie McCain Chair in the Humanities at the College of Idaho, where she teaches environmental studies, and serves as the 2026 Robert Frost Chair at the Bread Loaf School of English, where she teaches literature and creative writing. She is a past president of both the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment and the Thoreau Society.

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator, ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu
More info: cswr.hds.harvard.edu…

Scripture in Community

18 Sep 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Friday, September 18, 2026, 12 – 1pm

All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST

What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.

Lunch is provided for those joining in person.

Sponsor: HLS Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu

Grad Fest 2026

18 Sep 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard Yard
Friday, September 18, 2026, 4 – 7pm

The Harvard Graduate Council welcomes you to Grad Fest 2026, the all-schools kickoff for the graduate community, on Friday, September 18, from 4:00 to 7:00 PM in the Tercentenary Theatre of Harvard Yard. This is the eighth Grad Fest, and the first one held in Harvard Yard!

Grad Fest (gradfest2026.com) brings together students from all twelve Harvard graduate and professional schools for one afternoon: a student organization fair, live student performances, lawn games, and a photo booth. Ben & Jerry's, Bon Me, and more food trucks will be on site, and the Harvard Band is joining us. It is the easiest chance all year to meet people outside of Francis Avenue, and to discover student organizations from across Harvard. Grad Fest is held with sponsorship from the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, and the deans of students from Harvard's twelve graduate and professional schools.

RSVP for free here. It takes under a minute. A valid Harvard ID is required for entry.

If you are a student organization leader, we would love to have you table for your group. Reserve a table here. Tables are free and open to any registered student organization, including HDS groups. Sign-ups close Saturday, September 12 at 11:59 PM, and we will send table assignments by September 15.

Full details, FAQs, and performer sign-ups are at gradfest2026.com.

Please do not reply to this email. For questions, please write to gradfest@hgc.harvard.edu.

See you in the Yard!

Sponsor: Harvard Graduate Council
Contact: gradfest@hgc.harvard.edu
More info: docs.google.com…

Online | Evolution of Spirituality Conference on Belonging: Practices of Inclusion in Spiritual Communities, the Academy, and Society

21 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Zoom
Monday, September 21 – Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Please register to attend.

The Program for the Evolution of Spirituality's annual conference will take place on Zoom on September 21-22 and hybrid at Swartz Hall and on Zoom on September 24-26. The Program for the Evolution of Spirituality seeks to create a place of belonging for people who have been excluded from academic conversations because of their commitment to spiritual traditions that are small, new, marginalized, or stigmatized. Equally, we welcome those who have experienced or encountered harm in spiritual movements, and wish to explore the sources and implications of that harm.

Our fall 2026 conference will directly explore our founding commitment to inclusion and belonging. Presentations will include scholarly and artists talks, as well as workshops, on topics including the boundaries of inclusion, scholar-practitioner identities, ecospiritual belonging, spiritual authority, and practices of repair after harm. In-person conference spaces are limited and participants who wish to attend in person should sign up as soon as possible.

Registration is available here. More information and a schedule can be found at our conference webpage.

Questions may be directed to pes@hds.harvard.edu or to Dan McKanan at dmckanan@hds.harvard.edu.

Sponsor: Program for the Evolution of Spirituality
Contact: Questions may be directed to pes@hds.harvard.edu or to Dan McKanan at dmckanan@hds.harvard.edu.
More info: pes.hds.harvard.edu…

Public Research Talk: Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Radical Reconstruction, and the Antislavery Roots of American Social Science - Peter Wirzbicki

21 Sep 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Common Room, CSWR
42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA
Monday, September 21, 2026, 12 – 1:30pm

Registration required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.

Franklin Sanborn lived two lives. He is best known as a Transcendentalist firebrand: a friend of Emerson and Thoreau, a member of John Brown’s famed “Secret Six,” and one of the first chroniclers of the Transcendentalist movement. Through his work, he helped preserve the spirit of Transcendentalism in the late nineteenth century. Yet he may have been even more influential as a leader of the American Social Science Association, the nation’s first social science organization, which played a major role in the professionalization of history, economics, and sociology.
These two worlds appear radically different: one defined by the exuberant romanticism and political idealism of the antebellum era, the other by the restrained scientific study of society. This talk asks whether these two sides of Sanborn can be reconciled. In doing so, it considers how the spirit of Transcendentalism may have evolved and survived in the seemingly inhospitable realm of post–Civil War social science.

