Harvard Divinity School

The Harvard Divinity School Buddhist Community (HBC) hosted the Fifth Annual Buddhism and Race Conference: Centering Intersectionalities, on March 8, 2019 at Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA. During this conference, scholars, sangha leaders, activists, and students from diverse backgrounds joined together to engage in conversations about issues at the intersection of Buddhism, race, and beyond. This panel discussed the intersections of Buddhism, Race, and Gender. Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/files/hds/files/buddhism-panel-1.pdf Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

The Annual Greeley Lecture for Peace and Social Justice took place February 27, 2019, at the HDS Center for the Study of World Religions. (Learn more: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/) Race and religion are among the best predictors of how Americans choose a president. Race and religion are also bases for political compromises that call into question our moral credibility on issues ranging from voting rights to police brutality. How do we demonstrate courage when we decline or choose to compromise? Cornell William Brooks is Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also Director of The William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at the School’s Center for Public Leadership, and a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School. Brooks is the former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights attorney, and an ordained minister. Todne Thomas is a socio-cultural anthropologist and Assistant Professor of African American Religions at Harvard Divinity School. Her current research examines the familial and spiritual experiences of black evangelicals and the neoliberal displacement of black sacred space. Full transcript here: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/02/26/faith-faustian-bargains

"Business" is a taboo topic in divinity school--but anyone who wants to change the world needs to understand how to think like an entrepreneur. Leading experts on social and wellness entrepreneurship, innovative leadership, and the intersection of money and spirituality share their stories and wisdom in a panel discussion. Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/03/05/video-business-of-spirituality Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Poor mestizos in northern Peru offer a new way to theorize humanism and sentient landscapes that interact with humans in terms of environmental justice, collective ethics, and health. By defining “community” and “well-being” as humans-in-relationship-to-places-as-persons, poor mestizos resignify “nature” itself as an anchor for social justice. Ana Mariella Bacigalupo, Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York-Buffalo, speaks on her research in northern Peru. She has worked with Mapuche shamans in Southern Chile and shamans on the north coast of Peru. Full transcript: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/02/20/video-subversive-politics-northern-peru Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Much has been written about the Northern Ireland peace process, particularly on securing the peace. However, as Senator George Mitchell commented in relation to the Good Friday agreement, “If you think getting this agreement was difficult, implementing it will be even more difficult.” Twenty-one years after the signing of the Good Friday agreement, those have proven to be prophetic words. Dr. Mason will explore what reconciliation looks like in a contested space, the power of memory and story in keeping the pain of the past alive, and how theology can move into that contested narrative in a way that brings about dialogue, honesty, and healing. He will also address the current Brexit situation, exploring how Brexit has been a very difficult experience for these two islands. Event sponsored by Religions and the Practice of Peace (RPP) and Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School Speakers: Rev. Dr. Gary Mason, director of Rethinking Conflict; senior research fellow at the Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention at Maynooth University in Ireland David N. Hempton, Dean of the Faculty of Divinity For more info see here: https://tinyurl.com/y4yrhmzg Video and full transcript: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/02/27/video-reconciliation-memory-theology-shaping-public-stage Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Wylin D. Wilson, 2018-19 WSRP Visiting Associate Professor, delivers the lecture "'Bioethics on the Margins: Vulnerable Populations and Health Outcomes." Full transcript here: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/02/20/video-bioethics-on-the-margins Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

On February 19, U.S. presidential candidate, spiritual lecturer, and number one New York Times bestselling author Marianne Williamson spoke at HDS on the topic "Reparations for Slavery: The Role of Repentance in Politics." The event featured an opening talk by HDS student Kassi Underwood, MDiv '19. Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/02/19/video-marianne-williamson-role-repentance-politics Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/

This panel explores the intersection of racism, oppression, urban trauma, disaster, and other social realities faced by those desperately in need of peace. More than the absence of violence and war, we need the aggressive and proactive generation of peace, healing, and bliss under a continuing barrage of compromises to health and well-being. What is peace? How do we create it when there is little? Who deserves peacemaking? Speakers and Moderators: - Zumbi, founder, Kilombo Novo; director, Trauma Response and Recovery at Boston Public Health Commission - Emily Click, assistant dean for ministry studies and field education and Lecturer on Ministry at Harvard Divinity School - David Harris, managing director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School For more info: http://tinyurl.com/y33o4t6c Full transcript here: https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/02/14/video-rpp-colloquium-indigenous-perspectives-peacemaking-racism Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at hds.harvard.edu/.

S. Zahra Moballegh, 2018-19 WSRP Visiting Associate Professor, delivers the lecture "Veiled Women Unveiling God: Understanding the Qur’an Through Its Women Characters." Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at hds.harvard.edu/.

Evolution is an organizing principle of the living world. While competition is integral to evolution, cooperation can be seen as the master architect of biological complexity, language, and culture. Human beings have emerged from this evolutionary process as “SuperCooperators.” In this Religions and the Practice of Peace (RPP) Colloquium, Martin Nowak discusses the scientific interpretation of evolution and its compatibility with Christian theology, which holds that God is the primary cause for all that exists, the creator and sustainer of the universe.