Incomplete work from the fall 2024 semester is due in the Registrar’s Office
Incomplete work from the fall 2024 semester is due in the Registrar’s Office.
Monday, March 24, 2025.
Breaking the Matrix: The U.S. Carceral State
This event is free and open to the public.
We are embedded in systems that we take for granted as the way things should be. These are the invisible matrices that discipline us because of the fascination of U.S. politics with carcerality. We have an opportunity for expansive imagination and recreation.
For decades, the U.S. has led the world in incarceration. Claiming that it deters and rehabilitates, the U.S. carceral system actually prioritizes retribution and incapacitation, disproportionately impacting marginalized communities and fueling cycles of recidivism. Extending beyond prison walls into the daily systems that affect us all, the U.S. carceral mindset is founded on punitive structures rather than pathways to restoration. In this conversation, speakers share their work and imagine a vision of accountability that centers holistic prosperity, community well-being, and transformative justice.
Featuring Sincerity Garcia, Artist/Educator , Rosie Ann Butts, Trauma-Informed Care Specialist , Dr. Stanley…
Contact: rpl@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, March 24, 2025, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
Zoom webinar.
For more info visit harvard.zoom.us. Psychedelics and the Future of Religion Series: Psychedelics and Islam
Registration is required.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
As psychedelics gain recognition for their medical and spiritual potential, what role, if any, might they play in the lives of Muslims? Does the Quran's prohibition of intoxicants extend to psychedelics, or can they be seen as permissible tools for healing and spiritual growth within Islam? How might clinical psychedelic research better incorporate and support Muslim participants? These questions will be at the heart of “Psychedelics and Islam,” an event in the CSWR’s “Psychedelics and the Future of Religion" series. The event will feature a panel of scholars and practitioners who will discuss Islamic theology, psychedelic research, and personal experience to illuminate the complex relationship between psychedelics and Islam.
Panelists include SUGHRA AHMED, a human rights educator and former Associate Dean for Religious Life at Stanford University; KAMEL ABU-SHAMSIEH, Assistant Professor of Practical Theology and Director of the…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Psychedelics and Ethics. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM.
Zoom.
For more info visit harvard.zoom.us. Magic, Witchcraft, and Occultism
Registration is required.
Please register to attend.
This six-session workshop will be held on February 11, February 25, March 11, March 25, April 8, and April 22. To get the most out of this workshop, we strongly encourage participants to attend all six sessions.
Magic, witchcraft, and occultism are evocative, intriguing, and even a little scary, but they are rich perspectives. Magic is pragmatic ritual technology—rather than an adjective for the extraordinary, the unorthodox, or the prohibited. Ethnographically situated, witchcraft is a system of accusations and remedies for the circulation of invisible forces between people, bearing little resemblance to Wicca or contemporary Paganism. The occult is secret or esoteric, and, in the West, it signifies texts and practices hidden but profoundly transformative and culturally pervasive.
Workshop topics include ancient Greek love magic, sorcery in Hindu tantras to witchcraft among the early twentieth-century Azande people in Africa, anti-witchcraft lore in…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Night of Encounter
This is a meeting for those who simply want to encounter God together. We enter directly into worship without pretense, trusting that He will meet us where we are. Expect deep worship, intimate prayer, and spontaneous moments where hearts are opened and lives are transformed. Whether you’re seeking renewal, longing for intimacy, or desiring a fresh encounter with the Holy Spirit, this event creates space to be fully present. Come as you are, with an expectant heart, ready to experience God in a powerful way. You won’t leave the same.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM.
Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall 212, 45 Francis Ave.
The Sibyl: Reclaiming the Power of an Ancient Persona
Ashley L. Bacchi (Starr King School for the Ministry)
Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and Jewish History
Lunch will be available.
Contact: Tracy Wall (twall@hds.harvard.edu).
Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM.
Braun Room.
Reading Group TWP&F - The Arrogant Ape: Unlearning The Myth of Human Exceptionalism & Why it Matters
Registration is required.
Meets biweekly from 3-6 PM at the Center for the Study of World Religions.
In this special TWP&F Reading Group meeting Dr. Christine Webb will lead a discussion entitled:
The Arrogant Ape: Unlearning The Myth of Human Exceptionalism & Why it Matters
Darwin considered humans one part of the web of life, not the apex of a natural hierarchy. Yet today, many maintain that we are the most intelligent, virtuous, successful species that ever lived. This mistaken belief enables us to exploit the earth towards our own exclusive ends, throwing us into a perilous planetary imbalance. But is this view and way of life inevitable? In this series of workshops, we’ll explore human exceptionalism as an ideology that relies more on human culture than our biology, more on delusion and faith than on evidence.