Peter Wirzbicki is Associate Professor of American History at Princeton University. His first book, Fighting for the Higher Law: Black and White Transcendentalists against Slavery, examines the intellectual and personal relationships between radical abolitionism and New England Transcendentalism.
His current research explores the intellectual history of Reconstruction, with a focus on how Americans understood democracy, rights, sovereignty, and suffrage in the years following the Civil War.

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator, ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu
More info: cswr.hds.harvard.edu…

Abortion Counseling: An Interdisciplinary Training for Medical and Spiritual Care Providers

22 Sep 2026 22:00:00 GMT

Cader Room, Swartz Hall 117, 45 Francis Ave.
Tuesday, September 22, 2026, 6 – 7pm

Join HDS Repro in welcoming back Hallie Guare (MDiv '26) in a presentation of her work in the intersection of spiritual and reproductive care.

Sponsor: HDS Reproductive Justice Collective
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu

Exploring Spirituality in Nature Writing: A Writing Workshop Series in Creative Nonfiction

23 Sep 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA
Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 4 – 6pm

This workshop is currently full. Thank you for your interest! If you'd like to be added to the waitlist, please contact Laurie Sedgwick at ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Registration was limited to 12 participants.

This workshop series meets on four consecutive Wednesdays—September 9, 16, 23, and 30—from 4:00–6:00 p.m. Because each session builds on the previous one, participants are expected to attend all four sessions.

When William Ellery Channing claimed in an 1828 sermon that “we are brought into harmony with the creation” in proportion to our pursuit of our own “likeness to God,” he could not have known that his theology would help inspire a literary tradition that continues to explore spiritual growth through encounters with the natural world. American nature writing developed some of its strongest roots in the ideas of Channing and the American Transcendentalists he influenced. Emerson explored selfhood and spirituality through nature, famously writing of standing in the woods and sensing that he was “part and parcel of God.” Thoreau likewise wrote of the spiritual expansiveness he experienced through his connection with the natural world. This tradition extends through writers such as John Muir, Rachel Carson, Annie Dillard, and Kathleen Dean Moore. Today, nature writers continue to explore the spiritual dimensions of life through encounters with the more-than-human world.
In this creative nonfiction workshop, participants will practice nature writing as an expression and exploration of spirituality. Before the first session, participants will be invited to read brief excerpts from texts central to the nature writing tradition. During the workshop, participants will discuss the readings and elements of writerly craft, focusing on strategies authors have used to explore, reveal, and experience spirituality through nature. Sessions will also include guided writing exercises and prompts. Between meetings, participants will be invited to complete writing exercises that may inform future discussions. At the conclusion of the series, the instructor will provide individual feedback on a short essay submitted by each participant.

Rochelle L. Johnson received the 2026 John Burroughs Nature Essay Award and the 2025 Georgia Review Prose Prize for her essay “Phantom Pains,” which was also featured by Longreads, Memoir Land, and Nature. A recipient of the Carnegie Foundation’s Idaho Professor of the Year Award and the 2024 Outstanding Achievement in the Humanities Award from the Idaho Humanities Council, Johnson is the author of numerous creative and scholarly works, including Passions for Nature: Nineteenth-Century America’s Aesthetics of Alienation. She has also coedited several volumes, including Thoreau in an Age of Crisis.
A leading scholar of nineteenth-century naturalist Susan Fenimore Cooper, Johnson’s research has been supported by fellowships from the Beinecke Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and other organizations. She holds the Bernie McCain Chair in the Humanities at the College of Idaho, where she teaches environmental studies, and serves as the 2026 Robert Frost Chair at the Bread Loaf School of English, where she teaches literature and creative writing. She is a past president of both the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment and the Thoreau Society.

