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.