Department of Religious Studies
Events
Calendar of Events 2009-2010
- Shrine to the goddess of good fortune, Inokashira Park, Tokyo
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All events are free and open to the public.
September 16, 2009
Would Hell be Unjust?
Tony Edwards, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Pittsburgh
Noon, 2628 Cathedral of Learning
Department of Religious Studies Brown Bag Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Edwards works in the areas of philosophy of religion, theories of religion, and the history of Christian thought.
October 6, 2009
The 1990s Immigrants from the FSU in Israel: Twenty Years Later
Majid Al-Haj, Vice President and Dean of Research, University of Haifa
Noon, 4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Cosponsored by the Jewish Studies Program, Department of Sociology and Center for Russian and East European Studies, with the support of the Giant Eagle Foundation
Dr. Al-Haj is professor of sociology and anthropology and heads the Center for Multiculturalism and Educational Research at the University of Haifa. Recent among his numerous publications are Education, Empowerment, and Control: The Case of the Arabs in Israel (SUNY Press, 1995) and Immigration and Ethnic Formation in a Deeply Divided Society: The Case of the 1990s Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel (Brill Academic Publishers, 2004).
October 14, 2009
Is the "Problem of Evil" Still Broadly Relevant?
Eric Boynton, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Allegheny College
Noon, 2628 Cathedral of Learning
Department of Religious Studies Brown Bag Lunch Colloquium
Eric Boynton is the editor of The Enigma of Gift and Sacrifice (2002) and Saintly Influence: Edith Wyschogrod and the Possibilities of Philosophy of Religion (2009), both published by Fordham University Press. He has published articles on the Continental philosophy of religion and aesthetics.
October 15, 2009
"The Disgrace of Our Century!": Antisemitism, Modern Politics, and the Debates over Circumcision and Kosher Butchering, 1871-1933
Robin Judd, Associate Professor of History, The Ohio State University
4 p.m., location to be announced
Sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program
Dr. Judd is a specialist in Jewish and European history. She is author of Contested Rituals: Circumcision, Kosher Butchering, and German-Jewish Political Life in Germany, 1843-1933 (Cornell University Press, 2007) and is currently working on "Love at the Zero Hour: European War Brides, GI Husbands, and European Strategies for Reconstruction."
October 22, 2009
Between Heaven and Earth: An Illuminated Torah Commentary
Ilene Winn-Lederer, Artist, Pittsburgh, PA
7:30 p.m., 1640 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Cosponsored by the Jewish Studies Program and Israel Heritage Classroom Committee
Ms. Winn-Lederer's work spanning a couple of decades includes illustrations for books, magazines, and theatre posters. Through regional and national group and solo exhibitions, her work is represented in many public and private collections such as The Blount Collection of American Art in Montgomery, Alabama and MARC USA. Her professional affiliations include The Graphic Artist's Guild and The Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators. She has taught illustration and design at the Ivy School of Professional Art and at Carnegie Mellon University. Her more recent work is moving away from the more traditional religious icons into a more contemporary setting. She also uses traditional icons with a modern twist.
November 10, 2009
"Cinema’s Exiles": From Hitler to Hollywood
Commemorating
Crystal Night
Lucy Fischer, Distinguished Professor of English and Director of Film Studies, University of Pittsburgh
4 p.m., location to be announced
Cosponsored by the Jewish Studies Program and Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Dr. Fischer's many publications include articles in Camera Obscura, Cinema Journal, Screen, and Wide Angle and the books Jacques Tati, Imitation of Life, Shot/Countershot: Film Tradition and Women's Cinema, Cinematernity: Film, Motherhood, Genre and Sunrise and Designing Women: Cinema, Art Deco and The Female Form, Stars: The Film Reader and American Cinema of the 1920s.
November 11, 2009
The Muwallad Era (711-1085): The Christians of al-Andalus amid Islamic Rule and Christian Kingdoms
Diego Olstein, Lecturer in History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Visiting Scholar, World History Center, University of Pittsburgh
Noon, 2628 Cathedral of Learning
Department of Religious Studies Brown Bag Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Olstein is in residence as a researcher at the World History Center from mid-September through mid-November.
December 2, 2009
Transcendence and Religiously Feeling the State in Central Asia
David W. Montgomery, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh
Noon, 2628 Cathedral of Learning
Department of Religious Studies Brown Bag Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Montgomery has conducted long-term anthropological field research in the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, and Albania, and his work focuses on the transmission of religious and cultural knowledge; expressions of everyday religious life; social aspects of religious change in Central Asia and the Balkans; and religion, conflict, and peacebuilding. He coordinates the International Summer School on Religion and Public Life.
January 20, 2010
Conscience, Constituents, and Culture Wars: The Partisan Face of Political Representation
David C. Barker, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh
Noon, 2628 Cathedral of Learning
Department of Religious Studies Brown Bag Lunch Colloquium
David Barker works in the areas of American politics, political psychology, and methodology. He is author of Rush to Judgment: Talk Radio and American Political Behavior (Columbia University Press, 2002).
February 17, 2010
Helena Valero's Yanomamo Captivity Narrative
H. David Brumble, Professor of English and Religious Studies, University of Pittsburgh
Noon, 2628 Cathedral of Learning
Department of Religious Studies Brown Bag Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Brumble has published five books, including two on American Indian autobiography and three on Medieval and Renaissance literature. Another book, The Bible in Cross-Cultural Perspective, is forthcoming. He has taken students to 28 countries, mostly in the Developing World.
March 3, 2010
Medieval Hebrew-French Wedding Songs: Expressions of Identity
Kirsten Fudeman, Assistant Professor of French, University of Pittsburgh
Noon, 2628 Cathedral of Learning
Department of Religious Studies Brown Bag Lunch Colloquium
Kirsten Fudeman specializes in French linguistics, Old French, and Jewish culture in Medieval France. She is co-author [with Mark Aronoff] of What is Morphology? (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005) and author of the forthcoming Vernacular Voices: Language and Identity in Medieval French Jewish Communities (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press).
April 7, 2010
The Canaanite Woman is Everyman
Nancy Klancher, Cooperative Doctoral Program in Religion, University of Pittsburgh
Noon, 2628 Cathedral of Learning
Department of Religious Studies Brown Bag Lunch Colloquium
Nancy Klancher works in the areas of New Testament studies, Second Temple Judaism, and early Christianity.