Years after critiques of the understanding of religions as texts to be interpreted, decoded, or translated, the notion of religion as belief-based still looms large in public discussion, teaching about religion, and policymaking. What are the remaining implications for the study of religion in our classrooms and civic spaces? In what ways are narratives, dispositions, bodily practices, and material culture overlooked—and with what consequences for American religion? Join IRCPL for a conversation with scholars and policy practitioners about the pitfalls and possibilities of understanding the category of religion in terms of belief.

American responses to the rise of AI have been mixed: is Artificial Intelligence our friend, or our foe? Hope for the future, or our undoing? IRCPL's "American Religion is…Human" program offers new ways of thinking about AI, humanity, and religion, going past the utopian-dystopian binaries that our public discourse is stuck in. We will think together about how the rise of potentially destabilizing AI technology might intersect productively with current efforts to rethink humanistic pedagogy and scholarship. Join IRCPL as we interrogate assumptions about religion’s “human-ness” and considerations of hierarchy and supremacy raised by the notion of religion as an innately human concept.

Islamophobia has posed a serious threat to religious freedom and human rights in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. This event will bring together experts and civil society leaders to explore effective strategies and foster international collaboration in combating Islamophobia. The goal is to serve as a catalyst for change, inspiring a region-wide commitment to protecting the dignity and rights of Muslim communities.

IRCPL’s Religion and Climate series is animated by calls to reimagine human relationships with and responsibilities to the environment in an age of planetary crisis. As the impact of climate change is increasingly but unevenly felt, religion is emerging as a site of epistemological doubt, struggle, and possibility. This series will explore the cosmological underpinnings that shape diverse understandings of the environment and examine how religious subjects react to and act upon the ecological upheavals they face, challenging exclusively technocratic or secular responses to the climate crisis. The series consists of four events structured around the elements—Earth, Water, Fire, and Air—each of which takes one element as a lens for engaging with specific climate struggles and the religious debates they ignite. Join IRCPL for an in-person conversation on the theme of “Water” with Naveeda Khan (Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University) and Jinah Kim (History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University), who will discuss their work on water, riverine ecosystems, and religion in South Asia. The conversation will explore cosmologies of water, religious struggles taking place around rivers, and the complexities of taking action to prevent environmental destruction. The event will be introduced and moderated by Raffaella Taylor-Seymour (IRCPL, Columbia University).

Patriarchal violence in the home has a long and profoundly troubling history. Recent and contemporary American law and culture have made great strides in identifying and responding to acts of violence in the home. But progress has been slow, and slowing down in the face of new mechanisms and technologies of abuse. In order to understand and respond to current modes and forms of domestic violence, we need to look back—way back to the English Middle Ages—to see the practical and ideological origins of domestic violence. Getting into the core religious and social beliefs that medieval people held about women's rights to autonomy and safety in the home sheds an uncomfortable but important light on social values and jurisprudence since the 1960s.

Monsters have always overflowed with meaning, crying out for interpretation. But some periods become obsessed with monsters: early modern Europe was one such monster moment, and the contemporary United States seems to be another. In the early modern period monsters could be individuals—people or animals with congenital anomalies—or self-reproducing species. In both cases their differences from their non-monstrous counterparts were easily visible, evoking emotions ranging from horror or terror to wonder, and the frameworks for interpreting them were primarily religious; they could be signs of divine disapproval or emblems of God’s power and creativity. In contrast, modern monsters are almost always species: humanoid ones like zombies and vampires, who may not be immediately recognizable and who evoke emotions of fear or horror, and non-human species, who can be benign. Moralized interpretations have largely replaced theological ones. These premodern/ modern contrasts and connections are the starting point for thinking about how monsters magnetize attention and what the current monster moment says about who we are now.

