Online or at Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
Yasmin El Shazly will discuss the importance of ancestor worship in Deir el-Medina—particularly of Amenhotep I and his mother Ahmose-Nefertari. Prominently featured in homes, artwork, and tombs, these two royal figures held important positions in the Egyptian "hierarchy of being" and exerted great influence over the daily lives of Deir el-Medina residents.
This session will be a discussion among presenters reflecting upon the insights shared throughout the series. In addition to identifying themes and throughlines among sessions, we will return to the overarching questions that framed this collaboration: What does the academic study of religion teach us about the complex histories and legacies of slavery? How can a deeper understanding of the roles of religion enhance our commitment to reparative action in our contemporary times?
On March 6, Tracey Hucks, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Africana Religious Studies and Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will interview Dain Perry, a direct descendant of the DeWolfs of New England, the largest single slave-trading family in the United States, and his wife, Constance Perry, to discuss the reparative and healing work that they engage in as they tour and present throughout the United States.
Memorial Church at Harvard University, 1 Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Join members of the Harvard Chaplains and other Harvard religious leaders to honor Dr. King and Coretta Scott King and reflect on how their legacy remains relevant today.
On February 27, Terrence L. Johnson, Professor of African American Religious Studies, will examine how the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois and Toni Morrison establish a framework for exploring the role of religion and ethics in grappling with the memory and history of African enslavement.
Building beyond the work of the 2022 Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Report, Harvard Divinity School will host a series of online conversations with members of the HDS faculty to engage these vital questions from their expertise within the study of religion. Expand your understanding of the history and continuing implications of slavery in service of advancing racial justice in our own time and context.
On February 13, Dan McKanan, Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity, will consider the stories of many of Harvard Divinity School’...
This conversation is the first of the six-part series Religion and the Legacies of Slavery | A Series of Public Online Conversations. The featured speakers are David F. Holland, John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History at HDS, and Kathryn Gin Lum, Associate Professor in Religious Studies at Stanford University.
It has long been a historical truism that, in the early modern West, pseudoscientific racial hierarchies replaced religious hierarchies as the...
Building beyond the work of the 2022 Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Report, Harvard Divinity School will host a series of online conversations with members of the HDS faculty to engage these vital questions from their expertise within the study of religion. Expand your understanding of the history and continuing implications of slavery in service of advancing racial justice in our own time and context.
On February 27, Terrence L. Johnson, Professor of African American Religious Studies, will examine how the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois and Toni Morrison establish a framework...
The after effects of the January 6 insurrection continue to reverberate across America. Since that fateful and disturbing day, pushbacks against the teaching of race in America, abortion rollbacks, and Covid denialism have swept across the country. What has been the role of evangelical Christianity in fueling these issues?
Professor Anthea Butler's lecture will explore the historical antecedents of Evangelical beliefs and political action leading up to today’s troubling times, and the prospects for the future of religion, peace and political action in America.
Ryan Crocker, former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon, will share his unique perspective on Afghanistan and offer insight into the implications of the 2021 Taliban takeover for the country and the region at large.
Initiation – In Love Solidarity is a choreographic narrative exploring the embodiment of the Middle Passage, and the resilience and evolving identities of women in the African diaspora. A film component of the work was created at historic sites in New England related to the transatlantic slave trade and emancipation. The imagery of the cowrie shell is present throughout, chosen as an emblem of the transformative identity of the Black female body.
Four hundred years have passed since the Wampanoag Nation encountered English immigrants who settled on the shores of their land at Patuxet—now called Plymouth. Harvard University has had a relationship with the Wampanoag and other local tribal communities for nearly as long, establishing the Harvard Indian College on campus in 1655. In acknowledgment of this early history, the Peabody Museum has asked Wampanoag tribal members to reflect on collections spanning...
This panel discussion with two leading Jewish cultural historians examines the remarkable contributions and tragic death of the great actor, theater director, playwright, visionary of Yiddish culture, and Jewish activist Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels (1890–1948).
Born Shloyme Vovsi in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils, Latvia), the genius actor Mikhoels became the chief director of the State Jewish Theater in Moscow. During World War II, he served as chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Mikhoels’ assassination by Stalin’s secret police, although officially billed as an accident,...
This panel explores the life and legacy of the chess genius Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995).
Born in Kuokkala, Grand Duchy of Finland (now Repino, Russian Federation), Botvinnik became Soviet Chess Champion in 1931 and World Chess Champion in 1948. One of the 20th century’s dominant chess players and teachers, Botvinnik trained generations of Soviet chess masters, among them world champions Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, and Vladimir Kramnik.
University Teaching Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA 02138
For most of history, humans expressed ethical ideas through stories, and of all these the story of Adam and Eve has been perhaps the most powerful... Read more about Adam and Eve