Dr. David Frankfurter at the McLester Colloquium

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Andrea Cooper

On Thursday, March 22, Dr. David Frankfurter joined us for our McLester Colloquium to speak on “Ancient Magic in a New Key: Refining an Exotic Discipline in the History of Religions.” Dr. Frankfurter is William Goodwin Aurelio Chair of the Appreciation of Scripture at Boston University.

In his talk, Dr. Frankfurter reconsidered the ways that “magic” has been embraced and treated in the study of Early Christianity. In his lecture, he subsequently advocated both a more rigorous approach to indigenous evaluations of ambiguous ritual and a more confident “etic” or descriptive use of the category magic. The fascinating lecture generated many questions and responses from the faculty and graduate students present and was followed by casual conversation over refreshments.

Posted in Events, Graduate Student News, News & Events on March 26, 2018. Bookmark the permalink.

Recent Lecture Events: J. Derrick Lemons and Jennifer Eichman (McLester Colloquium)

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Joseph Lam

Recent Lecture Events: J. Derrick Lemons and Jennifer Eichman (McLester Colloquium)

On March 2, Dr. J. Derrick Lemons from the University of Georgia came to speak on the topic of how millennials read the Bible regarding the issue of same sex marriage. The talk was co-sponsored by the Department of Women and Gender Studies, the Program in Sexuality Studies, and the Provost’s Committee on LGBTQ life. Students who attended were highly engaged, as shown by their many questions after the talk and by the fact that the room was literally overflowing.

Lemons lecture flyer

J. Derrick Lemons before the lecture attendees

On March 22, Dr. Jennifer Eichman of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London was featured for our last McLester Colloquium of this academic year. The lecture was titled “Women and Animals: Culinary Dilemmas and Karmic Entanglements,” and the talk explored issues surrounding women, Buddhist attitudes toward the eating of meat, and societal changes in China after the end of imperial rule. This event was similarly well attended and offered another opportunity for faculty and students to interact over a topic of critical interest in religious studies.

Jennifer Eichman at the McLester Colloquium

Eichman lecture flyer

Posted in Events, Graduate Student News on April 7, 2017. Bookmark the permalink.

Sand Mandala at UNC’s Asia Week 2017

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Joseph Lam

Sand Mandala at UNC’s Asia Week 2017

Last week, as part of the festivities for UNC’s Asia Week 2017, a Tibetan Monk from the Kadampa Center in Raleigh, Geshe Palden Sangpo, was invited to the FedEx Global Education Center to build a sand mandala over the course of several days. The building of the sand mandala, and its subsequent destruction, are part of an ancient Tibetan Buddhist tradition that embodies themes of harmony and the transitoriness of life.

A student in our department, Brodie Heginbotham, who is a double major in Religious Studies and Journalism at UNC, wrote an article describing the event and covering the different dimensions of its significance. To read the article, click here.

Building the sand mandala

The completed sand mandala

Posted in Events, Undergraduate Accomplishments on March 1, 2017. Bookmark the permalink.

McLester Colloquium with Benjamin Zeller

Posted on February 23, 2017 by Joseph Lam

McLester Colloquium with Benjamin Zeller

On Wednesday of last week, our faculty and graduate students gathered in Graham Memorial Building for our first McLester colloquium of 2017. The speaker was Benjamin Zeller, Associate Professor of Religion at Lake Forest College and a PhD graduate (2007) of our department. In his lecture, titled “Religious Suicide and the Puzzling Case of Heaven’s Gate,” he gave a historical overview and analysis of the religious movement known as Heaven’s Gate, which drew media attention in 1997 after several dozen of its members committed mass suicide at their group residence in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

Prof. Benjamin Zeller

Question from the audience

At the beginning of the event, Susan McLester Kemmerlin, daughter of Bill McLester (after whom the colloquium is named), presented our department with a beautiful stitching of UNC’s academic seal!

Susan McLester Kemmerlin with department chair Randall Styers

See you soon at the next McLester colloquium!

Posted in Alumni News, Events, Graduate Student News on February 23, 2017. Bookmark the permalink.

McLester Colloquium with David Lambert

Posted on September 26, 2016 by Joseph Lam

McLester Colloquium with David Lambert

On Wednesday, September 21st, our faculty and graduate students gathered in Hyde Hall for the first McLester colloquium of the academic year. The speaker was our own David Lambert, Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, who gave a lecture titled “Toward a History of Tendentiousness: Biblical Studies and the ‘Penitential Lens.’” Drawing from his award-winning book, How Repentance Became Biblical: Judaism, Christianity, and the Interpretation of Scripture (Oxford University Press, 2016), Professor Lambert argued that attending to the reading strategies we adopt toward ancient texts such as the Hebrew Bible can reveal much about our modern notions of the “self.” As is typical of McLester colloquia, the lecture was followed by a wide-ranging critical discussion as well as plenty of time for informal conversation over refreshments.

Prof. David Lambert

Question from the audience

Looking forward to the next McLester colloquium!

Posted in Events, Faculty News, Graduate Student News on September 26, 2016. Bookmark the permalink.

Sacred/Secular: A Sufi Journey

Posted on September 22, 2016 by Joseph Lam

Sacred/Secular: A Sufi Journey

This year, the Carolina Center for Performing Arts has put together a series of events titled Sacred/Secular: A Sufi Journey. Organized in collaboration with Carl Ernst, Kenan Distinguished Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, the program seeks to highlight the richness and diversity of the Muslim experience through a combination of performances, workshops, and other community events. From the program website:

“This project evolved from a desire to refute monolithic thinking about the practice of Islam and about Muslim communities and individuals – in other words, to contest the notion that there is any single narrative of Muslim identity or experience, a notion which is reinforced by oversimplified presentations of Muslims in our national discourse.

“We propose that the performances and community events we have curated will reveal the plurality of Muslim identity. Specifically, we explore Sufism as a spiritual and cultural lens into Islam through the work of performers from four Muslim-majority nations outside of the Arab world: Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan and Senegal. This project is not exhaustive, but rather illustrative. These performances are but a glimpse into the vast richness of Muslim cultures and artistic expressions, yet we do believe that experiencing even just two examples of that diversity can invalidate monolithic thinking.”

For more information, including a detailed listing of this year’s events, see the program website.

Posted in Events, Faculty News on September 22, 2016. Bookmark the permalink.