Harvard Divinity School

WSRP 2017–18 Research Associate Avital Davidovich-Eshed, PhD (Bar Ilan University), Visiting Lecturer in Women's Studies and Judaism, delivers her talk, "Enclosed Gardens Revealed: The Concept of Virginity in Medieval Jewish Culture." Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

At the 2017 Diversity and Explorations Program (DivEx), Davíd Carrasco presents his talk, "Gifts from Mexico: Revitalizing Life Through the Day of the Dead Celebration". He describes one of the gifts from Mexico and Mexican's is the idea of convivencia, which he defines as "living together in order to give life the upper hand over death." He discusses three examples of convivencia that he has experienced and ends on the ways in which convivencia exists on our campus. Davíd Carrasco is Harvard Divinity School's Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America, with a joint appointment with the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. DivEx is a three-day introduction to graduate programs at Harvard Divinity School that span religious and cultural divides to prepare ethical leaders to work in a complex world. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Journalist and author E.J. Dionne, William H. Bloomberg Visiting Professor, delivers the 2017 Horace De Y. Lentz Lecture. Dionne is a distinguished journalist and author, political commentator, and longtime op-ed columnist for The Washington Post. He is also a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a government professor at Georgetown University, and a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio, ABC’s “This Week,” and MSNBC. His most recent book, co-authored with Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, is One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

As part of the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Speakers Series, Khenpo Sodargye speaks about developing inner peace. Khenpo Sodargye is the abbot and senior educator at the renowned Larung Buddhist Institute, the largest Buddhist academy of this kind in the world. Khenpo trained closely with Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche, one of the great luminaries of his generation. As a Tibetan lama, Buddhist scholar and teacher, prolific translator into Chinese, and modern Buddhist thinker, Khenpo Sodargye is renowned across Asia and the west for his interest in the integration of traditional Buddhist teachings with global issues and modern life. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Mark D. Jordan, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Christian Thought (HDS) and Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality (Faculty of Arts and Sciences), discusses his recent publication, Teaching Bodies: Moral Formation in the Summa of Thomas Aquinas. James Keenan, S.J. (BC) and David Decosimo (BU) serve as respondents. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

The world is currently facing the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, and little substantive aid is forthcoming from Wealthy Western countries, who often politicize refugees as national threats. This panel discusses storytelling, advocacy, and activism with the understanding that nothing can replace personal encounter in re-framing our understanding of this global crisis. Speakers: Anita Häusermann Fábos, Associate Professor of International Development and Social Change, Clark University; Cheryl Hamilton, director, International Institute of New England's Lowell office and creator of the "Suitcase Stories" series; U-Meleni Mhlaba-Adebo, multi-genre artist; and Ziad Reslan, graduate student, Harvard Kennedy School of Government and co-coordinator of the Middle East Refugee Service Initiative Moderator: Diane L. Moore, director of the Religious Literacy Project and Lecturer on Religion, Conflict and Peace at Harvard Divinity School Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

As part of the ministry colloquium series Mohammad Darawshe speaks about the current challenges of and opportunities for building a shared society in Israel. He is the director of planning, equality and shared society at Givat Haviva, the Center for Shared Society in Israel. Mohammad is an Arab with an Israeli Passport—a Muslim, Palestinian citizen of the State of Israel. Like 20 percent of Israel’s population, he is, as he puts it, “a child of both identities.” He brings an unexpected way of seeing inside the Middle Eastern present and future. Mohammad is considered a leading political analyst and expert on Jewish-Arab relations inside Israel. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Panelists Jennifer Graber, University of Texas at Austin; Heather Curtis, Tufts University; and Amy Howe, Brown University discuss carceral punishment in relation to religion and the historical roots of US incarceration. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Willie Jennings, Yale Divinity School, opened the Christianity, Race, and Mass Incarceration Conference as the keynote speaker. The conference gathers scholars of various disciplines, activists, organizers, and formerly incarcerated persons to study carceral punishment, especially as it relates to questions of Christian thought and practice, and to provoke awareness and activism around incarceration in America. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Panelists Glenn Martin, JustLeadershipUSA; Kaia Stern, Harvard University; Rahsaan Hall, Massachusetts ACLU; Bev Williams, Criminal Justice Reform Campaign, GBIO; and Karlene Griffiths Sekou, Founder and Principal Consultant at The Dignity Project International, discuss carceral punishment in relation to activist strategies and the study of religion. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.