Subsequent meetings are: 4/9, 4/23.
Programming Series: Thinking with Plants and Fungi. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM.
Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Whither Are We Bound? Key Moments in the History of Jewish-Christian Relations
Dr. Edward Kessler MBE is Founder President of the Woolf Institute and Fellow at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, England.
Contact: oaharoni@fas.harvard.edu. Religious tradition: Jewish. Christian Ecumenical.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
Braun Room, Swartz Hall.
For more info visit cjs.fas.harvard.edu. Religion and the Humanities
The third installment of the four-part "Conversations on Religion," Nicholas Boylston, Luis Girón-Negrón, and Michal Puett in conversation about “Religion and the Humanities”.
Contact: shunt@fas.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
Thompson Room at the Barker Center (12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA 02139).
Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Thursday, from 12:00pm-1:00pm in Rockefeller Hall Room 116.
What does the Bible say? Listening to Scripture in Community: Public Reading of Scripture 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’re new to reading the Bible, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about what it says, you are welcome to come and discover wisdom in it for 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. Please RSVP for lunch each week you plan to attend.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, March 27, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Room 116, Rockefeller Hall, 47 Francis Ave.
For more info visit forms.office.com. Reading and Research: Encountering Deleuze
Registration is required.
Please register to attend Reading and Research: Encountering Deleuze.
As one of the twentieth century’s most original and impactful philosophers, exploring Gilles Deleuze's thoughts can seem daunting. His tendency to treat the history of philosophy with friendly suspicion is a good introduction, and by examining his encounters with Hume, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Nietzsche, Bergson, and others in this reading and research course, we can have our own encounter with Deleuze. We will begin with two weeks of introductory readings before proceeding to various encounters, and in the final weeks, we will examine a selection of his syncretic works. The organizers have chosen three encounters to begin and ask participants to respond to a ranked-choice poll to determine three others. This course is open to the public; readings will be sent to registrants in advance.
This course meets weekly: Subsequent meetings are: 2/13, 2/20, 2/27, 3/6, 3/13, 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 4/24
Instructor's bios:…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, March 27, 2025, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit harvard.az1.qualtrics.com. Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza
This event is free and open to the public.
Munther Isaac will join Religion and Public Life to discuss his book Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza, which challenges mainstream Christians’ uncritical embrace of the modern State of Israel. A Palestinian Christian pastor and theologian, Isaac writes from Bethlehem with close-up knowledge of conditions on the ground.
Rooted in a commitment to nonviolence and just peace, Isaac urges readers to bring a Christian theological criticism to bear upon colonialism, racism, and empire, and to realign their beliefs and actions with Christ—who can be found not among perpetrators of violence, but with victims buried under the rubble of war.
Dinner will be provided.
Contact: rpl@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, March 27, 2025, 5:15 PM – 6:30 PM.
James Room East, Swartz Hall 120, 45 Francis Ave.
For more info visit harvard.az1.qualtrics.com. List Lecture: “What is Midrash?” with Ishay Rosen-Zvi
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on zoom.
The nature of Midrash has perplexed scholars since the very inception of Jewish Studies as an academic discipline. A systematic analysis of midrashic terminology offers a perspective that stands in sharp contrast to the conventional view, which regards derashot as unpredictable and freewheeling interpretations of the Torah. Just as microhistory offers narratives that diverge from the sweeping portrayals of social and political historiographies, a terminological inquiry can shed entirely new light on midrashic hermeneutics, revealing a depth and structure that often go unnoticed.
ISHAY ROSEN-ZVI, teaches rabbinic literature at the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel-Aviv University. He is currently Gerard Weinstock Visiting Professor and a Harry Starr Fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University. He has taught in many universities among them Princeton, UC Berkeley, UCLA and…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, March 27, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Peer Editing Workshop
Registration is required.
Please register to attend the Peer Editing Workshop.
One of several peer-editing workshops where university-wide participants are invited to peer edit a 1000-word selection of any current project. They should bring four, printed-out copies. Peer editing is a powerful tool for authors to receive quick feedback on their work's content and impact. They also receive fine-tuned suggestions on structure, style, usage, and grammar. Participants may present new work or revisions to earlier peer-edited papers.
Participants are placed in groups of three to four, and an initial participant volunteers to be the first author. The authors remain silent while one committee member reads the author’s selection out loud. Then, the committee discusses. Finally, the author responds to the committee and solicits further feedback. All participants take turns as authors. Hearing someone else read one’s writing out loud while remining silent trains an author’s attention to the impact of the words on…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, March 28, 2025, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis, Ave.
