A lecture by Robin Veldman (Texas A&M University), moderated by Obery M. Hendricks (Columbia).

Researchers who are interested in understanding how religion affects Americans’ attitudes toward climate change have typically conceptualized religious influence as emerging from within organized religious traditions. On this view, if religion affects Catholics’ climate attitudes at all, it will be through a specifically Catholic source such as Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ or though the influence of other Catholic parishioners. I suggest that this view may be missing a significant vector for religious influence on attitudes toward climate change: conservative media. Examining the transcripts of the top-rated Fox News program The Glenn Beck Program from 2009 to 2011, I explore how the eponymous host framed climate change in Christian nationalist terms as a threat to the Founding Father’s vision for America. I suggest that ostensibly secular media sources may be an under-researched mechanism by which religion is shaping climate attitudes, one that is worth exploring because of this religiosity’s ability to provide a sense of firm foundations in uncertain times.

A lecture by Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh (Stanford University).

Enslaved people in the United States used materials and evinced cosmological ideas that challenged, expanded, and transcended Western European epistemological understandings of “religion,” even as said practices were presented as foils to the category. As a category deployed by researchers and a range of practices wielded by enslaved practitioners in the U.S. South, conjure names a collection of practices rendered opaque both in terms of its scholarly imprecision and its deliberate obfuscation of bondpeople’s complex inner lives by its practitioners. Often presented as base, violent, and problematically sensual due to its ties to foreign “magic,” outsiders’ renderings of conjure served as justification for American enslavement and masked the violence of slaveholding religiosity, while reifying the one-dimensionality of “slaves” in American discourses. At the same time, this historical racist stereotyping and vilification of bondpeople’s religions has often yielded a historiographical reluctance to theorize the ways religion and violence intersected in the religious productions and understandings of the enslaved. The result is often an equally one-dimensional rendering of enslaved communities. Reflecting upon the “dangerous magic” of categories like conjure in the study of religion and slavery, the presentation examines what violent practices reveal about intimate and communal conflict in the lives of southern enslaved people and the limitations of methodological categories when impeded by centuries of epistemic and historical violence. Through an examination of the case of Josephine, an enslaved woman accused of poisoning her slaveholders and killing their infant child, I explore the ways bondwomen weaponized ritual knowledge and racialized fears of Black women’s ties to harming protocols to respond to gendered forms of violence in the slavery era.

A book talk with Josef Sorett (Columbia, Religion), Barbara Savage (UPenn), Brad Braxton (St. Luke’s School), and Nyasha Junior (Temple)

This book brings together an interdisciplinary roster of scholars and practitioners to analyze the politics of sexuality within Black churches and the communities they serve. In essays and conversations, leading writers reflect on how Black churches have participated in recent discussions about issues such as marriage equality, reproductive justice, and transgender visibility in American society. They consider the varied ways that Black people and groups negotiate the intersections of religion, race, gender, and sexuality across historical and contemporary settings.

Individually and collectively, the pieces included in this book shed light on the relationship between the cultural politics of Black churches and the broader cultural and political terrain of the United States. Contributors examine how churches and their members participate in the formal processes of electoral politics as well as how they engage in other processes of social and cultural change. They highlight how contemporary debates around marriage, gender, and sexuality are deeply informed by religious beliefs and practices.

Through a critically engaged interdisciplinary investigation, The Sexual Politics of Black Churches develops an array of new perspectives on religion, race, and sexuality in American culture.

A panel with Jane Bennett, John Modern, and Alda Balthrop-Lewis. Moderated by Branka Arsic.

Thoreau’s life and work provide a productive entry point into a discussion of religion and climate. Alongside his own curiosities surrounding religion, the immanent, and the transcendent, his legacy within environmentalism and climate studies has often been harnessed in ways that approximate or play upon the sense of a spiritual or spirited conviction. Where is “religion” in—and for—Thoreau? And how, if at all, should it be understood in relation to the environmental movement and contemporary climate activism?

A lecture by Malcolm Gaskill (University of East Anglia, UK), moderated by Julie Stone Peters (Columbia, English).

