Conferences, Lectures & Upcoming Events

For Judaic Studies Lectures/Events, CLICK HERE

FALL 2012

Thursday, September 13 at 5:00pm
Hildegard Diemberger - Senior Research Associate, Mongolia and Inner Asia Unit, Cambridge University
“The First Samding Dorje Phagmo:  Founding Figure of Tibet’s Most Famous Female Reincarnation Line”
451 College Street, Room B-04
Sponsored by the Society for the Study of Asian Religions and the Department of Religious Studies

Thursday, October 11 at 5:00pm
Kathy Foley - Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz; Fellow at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music
"The Cosmic Mountain and South Se as  Images of the Cosmos in  Wayang Puppet Theatre Practice: From Arjuna's Meditation to Bima's Encounter with Dewa Ruci"
451 College Street, Room B-04
Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies

Monday, October 22 at 5:00pm
Professor Peter Schäfer - Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Religion, Director, Program in Judaic Studies, Princeton University
“Two Powers in Heaven: Binitarian Ideas in Ancient Judaism”
Location TBA
Sponsored by the Program in Judaic Studies

Thursday, November 8 at 5:00pm
Amy Heller - Research Associate, CNRS, Centre de recherche sur les Civilizations de l’Asie Orientale; Research Associate, Dept of Art and Archaeology, SOAS; Visiting Professor, Centre for Tibetan Studies, Sichuan University, Chengdu
“The Material Culture of Early Tibetan Religions”
451 College Street, Room B-04
Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies and the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation

Wednesday, November 28, 2012 at 5:00pm
Ron Rolheiser - O.M.I., President, Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio Lecture
"Fear and her Children: Unworthy of Christianity"
Location: Thomas Golden Center, 268 Park Street

  SPRING 2013

Thursday, January 24 at 4:30pm
Hans Bakker - Gonda Professor of Sanskrit and the History of Hinduism & Indian Philosophy, University of Groningen
"The Kalanjara Hill"
451 College Street, Room B-04
Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies and the South Asia Studies Council

Monday, Bebruary 18 at 5:00pm
Newman Lecture:
Augustine Thompson - Graduate Theological Union
"Hunting the Elusive Saint: Francis of Assisi"
Whitney Humanities Center, Room 208 (53 Wall Street)
Presented by the Departments of Religious Studies & History

Thursday, February 21 at 4:30pm
Albert Welter - Professor; Chair, Department of Religion & Culture, University of Winnipeg
"Zanning and the Politics of Buddhist Accommodation at the Song Court"
451 College Street, Room B-04
Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies and the Society for the Study of Asian Religions

Thursday, February 28 at 4:30pm
Ryan Coyne - Assistant Professor, University of Chicago Divinity School
"Re-writing Renunciation: Augustine and the 'Turn' in Heidegger's Philosophy"
451 College Street, Room B-04
Sponsored by the Yale Seminar in Religious Studies

Wednesday, April 3 at 5:45pm
Professor Joerg Frey - University of Zürich
"Spirit" in Second Temple Jewish Texts: Dead Sea Scrolls and Paul
Location TBA

Thursday, April 4 at 4:00pm
"Antisemitism in the Ancient Mediterranean?  Early Christianity and Anti-Judaism"
Panel featuring:
Jörg Frey, Professor, Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät and Ludwig Maximilians-Universität, München
Dale Martin, Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies, Yale University
Wayne Meeks, Woolsey Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies , Yale University
Hindy Najman, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Yale University
Co-sponsored by The Department of Religious Studies and the Judaic Studies Program.  Made possible by a grant from the Goldhirsh-Yellin Foundation.

Thursday, April 4 at 4:30pm
Padmanabh S. Jaini - Professor Emeritus Buddhist Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Title TBA
451 College Street, Room B-04

Friday, April 5 at 4:00pm
The Americanist and Theory & Media Studies Colloquium: "Spiritual Technologies"
Kathryn Lofton - Sarai Ribicoff Associate Professor of Religious Studies, American Studies, Divinity and History, Yale University
John Williams
63 High Street, Linsly-Chittenden Hall Room 319

Saturday, April 6 - 9:00am to 5:00pm
Conference: "Heretical History: Celebrating the Legacy of John Butler"
320 York Street, HGS 211

Thursday, April 18 at 4:30pm
Don Stadtner - Professor of Art History, University of Texas, Austin
"'But we need Relics!': Foundation Myths of Burmese and Mon Buddhism"
451 College Street, Room B-04
Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies and the Council on Southeast Asian Studies

Sunday, April 28, 2013
The Rest is Commentary: New Work on Second Temple Texts
(day-long Symposium – click here for more information)

Thursday, May 9 & Friday, May 10
Workshop: "International Fundamentals: Early Fundamentalism and the American Century"
300 College Street, Comparative Literature Library - Bingham Hall, 8th Floor

Thursday,  March 7, 2013 at 4:30pm
Tim Lubin - Washington and Lee University
Status Mapping in Classical India: How Brahmins Cornered the Market in Norms
Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies and the South Asian Studies Council

Beyond 2012-2013 Academic Year

Tuesday - Thursday, October 6-8, 2013
Conference: Textual Unities
Conference Description:
An important philological method involves the reconstruction of multiple sources for what has been received as a unitary text.  In the absence of the original sources, disunities within the received text -- narrative or argumentative incoherence,  duplication, variation in nomenclature, etc. -- serve as indicators of the "seams" between sources.  What presuppositions do source critics make concerning the unity of genuinely unitary texts?  Might these presuppositions be challenged by reflection on single-authored  texts that also exhibit these supposed symptoms?  Another important method involves the placement of a single text within a larger tradition or, to use Walter Benjamin's term, within a constellation of texts and/or cultural objects.  How should we think about the relationships between texts and larger unities?  When is it illuminating to place a text in the context of a larger unity, and when is it wrong to read a text, so to speak, in its own right?  We aim to bring together a number of scholars working on Classical, ancient Jewish, early Christian and modern Jewish texts and traditions, with a  number of philosophers working on texts that, in virtue of both their content and their form, raise questions about unity.  Some of the philosophical texts we have in mind are Kant's Critiques, Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, Rosenzweig's Star of Redemption, and Benjamin's Arcades project.