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator, ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu
More info: cswr.hds.harvard.edu…

Evolution of Spirituality Conference on Belonging: Practices of Inclusion in Spiritual Communities, the Academy, and Society

24 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Swartz Hall, Zoom
Thursday, September 24 – Saturday, September 26, 2026

Please register to attend.

The Program for the Evolution of Spirituality's annual conference will take place on Zoom on September 21-22 and hybrid at Swartz Hall and on Zoom on September 24-26. The Program for the Evolution of Spirituality seeks to create a place of belonging for people who have been excluded from academic conversations because of their commitment to spiritual traditions that are small, new, marginalized, or stigmatized. Equally, we welcome those who have experienced or encountered harm in spiritual movements, and wish to explore the sources and implications of that harm.

Our fall 2026 conference will directly explore our founding commitment to inclusion and belonging. Presentations will include scholarly and artists talks, as well as workshops, on topics including the boundaries of inclusion, scholar-practitioner identities, ecospiritual belonging, spiritual authority, and practices of repair after harm. In-person conference spaces are limited and participants who wish to attend in person should sign up as soon as possible.

Registration is available here. More information and a schedule can be found at our conference webpage.

Questions may be directed to pes@hds.harvard.edu or to Dan McKanan at dmckanan@hds.harvard.edu.

Sponsor: Program for the Evolution of Spirituality
Contact: Questions may be directed to pes@hds.harvard.edu or to Dan McKanan at dmckanan@hds.harvard.edu.
More info: pes.hds.harvard.edu…

Scripture in Community

25 Sep 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Friday, September 25, 2026, 12 – 1pm

All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST

What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.

Lunch is provided for those joining in person.

Sponsor: HLS Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu

¡Celebremos Puerto Rico!

27 Sep 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Sunday, September 27, 2026, 1 – 4pm

Celebrate Puerto Rico’s rich culture and natural wonders at the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture!

Join us for a fun-filled day with music and fun. Jorge Arce & Humano deliver bomba and plena music to get you dancing. Expert carver Carlos Santiago introduces you to traditional carvings of saints.

Explore a variety of activities, including listening to coqui calls, learning about the island’s native birds, and making simple crafts to take home. Test your skills preparing cassava and dive into the history of coffee production. Enjoy delicious Puerto Rican food (available for purchase).

Bring the whole family—there’s something for everyone to enjoy!

Free admission. Limited free event parking with registration. Advance registration recommended.

Sponsor: Presented by the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, and the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, in collaboration with the Puerto Rican Institute for Arts and Advocacy, the Mass Cultural Council, Ágora Cultural Architects, Cambridge Arts, and Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción.
Contact: Faith Sutter sutter@hmsc.harvard.edu

Public Research Talk: A Transcendentalist Peace: American Pacifism from Lydia Maria Child to Jane Addams with Lydia Moland

28 Sep 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Common Room, CSWR
42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA
Monday, September 28, 2026, 12 – 1:30pm

Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.

In 1839, abolitionist Lydia Maria Child called the first Peace Convention in Boston “unquestionably the greatest event of the nineteenth century.” “Posterity will marvel,” she wrote, “at the early adoption of such transcendental principles.” Seventy-five years later, Jane Addams honed transcendentalist ideas into a theory of pacifism that Child would have recognized—one built on moral self-reliance, faith in individual transformation, and a dedication to justice through applied democracy. These women's ideas, and the example of their lives, are deeply relevant today as we struggle, in a war-torn world, to imagine a lasting peace.

Lydia Moland is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Philosophy at Colby College. She is the author of Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life (2022), a biography of abolitionist Lydia Maria Child. Her writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and American Scholar, among other publications. She is also the author of books on classical German philosophy and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of American and British Women Philosophers in the Nineteenth Century (2025). She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the American Academy in Berlin. In 2025, she was a Fulbright Fellow at Freie Universität Berlin. She is currently working on a group biography of interwar pacifists, provisionally titled Pacifist Women at War: Four Paths to Peace.

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator, ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu
More info: cswr.hds.harvard.edu…

Exploring Spirituality in Nature Writing: A Writing Workshop Series in Creative Nonfiction

30 Sep 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA
Wednesday, September 30, 2026, 4 – 6pm

This workshop is currently full. Thank you for your interest! If you'd like to be added to the waitlist, please contact Laurie Sedgwick at ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Registration was limited to 12 participants.

