Buddhist Nuns in Myanmar: Voicing Care and Belonging
Join HDS's Women’s Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) for a lecture by MK Long, Visiting Lecturer on Women’s Studies and South Asian Religions.
Lunch will be provided.
Contact: wsrp@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, October 8, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.
Braun Room, Swartz Hall.
The Tender Art of Grieving: A Book Launch Gathering with AmarAtma Singh Khalsa, MRPL ‘26
Join AmarAtma Singh Khalsa, MRPL ’26, a health care chaplain, for an event marking the release of his book The Tender Art of Grieving.
Contact: rsl@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, October 8, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall 212, 45 Francis Ave.
Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST
What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.
Lunch is provided for those joining in person.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, October 9, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Public Research Talk: Frederick Douglass and Jesus Christ
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Abolitionists described themselves as followers of Jesus, but they disagreed about what kind of person he was. Douglass’s ideas about Jesus took shape in dialogue with the Transcendentalists: his Jesus was fully human, but he spoke to his contemporaries with a special “authority.” Douglass followed Jesus by “assum[ing] to speak of Slavery with some authority,” and he derived that authority from his lived experience of enslavement.
Ryan Carr is a lecturer at Columbia, where he teaches classes in American studies, English, and the Core Curriculum. He is the author of Samson Occom: Radical Hospitality in the Native Northeast (Columbia, 2023) and co-editor of the forthcoming Writings of Samson Occom (Oxford World's Classics, 2027). He is currently exploring the political thought of Frederick Douglass and his relationships with Transcendentalists and Christian liberals such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore…
Programming Series: Transcendentalism. Contact: cswr@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions
42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
In Dreams Awake: Tar Paintings in Conversation with American Transcendentalism by Christopher Volpe
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please join us for the opening reception of Christopher Volpe's exhibition, In Dreams Awake: Tar Paintings in Conversation with American Transcendentalism.
Titled with reference to a line from Henry David Thoreau, In Dreams Awake opens a space between longing for spiritual union with Nature and awareness of ecological decline.
Drawing pointedly on the literature of American Transcendentalism, these paintings invite the viewer to see today’s milieu of social and ecological distress not only as scientific or political problems, but as the result of a longstanding spiritual crisis.
The paintings use liquefied coal tar, a toxic byproduct of fossil-fuel extraction, as their primary medium. That is to say, these are paintings made with the very material through which modern civilization has transformed the earth and our relationship to it.
Each painting's title references Emerson, Fuller, or Thoreau, while the imagery is common New England flora…
Programming Series: Transcendentalism. Contact: cswr@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Building Harmony: Uniting Across Difference Through Music
Join the HDS Office of Student Life and the GSAS Office of Culture, Community, and Engagement for a concert bringing together Sufi kamancheh virtuoso and vocalist Payam Yousefi and Sephardic Jewish singer-songwriter Lily Henley for an evening exploring “The Role of Song and Faith in Healing the Self and the World.” Through individual and shared performances, followed by a moderated conversation and Q&A, the event will explore the power of music, faith, and cultural traditions to foster connection, healing, and solidarity.
The concert and Q&A will be followed by a short reception, also in Swartz Hall.
Artist Bios
Payam Yousefi
Payam Yousefi (PhD Harvard, 2023) is an Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Florida specializing in the musics of Iran and the greater Middle East, with research interests in creative practice as world making and sacred musics. During 2025-26 Yousefi was a Long-Term Fellow at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, where he conducted research on Sufi music and…
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, October 15, 2026, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM.
Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall 212, 45 Francis Ave.
For more info visit harvard.az1.qualtrics.com. Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST
What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.