For more info visit harvard.az1.qualtrics.com. HDS Film Festival
The HDS Film Festival explores the intersection of film and faith through the screening and discussion of feature, independent, and student films.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, March 28, 2025, 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM.
Cader Room, Swartz Hall 117, 45 Francis Ave.
Breaking the Matrix: The U.S. Democratic System
This event is free and open to the public.
We are embedded in systems that we take for granted as the way things should be. These are the invisible matrices that discipline us because of the fascination of U.S. politics with carcerality. We have an opportunity for expansive imagination and recreation.
Experts have been ringing alarm bells for years on U.S. democracy’s unique vulnerabilities to the global rise of authoritarianism. Americans across the political spectrum have been steadily losing faith in public governmental institutions. With 34% of voters saying that democracy was the issue that mattered the most to them this election, the results from this past presidential election show more complicated demarcations than Black vs. White, Republican vs. Democratic, progressive vs. conservative. In this conversation, speakers will discuss how to to facilitate a multi-racial democracy and build a robust path forward for democratic institutions.
Featuring Grant Tudor, Policy Advocate at Protect Democracy;…
Contact: rpl@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, March 31, 2025, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
Zoom webinar.
For more info visit harvard.zoom.us. Hindu View of Life: Beneath the Texts: Tantric Views of Person, Community, and the Sacred ~ A Lecture with Gavin Flood
Registration is required.
Please register to attend this event in person.
Please register to attend this event on Zoom.
The early medieval period in north India witnessed significant new developments in religion regarding theology, practice, and social impact. A new revelation of texts calling themselves Tantras emerged, generating new communities of practice and being adopted by polities, especially in Kashmir and Nepal. This lecture will present the theological vision of the Scripture of the Eye, the Netra Tantra, and raise questions about the text’s understanding of person, community, and the sacred, showing the continuities of this “Hindu view of life” with other Brahmanical ways. Digging deeper beneath the text, we find this way of life founded on cultural ontologies as the necessary condition for conceptions of person and community that the text presents.
GAVIN FLOOD, Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), is Senior Research Fellow in Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion, Campion Hall, Oxford…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave, Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology. A conversation with Religious Studies scholar Diana Walsh Pasulka
Registration is required.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
For this special event, we are honored to welcome Diana Walsh Pasulka, PhD, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and author of American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology (Oxford Univ. Press, 2019) and Encounters: Experiences of the Extraordinary (St. Martin’s Essentials, 2023). In this talk, Prof. Pasulka will explore her upbringing in California during the dot.com boom, her research into Catholic history and Purgatory, and the pivotal fieldwork that took her from sacred sites in New Mexico to the Vatican archives. From there, she will delve into her collaborations with aerospace innovators, her investigations into UAP phenomena, and how the study of religion intersects with emerging technologies and cultural paradigms.
DIANA WALSH PASULKA, PhD is a distinguished professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and a leading scholar in religion, technology, and cultural…
Programming Series: Gnoseologies. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 2, 2025, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
Zoom.
For more info visit harvard.zoom.us. Reading Group: Psychedelics & Aesthetics
Registration is required.
How do psychedelic experiences influence the perception of art and beauty? What role does aesthetics play in psychedelic experiences, and how does it impact ethical considerations?
This biweekly reading and learning group led by CSWR Student Research Assistant Tristan Angieri, MDiv ‘26, will explore these questions and more, focusing on the relationship between psychedelics, aesthetics, and ethics. Participants will examine psychedelic practices in various contexts, including clinical, underground, indigenous, and other cultural settings. Topics will include the aesthetics of psychedelic experiences, the role of the ludic and creativity in psychedelic experiences, and the influence of religion, spirituality, and culture on taste-making in psychedelics.
Each session will focus on one or more specific psychedelic substances and companion works of art/media or practices, using diverse readings for analysis. Participants will engage in text-based discussions and optional experient…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and Ethics. Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 2, 2025, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Arts and the Moral Imagination: Comics
This event is free and open to the public.
Popular Culture is the space where shared civic visions are imagined and enacted. Using comics as a case study, this panel will look at how popular culture has shaped equitable futures, worked around censorship, and continues to provide space for moral imagination. Speakers will reference other complementary media and engage with their experiences with their crafts.
Featuring Alan Jenkins, Professor of Practice, Harvard Law School , Christopher Robichaud, Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Director of Pedagogical Innovation at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics , Angélique Roché Arts and Popular Culture Fellow, Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School, Moderated by Assistant Dean of Religion and Public Life, Hussein Rashid.
Contact: rpl@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 2, 2025, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM.
Zoom Webinar.
For more info visit harvard.zoom.us. Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Thursday, from 12:00pm-1:00pm in Rockefeller Hall Room 116.
What does the Bible say? Listening to Scripture in Community: Public Reading of Scripture 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’re new to reading the Bible, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about what it says, you are welcome to come and discover wisdom in it for 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. Please RSVP for lunch each week you plan to attend.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, April 3, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Room 116, Rockefeller Hall, 47 Francis Ave.
For more info visit forms.office.com. Reading and Research: Encountering Deleuze
Registration is required.
Please register to attend Reading and Research: Encountering Deleuze.
As one of the twentieth century’s most original and impactful philosophers, exploring Gilles Deleuze's thoughts can seem daunting. His tendency to treat the history of philosophy with friendly suspicion is a good introduction, and by examining his encounters with Hume, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Nietzsche, Bergson, and others in this reading and research course, we can have our own encounter with Deleuze. We will begin with two weeks of introductory readings before proceeding to various encounters, and in the final weeks, we will examine a selection of his syncretic works. The organizers have chosen three encounters to begin and ask participants to respond to a ranked-choice poll to determine three others. This course is open to the public; readings will be sent to registrants in advance.
This course meets weekly: Subsequent meetings are: 2/13, 2/20, 2/27, 3/6, 3/13, 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 4/24
Instructor's bios:…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, April 3, 2025, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit harvard.az1.qualtrics.com. The 8th Annual Black Religion, Spirituality, and Culture Conference: Sacred Legacies: Intersections of Black Faith, Memory, and Liberation (registration required)
This year’s conference centers on how Black communities preserve, celebrate, and transform spiritual and cultural legacies. We will explore collective memory, activism, and evolving interpretations of Black faith traditions that carry forward the work of liberation for future generations.
All are welcome.
Sponsored by Harambee: Students of African Descent, a Harvard Divinity School student organization.
Contact: harambee@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, April 3, 2025, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM.
Swartz Hall, 45 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit harvard.az1.qualtrics.com. The 8th Annual Black Religion, Spirituality, and Culture Conference: Sacred Legacies: Intersections of Black Faith, Memory, and Liberation (registration required)
This year’s conference centers on how Black communities preserve, celebrate, and transform spiritual and cultural legacies. We will explore collective memory, activism, and evolving interpretations of Black faith traditions that carry forward the work of liberation for future generations.
All are welcome.
Sponsored by Harambee: Students of African Descent, a Harvard Divinity School student organization.
Contact: harambee@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, April 4, 2025, 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM.
Swartz Hall, 45 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit harvard.az1.qualtrics.com. Unraveling Injustice and Power Structures
In partnership with the Romani Studies Program at Central European University, the Center on Forced Displacement at Boston University, the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee and the Women, Gender, and Health (WGH) Concentration and Working Group at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard University Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, Rights (EMR), the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative at the Harvard Divinity School, the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights, the International Human Rights Clinic at the Harvard Law School, and the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, the Roma Program for Health and Human Rights at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights will host a free, hybrid format conference at Harvard University’s Smith Campus Center (10th Floor) on Friday, April 4,…
Friday, April 4, 2025, 12:30 PM – 6:15 PM.
Smith Campus Center, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, 10th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138 (Harvard University) and online.
For more info visit fxb.harvard.edu. Grading Option Change and Course Withdraw Deadline
Grading Option Change and Course Withdraw Deadline. Last day to change a course from SAT/UNSAT grading option to Letter Grade or vice cersa, or to withdraw from a course. A $10 fee will be charged.
Monday, April 7, 2025.
Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning
This event is free and open to the public.
Peter Beinart will join us to discuss his book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. In Peter Beinart’s view, one story dominates Jewish communal life: that of persecution and victimhood. It is a story that erases the nuance of Jewish religious tradition and warps our understanding of Israel and Palestine. After Gaza, where Jewish language, history, and texts have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation, Beinart argues, Jews must tell a new story and offer a new answer to the question, “What does it mean to be a Jew?”
Drawing on other nations’ efforts at moral reconstruction and a different reading of Jewish tradition, Beinart imagines an alternate narrative in which Israeli Jews have the right to equality, not supremacy, and in which Jewish and Palestinian safety are not mutually exclusive but intertwined. One that recognizes the danger of venerating states at the expense of human life.
Moderated by Shaul Magid, HDS Visiting…
Contact: rpl@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, April 7, 2025, 5:15 PM – 6:30 PM.
James Room East, Swartz Hall 120, 45 Francis Ave.
For more info visit harvard.az1.qualtrics.com. Hackett Lecture: Jennifer Scheper Hughes, “Toward a Counter-history of Global Christianity: Reflections on Brokenness and Transcendence from Mexican Catholicism”
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Spanish imperialism in the Americas gave birth to competing visions of a global church. This talk returns to the difficult origins of Mexican Catholicism, arguably the oldest extant expression of Christianity in the Americas, to reflect on the global pasts and global futures of Christianity.
JENNIFER SCHEPER HUGHES, (MDiv ’96), HDS 2024-25 Yang Fellow of Global Christianity, professor, University of California, Riverside, Dept. of History, focuses on the lived history of Latin American Christianity with special consideration for the religious lives of Mexican and Mexican American Catholics. Publishers Weekly named her book, The Church of the Dead: The Epidemic of 1576 and the Birth of Christianity in the Americas (NYU Press, 2021), one of the 2021 top five academic books on religion. She is Co-PI of the University of California Critical Mission Studies project supporting Indigenous perspectives on the…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Event Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, April 7, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. The End of Gender "and" Islam: Liberation through Another Conjunction
Aysha Hidayatullah (University of San Francisco)
Visiting Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Islam
Colorado Scholar
Lunch will be available.
Contact: Tracy Wall (twall@hds.harvard.edu).
Tuesday, April 8, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.
Braun Room.
Magic, Witchcraft, and Occultism
Registration is required.
Please register to attend.
This six-session workshop will be held on February 11, February 25, March 11, March 25, April 8, and April 22. To get the most out of this workshop, we strongly encourage participants to attend all six sessions.
Magic, witchcraft, and occultism are evocative, intriguing, and even a little scary, but they are rich perspectives. Magic is pragmatic ritual technology—rather than an adjective for the extraordinary, the unorthodox, or the prohibited. Ethnographically situated, witchcraft is a system of accusations and remedies for the circulation of invisible forces between people, bearing little resemblance to Wicca or contemporary Paganism. The occult is secret or esoteric, and, in the West, it signifies texts and practices hidden but profoundly transformative and culturally pervasive.
Workshop topics include ancient Greek love magic, sorcery in Hindu tantras to witchcraft among the early twentieth-century Azande people in Africa, anti-witchcraft lore in…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, April 8, 2025, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Reading Group: TWP&F: Roundtable on Northern European Plant Magic & Folklore
Registration is required.
Meets biweekly from 3-5 PM at the Center for the Study of World Religions.
Recent scientific research has shed light on the sophisticated ways plants and fungi sense, make sense of, and interact with the world. Alongside these discoveries is a wave of interest in the “more-than-human” humanities—a scholarship raising fundamental questions about the nature of the human and the non-human: What is mind, where does it extend, and how? , How do plants and fungi trouble our understanding of “thinking” and perhaps cause us to reconsider what it means to be human? , What cultural frameworks give us opportunities to think about next means of engagement? In its third year of gathering, this reading group will explore these questions and more. Past scholarship has included works by thinkers such as Emanuele Coccia, Monica Gagliano, Suzanne Simard, and Michael Marder. All meetings will take place at the Center for the Study of World Religions and are organized by Natalia Schwien, PhD…
Programming Series: Thinking with Plants and Fungi. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 9, 2025, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Religion and Guns
The fourth and final installment of the "Conversations on Religion" series, Michael Grigoni (Wake Forest University) and Matthew Potts in conversation about “Religion and Guns”.
Contact: shunt@fas.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 9, 2025, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
Thompson Room at the Barker Center (12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA 02139).
Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Thursday, from 12:00pm-1:00pm in Rockefeller Hall Room 116.
What does the Bible say? Listening to Scripture in Community: Public Reading of Scripture 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’re new to reading the Bible, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about what it says, you are welcome to come and discover wisdom in it for 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. Please RSVP for lunch each week you plan to attend.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, April 10, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Room 116, Rockefeller Hall, 47 Francis Ave.
For more info visit forms.office.com. Reading and Research: Encountering Deleuze
Registration is required.
Please register to attend Reading and Research: Encountering Deleuze.