This workshop series meets on four consecutive Wednesdays—September 9, 16, 23, and 30—from 4:00–6:00 p.m. Because each session builds on the previous one, participants are expected to attend all four sessions.

When William Ellery Channing claimed in an 1828 sermon that “we are brought into harmony with the creation” in proportion to our pursuit of our own “likeness to God,” he could not have known that his theology would help inspire a literary tradition that continues to explore spiritual growth through encounters with the natural world. American nature writing developed some of its strongest roots in the ideas of Channing and the American Transcendentalists he influenced. Emerson explored selfhood and spirituality through nature, famously writing of standing in the woods and sensing that he was “part and parcel of God.” Thoreau likewise wrote of the spiritual expansiveness he experienced through his connection with the natural world. This tradition extends through writers such as John Muir, Rachel Carson, Annie Dillard, and Kathleen Dean Moore. Today, nature writers continue to explore the spiritual dimensions of life through encounters with the more-than-human world.
In this creative nonfiction workshop, participants will practice nature writing as an expression and exploration of spirituality. Before the first session, participants will be invited to read brief excerpts from texts central to the nature writing tradition. During the workshop, participants will discuss the readings and elements of writerly craft, focusing on strategies authors have used to explore, reveal, and experience spirituality through nature. Sessions will also include guided writing exercises and prompts. Between meetings, participants will be invited to complete writing exercises that may inform future discussions. At the conclusion of the series, the instructor will provide individual feedback on a short essay submitted by each participant.

Rochelle L. Johnson received the 2026 John Burroughs Nature Essay Award and the 2025 Georgia Review Prose Prize for her essay “Phantom Pains,” which was also featured by Longreads, Memoir Land, and Nature. A recipient of the Carnegie Foundation’s Idaho Professor of the Year Award and the 2024 Outstanding Achievement in the Humanities Award from the Idaho Humanities Council, Johnson is the author of numerous creative and scholarly works, including Passions for Nature: Nineteenth-Century America’s Aesthetics of Alienation. She has also coedited several volumes, including Thoreau in an Age of Crisis.
A leading scholar of nineteenth-century naturalist Susan Fenimore Cooper, Johnson’s research has been supported by fellowships from the Beinecke Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and other organizations. She holds the Bernie McCain Chair in the Humanities at the College of Idaho, where she teaches environmental studies, and serves as the 2026 Robert Frost Chair at the Bread Loaf School of English, where she teaches literature and creative writing. She is a past president of both the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment and the Thoreau Society.

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator, ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu
More info: cswr.hds.harvard.edu…

Scripture in Community

02 Oct 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Friday, October 2, 2026, 12 – 1pm

All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST

What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.

Lunch is provided for those joining in person.

Sponsor: HLS Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu

Imaginative Seeing in Goethe, Coleridge, and Emerson: Pathways to a Phenomenological Ecology — Ryan Shea

02 Oct 2026 19:30:00 GMT

Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA
Friday, October 2, 2026, 3:30 – 5pm

Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.

In “The Poet,” Emerson said that imagination is “a very high sort of seeing.” This talk explores the imagination as an organ of direct intuitive perception that might become the foundation for a new phenomenological science of ecology. The first part explores the historical and cultural resonances among conceptions of the imagination in German Idealism, British Romanticism, and American Transcendentalism, as represented by Goethe, Coleridge, and Emerson. The second part engages the audience in interactive imaginative exercises that invite participants to see new things for themselves.

Ryan Shea is a full-time researcher and educator at The Nature Institute in Ghent, New York. Previously, he taught environmental philosophy, philosophy of science, interdisciplinary humanities, and nature writing at Providence College for eight years. He is also a doctoral researcher with MESH (Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities) at the University of Cologne in Germany.

His research seeks to develop the practice of experiential and participatory ecology, with a focus on metamorphosis in plants and insects. His work is informed by the tradition of Goethean transformative phenomenology—especially the work of Craig Holdrege, Mark Riegner, Henri Bortoft, Jochen Bockemühl, and Andreas Suchantke—which develops new ways of seeing that allow the whole to be directly experienced through the part.