Lunch is provided for those joining in person.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, October 16, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Public Research Talk: The Reformist Language of Plants: Marianne Dwight’s Botanical Watercolors with Alice de Galzain
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Shortly after moving to the Transcendentalist utopian community of Brook Farm in April 1844, Marianne Dwight Orvis joined the “Fancy Group,” a collective of women who hand-painted goods for sale in Boston. She described the project as seeking the “elevation of woman to independence, and an acknowledged equality with man” (Letters from Brook Farm, 32). This talk examines how Dwight, by binding flowers into “books,” used the language of flowers to narrate her experience with Fourierism. It situates her botanical watercolors within the broader context of antebellum women’s engagement with reform and shows how her floral books symbolically articulated both the harmony with nature sought by Transcendentalists and the feminist possibilities of socialist communalism and labor reform.
Alice de Galzain is a postdoctoral researcher and former Marie Skłodowska-Curie Seal of Excellence Fellow at Sorbonne Université…
Programming Series: Transcendentalism. Contact: Bhaswar F. Khan, Assistant Director, CSWR.
Monday, October 19, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave.
Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Book Talk: Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What it Means for the Future of Religion with Sarah Stankorb
This event is free and open to the public.
Please join us for a conversation with Sarah Stankorb, author of Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What It Means for the Future of Religion, and Kelsey Hanson Woodruff, author of the forthcoming On the Days When I Believe: The Life and Spiritual Legacy of Rachel Held Evans. Together, they will discuss women’s changing relationships with religion and the future of religious life.
Presented in conjunction with the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard.
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, Academic and Non-Degree Programming Coordinator
Office of Academic Affairs
Harvard Divinity School
45 Francis Ave | Swartz Hall 307
Cambridge, MA 02138
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, October 20, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM.
Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall
45 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Prayers for a Slow Earth
For The Wild invites the community to gather for Prayers for a Slow Earth, an evening of prayer and embodied practice at Williams Chapel at Harvard Divinity School. The gathering will be hosted by For The Wild founder and host Ayana Young, with ordained Kohenet and Interfaith Minister Dori Midnight and Harvard Divinity School student Julia Jackson, both contributors to Slow Earth Companion anthology (Set Margins’ 2026) https://forthewild.world/the-book-and-tour.
The evening offers an opportunity to slow down together, listen with the senses, and deepen our relationship with the living world. Rooted in the practices and questions explored throughout Slow Earth Companion, the gathering will create space for reflection, prayer, conversation, and connection.
Guests are invited to come as they are. A limited number of copies of Slow Earth Companion for early purchase and a selection of For The Wild merchandise.
Admission is free for those with a valid Harvard ID. For other community members, tickets are…
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM.
Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall 212, 45 Francis Ave.
Poetry Night: Languages of the Muslim World
Join HDS Muslims for an evening of reflection, rhythm, and resonance as we explore poetry. This event brings together voices from diverse Muslim cultures and traditions to share poetic expressions that span themes of faith, love, loss, resistance, and divine beauty.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM.
Braun Room, Swartz Hall 101, 45 Francis Ave.
Stanley Cavell's Transcendental Etudes Conference
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Organized to commemorate the centenary of philosopher Stanley Cavell's (1926–2018) birth, Stanley Cavell's Transcendental Etudes brings together leading scholars to explore the enduring significance of his thought for contemporary conversations in religion, ethics, and politics. While Cavell is widely recognized for his contributions to ordinary language philosophy, aesthetics, literary criticism, and political theory, the religious dimensions of his work have received comparatively less attention.
Presented as part of the Center for the Study of World Religions' Transcendentalism Initiative, the conference explores the dimensions of Cavell's thought that emerge through his sustained engagement with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and the broader Transcendentalist tradition.
The conference will feature four keynote addresses and a concluding panel discussion examining the continued relevance of…
Programming Series: Transcendentalism. Contact: cswr@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, October 22, 2026, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM.
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions
42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST
What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.
Lunch is provided for those joining in person.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, October 23, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
The World in Between: Ancient Roots of Día de los Muertos
This event is free and open to the public.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
A conference and workshop led by Dr. Javier Urcid.