In the late 1640s and early 50s strange things began to happen in the Massachusetts township of Springfield. As tensions rose, rumours of witchcraft spread, and the community became tangled in a web of anxiety and suspicion, fear and recrimination. This lecture tells the story of Hugh and Mary Parsons, a troubled married couple at the eye of the storm, and explores the uncertain relationship between the theory and practice of witch-beliefs, as they appeared in one particular historical case-study.

A lecture by Catherine Wanner (Penn State). Moderated by Valentina Izmirlieva (Columbia).

Religion is pivotal to how the relationship between the Russian and Ukrainian peoples is understood. This talk offers a comparison of religious affiliation prior to the war and the spate of complications that have been introduced since the invasion.

A lecture by Starhawk (witch, peace activist, and ecofeminist).

For over forty years, Starhawk has been a key figure in movements cultivating engaged approaches to magic and ecofeminism. While her work is situated outside the mainstream of academic discourse, it often speaks directly to the conceptual framings of secular modernity and public life. In this talk, Starhawk brings her work and experience to bear on a crucial topic in these times: the difference between magic and “magical thinking”—the rampant denial, conspiracy theories, and general irrationality swamping society today.

With Elizabeth Kolbert (author), moderated by Mark Taylor (Columbia, Religion).

Elizabeth Kolbert’s Pulitzer Prize for The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History established her reputation as today’s most important and influential science writer for the general public. Exploring caves, underwater worlds, tropical rain forests, frozen Antarctica, and the heavens above, she brings back dire warnings about impending catastrophes and the urgent need to respond before it is too late.

In this event, Mark C. Taylor, who teaches the philosophy of religion at Columbia, will be in discussion with Kolbert about her personal background and long experience as a science writer. What are the most critical threats to human life as well as the survival of countless other species? How is the war on science to be understood? Can attitudes and policies change fast enough to respond effectively? And are there any technological solutions to this unprecedented existential threat?

A panel with Lisa Ross, Magnus Fiskesjo, and Ajinur Setiwaldi. Moderated by Andrew J. Nathan.

What’s happening in and beyond the camps in Xinjiang make occasional headlines here in the United States. But what should an extended discussion focus on? Newspaper accounts often frame the atrocities in relation to “Muslim minorities,” or the question as one of “freedom of religion.” Is this apt? If not—or if not wholly—how and why? To what extent do matters of race or culture also play a role? And how can we understand what’s happening today in historical perspective?

This event is co-sponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.

A panel with Elizabeth Perez (UC Santa Barbara), Graham Jones (MIT), and Yvonne Chireau (Swarthmore).

In what ways did colonial powers deploy the language of magic as a tool of domination? To what extent are magic and modernity mutually constitutive? How have stereotypes of superstition and the occult continued to mark (post)colonial subjects and minority communities? And, perhaps, what is to be done with respect to a rearticulation and reassertion of what gets cast as magic; can magic be decolonized?

A lecture by Molly Burhans (GoodLands). Moderated by Manan Ahmed (Columbia, History) .

Today, technology and science allow us to measure and track the state of our environment. We now understand the extent of damage caused by human activity and the critical situation in which we find ourselves. Civilization's continuation will be enabled not by our collective regression but by using our best technology, most advanced science, novel collaborations, and creativity to reframe our relationship with nature.

We have everything we need. We just need to be more aware of what we have, be aware of its current impact, and understand its problems and possibilities. Once we understand that, we can fully realize our property's powerful potential to shape the landscapes of our future—and our power to choose whether we will use it to create the just, flourishing future all humanity deserves. We have a choice. Choose to #MakeLandWorkForGood.

A panel with Randall Balmer, Ben Carrington, and Samantha Sheppard. Moderated by Frank Guridy.

What work do gestures do in public culture? How does the body signal convictions and commitment? Such questions have been especially important in recent years when it comes to the intersections of racial justice, social protest, and sports. By “taking a knee,” the boundaries between religious, political, and social forms of action are purposefully blurred. In this event, IRCPL brings together leading experts on sports, race, and religion to discuss the intersections of protest and piety in contemporary and historical perspective.

A lecture by Ailton Krenak (philosopher, writer, and indigenous leader).