Shea is the editor of The Nature Institute’s in-house publication, In Context, and co-producer of its podcast, In Dialogue with Nature. He also co-edited a recent translation of Goethean biologist Andreas Suchantke’s Insect Forms and Patterns: Exploring the Language of Nature.

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator, ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu

Living Transcendentalism: Phenomenological Ecology and Nature's Wholeness Talk and Workshop

03 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA
Saturday, October 3, 2026, 9am – 5pm

Living Transcendentalism: Phenomenological Ecology and Nature’s Wholeness
Friday, October 2, 3:30–5:00 pm Opening Talk & Discussion: Imaginative Seeing in Goethe, Coleridge, and Emerson: Pathways to a Phenomenological Ecology
Saturday, October 3, 9:00 am–5:00 pm Workshop: Living Transcendentalism: Phenomenological Ecology and Participating in Nature’s Wholeness

Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.

The Friday opening talk and discussion is open to all.
Registration for the Saturday workshop includes attendance at both the Friday opening talk and the Saturday workshop. Workshop participation is limited to 15 attendees.

Inspired by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, this two-day workshop invites participants to cultivate a deeper relationship with nature's wholeness. Friday afternoon’s talk introduces the imagination as an organ of participatory knowing. Saturday’s all-day workshop is devoted to attending carefully to plants in their immediate appearances and dynamic ecological relationships. By engaging in precise observation, pencil drawing, and writing practices, participants will explore transcendentalism as a living practice of perception, imagination, and engagement with the more-than-human world.

Ryan Shea is a full-time researcher and educator at The Nature Institute in Ghent, New York. Previously, he taught environmental philosophy, philosophy of science, interdisciplinary humanities, and nature writing at Providence College for eight years. He is also a doctoral researcher with MESH (Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities) at the University of Cologne in Germany.

His research seeks to develop the practice of experiential and participatory ecology, with a focus on metamorphosis in plants and insects. His work is informed by the tradition of Goethean transformative phenomenology—especially the work of Craig Holdrege, Mark Riegner, Henri Bortoft, Jochen Bockemühl, and Andreas Suchantke—which develops new ways of seeing that allow the whole to be directly experienced through the part.

Shea is the editor of The Nature Institute’s in-house publication, In Context, and co-producer of its podcast, In Dialogue with Nature. He also co-edited a recent translation of Goethean biologist Andreas Suchantke’s Insect Forms and Patterns: Exploring the Language of Nature.

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator, ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu
More info: cswr.hds.harvard.edu…

Public Research Talk: Choosing Good or Evil—Royce and Emerson on Knowing the Difference with Scott Pratt

05 Oct 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions
42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA
Monday, October 5, 2026, 12 – 1:30pm

Please register to attend.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on zoom.

In Studies of Good and Evil, Josiah Royce argues that moral agents must know both good and evil: One can act morally only by choosing good despite temptation. Yet Royce’s own framework complicates this distinction. Although he establishes the necessity of good and evil, he also concludes that no particular goods or evils are necessary, leaving moral agents without a certain means of identifying either when making a choice. This talk considers whether Ralph Waldo Emerson—despite interpretations that portray him as denying the existence of evil—offers another way to discern good and evil through the cultivation of what John Dewey later called aesthetic experience.

Scott L. Pratt is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. His research and teaching focus on American philosophy, including pragmatism, feminist philosophy, philosophies of race, and Indigenous philosophy, as well as philosophy of education and the history of logic.
Pratt is the author of Native Pragmatism: Rethinking the Roots of American Philosophy and Logic: Inquiry, Argument and Order, and coauthor of American Philosophies from Wounded Knee to the Present. He has also co-edited several volumes and published widely on pragmatism, pluralism, logic, and Indigenous North American philosophy.
His current projects include Absolute Pragmatism; a co-authored history of natural logic; and Against Critical Reason: Logic, Colonization, and Indigenous Philosophy, which examines the role of logic in the colonization of North America and its implications for contemporary anti-colonial and decolonial thought.