Día de los Muertos is often described as an ancient tradition, yet its history is far more complex. Drawing on decades of archaeological research in Oaxaca, Dr. Javier Urcid explores the ancestral practices that illuminate how Indigenous and European traditions became woven together in the celebration of Día de los Muertos.
Javier Urcid, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at Brandeis University, is an anthropological archaeologist whose research focuses on symbolic systems, material culture, political economies, and bioarchaeology in ancient Mesoamerica. His work on mortuary practices and human remains includes archaeological sites in Oaxaca, collections formerly housed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and burial series curated at the Harvard Peabody Museum.…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick
Academic and Non-Degree Programming Coordinator
Office of Academic Affairs
Harvard Divinity School
oaaevents@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Braun Room, Swartz Hall
45 Francis Ave.
Cambridge, MA.
The Daoist Studies and Practice Society at HDS: Inaugural Open House
Join the Daoist Studies and Practice Society at HDS for our inaugural Open House. This gathering will introduce the Society and bring together students and members of the Harvard community from across HDS, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, and the Asia Center who are interested in Daoist studies and practice.
The Daoist Studies and Practice Society seeks to create an interdisciplinary space for engagement with Daoist thought, traditions, texts, and practices. Our programming will include reading groups, lectures, workshops, contemplative and embodied practices, and conversations on the academic study of Daoism.
At the Open House, participants will have an opportunity to meet one another, learn about the Society’s upcoming activities, hear about opportunities to become involved, and suggest topics, speakers, and programs they would like the Society to organize.
Dinner will be provided.
No prior background in Daoist studies or practice is required.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
Williams Chapel, Swartz Hall 212, 45 Francis Ave.
Ingersoll Lecture: On the Immortality of Man: A conversation with Elizabeth Strout
This event is free and open to the public. There will be a book signing after the conversation.
Please register to attend.
A Pulitzer Prize–winning author and New York Times bestselling mainstay, Elizabeth Strout captivates audiences with her distinctively New England stories and powerful ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. She is the author of The Things We Never Say, Tell Me Everything, Lucy by the Sea, Oh William! Abide with Me, My Name Is Lucy Barton, and Olive Kitteridge.
With an introduction by Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, Elizabeth Strout will speak in conversation with Catherine Brekus, Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America and Chair of the Committee on the Study of Religion in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
About the Ingersoll Lectures
The Ingersoll Lectures were established at Harvard in 1896 by President Charles W. Eliot through a bequest from Caroline Haskell…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick
Academic and Non-Degree Programming Coordinator
Office of Academic Affairs
Harvard Divinity School
oaaevents@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, October 29, 2026, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM.
James Room, Swartz Hall
45 Francis Ave.
Cambridge, MA.
Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST
What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.
Lunch is provided for those joining in person.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, October 30, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Public Research Talk: “For Children Who Care to Learn”: Caroline Dall, Self-Culture, and Patty Gray’s Journey to the Cotton Islands
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
In the preface to the first volume, Patty Gray’s Journey to the Cotton Islands, Caroline Dall explains to her young readers that she writes this book because children should be told the truth. Imagining the plaintive complaint of a young reader who asks, “But what good will it do?” she answers, “My dear little sister, if you will read all about it, and understand it, you will help others to remember all that God has been teaching us in this terrible war, and what we are already beginning to forget” (vi-vii).
This talk will explore the ways that Dall, in her children’s book series Patty Gray’s Journey, translated slavery, the Civil War, and the aftermath of both for young readers. Her insistence that children must know difficult truths reflects her belief that resilience is forged through knowledge, a belief rooted directly in her Unitarian and Transcendentalist principles, particularly self-culture.
LYDIA…
Programming Series: Transcendentalism. Contact: cswr@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, November 2, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.
Common Room, CSWR
42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
The Dharma Among Us: The Past, Present, and Future of Hindu Spiritual Care at HDS
This event is free and open to the public.