As one of the twentieth century’s most original and impactful philosophers, exploring Gilles Deleuze's thoughts can seem daunting. His tendency to treat the history of philosophy with friendly suspicion is a good introduction, and by examining his encounters with Hume, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Nietzsche, Bergson, and others in this reading and research course, we can have our own encounter with Deleuze. We will begin with two weeks of introductory readings before proceeding to various encounters, and in the final weeks, we will examine a selection of his syncretic works. The organizers have chosen three encounters to begin and ask participants to respond to a ranked-choice poll to determine three others. This course is open to the public; readings will be sent to registrants in advance.
This course meets weekly: Subsequent meetings are: 2/13, 2/20, 2/27, 3/6, 3/13, 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 4/24
Instructor's bios:…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, April 10, 2025, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit harvard.az1.qualtrics.com. Thinking With Plants and Fungi: Treadwell’s Book of Plant Magic: A Conversation with Historian Christina Oakley Harrington
Registration is required.
Register to attend in person.
Register to attend on Zoom.
Christina will present a talk on her book, The Treadwell's Book of Plant Magic (Treadwells, 2020/Weiser Books, 2023). This meticulously researched compendium explores the magical uses of common European plants drawn from over 200 historical texts. The book highlights the attributes that plants have been believed to possess, such as attracting love, enhancing fortune, providing protection, and even granting invisibility. Christina will discuss the traditions that informed these practices, share insights into her research and writing process, and reflect on how these ancient plant traditions resonate with contemporary magical practices.
CHRISTINA OAKLEY HARRINGTON is the founder of Treadwell’s Books in London. Fascinated by spirituality and magic since childhood, she discovered Europe’s native religious traditions in her early 20s and has been a pagan ever since. She earned her doctorate in Medieval History from the…
Programming Series: Thinking with Plants and Fungi. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, April 15, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions
42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Reading Group: Psychedelics & Aesthetics
Registration is required.
How do psychedelic experiences influence the perception of art and beauty? What role does aesthetics play in psychedelic experiences, and how does it impact ethical considerations?
This biweekly reading and learning group led by CSWR Student Research Assistant Tristan Angieri, MDiv ‘26, will explore these questions and more, focusing on the relationship between psychedelics, aesthetics, and ethics. Participants will examine psychedelic practices in various contexts, including clinical, underground, indigenous, and other cultural settings. Topics will include the aesthetics of psychedelic experiences, the role of the ludic and creativity in psychedelic experiences, and the influence of religion, spirituality, and culture on taste-making in psychedelics.
Each session will focus on one or more specific psychedelic substances and companion works of art/media or practices, using diverse readings for analysis. Participants will engage in text-based discussions and optional experient…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and Ethics. Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Thursday, from 12:00pm-1:00pm in Rockefeller Hall Room 116.
What does the Bible say? Listening to Scripture in Community: Public Reading of Scripture 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’re new to reading the Bible, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about what it says, you are welcome to come and discover wisdom in it for 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. Please RSVP for lunch each week you plan to attend.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, April 17, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Room 116, Rockefeller Hall, 47 Francis Ave.
For more info visit forms.office.com. Reading and Research: Encountering Deleuze
Registration is required.
Please register to attend Reading and Research: Encountering Deleuze.
As one of the twentieth century’s most original and impactful philosophers, exploring Gilles Deleuze's thoughts can seem daunting. His tendency to treat the history of philosophy with friendly suspicion is a good introduction, and by examining his encounters with Hume, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Nietzsche, Bergson, and others in this reading and research course, we can have our own encounter with Deleuze. We will begin with two weeks of introductory readings before proceeding to various encounters, and in the final weeks, we will examine a selection of his syncretic works. The organizers have chosen three encounters to begin and ask participants to respond to a ranked-choice poll to determine three others. This course is open to the public; readings will be sent to registrants in advance.
This course meets weekly: Subsequent meetings are: 2/13, 2/20, 2/27, 3/6, 3/13, 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 4/24
Instructor's bios:…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, April 17, 2025, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit harvard.az1.qualtrics.com. Magic, Witchcraft, and Occultism
Registration is required.
Please register to attend.
This six-session workshop will be held on February 11, February 25, March 11, March 25, April 8, and April 22. To get the most out of this workshop, we strongly encourage participants to attend all six sessions.
Magic, witchcraft, and occultism are evocative, intriguing, and even a little scary, but they are rich perspectives. Magic is pragmatic ritual technology—rather than an adjective for the extraordinary, the unorthodox, or the prohibited. Ethnographically situated, witchcraft is a system of accusations and remedies for the circulation of invisible forces between people, bearing little resemblance to Wicca or contemporary Paganism. The occult is secret or esoteric, and, in the West, it signifies texts and practices hidden but profoundly transformative and culturally pervasive.
