We're currently planning for Fall 2024. As events are confirmed, you can find details on this page. Explore last year's events here.
Fall 2024
Israel/Palestine in World Religions: Whose Promised Land?
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
4:30 p.m., Rehm Library, Smith Hall
The struggle over Israel/Palestine is not just another contest by competing nationalisms or an instance of geopolitical competition. It is also about control of sacred territory that involves local Jews, Muslims, and Christians as well as worldwide faith communities, each with their own interests and stake in what transpires. This book presents the multiple positions within the great monotheistic traditions and also demonstrates that secular discourses in the public square concerning ownership privileges, historical precedence, political rights, and justice that have allegedly replaced religious claims actually coexist and often complement the theological. It thereby uniquely explores the century-long tangle of secular and theological debates about Israel’s legitimacy. Whether readers support a Jewish state or are resolutely opposed, this well-reasoned and innovative book will contribute to a nuanced and informed understanding of a festering issue that has entered its second century on the international agenda. It will contribute to an appreciation for how and why the struggle for the legitimacy of a Jewish state has been successful despite determined opposition.
S. Ilan Troen is Lopin Professor of Modern History, emeritus at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, Stoll Family Professor in Israel Studies, emeritus at Brandeis University, USA, and founding director of the Israel Studies centers at both institutions. He is the Founding Editor of the journal Israel Studies and the 2023 recipient of the Association for Israel Studies “Lifetime Achievement Award.”
There’s Something About Mary: Devotion, Pilgrimage & Belonging in Colonial & Post-Colonial India
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
4:30 p.m., Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Throughout history, the fortunes of political organizations have often been linked to the cosmic patronage of gods and saints. Yet some saintly devotions begin and flourish despite disinterest from the state; such is the case with a Marian figure of devotion in South India, Our Lady of Vailankanni. Neglected by the colonial state(s), she has in the 20th century become for Indian Catholics a figure of devotion and an icon of their belonging as a minority in India.
Brent Howitt Otto, S.J. is the McFarland Center’s Global Catholicism Predoctoral Fellow and a historian of modern South Asia.
Every Day Is Earth Day: Understanding the Long-Term Impacts Of April 22, 1970
Monday, October 7, 2024
4:30 p.m., Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Dr. Daniel Hungerman, Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame, considers the history of Earth Day and presents evidence showing how actions on the original Earth Day, April 22, 1970, led to transformed communities years and even decades later. The lesson is clear: regular people, acting in small and disorganized groups, can come together to make a real and lasting difference on the environment.
A Phi Beta Kappa Lecture co-sponsored with the Department of Economics & Accounting.
Sea, Sand, and Rocks: Regarding the Social-Materiality of Time
Thursday, November 14, 2024
4:30 p.m., Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Dr. Mayra Rivera is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Religion and Latinx Studies at Harvard University. Rivera works at the intersections between the philosophy of religion, literature, and theories of coloniality, race, and gender. Drawing from Caribbean decolonial thought, this lecture will propose that climate change calls for rethinking our conceptions of time.
Deuteronomy, Trauma, and Politics
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
4:30 p.m., Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Moses’ farewell discourses in the book of Deuteronomy present a program for constituting Israel as a ‘nation’ in political terms and, at the same time, as the ‘people of God’. In this talk, Dr. Dominik Markl SJ, Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies at Innsbruck University, Austria, will reflect on how trauma theory can help us understand both the political and religious dimensions of Deuteronomy. He will also offer some reflections on how trauma, politics, and religion are still intertwined in our contemporary world.
Part of the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.