Public Research Talk: Thoreau’s Solar and Lunar Philosophy, with Charles Stang and Sarah Schorr
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on zoom.
Join us on January 26 at 11:30am. Charles Stang and Sarah Schorr will discuss Thoreau’s extraordinary encounters with, and meditations on, the sun and the moon, and the significance of those for their ongoing book collaboration, Skywater.
CHARLES STANG joined the Faculty of Divinity in 2008. His research and teaching focus on Christianity in late antiquity and, more broadly, philosophy and religion in the ancient Mediterranean world. Stang's current projects include a book on daemons in ancient philosophy, translations of both Evagrius Ponticus’ Letter to Melania and Henry Corbin’s Le paradoxe du monothéisme, and an edited volume on “Platonism as a Living Tradition.”
In 2017, he became the director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at HDS.
SARAH SCHORR is an American artist and researcher with a studio based in Denmark. A captivation with light, water, and modes of embodied contemplation runs…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, January 26, 2026, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Reading Group: Transcendentalism
This group meets on Wednesdays, 10-12 pm (1/28, 2/11, 2/25, 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, January 28, 2026, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
CSWR Poetry Series: A Reading by Jane Hirshfield
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
One of the most esteemed poets writing today, Hirshfield is known for work that brings together ethical attention and a deeply contemplative vision of the world. The award-winning author of The Asking: New and Selected Poems and Ledger (Penguin Random House, 2025), she has also written influential essays on poetry’s capacity to illuminate experience. Join us for an evening with a writer who has shaped contemporary American poetry by reinventing devotional poetry.
JANE HIRSHFIELD’s poetry is praised as that of a “modern master” and “among the most important poetry in the world today.” She addresses pressing issues, spanning political, ecological, scientific, metaphysical, and personal themes, crises of the biosphere, questions of social justice, and quandaries of heart, mind, and spirit.
Her publications include The Asking (2023), The Beauty (National Book Award longlist, 2015), Given Sugar, Given Salt (NBCC…
Programming Series: Poetry. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, January 29, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM.
Braun Room, Swartz Hall, 45 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Reading Group: Death and Mourning
Registration is required.
Please register to attend each 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, February 2, 2026, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Reading Group: Moana Meditations - Indigenous Spiritualities of the South Pacific Ocean
This group meets on Wednesdays, 4-6 pm, 2/4, 2/18, 3/4, 3/25, 4/1, 4/15)
Registration is required.
Please register to attend each session.
Oceania—our ‘sea of islands’ rather than islands in a vast sea, takes up one third of the Earth and has been given many names by explorers, scholars, and those seeking geopolitical control. The ‘Pacific’ – a pacified, calm, and empty space, the Asia-Pacific, Indo-Pacific, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Pacific Islander communities are also now spread around the globe with diaspora in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and beyond where Christianity and Indigenous spiritualities coalesce and clash in different ways. This workshop series will be highly interactive, incorporating Indigenous poetry, artwork, and talanoa (open-ended discussions) exploring the importance of the fanua (land), and interconnection with Atua (God/s), Tagata (people) and Moana (ocean) to cultural identity and seeking climate justice. It provides opportunities for both group…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, February 4, 2026, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM.
Common 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, February 5, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Archival Methods: Finding the Sacred and the Profane in the Psychedelic Archive
Registration is required.
Please register to attend.
Friday, February 6, 2-5 pm - CSWR Conference Room
Thursday, February 12, 1-4 pm - CSWR Conference Room (or Library, TBD)
Friday, February 13, 1-4 pm - CSWR Conference Room
Note: This workshop is a three-part series, and each session builds on the last. Please register only if you are able to attend all three sessions.
Please register to attend the series.
*If the event is full, please email ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu to be added to the waitlist.
This workshop will explore and engage the Ludlow-Santo Domingo Library, the world’s largest collection of psychedelic literature, housed at Harvard.
We will look at practical questions of the archive: How do you find archives you are interested in? , How do you search online to find aids and databases, and what are the limitations of those tools? , How do you authenticate objects and think about the limitations of sources? We will also explore philosophical questions: What is an archive? , What are…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, February 6, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Art Exhibit and Reception: Esoteric Currents and Alternative Spiritualities in Modern Mexican Art
Registration is required.