Join us for a conversation about the value, importance, and future of Hindu ministry studies at Harvard Divinity School. The discussion will consider the role of Hindu spiritual care in preparing religious leaders and contributing to the broader field of theological education and religious leadership through the multireligious context of HDS.
Conversation facilitated by Francis X. Clooney, Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology
With conversation partners:Sabbi Lall, MDiv ’26, Instructor in Ministry Studies and Pastoral Counseling, HDS and Chaplain Resident, Mass General Brigham Hospital, Rajeev Persaud, MTS ’24, Hindu Chaplain, Emory University, Office of Spiritual and Religious Life, Swami Tathagatananda, Visiting Hindu Monastic 2026-2027, Nitai Wilson, MDiv candidate, There will be light refreshments following the panel discussion.
Contact: Nancy Birne
Director of Development Administration and Special Projects
Harvard Divinity School
derevents@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, November 4, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM.
Common Room
Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR)
42 Francis Avenue
Cambridge, MA.
Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST
What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.
Lunch is provided for those joining in person.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, November 6, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST
What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.
Lunch is provided for those joining in person.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, November 13, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Dharmic* Traditions Symposium: Scholarship as Practice, Practice as Scholarship
The 2026 Dharmic* Traditions Conference centers conversations about, across, and within “Dharmic* traditions,” which include Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and Sikh traditions. These year’s theme, “Scholarship as Practice, Practice as Scholarship,” invites presenters and attendees to explore the relationships between wisdom, scholarship, and practice within and across these traditions. We invite scholars, artists, community leaders, practitioners, and more to attend and present.
*We invoke the “dharmic*” descriptor that Edwards et al. (2024) use in their article, “Building Dharmic* Solidarity to Expand the Discourse about Religious Diversity in US Higher Education.” We understand that the concept of dharma is employed differently in the traditions we list here even as the root of the word itself is present. Furthermore, we recognize that the category of “dharmic traditions” has been used by supremacists to flatten nuances between these traditions and to consolidate a hateful movement against “a perceived threat of A…
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, November 16, 2026, 9:00 AM – 3:15 PM.
Braun Room, Swartz Hall 101, 45 Francis Ave. (registration required).
For more info visit tinyurl.com. Hindu View of Life Lecture: Special Dispensations, Sublime Realities: Keshab Chandra Sen and the Comparative Impulse in the Nineteenth Century
Registration required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Radhakrishnan’s lectures on Hindu views of life 100 years ago emphasize how the world then, after a devastating world war, was witnessing an interchange of thought between religions through the mingling of populations. Furthermore, the spirit of the age and the need of the hour determined the emphasis in each religion.
This lecture will explore how interchange of thought between religions flourished in certain circles in nineteenth-century India, through an examination of the thought and major works of Keshab Chandra Sen (1838-1884), a Bengali philosopher of religion and social reformer who pioneered a range of comparative religious projects. Through an examination of his compilations of excerpts from a diversity of religious texts as well as his relationship to religions outside of Hinduism, Sen serves as a major precursor to Radhakrishnan’s contributions to modern and contemporary views on religion in the…
Programming Series: Annual Lectures. Contact: cswr@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, November 16, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM.
Common Room, CSWR
42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST
What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.
Lunch is provided for those joining in person.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, November 20, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.
Scripture in Community
All are welcome to gather in person each Friday from 12pm – 1pm ST
What does the Bible say? Scripture In Community (SIC) is a weekly practice where we read and listen to passages from the Bible together. Each week we will read passages from the Psalms, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Whether you are new to reading scripture, have studied the Bible for years, or are just curious about faith, you are welcome to come and discover if there is wisdom in it for your everyday life. Join us as we listen, learn, and discuss the timeless and eternal truths found in the pages of the Bible.
Lunch is provided for those joining in person.
Contact: studentlife@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, December 4, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Garvin Room, Swartz Hall 118, 45 Francis Ave.