Harvard Divinity School

Panel 4 of West Africa and the Maghreb: Jihadi Ideology: What is New, What is Not? Panelists: William Miles, Northeastern University, “Jihadism in Muslim West Africa in Historical Perspective” Abdulbasit Kassim, Rice University, Jihadi-Salafism and the Vocabulary of Takfīr in the 21st Century Hausaland and Bornu” Zekeria Ould Ahmed Salem, Northwestern University Evanston, “Assessing the Salafi Current in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania” Anouar Boukhars, McDaniel College, “The Strategic Incentives for Insurgents to Embrace Extreme Ideology: The Case of the Sahel and Maghreb” As part of the efforts to promote the study of Islam in Africa at Harvard, an Islam in Africa conference series was initiated under the sponsorship of HDS, NELC, CAS, AAAS, and the Hutchins Center with the goal to convene an international symposium every year to facilitate intellectual conversation between junior and senior scholars involved in cutting edge research in the field. In line with the mission of the Alwaleed Chair in Contemporary Islamic Religion and Society, this conference series is centered on the history of Muslim institutions and ideas in Africa. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Women’s Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) 2017–18 Research Associates discuss their research and share their thoughts on the ethical responsibility of scholars to be engaged in the study of gender. Each year, WSRP brings five scholars in gender from around the world to pursue research on women and religion and to enrich the experience of our students. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at www.hds.harvard.edu.

​Dr. Frank Rogers delivers the keynote for "Cultivating Resilience Through the Peaks and Valleys of Chaplaincy" conference. The conference focuses on resiliency practices upheld by seasoned chaplains from the major fields of chaplaincy. Rogers is the Muriel Bernice Roberts Professor of Spiritual Formation and Narrative Pedagogy and the co-director of the Center for Engaged Compassion at the Claremont School of Theology and the author of Practicing Compassion. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Francisca Cho proposes that Buddhist epistemic frameworks regarding the nature of ritual apparitions offer an account of the religious possibilities of film that is absent in Western phenomenological conversations on the same topic. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Congratulations to the Harvard Divinity School class of 2018, who received their diplomas during the HDS Diploma Awarding Ceremony on May 25, 2017. Lindsey Franklin, MDiv ’18, and Denson Staples, MDiv ’18, gave the student address. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

The promotion of more just and peaceful societies is a fundamental goal of the United Nations (UN). In response to the spike in violent conflict worldwide and unparalleled levels of forced displacement, the UN broke new ground in 2016 with two “peacebuilding resolutions,” which set forth a new UN approach to “sustaining peace” that addresses “all stages of conflict” and “all its dimensions.” During this session, we explored what law, policy, and ethics can teach us about “sustaining peace” and how the UN can be assisted in forging a more coherent vision of this new paradigm. This session of the fourth annual RPP Colloquium Series features Benjamin B. Ferencz, JD ’43 HLS, recipient of the Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom 2014, and former United States prosecutor at the International Military Tribunal at Nüremberg; respondent Gabriella Blum, LLM ’01, SJD ’03, Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, faculty director of the Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC), and member of the Program on Negotiation executive board at Harvard Law School; respondent J. Bryan Hehir, Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at Harvard Kennedy School, secretary for social services of the Archdiocese of Boston; and moderator Federica D’Alessandra, LLM, 2013-16 Fellow and 2010-12 Associate at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, 2016-17 Visiting Scholar/Researcher at HLS, 2017-18 Fellow at HDS, and 2016-18 RPP adviser. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

David Freudberg of Humankind talks with Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann and Sensei Joshin Byrnes. Cultivating Resilience Through the Peaks and Valleys of Chaplaincy focuses on resiliency practices upheld by seasoned chaplains from the major fields of chaplaincy. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Kimberly Blockett, Visiting Associate Professor of Women's Studies and African American Religions, and WSRP Research Associate and Colorado Scholar, Brandywine, presents “#sayhername: Recovering Zilpha Elaw’s Rebellious Evangelicalism." Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Laura R. Prieto, Visiting Professor of Women’s Studies and American Religious History from Simmons College, presents “Making Disciples: Women, Missions, and Colonial Education in the Early 20th-Century Philippines”. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

HDS students Hal Edmonson, Lou Fish-Sadin, Sally Fritsche, and Isaac Martinez deliver sermons for the Billings Preaching Prize Competition during Noon Service on April 11, 2018. The annual preaching competition is open to second- and third-year MDiv students. In addition, Samm Melton, the Massachusetts Bible Society scripture reading winner read the scripture passage. 02:16 Samm Melton 03:58 Hal Edmonson 16:38 Lou Fish-Sadin 28:09 Sally Fritsche 38:21 Isaac Martinez Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.