Book Talk with Lawrence Buell: Henry David Thoreau: Thinking Disobediently
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As part of our Transcendentalism initiative, we are pleased to host a book talk with Lawrence Buell in celebration of the publication of Henry David Thoreau: Living Disobediently. While no single event could fully encompass the breadth and influence of Buell’s scholarship, this occasion offers an opportunity to honor his foundational contributions to the study of Transcendentalism and to American literary and cultural history more broadly.
Professor Buell will deliver a talk of approximately 35–45 minutes reflecting on the aims and arguments of his new book, followed by a conversation with CSWR Director Charles Stang and time for questions from the audience. The event invites sustained reflection on Thoreau’s legacy as well as on current and future directions in Transcendentalism studies.
LAWRENCE BUELL is Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature Emeritus at Harvard University. His previous books…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Transcendentalism. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, April 2, 2026, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge & Zoom.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. "Henry David Thoreau": A Screening and Discussion with the Filmmakers and Scholars
Registration is required.
This event is fully subscribed for in-person attendance. Please register to join via Zoom.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
The Center for the Study of World Religions’ Transcendentalism Initiative will host a special screening of Episode 2 of Henry David Thoreau, a new documentary directed by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers and produced by Ken Burns. The film is narrated by George Clooney and features voice performances by Jeff Goldblum, Meryl Streep and Ted Danson. Director Erik Ewers will introduce the film.
The documentary offers a vivid, integrated portrait of Thoreau, bringing together the contemplative naturalist of Walden and the political thinker behind “Civil Disobedience.” It traces a life in which attention to the natural world and a commitment to social justice are presented as intertwined expressions of a single moral vision.
Following the screening, scholars Jeffrey S. Cramer (independent scholar), Rebecca Kneale Gould (Middlebury College), and…
Programming Series: Transcendentalism. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, April 3, 2026, 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM.
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Reading Group: Death and Mourning
Registration is required.
Please register to attend this session.
Death raises existential questions of the meaning of life and our relationships to others. It transcends the mundane, resulting in a sense of awe and connection to something greater than ourselves. Although all societies, cultures, and religions respond to death, how death is experienced, commemorated, and understood varies historically, cross-culturally, and among religions even in the same societies. This reading group is gathering to explore the multiple ways in which death and mourning are viewed and conceptualized. Participants will join with the facilitator to choose specific readings and topics as we work to a better understanding of how death may be perceived, how mourners are treated and expected to act and how the dead are thought about. Do the dead continue to communicate with the living? Do they go to a better (or worse) place? Do they return in a new form having learned from their experiences on earth? How in different religious t…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, April 6, 2026, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
CSWR Poetry Series: The Invisible Sun: Poetry, Translation, and the Mystical Imagination with Sholeh Wolpé
Registration is encouraged.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
The Invisible Sun is the first comprehensive English collection of poetry by the twelfth-century Persian mystic Attar, revered by Rumi as his master. Translated by award-winning poet Sholeh Wolpé this luminous selection introduces Attar’s timeless Sufi wisdom—poetry that speaks to the soul’s inward journey, self-knowledge, and spiritual awakening.
About the Author & Translator
Attar (1145–1221), a Persian Sufi poet from Nishapur, profoundly influenced Rumi and remains one of the most important mystic poets of the Islamic world.
SHOLEH WOLPÉ is an Iranian-born poet, playwright, and acclaimed translator of Persian literature.
Programming Series: Poetry. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, April 7, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
Common Room, CSWR
42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Reading Group: Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics
This group meets, Thursdays, 2/5, 2/19, 3/5, 4/2, 4/16, 4/30
Registration is required.
Please register to attend each session.
The Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics Reading Group invites participants to explore expansive understandings of transcendence, healing, consciousness, and connection through and beyond the use of psychedelic substances. Engaging themes such as war, AI, madness, clowning, childbirth, and death, we interrogate and reimagine what constitutes the “psychedelic” within the field of psychedelic humanities. Rooted in queer, feminist, ecological, Indigenous, and decolonial perspectives, this group offers a collaborative space for exploration, critical questioning, and integration of our own experiences and communities. This reading group brings together students, staff, faculty, and members of the broader community to learn with and from each other.
Facilitators include:
LILA GLENN RIMALOVSKI is an MDiv candidate at Harvard Divinity School studying the relationship between eco-spiritual prac…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Transcendence and Transformation. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and Ethics. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, April 9, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Psychedelic Intersections 2026: “Psychedelic Intersections: Bridging Humanities, Religion, and Law”
Registration is required.
Please note: In-person registration is now fully subscribed.
You may join the waitlist or register to attend via Zoom.
The Harvard Study of Psychedelics in Society and Culture is pleased to announce that the fourth annual Psychedelic Intersections Conference will be held at Harvard Divinity School on April 10–11, 2026.
Building on the Center for the Study of World Religions’ (CSWR’s) popular conference series, the 2026 gathering is a collaborative initiative of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School, the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.
Programming Series: Psychedelics and Ethics. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, April 10, 2026, 9:00 AM – 5:45 PM.
Swartz Hall, Harvard Divinity School (45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA).
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Psychedelic Intersections 2026: “Psychedelic Intersections: Bridging Humanities, Religion, and Law”
Registration is required.
Please note: In-person registration is now fully subscribed.
You may join the waitlist or register to attend via Zoom.
The Harvard Study of Psychedelics in Society and Culture is pleased to announce that the fourth annual Psychedelic Intersections Conference will be held at Harvard Divinity School on April 10–11, 2026.