In this talk, the indigenous thinker and philosopher Ailton Krenak urges us to take seriously the value of the indigenous philosophies of the Americas when it comes to confronting the climate change crisis. The author of Ideas to Postpone the End of the World and A Vida Não Útil (Life is Not Useful), here Krenak offers a trenchant critique of the extent to which an understanding of the earth as a resource to be exploited has taken hold in the wake of globalization, as well as how the logic of consumption is enabled by the “cognitive abyss”—our inability to listen and to see what is happening to the world.

A lecture by Silvia Federici (Hofstra University), moderated by Jack Halberstam (ISSG)

One of the most worrisome phenomena of our time is the return, in various countries, of true witch-hunts, a persecution that, like in the past, affects particularly women. As the same time, we are witnessing a new interest in witches among feminists worldwide, as the figure of the witch is taken as the symbol of anti-patriarchal rebellion. In her presentation, Silvia Federici will discuss the significance of these different developments, and the strategies that feminist and other social movements are organizing to end the persecution of “witches.”

A lecture by Darryl Li (University of Chicago), moderated by Lila Abu-Lughod (Columbia, Anthropology).

Two decades into the Global War on Terror -- as well as of standard liberal and left critiques -- the animating specter of "jihadism" remains as obfuscatory and violent as ever. This lecture attempts to clarify the stakes and the harms of this invidious category. Believers call many things jihad -- from personal struggles for self-improvement to armed violence -- and debate over proper uses of the word. The concept of jihadism, however, designates only a subset of these many diverse activities. Yet the very act of delineating which invocations of jihad count as jihadism and which do not is an intervention into a debate among believers using criteria from outside the tradition. Jihadism inevitably gives rise to the implicit residual category, of "non-jihadist" jihads. What can we learn from this (non-)category and what are its stakes for thinking about radical politics more generally?

A conversation with Sergio Beltrán-García and Patricia Eunji Kim. Moderated by Marianne Hirsch.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage lives and livelihoods (especially of the most precarious, underserved communities) across the world. Traditional modes of mourning and commemoration are dangerous and ill-advised. How then, might communities and individuals grieve their losses? In this conversation, Sergio Beltrán-García (artist and activist) and Patricia Eunji Kim (art historian and curator) discuss the memorials, strategies, and stakes of commemorating the pandemic. If we dare to memorialize the pandemic dead, we must commit to unveiling the systemic inequities that left them so exposed. In other words, a memorial to the pandemic must also confront the very issues of labor, race, gender, and access that both created and exacerbated the conditions of vulnerability.

A panel with Eric Fassin and Maboula Soumahoro. Moderated by Emmanuelle Saada.

In recent months, French President Macron and members of his government as well as several groups of intellectuals and academics have sounded an alarm about the influence of supposed “Islamo-gauchisme” within French universities — a highly controversial term used to accuse left-leaning intellectuals of justifying Islamism and even terrorism. These attacks on an imagined “islamo-leftism” are often paired with a denunciation of post-colonial and decolonial studies, gender and sexuality studies, intersectionality, and studies of race and racism, deemed by critics to be political or ideological rather than scientific, and often maligned as an American import.

Invited panelists in this conversation will provide some political and academic context and offer definitions of the terms and arguments deployed in these attacks. What is really at stake here? How can these arguments be understood in today’s French political landscape? What do they reveal about the deeper transformations underway in the social sciences in France? How are they related to the fast-paced transformation of the role and organization of the University in French society? Why are post-colonial studies, race and gender studies, and “intersectionality” seen as “American imports” threatening the French “republican” model?

A book launch with with Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Sarah Dees, Osman Balkan, and Candace Lukasik. Moderated by Courtney Bender.

At Home and Abroad bridges the divide in the study of American religion, law, and politics between domestic and international, bringing together diverse and distinguished authors from religious studies, law, American studies, sociology, history, and political science to explore interrelations across conceptual and political boundaries. They bring into sharp focus the ideas, people, and institutions that provide links between domestic and foreign religious politics and policies. Contributors break down the categories of domestic and foreign and inquire into how these taxonomies are related to other axes of discrimination, asking questions such as: What and who counts as “home” or “abroad,” how and by whom are these determinations made, and with what consequences?

A lecture by Nusrat Chowdhury (Amherst College).