What happens when the mask melds to the face? Why do we love becoming monstrous? How is that done in horror films? Come watch Emmy-award winning artist Josh Turi work in real time to build a character for us. Bring your questions and be ready to face a terrifying makeover! Joshua Turi is a 3-time Emmy award winning make-up artist and prosthetic designer. Located in Northern New Jersey, he and his company, Designs to Deceive, have been supplying specialty services to the entertainment industry for over 3 decades.  His work can be seen in “Jules” (Bleecker Street), “Knock at the Cabin” (M. Night Shyamalan), “Dr. Death” Season 1 and 2 (Peacock), “White House Plumbers” (HBO), “Mr. Robot” (USA), and much more.  Josh spent 15 years as the Make Up Key, and Lab Supervisor for Saturday Night Live (NBC), and 6 years as the Prosthetic Make up Dept Head for Marvel TV (Netflix). These shows included “Punisher,” “Daredevil,” “Iron Fist,” “Luke Cage,” “Jessica Jones,”  and “The Defenders.” His work can also be seen on Broadway. His prosthetics are used in the shows “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Lion King,” and various shows at Lincoln Center.

IRCPL’s Climate and Religion series is animated by calls to reimagine human relationships with and responsibilities to the environment in an age of planetary crisis. As the impact of climate change is increasingly but unevenly felt, religion is emerging as a site of epistemological doubt, struggle, and possibility. This series will explore the cosmological underpinnings that shape diverse understandings of the environment and examine how religious subjects react to and act upon the ecological upheavals they face, challenging exclusively technocratic or secular responses to the climate crisis.

The series will begin with four events structured around the elements—Earth, Fire, Water, and Air—each of which will take one element as a lens for engaging with specific climate struggles and the religious debates they ignite. In the first talk, Eleanor Johnson will engage with the ever-shifting concept of “waste” from Genesis to the late Middle Ages, showing how land matters to premodern ecosystemic thought in England.  

Have you noticed that our monsters are creeping closer to us?  That vampires attend high school (constantly), that werewolves seduce us with their moral anguish (as much as their glamorous hunky good looks)?  But what about zombies? Does narrowing the gap, as TV series IZombie does, humanize zombies or recognize our own monstrosity?  Should we be forgiving or horrified? Sarah Lauro  (University of Tampa), author of The Transatlantic Zombie: Slavery, Rebellion, and Living Death (2015) in conversation with Angela Zito, co-Director of the CRM, will investigate the politics and passions of zombie creep today.

"An Indigenous love story between an incompetent man and his dog," Dead Bird Hearts offers a story of “love, loss and life with its own quirky spin.” Join IRCPL for an in-person screening of the award-winning short film, followed by a conversation between filmmaker/writer Ryan RedCorn (Osage) and Professor Tiffany Hale.

Registration required.

Samson Occom: Radical Hospitality in the Native Northeast
by Ryan Carr

The Mohegan-Brothertown minister Samson Occom (1723–1792) was a prominent political and religious leader of the Indigenous peoples of present-day New York and New England, among whom he is still revered today. An international celebrity in his day, Occom rose to fame as the first Native person to be ordained a minister in the New England colonies. In the 1770s, he helped found the nation of Brothertown, where Coastal Algonquian families seeking respite from colonialism built a new life on land given to them by the Oneida Nation. Occom was a highly productive author, probably the most prolific Native American writer prior to the late nineteenth century. Most of Occom’s writings, however, have been overlooked, partly because many of them are about Christian themes that seem unrelated to Native life.

In this groundbreaking book, Ryan Carr argues that Occom’s writings were deeply rooted in Indigenous traditions of hospitality, diplomacy, and openness to strangers. From Occom’s point of view, evangelical Christianity was not a foreign culture; it was a new opportunity to practice his people’s ancestral customs. Carr demonstrates Occom’s originality as a religious thinker, showing how his commitment to Native sovereignty shaped his reading of the Bible. By emphasizing the Native sources of Occom’s evangelicalism, this book offers new ways to understand the relations of Northeast Native traditions to Christianity, colonialism, and Indigenous self-determination.

Registration required.

“Water and Oil” is a photography exhibit that demonstrates the effects of climate change on Iran, with a particular focus on the intersection of women’s rights and environmentalism. These photographers depict a landscape that is teetering toward water bankruptcy while also showcasing alternative models of caring for the environment through the rituals of the diasporic Afro-Iranian communities in Balochistan and the islands off the Strait of Hormuz. Please join IRCPL for an opening reception, with remarks from Professor Aziza Shanazarova (Department of Religion, Columbia) and Professor Yasmine Ergas (SIPA, Columbia). Light refreshments will be provided. 

On Zoom

Speakers: Lydia Chilton (Columbia University); Philip Butler (Iliff School of Theology);  Timothy Beal (Case Western Reserve University)

Moderator: Lydia Liu (Columbia University)

Cosponsors:  Center for Religion and Media at New York University 

“AI is the Scariest Beast Ever Created.” And “The AI Monster Awakens.” These are just two recent headlines (in Newsweek and the Seattle Times, respectively) following on the heels of Chat GPT. But the monster imaginary, and monster theory, has long informed our perceptions of artificial intelligence. As part of the IRCPL/CRM series on “Monsters,” this panel at Columbia explores the changing role of artificial intelligence in relation to its human creators.

Speaker: Lauren Mancia (Brooklyn College)

How can we uncover the lived religious experiences of distant historical subjects, like medieval monks from 1,000 years ago? This conversation-performance-experience will investigate this problem. Together at The Met Cloisters, we will explore potential answers to this question, first through traditional scholarly theoretical and historical engagement with primary sources and art works in the museum. Then we will shift methodologies to experiment with performance and participatory experience (for both presenter and audience alike). Space is limited, so please register in advance —no medieval, monastic, Christian, or religious familiarity required.

On Zoom

Speakers: Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton); Ruth Ben-Ghiat (New York University); Jemar Tisby (Simmons College)

Moderator: Tsveta Petrova (Columbia University)

Cosponsors:  Harriman Institute, Department of Religion 

For well over a decade, journalists and academics have been tracing the rise of Viktor Orbán and his particular brand of “illiberal democracy” in Hungary. So, too, have right-wing activists and politicians here in the United States. As last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas made clear, Orbán is something of a hero, and even playbook-setter for the American Right. A crucial element of this shared approach to populist politics is the appeal to Christianity. The aim of this panel at IRCPL is to explore and lay bare the project that Orbán is enacting, and provide comparative analysis with dynamics in the United States.

On Zoom

Speakers: Rachel Wagner (Ithaca College) and W. Scott Poole (Charleston College)

Moderator: Angela Zito (New York University)

Cosponsor:  NYU Center for Religion & Media

Join us, on Wednesday, October 25, 5:30-7:00pm EST, for a conversation between Ithaca College’s, Rachel Wagner, and Charleston College’s, W. Scott Poole, about the monsters we create in America. Wagner’s forthcoming book Cowboy Apocalypse: Religion, Media, Guns explores the horror of our nation’s gun worship. Poole’s Dark Carnivals: Modern Horror and the Origins of American Empire links post- WWII horror films and the violence of our military and cultural empire-building. Moderated by NYU’s Angela Zito. Audience Q & A will follow.

Speaker: Kathryn Lofton (Yale University)

Chair: Sharon Marcus (Columbia University)

Cosponsors: Department of Religion; Department of English and Comparative Literature; Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities.

Sensitivity is a problem and a porthole. It ascribes virtue to scientific instruments and is an epithet for reactivity. It labels physical reality and intuitions, facts and vibes, data scientists and empaths. Reflecting on its religious past, this talk argues for sensitivity’s queer political future.

Registration recommended, but not required.

How does Kafka’s “cynical” story, Researches of a Dog, intersect with Shakespeare’s sad stories of the death of kings? How does each author locate a kind of freedom at the point of a missing link in the constitution of the world presented in each text, a point where the sovereign and the creature encounter one another in, to use Paul Celan’s phrase, the majesty of the absurd?

Astrology is everywhere these days. In our digital age, astrological symbols and concepts have never been more popular, or as diverse in their applications. As ancient divination practices are being actively revived and synthesized with elements of modern philosophy, astronomy, psychology, and alternative spirituality, we are compelled to ask: What does it mean to reproduce classical meanings and metaphysics in modern contexts? How do occult traditions of the past align with contemporary social ethics and values? This panel brings three professional astrologers in conversation with a cultural anthropologist to discuss the growing popularity of astrology, considering these and other questions. We will examine the “timeless” nature of astrology while also asking if there are limits to the universality of ancient knowledge systems.