Building on the Center for the Study of World Religions’ (CSWR’s) popular conference series, the 2026 gathering is a collaborative initiative of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School, the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.
Programming Series: Psychedelics and Ethics. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Saturday, April 11, 2026, 9:00 AM – 5:45 PM.
Swartz Hall, Harvard Divinity School (45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA).
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Public Research Talk: Mystics Made the Revolution: Spiritually Transformative Experiences in the Long Eighteenth Century with Nicole Bauer
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Possession and trance were signs of weak minds in the eighteenth century, yet many, even those in privileged positions, reported visions, near-death experiences, and intense dreams. These altered states led thinkers to become more creative, to rely on their own experience rather than traditional authority, and to become more compassionate. These experiences also opened the doors to subversive, groundbreaking thought, which led to revolutionary action. Altered states were not a hidden, shadow side of the Enlightenment but rather integral to it, and we cannot understand the birth of modernity without taking them into serious consideration.
Nicole Bauer is a cultural historian specializing in early modern France. Her first book, Tracing the Shadow of Secrecy and Government Transparency (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), examined the changing attitudes towards secrecy in pre-revolutionary and revolutionary France.…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, April 13, 2026, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. CANCELLED - Reading Group: Transcendentalism
This group meets on Wednesdays, 10-12 pm (1/28, 2/11, 3/4, 3/11, 3/25, 4/8)
Registration is required.
Please register to attend each session.
American Transcendentalism emerged in the mid-1800s from New England Unitarianism and European Romanticism. It distinguished itself by rejecting convention, challenging traditional religious doctrines of authority and election, opposing dominant philosophies, discarding genteel literary styles, and defying political complacency regarding slavery, gender inequality, and disenfranchisement. At Harvard, Transcendentalists were seen as mystics, misfits, rogues, and dissidents. Their refusals, however, sparked a social movement based on friendship and collaboration, united by a radical spirituality promising personal renewal and social transformation. This reading group invites participants to explore both sides of that legacy. We'll focus on Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller in the fall, and on figures including Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker,…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 15, 2026, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Reading Group: Death and Mourning
Registration is required.
Please register to attend this session.
Death raises existential questions of the meaning of life and our relationships to others. It transcends the mundane, resulting in a sense of awe and connection to something greater than ourselves. Although all societies, cultures, and religions respond to death, how death is experienced, commemorated, and understood varies historically, cross-culturally, and among religions even in the same societies. This reading group is gathering to explore the multiple ways in which death and mourning are viewed and conceptualized. Participants will join with the facilitator to choose specific readings and topics as we work to a better understanding of how death may be perceived, how mourners are treated and expected to act and how the dead are thought about. Do the dead continue to communicate with the living? Do they go to a better (or worse) place? Do they return in a new form having learned from their experiences on earth? How in different religious t…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, April 20, 2026, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Reading Group: Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics
This group meets, Thursdays, 2/5, 2/19, 3/5, 4/2, 4/16, 4/30
Registration is required.
Please register to attend each session.
The Psychedelics Beyond Psychedelics Reading Group invites participants to explore expansive understandings of transcendence, healing, consciousness, and connection through and beyond the use of psychedelic substances. Engaging themes such as war, AI, madness, clowning, childbirth, and death, we interrogate and reimagine what constitutes the “psychedelic” within the field of psychedelic humanities. Rooted in queer, feminist, ecological, Indigenous, and decolonial perspectives, this group offers a collaborative space for exploration, critical questioning, and integration of our own experiences and communities. This reading group brings together students, staff, faculty, and members of the broader community to learn with and from each other.
Facilitators include:
LILA GLENN RIMALOVSKI is an MDiv candidate at Harvard Divinity School studying the relationship between eco-spiritual prac…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Transcendence and Transformation. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and Ethics. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, April 23, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Reading Group: Transcendentalism
This group meets on Wednesdays, 10-12 pm (1/28, 2/11, 3/4, 3/11, 3/25, 4/8)
Registration is required.
Please register to attend each session.
American Transcendentalism emerged in the mid-1800s from New England Unitarianism and European Romanticism. It distinguished itself by rejecting convention, challenging traditional religious doctrines of authority and election, opposing dominant philosophies, discarding genteel literary styles, and defying political complacency regarding slavery, gender inequality, and disenfranchisement. At Harvard, Transcendentalists were seen as mystics, misfits, rogues, and dissidents. Their refusals, however, sparked a social movement based on friendship and collaboration, united by a radical spirituality promising personal renewal and social transformation. This reading group invites participants to explore both sides of that legacy. We'll focus on Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller in the fall, and on figures including Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker,…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 29, 2026, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
The Uneasy Lives of Saints: A Conversation on After Transformation and Undead
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Join Maia Kotrosits, author of After Transformation (Duke, 2025), and Madeline Vosch, author of Undead (Beacon Press, 2026), for a reading and discussion of their new books, each of which explores the history and texts of early Christianity through self-writing, blurring the distinctions between the sacred and the profane. How do the themes and traces of ancient Christianity live on in our experience and the texture of the everyday? What written forms best hold the collision of the personal, the historical, and the structural? Can memoir become a cultural-historical archive of its own?
Maia Kotrosits is an expert in first through fifth-century Christianity. She received her PhD from Union Theological Seminary in NYC in 2013, has since taught at Amherst College and Denison University, and is currently a researcher with Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. She is also the author of The Lives of…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 29, 2026, 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave, Cambridge.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu.