Listen to a conversation with author of Mark Z. Danielewski, author of House of Leaves and Only Revolutions. Moderated by Mark C. Taylor, Chair of the Department of Religion and Co-Director of the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life. Rewiring the Real is a yearlong series of conversations with writers about the interplay of literature, technology and religion.
Archive for ‘Event’
Jazz and the Spirit: The Arts of Harlem in the American Religious Imagination
A panel and short performance exploring the spiritual dimensions of Harlem’s aesthetic legacies and contemporary vitality. From the Spirituals, through Blues and Jazz and right on up to Hip Hop, religion has occupied a place of privilege in black musical repertoires. At the same time, Harlem has in many ways figured preeminently as a sacred place and space in American history. Wedding these themes together, historian Josef Sorett will moderate a panel featuring Jim Davis Jr., Abyssinian Baptist Church’s Director of Music Ministries and Fine Arts; Farah Jasmine Griffin, literary scholar and cultural critic at Columbia University; vocalist Melba Joyce of the Count Basie Orchestra; trumpet-player Marcus Printup of Jazz at Lincoln Center; and harpist Riza Printup.
This event is part of the Harlem Jazz Shrines celebration. Co-sponsored by the Office of Government and Community Affairs, and the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University.
Islam Without Extremes, and Interfaith Dialogue
Registration encouraged. REGISTER HERE
A conversation with Mustafa Akyol and the Reverend Daniel Madigan on the common ground that exists between Christianity and Islam, and between conservative and moderate traditions in both religions. They will discuss how, within Islam, Quranic interpretation can lead either to humanist depictions of freedom and democracy or to a justification of authoritarian political force.
Mustafa Akyol is a columnist for two Turkish newspapers, Hürriyet Daily News and Star. His articles have also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty, copies of which will be sold at the event.
Daniel Madigan, a Jesuit priest, is the Jeanette W. and Otto J. Ruesch Family Associate Professor in the Department of Theology at Georgetown University.
The Burden of Choice
By Mark C. Taylor
A response to a public conversation series held Spring 2012.
How many different items does the average American grocery store stock? (45,000) How many Starbucks are there in Manhattan? (187 and counting) In the world? (17,244) How many channels are there on your TV? (You don’t know.) We have become obsessed with choice — the more choices the better. Or at least so it seems. Why? Why is there so much emphasis on choice and the supposed freedom of choice?
While the freedom of choice has long been one of the most important values for democratic societies, something has changed in the past several decades. What might best be described as an ideology of choice has emerged among the partisans of neo-liberal economists and neo-conservative politicians. This development is symptomatic of the latest stage of capitalism.
Nuclear Waste: Between a Rock and a Radioactive Place
By Michele Lent Hirsch
A response to a public conversation with Allison Macfarlane on March 28, 2012.
Listening last week to Allison Macfarlane, Harvard-affiliated member of the White House’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future and author of Uncertainty Underground: Yucca Mountain and the Nation’s High-Level Nuclear Waste, one got the impression that if anyone could explicate the quagmire that is nuclear-waste safety, it’d be this woman. An MIT-trained geologist who went on to study nuclear reactors and their radioactive byproducts, she has a dazzlingly thorough knowledge of both nuclear power and the geological constraints on underground waste disposal.
And so when she said our grasp of nuclear safety is a joke, I didn’t find myself laughing.
Why the World Needs Religious Studies (and Why Religious Studies Needs the World)
A talk by Nathan Schneider, who writes about reason, religion, and politics for publications including Harper’s, The Nation, The New York Times, Commonweal, Religion Dispatches. He is editor of the online literary magazine Killing the Buddha and the website Waging Nonviolence. His book about the search for proof of God’s existence is forthcoming.
Ten Years On: Re-Imagining the Divide Between Islam and the West
A book talk by Deborah Baker, author of The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism, which was a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award. The Convert tells the story of Margaret Marcus of Larchmont, who became Maryam Jameelah of Lahore, and her relationship with her adoptive father and mentor, Mawlana Abul Ala Mawdudi, the Pakistani political leader and cleric who founded Jamaat-e-Islami in 1941. She is also author of In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding, which was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1994, and A Blue Hand: The Beats in India (2008).
Sponsored by the South Asia Institute at Columbia University
Expanding and Shrinking Areas of Liberty: Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and Syria
A conference on the factors that have led to greater, or more restricted, liberties in countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, focusing on the role of religious actors, international bodies like the UN, civil society, and developments since the Arab Spring.
Speakers: Dr. Nouzha Guessous (University Honorary Professor, Feminist, Human Rights and Social Activist; A Key Creator of Morocco’s Progressive 2004 Family Code); Dr. Radwan Masmoudi (President, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, Tunisia); Dr. Toby C. Jones (Specialist on Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University);Dr. Tarek Masoud (Egyptian Specialist on Political Transitions, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government); Dr. Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro (Chairman, United Nations Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on Syria).
Discussants: Dr. Alfred Stepan (Wallace Sayre Professor of Government, Columbia University) and Nina zu Fürstenberg (President, Board of Govenors, Reset-Dialogues On Civilizations).
Co-Sponsored by The Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion; The Middle East Institute; and Reset- Dialogues on Civilizations, a Rome-based non-profit that promotes dialogue and intercultural understanding through international conferences and its online magazine.
homepage image credit: (nz)dave
CDTR Film Festival Screening: The Redemption of General Butt Naked
Screening of documentary film The Redemption of General Butt Naked abut Joshua Milton Blahyi, aka General Butt Naked, a ruthless and feared warlord during Liberia’s 14-year civil war. Today, he has renounced his violent past and reinvented himself as a Christian evangelist on a journey of self-proclaimed transformation. Blahyi travels the nation of Liberia as a preacher, seeking out those he once victimized in search of an uncertain forgiveness. But in the end, are some crimes unforgivable?
Q&A with Gregory Henry, executive producer of the film, and Colin Waugh, author of Charles Taylor and Liberia: Ambition & Atrocity in Africa’s Lone Star State.
Event is open to the general public, but registration is required. Register Here.
Co-sponsored with the Office of the University Chaplain
Getting Guns Out of New York
By Carlos Blanco
A response to a public conversation with John Feinblatt on February 29, 2012.
For the past decade, John Feinblatt, chief policy advisor to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has led New York City’s effort to rid its streets of illegal guns. At a recent event at Columbia, he emphasized the need to get guns “out of the wrong hands,” by which he meant reducing gun violence by reducing gun availability.
Feinblatt has been instrumental in involving Mayor Bloomberg in the coalition Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which seeks “stop criminals from getting guns while also protecting the rights of citizens to freely own them.” As Feinblatt pointed out, no federal legislation prevents guns from being manufactured in other states and shipped to New York, whose gun-control laws are, in fact, relatively strict. Most illegal guns in New York City are actually imported—85% of guns recovered in crimes are originally sold out of state. Without a federal law stemming this flow, illegal guns will continue to litter large urban cities like New York.