CONFERENCES
May 29 - June 1, 2008
The Association for the Study of Esotericism Third International Conference 2008 is co-sponsored with the Department of Religious Studies, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Provost Office of the College of Charleston, and the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (ISSRNC), administered at the University of Florida, May 29 - June 1, 2008 at the College of Charleston; Charleston, SC.
Dr. Barbara Newman, Northwestern University and Dr. Wouter Hanegraaff, University of Amsterdam will be the keynote speakers. Performances include the Charleston Cathedral Girls Chorus (performing music from the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, 1399) and Dr. Guy Beck (performing sacred music and chants of India). For Conference information and/or registration, please visit: www/cofc.edu/ase/index.htm. Registration deadline is April 28, 2008.
March 24, 2007
"Muslims and Others in Sacred Space" Conference.
Arnold Hall (Jewish Studies Building) at 96 Wentworth St., Charleston, SC
LECTURES
The Department of Religious Studies is pleased to host a series of lectures and colloquia each year to serve the needs and interests of our students, the College, and the Charleston community. These lectures are open to the public and free of charge, as they are funded by Religious Studies and other Departments and Programs at the College. Please consider attending one of our upcoming events.
UPCOMING LECTURES 2008-09
November 12, 2008
"Quest for the Ancient Future: Neoshamanism in the Modern West"
by Dr. Andre Znamenski, University of Memphis
Education Building; Room 118, 2:30 - 5:00pm
PAST LECTURES 2007-08
April 2, 2008
"The Death of the Gods and the Question of Monotheism"
by Peter Machinist, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, Harvard University
Arnold Hall, 3:30 - 5:00 pm
March 27, 2008
"Possessions & Pilgrimage in Northern India and the Himalayas"
by Dr. Frederick Smith, Department of Asian Language & Literature, University of Iowa
Wachovia Auditorium, Beatty Center; 3:15 - 5:00 pm
October 25, 2007
"Strangely Familiar: A Roadside Approach to Religion in America"
by Dr. Timothy K. Beal, Florence Harkness Professor of Religion, Case Western Reserve University
Wachovia Auditorium, Beatty 115, 3:30-5:00 pm
September 18, 2007
"Religion, Discourse and Hermeneutics: New Approaches in the Study of Religion"
by Dr. Charles H. Long, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Arnold Hall (Jewish Studies Building) at 96 Wentworth St., Charleston, SC, 3:15-5:00
April 13, 2007
"Freemasonry and the Search for Light"
by Dr. Guy Beck, Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Carolina, Wilmington.
April 5, 2007
"Are Preemptive Wars Just? Violence, Anticipatory Acts, and the Just War Tradition"
by Dr. Tim Renick, Department of Religious Studies, Georgia State University.
March 15, 2007
"Religion, Violence, and Our Global Future: Bin Laden or Gandhi?"
by Dr. Darrell J. Fasching, Department of Religious Studies, University of South Florida in Tampa.
FACULTY LECTURES
September 11, 2007
Zeff Bjerken: "Revisiting Religion Post 9/11"
April 20, 2007
Zeff Bjerken: "Turning Tibetan Religious Histories Inside Out: On Reading Texts in Tibetan Monasteries"
April 21, 2006
Elijah Siegler: "Place, Space, and the 'Healing Tao:' Practicing Popular Daoism in Thailand and China"
April 20, 2006
Margaret Cormack: "The Saints of Iceland"
October 31, 2005
Margaret Cormack:
"The Living Dead in Iceland: A Historical Perspective"
September 22, 2005
Lee Irwin: "The Ghost Dance Traditions"
February 3, 2005
June McDaniel: "Religious Ecstasy: Its Decline and Transformation in the Modern World"
October 26, 2004
John Huddlestun: "God Does Worry about What the Neighbors Think: The Reputation of a Repentant God in Biblical Tradition and Beyond"
September 7, 2004
Lee Irwin: "God, Gold, and Glory: The Invasion of the Americas"
RELIGIOUS STUDIES COLLOQUIA SERIES
November 02, 2006