Please register to attend.
Please join us for our spring 2026 art exhibit and reception, Esoteric Currents and Alternative Spiritualities in Modern Mexican Art.
This exhibition examines esoteric ideas in Mexican art after the 1910 Revolution, a time when muralism became a key tool for shaping public perceptions of national history. Artists incorporated elements of Theosophy and related esoteric movements into their depictions of Mexico’s past and of the Revolution's importance, influencing understandings of Mexico’s identity and shaping the historical narratives promoted by the post-Revolutionary government.
Public mural commissions were typically awarded to male artists; women’s efforts faced opposition. María Izquierdo became the first to receive a government commission in 1945, but her contract was canceled. Sofía Bassi created murals in prison and later in university buildings, placing her work in public space while remaining outside official channels. Cordelia Urueta,…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, February 9, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Greeley Lecture: Reconciling the Loss of Indigenous Eden
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Blair Stonechild, PhD, First Nations University of Canada, will discuss his research on the concept of Indigenous Eden, its loss, and how the process of Truth and Reconciliation can bring together disparate perspectives and offer solutions for the future. Stonechild’s talk is based on five decades of research with Indigenous Elders at First Nations University of Canada, which has resulted in a trilogy on Indigenous Spirituality: The Knowledge Seeker (2016), Loss of Indigenous Eden (2020), and Challenge to Civilization (2024), published by the University of Regina Press.
BLAIR STONECHILD is a member of the Muscowpetung Saulteaux First Nation and is a survivor of the Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School. He holds a bachelor’s degree from McGill, and master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Regina. In 1976, Blair joined the First Nations University of Canada as its first faculty member and was the…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Center for the Study of World Religions, Common Room, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Reading Group: Transcendentalism
This group meets on Wednesdays, 10-12 pm (1/28, 2/11, 2/25, 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, February 11, 2026, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Archival Methods: Finding the Sacred and the Profane in the Psychedelic Archive
Registration is required.
Please register to attend.
Friday, February 6, 2-5 pm - CSWR Conference Room
Thursday, February 12, 1-4 pm - CSWR Conference Room (or Library, TBD)
Friday, February 13, 1-4 pm - CSWR Conference Room
Note: This workshop is a three-part series, and each session builds on the last. Please register only if you are able to attend all three sessions.
Please register to attend the series.
*If the event is full, please email ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu to be added to the waitlist.
This workshop will explore and engage the Ludlow-Santo Domingo Library, the world’s largest collection of psychedelic literature, housed at Harvard.
We will look at practical questions of the archive: How do you find archives you are interested in? , How do you search online to find aids and databases, and what are the limitations of those tools? , How do you authenticate objects and think about the limitations of sources? We will also explore philosophical questions: What is an archive? , What are…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, February 12, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Archival Methods: Finding the Sacred and the Profane in the Psychedelic Archive
Registration is required.
Please register to attend.
Friday, February 6, 2-5 pm - CSWR Conference Room
Thursday, February 12, 1-4 pm - CSWR Conference Room (or Library, TBD)
Friday, February 13, 1-4 pm - CSWR Conference Room
Note: This workshop is a three-part series, and each session builds on the last. Please register only if you are able to attend all three sessions.
Please register to attend the series.
*If the event is full, please email ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu to be added to the waitlist.
This workshop will explore and engage the Ludlow-Santo Domingo Library, the world’s largest collection of psychedelic literature, housed at Harvard.
We will look at practical questions of the archive: How do you find archives you are interested in? , How do you search online to find aids and databases, and what are the limitations of those tools? , How do you authenticate objects and think about the limitations of sources? We will also explore philosophical questions: What is an archive? , What are…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, February 13, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Porphyry of Tyre on Theology and Theurgy: Oracular Voices and Luminous Intellect
Registration is required.
Please register to attend this event in person.
Please register to attend this event on Zoom.
