Past Events



Destabilizing Religion in the Medieval Middle East

A Boardman Symposium
Feb 2, 2022 - Mar 23, 2022 at -



Nov. 11 Colloquium

Rupa Pillai (Penn, Asian American Studies): "More than an Altar: Faith, Culture, and Resilience of Asian/American Business Owners in Philadelphia during COVID-19"
Rupa Pillai
Nov 11, 2021 at



Oct. 21 Curriculum

Melissa Sanchez (Penn, English/GSWS/FQTC): Queer Faith: Reading Promiscuity and Race in the Secular Love Tradition
Melissa E. Sanchez
Oct 21, 2021 at -

Putting premodern theology and poetry in dialogue with contemporary theory and politics, Melissa E. Sanchez’s Queer Faith reassesses the commonplace view that a modern…



Oct. 7 Colloquium

Harun Küçük (Penn, HSS): "Not Caring about Science and Religion"
Harun Küçük
Oct 7, 2021 at -

What would it mean to talk about science and religion without talking just about people talking about science and religion? This talk will attempt to reach some general conclusions based on a historical…



Sept. 23 Colloquium

Niki Kasumi Clements (Rice): “True Confessions: Foucault in the Archives” (On Zoom)
Niki Kasumi Clements
Sep 23, 2021 at -

Why was Foucault so interested in Christianity? And why is Foucault’s recently published Confessions of the Flesh (2018/2021) still surprising in its sole emphasis on early Christian texts? How is Foucault’s…



Sept. 16 Colloquium

James Padilioni (Swarthmore): “Were It Not for the Saints: Black Hagiographic Consciousness, a Celebratory Mode of Social Death”
James Padilioni
Sep 16, 2021 at -

While recent Afro-pessimist scholarly discourse has resurrected Orlando Patterson’s heuristic of social death to describe the political ontology of modern Blackness, many of these studies uncritically rely on…



Religious Studies Colloquium: Abdul Manan Bhat, "Prophethood in Poetic Wisdom: Beginnings, Adab and Muhammad Iqbal"

Apr 22, 2021 at -

Religious Studies PhD student Abdul Manan Bhat will present his work "Prophethood in Poetic Wisdom: Beginnings, Adab and Muhammad Iqbal." 



Purity Politics and the Problem of Jewish Solidarity

Shana Sippy, Centre College
Apr 22, 2021 at -

A talk in the "Jews, Race, and Religion" lecture series.



"Demonology and Popular Piety in Second Temple Judaism and Beyond"

Annette Yoshiko Reed, New York University
Apr 15, 2021 at -

A talk in the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins "Popular Piety" Series.



Religious Studies Colloquium: Joseph Blankholm, "Is There a Secular Tradition? How Religious Studies Can Help Us Understand Secular People”

Joseph Blankholm, University of California-Santa Barbara
Apr 15, 2021 at -

Dr. Joseph Blankholm (University of California, Santa Barbara) will join us to speak on his work in progress, "Is There a Secular Tradition? How Religious Studies Can Help Us Understand Secular People”