Workshop topics include ancient Greek love magic, sorcery in Hindu tantras to witchcraft among the early twentieth-century Azande people in Africa, anti-witchcraft lore in…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, April 22, 2025, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Psychedelic Facilitator Training: Taking Stock of an Evolving Landscape with an Eye Toward Spiritual Care
Registration is required.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Caring for individuals who take psychedelics is a meaningful and important service that requires preparation and training for the caregiver. Many formal programs now offer training to aspiring facilitators, although approaches vary. This event will present preliminary findings from a collaborative research program between Roman Palitsky, MDiv, PhD, and Caroline Peacock, DMin, LCSW, MDiv, from Emory University and the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR). The research surveyed psychedelic facilitator training in the U.S. and program leaders to understand the evolving psychedelic training landscape to identify needs, opportunities, and challenges. This talk will explore the state of psychedelic training, different models and approaches, and the role that spiritual care and chaplaincy play in these trainings.
The event will also introduce two spiritual care and psychedelics workshops this fall at the CSWR. Panelists include ROMAN…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and Ethics. Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, April 22, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Zoom.
For more info visit harvard.zoom.us. Spirituality and the Arts: 2025 Annual Conference of the Program for the Evolution of Spirituality
Our annual conference will feature spiritual practitioners, scholars, artists, and performers, all exploring how emerging, alternative, and Indigenous spiritualities manifest through artistic practice. This includes all art forms—visual, musical, performing, and literary—as well as practices that blur the line between art and spirituality.
Contact: Kate Royce (kroyce@hds.harvard.edu)
Any questions about presenting should be sent to pes@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 – Saturday, April 26, 2025.
Swartz Hall.
For more info visit pes.hds.harvard.edu. Reading Group: TWP&F: Special Workshop Series: The Arrogant Ape: Rethinking our Relationships to Others
Registration is required.
Meets biweekly from 3-5 PM at the Center for the Study of World Religions.
Recent scientific research has shed light on the sophisticated ways plants and fungi sense, make sense of, and interact with the world. Alongside these discoveries is a wave of interest in the “more-than-human” humanities—a scholarship raising fundamental questions about the nature of the human and the non-human: What is mind, where does it extend, and how? , How do plants and fungi trouble our understanding of “thinking” and perhaps cause us to reconsider what it means to be human? , What cultural frameworks give us opportunities to think about next means of engagement? In its third year of gathering, this reading group will explore these questions and more. Past scholarship has included works by thinkers such as Emanuele Coccia, Monica Gagliano, Suzanne Simard, and Michael Marder. All meetings will take place at the Center for the Study of World Religions and are organized by Natalia Schwien, PhD…
Programming Series: Thinking with Plants and Fungi. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 23, 2025, 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM.
Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
May ThM degree candidates must submit theses to Faculty readers
May ThM degree candidates must submit theses to Faculty readers.
Thursday, April 24, 2025.
Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Thursday, from 12:00pm-1:00pm in Rockefeller Hall Room 116.
What does the Bible say? Listening to Scripture in Community: Public Reading of Scripture 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’re new to reading the Bible, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about what it says, you are welcome to come and discover wisdom in it for 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. Please RSVP for lunch each week you plan to attend.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, April 24, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Room 116, Rockefeller Hall, 47 Francis Ave.
For more info visit forms.office.com. Reading and Research: Encountering Deleuze
Registration is required.
Please register to attend Reading and Research: Encountering Deleuze.
As one of the twentieth century’s most original and impactful philosophers, exploring Gilles Deleuze's thoughts can seem daunting. His tendency to treat the history of philosophy with friendly suspicion is a good introduction, and by examining his encounters with Hume, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Nietzsche, Bergson, and others in this reading and research course, we can have our own encounter with Deleuze. We will begin with two weeks of introductory readings before proceeding to various encounters, and in the final weeks, we will examine a selection of his syncretic works. The organizers have chosen three encounters to begin and ask participants to respond to a ranked-choice poll to determine three others. This course is open to the public; readings will be sent to registrants in advance.
This course meets weekly: Subsequent meetings are: 2/13, 2/20, 2/27, 3/6, 3/13, 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 4/24
Instructor's bios:…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, April 24, 2025, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit harvard.az1.qualtrics.com. Last day of spring classes
Last day of spring classes.
Wednesday, April 30, 2025.
Reading Group: Psychedelics & Aesthetics
Registration is required.
How do psychedelic experiences influence the perception of art and beauty? What role does aesthetics play in psychedelic experiences, and how does it impact ethical considerations?
