Penn State Religious Studies

February 28 – 2023 Harshbarger Lecture!

by Leave a Comment

Please join us in giving a warm welcome to Dr. Melissa Wilde, our Harshbarger Lecturer for 2023!

Dr. Wilde will be visiting Happy Valley on February 28, 2023, to take part in a book club discussion at 10 a.m. before delivering her lecture at 4 p.m. Both events are in 102 Weaver and on Zoom (https://psu.zoom.us/j/93958270363). This event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Wilde is the author of the Society for the Study of Religion’s bi-annual Book Club book, Birth Control Battles: How Race and Class Divided American Religion. To learn more about Dr. Wilde, check out her website here.

About the talk: Conservative and progressive religious groups fiercely disagree about issues of sex and gender. But how did we get here? This book talk shows how today’s modern divisions began in the 1930s in the public battles over birth control and not for the reasons we might expect. Using census and archival materials Wilde demonstrates that the push to liberalize positions on contraception was tied to complex views of race, immigration, and manifest destiny among America’s most prominent religious groups. Taking us from the Depression era, when support for the eugenics movement saw birth control as an act of duty for less desirable groups, to the 1960s, by which time most groups had forgotten the reasons behind their stances on contraception (but not the concerns driving them), Birth Control Battles explains how reproductive politics divided American religion.
We hope to see you at both events!

The Harshbarger Lecture in Religious Studies is an annual lectureship made possible by a generous donation in honor of Luther H. Harshbarger, former professor and head of the Religious Studies Department at Penn State.

February 24 – “Making Space for the Gods: Religious Spaces in the Ancient Greek House”

by Leave a Comment

Dr. Hannah Smagh of Penn State will give a public lecture titled, “Making Space for the Gods: Religious Spaces in the Ancient Greek House,” on Friday, Feb. 24, 4-5:15 pm in Weaver 102. Please see the attached flyer for more information.

This talk may also be attended remotely via Zoom. To register in advance, please follow this link (including the final hyphen):

https://psu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYocOyrrT8sH9NfbbDmwMvWYXGuTI9ADog-

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Classics & Ancient Mediterranean Studies, the Department of Art History, the Department of Anthropology, and the Religious Studies Minor at Penn State.

We hope to see you there!

February 22 – SSR Seminar: “Performing the Passion in the Monastery of Santa Clara, Dzidzantún, Yucatán”

by Leave a Comment

The Penn State Society for the Study of Religion (SSR) Colloquium is hosting a seminar on Wed., Feb. 22, from 12:15-1:15 pm in 240 Borland! Dr. Amara Solari will present “Performing the Passion in the Monastery of Santa Clara, Dzidzantún, Yucatán.”

All are welcome. Refreshments AND Mexican chocolate cake will be served; Zoom link available upon request (email tuh14@psu.edu)

In the 1590s, Franciscan friars and Maya artists collaborated to design the decorative scheme of the newly constructed mission church in Dzidzantún, Yucatán. In this talk we will interrogate their design and corresponding pigment selections, understanding how this native community grafted early modern ritual practices upon and within their ancient modes of ceremonial place-making, eventually crafting a localized Indigenous Catholicism.

Please also note these future events in Religious Studies:

Feb. 28, 10 am – Book discussion of Melissa Wilde’s “Birth Control Battles: How Race and Class Divided American Religion.” Location 102 Weaver.

Feb. 28, 4 pm – Annual Harshbarger lecture by Melissa Wilde, “Birth Control Battles: How Race and Class Divided American Religion.” Location: 102 Weaver

February 8 – SSR Seminar: “Artificial Intelligence: Deifying Objects in the Ancient Near East”

by Leave a Comment

The Penn State Society for the Study of Religion (SSR) is hosting a seminar on Wed., Feb. 8*, from 12:15-1:15 pm in 240 Borland! Dr. Jen Singletary will present “Artificial Intelligence: Deifying Objects in the Ancient Near East.”

*Because of winter weather, this event was moved from January 25 to February 8.

Dr. Jennifer Singletary is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Penn State. Her research and teaching focus on ancient Near Eastern religions, literature, and languages. Her recent work has explored ancient ideas regarding the superhuman, methods used to communicate with non-obvious beings, relationships among religious specialists, and cognitive approaches to religion and linguistics. A volume she co-edited, Uses and Misuses of Ancient Mediterranean Sources: Erudition, Authority, Manipulation, is forthcoming from Mohr Siebeck in early 2023. Her talk for the SSR, which is based on the monograph she is completing on this topic, examines manufactured objects treated as deities in the ancient Near East.

All are welcome! Refreshments will be served; the Zoom link is available upon request (please email tuh14@psu.edu).

We hope to see you there!

A note on future events:

On Wednesday, Feb. 22, 12:15-1:15 Dr. Amara Solari will present at the Society for the Study of Religion, “Performing the Passion in the Monastery of Santa Clara, Dzidzantún, Yucatán.” 240 Borland and zoom.

On Tuesday, February 28, we continue our Religious Studies Reads program with a discussion of Birth Control Battles: How Race and Class Divided American Religion by Melissa J. Wilde at 10:00 am in 102 Weaver and on zoom. Complimentary copies are available!