In this talk, Dr. Chowdhury takes the birth centennial of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of independent Bangladesh, as a point of entry in exploring the generative potential of mimicry in contemporary democracies. The repertoire of signs around the figure of Mujib around this historical moment (2021 marking the country’s 50th anniversary of Bangladesh) allows a vantage point from which to understand Bangladeshi political culture that came into sharp focus with the condensation of corporeal and symbolic energies around the replication of the leader’s likeness. The talk centers on the English-language novel, The Black Coat by Neamat Imam (2013), which pivots on the theme of impersonation and ends with the ongoing religious opposition to anthropomorphic reproductions. Chowdhury argues that the compulsion to mimic via statues, photographs, works of art, or reenactment ceremonies carries within it an ambivalent and generative politics. In every act of mimesis there is both a promise and a menace. Modern sovereign power manages this uncertainty through the specular and the spectacular, or what I describe as “monumentalised reproducibility.”

A panel with Susannah Crockford (Ghent University) and Will Sommer (The Daily Beast). Moderated by Elizabeth Castelli (Barnard, Religion).

“Apocalypse Pending: Religion, Politics, and Social Media” explores the growing popularity of conspiracy thinking in our current moment and its place in the history of religious movements, particularly in the US context. It considers how new media technologies have made it possible for the dissemination of such thinking on a scale unimaginable in the past, how the moral panic it generates is impacting social and political life worldwide, and whether there are measures available to control its spread or mitigate its effects.

This third panel in the series will focus on the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6th, including the prominent appeal to ‘new age’ symbolism by such figures as the ‘Q Shaman.

A workshop with Murtala Ibrahim, Brian Larkin, Abdullahi Shehu, Mamadou Diouf, Matthew Engelke, and M. Sani Umar.

This workshop examines the relation between religion and public space focusing on Muslim movements in Northern Nigeria. It approaches the question in three main ways. First it brings to the foreground the many and diverse ways Muslim movements assert their presence over public space and the response by other movements and by the state. Second, it shows – in contradistinction to contemporary arguments – that these issues are not new and that control of public space has long been an aspect of West African religious life: from the masquerade tradition, to the rise of mass Sufi movements in the 1950s, to the emergence of African Independent Churches in the 1960s and 1970s. Finally, while we recognize these actions emerge from deep traditions within religious movements they also reveal a common religious ecology. Different religious movements – often bitter enemies – end up developing practices that borrow from each other even while they are in competition. We seek to draw out the broader nature of this mixed religious ecology.

This is a discussion-based workshop and depends upon participants reading the pre-circulated papers ahead of time.

A panel with Julie Byrne (Hofstra University), Jonathan Calvillo (Boston University), and Mary Anne Case (University of Chicago). Moderated by Katherine Franke (Columbia Law).

The recent appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court generated a good deal of media coverage on her Catholic faith, especially her associations with the Catholic charismatic renewal. Barrett, though, is only one of six justices on the court who identify as Catholic, and as long ago as 2008 the political scientist Barbara Perry referred to the Supreme Court as “the Catholic Court.” Yet what might this mean, and how—if at all—can we trace the influences of Catholicism on judicial reasoning? The aim of this panel is to bring together scholars working across a range of fields—including law, history, critical race theory, and gender studies—to reflect on this question in relation to the Court’s recent past, present, and future.

A conversation with Karla Holloway (Duke), Nyle Fort (Princeton), and Rhon Manigault-Bryant (Williams College). Moderated by Josef Sorett (Columbia, Religion)

Arguments about black death abound. In certain iterations, the long story of black life in the Americas is one defined by the looming prospect of premature, untimely, or even primordial death; from the status of “social death” under the terms of chattel slavery, to the contemporary struggles for life in the face of state (and state-sanctioned) violence unto death. A variety of critics, in this tradition, have observed some variation on the theme of what the poet Claudia Rankine surmised in her 2015 book, Citizen: “the condition of black life is one of mourning.” Yet, as Rankine’s own work suggests, the conditions of black living have been animated by a robust set of artistic, cultural, political, and spiritual performances that speak to an abundance of methods for flourishing, and for affirming the truth of the now iconic hashtag #BlackLivesMatter—before, after, and in the midst of death.