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: Bhaswar F. Khan, CSWR Assistant Director, bkhan@hds.harvard.edu
More info: cswr.hds.harvard.edu…

The Tender Art of Grieving: A Book Launch Gathering with AmarAtma Singh Khalsa, MRPL ‘26

08 Oct 2026 21:00:00 GMT

Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall 212, 45 Francis Ave.
Thursday, October 8, 2026, 5 – 6:30pm

Join AmarAtma Singh Khalsa, MRPL ’26, a health care chaplain, for an event marking the release of his book The Tender Art of Grieving.

Sponsor: Office of the Chaplain and Religious and Spiritual Life
Contact: rsl@hds.harvard.edu

Scripture in Community

09 Oct 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Friday, October 9, 2026, 12 – 1pm

All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST

What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.

Lunch is provided for those joining in person.

Sponsor: HLS Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu

Scripture in Community

16 Oct 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Friday, October 16, 2026, 12 – 1pm

All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST

What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.

Lunch is provided for those joining in person.

Sponsor: HLS Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu

Public Research Talk: The Reformist Language of Plants: Marianne Dwight’s Botanical Watercolors with Alice de Galzain

19 Oct 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave.
Cambridge, MA
Monday, October 19, 2026, 12 – 1:30pm

Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.

Shortly after moving to the Transcendentalist utopian community of Brook Farm in April 1844, Marianne Dwight Orvis joined the “Fancy Group,” a collective of women who hand-painted goods for sale in Boston. She described the project as seeking the “elevation of woman to independence, and an acknowledged equality with man” (Letters from Brook Farm, 32). This talk examines how Dwight, by binding flowers into “books,” used the language of flowers to narrate her experience with Fourierism. It situates her botanical watercolors within the broader context of antebellum women’s engagement with reform and shows how her floral books symbolically articulated both the harmony with nature sought by Transcendentalists and the feminist possibilities of socialist communalism and labor reform.

Alice de Galzain is a postdoctoral researcher and former Marie Skłodowska-Curie Seal of Excellence Fellow at Sorbonne Université (2024–2026). She is a Visiting Scholar with the Transcendentalism Initiative at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School for the 2026–27 academic year.
Her book project, tentatively titled Cultivating Feminism: Brook Farm and the American Women’s Movement, examines the feminist subculture that emerged within Transcendentalist utopian communities. She is Associate Editor of The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies and Associate Editor of Margaret Fuller, Periodical and Other Writings (2 vols.), forthcoming in the Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Writings of Margaret Fuller.
Her scholarship has appeared in Transatlantica, LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, The Dial, The Concord Saunterer, and Legacy. Her essay on Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller appears in Hawthorne Inside Out (Nanterre UP, 2026), and her forthcoming essay, “Margaret Fuller on Gender and Greek Mythology,” will appear in The History of Platonism in the Modern Age, Vol. V (Cambridge UP).

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: Bhaswar F. Khan, Assistant Director, CSWR
More info: cswr.hds.harvard.edu…

Stanley Cavell's Transcendental Etudes Conference

22 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions
42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA
Thursday, October 22, 2026, 9am – 5pm

Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.

Organized to commemorate the centenary of philosopher Stanley Cavell's (1926–2018) birth, Stanley Cavell's Transcendental Etudes brings together leading scholars to explore the enduring significance of his thought for contemporary conversations in religion, ethics, and politics. While Cavell is widely recognized for his contributions to ordinary language philosophy, aesthetics, literary criticism, and political theory, the religious dimensions of his work have received comparatively less attention.

Presented as part of the Center for the Study of World Religions' Transcendentalism Initiative, the conference explores the dimensions of Cavell's thought that emerge through his sustained engagement with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and the broader Transcendentalist tradition.

The conference will feature four keynote addresses and a concluding panel discussion examining the continued relevance of Cavell's work for questions of selfhood, community, skepticism, moral perfectionism, democracy, and spiritual life. Rather than offering a retrospective assessment of Cavell's legacy, participants will consider how his writings continue to illuminate contemporary intellectual, ethical, religious, and cultural concerns. By foregrounding the significance of Cavell's thought for religion and the philosophy of religion, the conference also deepens our understanding of his place within the Transcendentalist inheritance and highlights the enduring capacity of his work to inspire new forms of philosophical, ethical, and religious reflection.