Also on Feb. 28, Dr Wilde will give our Harshbarger Lecture in Religious Studies also in 102 Weaver and on zoom.

January 27 – “When Gods and Goddesses Eat: The Daily Ritual of Feeding the Gods in Ancient Mesopotamia”

by Leave a Comment

Religious Studies is pleased to co-sponsor the second talk within the annual Penn State Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies department lecture series, “Material Religion.”

Dr. Nicole Brisch of the University of Copenhagen will give a public lecture titled, “When Gods and Goddesses Eat: The Daily Ritual of Feeding the Gods in Ancient Mesopotamia,” on Friday, Jan. 27, 4-5:15 pm in Weaver 102 at University Park. Please see the attached flyer for more information.

This talk may also be attended remotely via Zoom. To register in advance, please follow this link:

https://psu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUlceuurzgrHNxSwqUMfN4OBwpvah0uWZ5Q

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, or Android:

https://psu.zoom.us/j/91862613168?pwd=YUdSZG8xUTYvOGFKNVRxemZwcUpWQT09
Password: 339240

We hope to see you there!

A note on future events:

On Wednesday, Feb. 8, 12:15-1:15 Dr. Jen Singletary will present “Artificial Intelligence: Deifying Objects in the Ancient Near East.” This will take place in 240 Borland and zoom.

On Wednesday, Feb. 22, 12:15-1:15 Dr. Amara Solari will present at the Society for the Study of Religion, “Performing the Passion in the Monastery of Santa Clara, Dzidzantún, Yucatán.” 240 Borland and zoom.

On Tuesday, February 28, we continue our Religious Studies Reads program with a discussion of Birth Control Battles: How Race and Class Divided American Religion by Melissa J. Wilde at 10:00 am in 102 Weaver and on zoom. Complimentary copies are available!

Also on Feb. 28, Dr Wilde will give our Harshbarger Lecture in Religious Studies also in 102 Weaver and on zoom.

January 13 – “Images of the Prophet Muhammad and the University classroom: a roundtable discussion”

by Leave a Comment

Religious Studies is excited to start the spring semester with a discussion surrounding the recent events at Hamline University where a professor showed a 14th-century image of the Prophet Muhammad in her Art History class and lost her job. The University described her actions as “Islamophobic.”

At this roundtable discussion, we will address the place of Art History and Religious Studies at the University, particularly regarding the teaching of sensitive religious subjects and the responsibilities of the university as a place of free inquiry. Confirmed participants include:

Jonathan E. Brockopp

Professor of History, Religious Studies, and Philosophy

Madhuri Desai
Associate Professor of Art History and Asian Studies

Elizabeth Mansfield

Professor of Art History, Head of the Department of Art History

Zoom webinar link:

https://psu.zoom.us/j/93444285372

We hope that you will join us this Friday, January 13th from 11 am – 12:30 in 102 Weaver! Sponsored by the Penn State Society for the Study of Religion.

 

 

December 2 – “Making Space: The Huqoq Synagogue Mosaic and the Viewing Experience”

by Leave a Comment

Religious Studies is pleased to support the first talk within the annual Penn State Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies department lecture series, “Material Religion.”

Dr. Ra’anan Boustan of Princeton University will give a public lecture titled, “Making Space: The Huqoq Synagogue Mosaic and the Viewing Experience,” on Friday, Dec. 2, 4-5:15 pm in Weaver 102 at University Park. This talk may also be attended remotely via Zoom. To register in advance, please follow this link:

https://psu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMtf-ugqTkqGtKg2XtCGEN5pD2EgxR4Fm8K

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing
information about joining the meeting.

Please see more about the presenter and the attached flyer below for more information. We hope to see you there!

Ra‘anan Boustan is a Research Scholar in the Program in Judaic Studies at Princeton University. Before coming to Princeton, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of History at UCLA. Boustan’s work explores the dynamic intersections between Judaism and other Mediterranean religious traditions in late antiquity, with a special focus on the impact of Christianization on Jewish culture and society. In addition to publishing numerous articles and edited volumes, Boustan is the author of From Martyr to Mystic (2005) and co-author of The Elephant Mosaic Panel in the Synagogue at Huqoq (2017). He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of two international journals, Jewish Studies Quarterly and Studies in Late Antiquity.

November 28th – December 2nd: Tibetan Sand Mandala

by Leave a Comment

PSU Religious Studies invites you to our event next week! We will be live-streaming the making of a Tibetan Sand Mandala, taking place at Penn State Abington. The Venerable Losang Samten will be creating an Amitabha Buddha as a response to the global pandemic. This is a mandala that engages with the themes of death, comfort for the living, healing, and integrating trauma.

Located within the lobby of the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center, the live stream will be accompanied by informational packets regarding Buddhism and sand mandalas, and related activities like mandala coloring pages!

The event will occur over five days: November 28th – December 2nd. It will last throughout the day.

We hope that you stop by!

For more information on sand mandalas and Ven. Losang Samten, please check out this video!

Archives

Society for the Study of Religion Calendar

CAMS Calendar

Most Recent Religious Studies Asks Episode:

This Week:

There are no events for this week.
See all events »

Religious Studies Asks

2023 Harshbarger Lecture

Skip to toolbar