What can Palestine teach us about the global history of race, capital, slavery, and dispossession? What is the relationship between land and colonialism? Moving beyond paradigms of exceptionalism and the confines of the nation-state reveals Palestine as a key site to explore these questions. Tracing the struggle on and over land, this talk reflects on Palestine’s lessons in and with the movement for global racial justice.

How do museum exhibitions about religion shape public understandings of religion and race today? What are some of the challenges and prospects that curators and museum professionals face in “representing religion” to diverse audiences? This event brings Azra Dawood, curator of the exhibit, “City of Faith: Religion, Activism, and Urban Space,” currently on display at the Museum of the City of New York, into conversation with Najam Haider, Professor of Religion at Barnard College. Following a presentation on the exhibit, which has a particular focus on South Asian communities in New York, they will address these questions and more, before Q&A from the audience.

A conversation with Kaiama L. Glover (Barnard College) and Mona Oraby (Howard University). This event is prompted by the publication of Oraby's coauthored graphic nonfiction book, A Universe of Terms: Religion in Visual Metaphor, which is based on a project she first convened and edited on The Immanent Frame, a digital platform hosted by the Social Science Research Council. Using A Universe of Terms as a point of departure, Glover and Oraby will discuss the boundaries of research, including the expected products of scholarship, as well as the role of the digital humanities in bridging public-facing work with specialist interests. Glover and Oraby, both long-time editors of born-digital projects, will also engage in a conversation about how editorial experiences shape their scholarly praxis.

Twelver Shiʿa Muslims form the largest religious minority in Pakistan where they occupy a precarious position in relation to a Sunni-Islamic majority state. Despite the threat of marginalization and violence, finding new avenues through which to practice publicity has become central to Shiʿi groups’ demands for recognition. Seizing on an increase in smartphone ownership, combined events-organizers and digital collectives known as “azadari networks” use existing platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to publicize Shiʿi faith. These networks are recognized by their audiences as experts in “liveness”, that sees technology contribute to the reception of divine presence or lend affective significance to existing rituals.

Building on ethnographic research among Shiʿi videographers, this paper examines the qualities of liveness that have long been desired in Shiʿi media. This can be traced to the availability of sound amplification, the rare appearance of Shiʿi orators on broadcast television in the 1960s, and the adoption of home recording technology in the 1980s that allowed ritual events, processions, or regular commemorative gatherings known as majlis to be recorded and reproduced on audio- and videocassette. Yet since the launch of Facebook Live in 2016 and the ensuring popularity of livestreamed events, reform scholars, popular orators, and audiences have debated the ethics of liveness, particularly whether the mediation of co-presence constitutes an appropriate performance of belief. Contrary to Shiʿi discourse on the glory or trauma of past events, these debates address what the Shi’i Muslim present should look, sound, and feel like in an era of public life characterized by outrage, heightened sentiment, and religious controversy.

The recent Dobbs v. Jackson decision puts the function of race in settling the matter of reproductive rights (to say nothing of reproductive justice) on display, showing the two to be crucial in establishing the legitimating reason and unreason of the decision. This talk considers how the convergence of race and reproduction in this decision can be an occasion to examine the enduring tie between the political and theological as manifest in the Supreme Court’s function in US governance. A key source of the court’s decision to overturn Roe and Casey is the sense that preserving those precedents is inconsistent with both the Constitution and the United States’ “history and tradition of ordered liberty.” Taking the dependence of the court’s ruling on the significance of order to conceptions of liberty, this talk shows how the afterlife of racial slavery and reproduction’s entanglement in the decision reveals a political theological sense of epistemological and existential order, and not only sovereignty, that is foundational to the court’s authority, power, and function.

In this event, co-organized with and held at the Museum of the City of New York, curator Azra Dawood will be joined in conversation by leading scholars of religion in New York City, exploring the intersections of the public and private, the political, secular and sacred. In conjunction with an exhibit at MCNY that launches November 16.