Keynote Speakers:
Branka Arsić
Professor Branka Arsić specializes in 19th-century American literature and its scientific, philosophical, and religious contexts. She is the author of Bird Relics: Grief and Vitalism in Thoreau (Harvard University Press, 2016), which received the Modern Language Association's James Russell Lowell Prize for the outstanding book of 2016. She is also the author of On Leaving: A Reading in Emerson (Harvard University Press, 2010) and Passive Constitutions or 7½ Times Bartleby (Stanford University Press, 2007), and has co-edited volumes on Ralph Waldo Emerson and Herman Melville. Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals and examines the work of major American writers, including Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, and Henry David Thoreau. Arsić is currently completing two book projects: Ambient Life, on materialism and transformation in Melville's work, and Butterfly Tropics, which explores Emily Dickinson's poetry, archives, and theories of transmutation.

Mark Cladis
Mark S. Cladis is the Brooke Russell Astor Professor of the Humanities at Brown University. His work explores the intersections of modern Western religious, political, and environmental thought, moving among poetry, literature, philosophy, and critical theory. At the heart of his scholarship is an enduring concern for environmental justice and Indigenous ecology. Cladis is a founding member of Environmental Humanities at Brown and an active faculty member in Native American and Indigenous Studies. His home department is Religious Studies. His recent books include Radical Romanticism: Democracy, Religion, and the Environmental Imagination and In Search of a Course. His current book project is titled Just Home: Place, Belonging, and Justice.

John Lysaker
John Lysaker is the William R. Kenan University Professor at Emory University and a faculty member of the Center for Ethics. His scholarship explores the nature of the good life and the conditions that enable or hinder human flourishing, with particular attention to character, friendship, serious mental illness, ethics, and the arts. Lysaker is the author of six books, co-author of another, and co-editor of an essay collection. His work has appeared in journals including JAMA Psychiatry, The Georgia Review, and The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. His current research examines friendship as a source of moral growth, moral perfectionism in ethical life, the virtues of honesty, integrity, and generosity, and collaborative approaches to treatment for people experiencing psychosis. Committed to public engagement, Lysaker regularly speaks with audiences ranging from students and religious communities to museums and civic organizations, fostering conversations about ethics across diverse settings.

Programming Series: Transcendentalism
Sponsor: Center for the Study of World Religions
Contact: cswr@hds.harvard.edu

Scripture in Community

23 Oct 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Friday, October 23, 2026, 12 – 1pm

All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST

What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.

Lunch is provided for those joining in person.

Sponsor: HLS Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu

The World In Between: The Ancient Roots of Dia de las Muertos

28 Oct 2026 19:00:00 GMT

Braun Room
Wednesday, October 28, 2026, 3 – 5pm

The workshop will be led by Dr. Urcid and will explore Día de los Muertos through its cultural, historical, and Mesoamerican dimensions. Participants will engage directly with the traditions and material practices associated with the commemoration.

Sponsor: Moses Mesoamerican Archive & Research Project
Contact: mbuentelloolivo@fas.harvard.edu
More info: harvard.az1.qualtrics.com…

Scripture in Community

30 Oct 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Friday, October 30, 2026, 12 – 1pm

All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST

What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.

Lunch is provided for those joining in person.

Sponsor: HLS Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu

Scripture in Community

06 Nov 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Friday, November 6, 2026, 12 – 1pm

All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST

What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.

Lunch is provided for those joining in person.

Sponsor: HLS Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu

Scripture in Community

13 Nov 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Friday, November 13, 2026, 12 – 1pm

All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST

What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.

Lunch is provided for those joining in person.

Sponsor: HLS Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu

Scripture in Community

20 Nov 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Friday, November 20, 2026, 12 – 1pm

All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST

What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.

Lunch is provided for those joining in person.

Sponsor: HLS Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu

Scripture in Community

04 Dec 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Friday, December 4, 2026, 12 – 1pm

All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST

What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.

Lunch is provided for those joining in person.

Sponsor: HLS Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu