69传媒

Harold A. Durfee and Doris G. Durfee Lecture 听

The Annual Durfee Lecture was initiated in 2007 by a generous gift from Harold A. Durfee and Doris G. Durfee. Held every spring, the series provides our students and 69传媒 University community with the opportunity to meet distinguished scholars in religious studies.

Abstract

We call social media the new public square. How is this new visually saturated media landscape affecting the struggles for social justice? 听What role is photography playing in it and on it, and thus in and on those struggles? We live (virtually) in social media 鈥渂ubbles,鈥� research tells us. What we see there tends to reinforce what we already believe, it seems, and what we already believe shapes what we see. And yet the #BlackLivesMatter movement (among others) demonstrates听this new media landscape鈥檚 power to draw (at least some of) us together across lines that tend to divide us. Drawing on听Seeing and Believing,听Armour听analyzes these challenges and opportunities听offering strategies听drawn from religious ways of seeing for navigating听them to advance social justice.

Bio

Ellen T.听Armour听is Professor and E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair of Feminist Theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School where she directs the Carpenter Program in Religion,听Gender听and Sexuality. In addition to听Seeing听and Believing: Religion, Digital Visual Culture and Social Justice听(New York: Columbia University Press, 2023),听she is the author of听Signs and Wonders: Theology after Modernity听(Columbia University Press, 2016) and听Deconstruction, Feminist Theology, and the Problem of Difference: Subverting the Race/Gender Divide听(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999). She also co-edited听Bodily Citations: Judith Butler and Religion听(New York: Columbia University Press, 2006).
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Past Lectures

15. "God and Hip Hop," 2023

Alex Nava
Professor of Religious Studies and Classics at the University of Arizona
video.

14. "Postcolonialism, Interreligious Engagement, and Peacebuilding,"听2022

Kwok Pui Lan
Dean's Professor of Systematic Theology, Emory University, Candler School of Theology听

13. "The Pre-Monastic Ascetic Landscape of Mesopotamia: Marcionites, Manichaeans, and Other Conversation Partners", 2021

Father Columba Stewart, OSB
2020 Phi Beta Kappa Fellow, Benedictine Monk, and Executive Director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) at Saint John's University

12. "Prophets, Profits, and Pain: The Politics of Prosperity Gospel in Nigeria", 2019

Anthea Butler听
Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and the graduate chair of Religious Studies

11. "Reading The听Qur'an In听America", 2018

Jane McAuliffe
Inaugural Director of National and International Outreach
Library of Congress

10. "Rest, Bullet: Ritual Homecoming Practices among Combat Veterans", 2017

Kathryn McClymond
Professor and Chair, Department of Religious Studies
Georgia State University

9. "Locating Contemporary Spirituality: New Thoughts on the Changing 69传媒 Religious Landscape", 2016

Courtney Bender
Professor of Religion
Columbia University

8. "Religious Difference Without Religious Conflict", 2015

Stephen Prothero
Professor of Religion
Boston University

7. "The Religious-Secular Binary as a Space of Pluralism", 2014

Slavica Jakelic
Assistant Professor of Humanities and Social Thought
Valparaiso University
Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture
University of Virginia

6. "God's Fifth Abode: Entrepreneurial Faith in the Hindu Himalayas", 2013

Brian K. Pennington
Chair,听Division听of听Humanities;听Professor听of听Religion
Maryville听College

5. "Islam and Human Rights: Religious and Secular in Conversation", 2012

Abdulaziz Sachedina
Frances Myers Ball Professor of Religious Studies
University of Virginia, Charlottesville

4. "A for Antigone: Reading Derrida's Difference Again", 2011

Amy Hollywood
Elizabeth H. Monrad Professor of Christian Studies
Harvard Divinity School

3. "Sheep Gone Astray: The Tragic History of the Religious Right", 2009

Randall Balmer
Professor of 69传媒 Religious History
Bernard College, Columbia University

2. "Religion and National Conflict: Reflections on Myanmar, Iraq, and Other Current Examples", 2008

David Little
Professor of the Practice in Religion, Ethnicity, and
International Conflict, Harvard Divinity School;
Fellow of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
Harvard University

1. "Parmenides in the 21^st Century", 2007

Harold A. Durfee
Professor Emeritus
Department of Philosophy and Religion
69传媒 University