Dr. Kelley Bulkeley ( Graduate Theological Union and John F. Kennedy University in San Francisco)
"The Provocative Wisdom of Dreams: Teachings from the World's Religions "
October 3, 2006
Dr. Bron Taylor (Samuel S. Hill Professor of Religion and Environmental Ethics at the University of Florida)
"The Spirituality, Ritualizing and Activism of Radical Environmentalism"
September 07, 2006
Russell Kirkland (University of Georgia)
"The Relevance of Taoism in the 21st-Century World"
April 10, 2006
Anna Bigelow (North Carolina State University)
"Saintly Women, Women of the Saint"
March 22, 2006
Hassan Rahmouni ( Hassan II University, Mohammedia, Morocco)
"Saints' Shrines in Morocco"
March 21, 2006
Hassan Rahmouni ( Hassan II University, Mohammedia, Morocco)
"Problems Facing the Muslim World Today"
March 20, 2006
Hassan Rahmouni ( Hassan II University, Mohammedia, Morocco)
"Women and Islam"
March 15, 2006
Hassan Rahmouni ( Hassan II University, Mohammedia, Morocco)
"Democracy, Islam, and the State"
February 23, 2006
Guy Beck (Tulane University)
"Hindu Sacred Music and the Afterlife"
February 9, 2006
Dr. Gordon Melton (Director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion, UCSB)
"A Will to Choose: African Methodism in Antebellum Charleston"
February 7, 2006
Dr. Gordon Melton (Director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion, UCSB)
"Whatever Happen to the Cults? New Religions in the 21st Century"
November 10, 2005
Dr. Richard Amesbury (Valdosta State University)
"The Idea of Human Rights: Religious or Secular?"
October 6, 2005
Eva Garroutte, (Boston College)
"The Cherokee Stomp Dance: Stories and Photos from Oklahoma"
February 17, 2005
Phyllis Herman (California State University, Northridge)
"Myth and Politics in Modern India: Secularizing the Sacred"
January 27, 2005
Kathryn McClymond (Georgia State University)
"Chaim Potok's The Chosen: Defining American Judaism Through Literature"
November 4, 2004
Sean McCloud (University of North Carolina, Charlotte)
"The Depraved, the Degenerate, and the Un-Evolved: Explaining Religious Preferences in the Age of Eugenics (1905-1934)"
April 13, 2004
Denise Cush (Bath Spa University, United Kingdom)
"Teenage Pagans and Wiccans in Britain"
February 20-22, 2004
Meg Cormack, Convener
"Saints & Pilgrimages Around the Atlantic"
November 6, 2003
Georges Dreyfus (Williams College)
"The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Practice of Philosophical Debate in Tibetan Buddhism"
September 2, 2003
Philip Arnold (Syracuse University)
"Money is Not Territory: "Religious Dimensions of Iroquois Wampum"
March 20, 2003
Reiko Ohnuma (Dartmouth College)
"Mother Good, Mother Bad, Mother Buddha? Images of Motherhood in Indian Buddhism"
March 12, 2003
Alan Godlas (University of Georgia)
"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death: The Question of Jihad in Islam"
November 5, 2002
Taslima Nasrin (Bangladesh)
"Islam & Women in Bangladesh"
March 14, 2002
Carl Ernst (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
"Islam in the Eyes of the West: Clash of Civilizations or Dialogue?"
April 2, 2001
Roxanne Gupta (Albright College)
"Who are the Aghoris and Why Do They Do Those Nasty Things?"
October 2, 2000
Russell Kirkland (University of Georgia)
"Self-Cultivation Traditions in Modern Taoism: The Unknown Realities of China Today"
September 28, 2000
Charles Orzech (University of North Carolina, Greensboro)
"Whose Ghosts are These? Chinese Buddhist and Taoist Rites for the Salvation of Wandering Souls"
March 16, 2000
Mary E. Tucker (Bucknell University)
"Eco-Cosmology of East Asia: The Continuity of Being"
March 14, 2000
John Grim (Bucknell University)
"Native American Eco-Cosmology: The Ecological Imagination"
February 11, 2000
Jay Garfield (Smith College)
"Nagarjuna and the Limits of Thought"
November 8, 1999
Anne Blackburn (University of South Carolina)
"The Crucible of Colonialism: Reflections on Religious Transformation in Nineteenth Century Sri Lankan Buddhism"