This biweekly reading and learning group led by CSWR Student Research Assistant Tristan Angieri, MDiv ‘26, will explore these questions and more, focusing on the relationship between psychedelics, aesthetics, and ethics. Participants will examine psychedelic practices in various contexts, including clinical, underground, indigenous, and other cultural settings. Topics will include the aesthetics of psychedelic experiences, the role of the ludic and creativity in psychedelic experiences, and the influence of religion, spirituality, and culture on taste-making in psychedelics.
Each session will focus on one or more specific psychedelic substances and companion works of art/media or practices, using diverse readings for analysis. Participants will engage in text-based discussions and optional experient…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and Ethics. Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 30, 2025, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Spring reading period begins
Spring reading period begins.
Thursday, May 1, 2025.
Language Qualifying Examinations
Language qualifying examinations. Exams offered in French, Arabic, German, Spanish, Christian Latin, Biblical Hebrew, and New Testament Greek. Location will be announced prior to exam date. Students are allowed to bring one dictionary for each language examaniation taken. All examinations are one hour in length.
Friday, May 2, 2025.
Spring reading period ends
Spring reading period ends.
Wednesday, May 7, 2025.
Spring semester final course examinations begin
Spring semester final course examinations begin.
Thursday, May 8, 2025.
Sacred Plant Medicines and Indigenous Communities: A Symposium with the CSWR's Psychedelics and Spirituality Postdoctoral Fellows
This event is free and open to the public.
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Indigenous communities worldwide have held knowledge of sacred plants for thousands of years. Far from monolithic, these communities have diverse theologies, ritual practices, and community approaches. Moreover, Indigenous communities are evolving with globalization and representing critical perspectives in the contemporary understanding of the plants, fungi, and substances often referred to as psychedelic.
For the past year, the CSWR has been fortunate to have two postdoctoral fellows, Osiris González Romero and Andrea Sánchez-Castañeda, working at the forefront of psychedelics and Indigenous knowledge. In this capstone event, Osiris will share findings from his research on Indigenous Medicine and psilocybin mushroom rituals in Mesoamerica, and Andrea will share her research on sacred plant medicines of the Muysca of Suba, an urban Indigenous community in Bogotá…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, May 8, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Bound ThM papers due in the Registrar’s Office
Bound ThM papers due in the Registrar’s Office.
Friday, May 9, 2025.
MDiv Senior Papers are due via the online submission process
MDiv Senior Papers are due via the online submission process.
Friday, May 9, 2025.
Submission of grades for May degree candidates enrolled in Harvard Divinity School courses. Last day to file an Incomplete Grade Agreement for a spring semester course.
Submission of grades for May degree candidates enrolled in Harvard Divinity School courses. Last day to file an Incomplete Grade Agreement for a spring semester course. (Forms are available in the Registrar’s Office.).
Monday, May 12, 2025.
Spring semester final course examinations end
Spring semester final course examinations end.
Saturday, May 17, 2025.
Memorial Day: University Holiday
Memorial Day: University Holiday.
Monday, May 26, 2025.
Multireligious Commencement Service
Multireligious Commencement Service.
Wednesday, May 28, 2025.
Commencement
Commencement.
Thursday, May 29, 2025.
TBA.
Grades due in the Registrar’s office from HDS instructors for spring semester courses
Grades due in the Registrar’s office from HDS instructors for spring semester courses.
Friday, May 30, 2025.
Insight Into Mindfulness: Buddhist Literacy for Mental Health and Wellness Professionals
Apply here by May 7: https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bkLqNSii2qadmYu
This two-and-a-half-day in-person workshop teaches clinical mental health and wellness professionals how to use resources derived from Buddhist ideas, techniques, and traditions to address mental health issues. Offered by the faculty and alumni of Harvard Divinity School and led by deeply experienced Buddhist lay and monastic instructors, the program blends guided meditation sessions with readings, lectures, and in-depth discussions of applicable Buddhist knowledge and practice. Mental healthcare practitioners with mindfulness experience or interest in integrating mindfulness into their work are welcome. The program seeks applicants from a wide range of backgrounds and roles, including those both inside and outside traditional counseling centers, and strives to foster a safe, open, and welcoming learning environment for all.
Contact: Jonathan Makransky (jmakransky@hds.harvard.edu).
Monday, June 16, 2025 – Wednesday, June 18, 2025.
Harvard Divinity School.
For more info visit www.hds.harvard.edu. Summer Language Program begins
Summer Language Program begins.
Monday, June 16, 2025.
Juneteenth: University holiday
Juneteenth: University holiday.
Thursday, June 19, 2025.