The late-ancient Mediterranean world was shaped by three competing yet mutually formative dynamics: the spread of Christianity, the proliferation of the cults known as Mysteries, and the systematization of Neoplatonic philosophy. Porphyry of Tyre, one of late antiquity's most important philosophers, sought to negotiate the tensions between these dynamics. Arguing that philosophical thinking about the gods—“theology”—and ritual interaction with them—“theurgy”—are mutually compatible, Porphyry maintained that one can participate in ceremonial practices all while remaining committed to Neoplatonist metaphysics. In doing so, he worked to hold together intellectual and religious traditions that were increasingly at risk of fragmentation. Porphyry’s Letter to Anebo and Philosophy from Oracles—newly translated as part of the CSWR’s 4T initiative—are his most significant contributions to these…
Programming Series: Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, February 17, 2026, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Preston Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall
45 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Reading Group: Moana Meditations - Indigenous Spiritualities of the South Pacific Ocean
This group meets on Wednesdays, 4-6 pm, 2/4, 2/18, 3/4, 3/25, 4/1, 4/15)
Registration is required.
Please register to attend each session.
Oceania—our ‘sea of islands’ rather than islands in a vast sea, takes up one third of the Earth and has been given many names by explorers, scholars, and those seeking geopolitical control. The ‘Pacific’ – a pacified, calm, and empty space, the Asia-Pacific, Indo-Pacific, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Pacific Islander communities are also now spread around the globe with diaspora in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and beyond where Christianity and Indigenous spiritualities coalesce and clash in different ways. This workshop series will be highly interactive, incorporating Indigenous poetry, artwork, and talanoa (open-ended discussions) exploring the importance of the fanua (land), and interconnection with Atua (God/s), Tagata (people) and Moana (ocean) to cultural identity and seeking climate justice. It provides opportunities for both group…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, February 18, 2026, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM.
Common 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, February 19, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Reading Group: Death and Mourning
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 traditions is this understood and what does it tell us about that re…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, February 23, 2026, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Reading Group: Transcendentalism
This group meets on Wednesdays, 10-12 pm (1/28, 2/11, 2/25, 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, February 25, 2026, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Recasting the Hindu Goddess in the American Landscape: The Translocal Life of the Parashakthi Temple in Pontiac, Michigan
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
In 1926, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan concluded his “The Hindu View of Life” lectures by noting that Hinduism is “a growing tradition” and calling for a reworking of Hindu principles “with special reference to the needs of a more complex and mobile social order.” A century later, Hindu immigrant communities in the United States exemplify that vision, carrying their traditions across oceans and planting them in new soil. At the Parashakthi Temple in Pontiac, Michigan, the Hindu Goddess has been reimagined to flourish in her latest, Midwestern context, reflecting both the temple community’s Indian roots and its life in an American cultural, religious, and natural world. This lecture examines how a twenty-first-century Hindu view of life has taken shape within this temple and its vibrant community.
TRACY PINTCHMAN is a professor of religious studies and the director of the Global Studies Program at…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, March 3, 2026, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR
42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Reading Group: Moana Meditations - Indigenous Spiritualities of the South Pacific Ocean
This group meets on Wednesdays, 4-6 pm, 2/4, 2/18, 3/4, 3/25, 4/1, 4/15)
Registration is required.
Please register to attend each session.
Oceania—our ‘sea of islands’ rather than islands in a vast sea, takes up one third of the Earth and has been given many names by explorers, scholars, and those seeking geopolitical control. The ‘Pacific’ – a pacified, calm, and empty space, the Asia-Pacific, Indo-Pacific, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Pacific Islander communities are also now spread around the globe with diaspora in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and beyond where Christianity and Indigenous spiritualities coalesce and clash in different ways. This workshop series will be highly interactive, incorporating Indigenous poetry, artwork, and talanoa (open-ended discussions) exploring the importance of the fanua (land), and interconnection with Atua (God/s), Tagata (people) and Moana (ocean) to cultural identity and seeking climate justice. It provides opportunities for both group…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, March 4, 2026, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM.
Common 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, March 5, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
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, March 9, 2026, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Reading Group: Transcendentalism
This group meets on Wednesdays, 10-12 pm (1/28, 2/11, 2/25, 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, March 11, 2026, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
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, March 23, 2026, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Reading Group: Transcendentalism
This group meets on Wednesdays, 10-12 pm (1/28, 2/11, 2/25, 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, March 25, 2026, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
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 2, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
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.
Reading Group: Transcendentalism
This group meets on Wednesdays, 10-12 pm (1/28, 2/11, 2/25, 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 8, 2026, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
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 16, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
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.