Events

Spring Semester 2022

Shtisel – Let’s Talk About It with Professor Laura Yares
Wednesday, January 19: 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Zoom – Register here
The Facebook group “Shtisel – Let’s Talk About it” was founded in 2019 by three women in Detroit, to discuss their mutual interest in a new Israeli television show added to Netflix. By November 2021, the group reached over 33,000 members. Members use the group to post questions and insights about a broad range of topics related to the television show, including the Hebrew and Yiddish languages, the practices of ultra-Orthodox Jews, and life in contemporary Israel. Drawing on surveys, ethnographic interviews, linguistic analysis of social media postings, and audio diaries of group members as they watch the show recorded via a specially created app, this talk explores how members of the group learn about Judaism from watching Shtisel, and forge community by discussing, analyzing and critiquing it together.

The Inaugural Malcom X Muslim Studies Community Lecture featuring Zaid Shakir

March 2022
Erikson Kiva
Zoom – Register here

Inaugural Annual Keynote by Dr. Philip Sheldrake
Wednesday, February 9 at 12pm –
(more information, including Zoom registration, coming soon)

Roundtable Discussion on Spirituality, Appropriation, and Antiracism with Dr. Simran Jeet Singh
Monday, March 28, time TBD
(more information, including Zoom registration, coming soon)

Inaugural Lecture on Spirituality and Social Justice by Dr. Anthea Butler
Wednesday, March 30 at 4:30pm 
(more information, including Zoom registration, coming soon)

Fall Semester 2021

Thr. Sept 9, 7-8 PM (virtual) Co-sponsored event, “Afghanistan in this Critical Moment.” Free registration through the Muslim Studies Program at MSU. 
 

Wed. Sept 22 at 4:30-6pm (virtual) – Jon Keune “Equality, Bhakti, and Strategic Ambiguity: a New Perspective on an Old Problem” for University of Pennsylvania South Asia Center Colloquium series.

WED., OCT 6 FROM 3:30-5 PM FALL OPEN HOUSE!!!!! Please join us in the DSL Flex Space (2nd floor) in the Main Library for a meet and greet with REL faculty and students. Let’s catch up with each other and learn about some cool digital technologies that we use in our REL classes. 

Thr. Oct 7 at 4:30-6pm (virtual, co-sponsored by Asian Studies Center) – Dr. Joseph Ho (Assistant Professor of History, Albion College) “Graven Images: Missionary Visual Practices and Cross-Cultural Imaginations of Religion in China” – based on his forthcoming book on the neglected archive of photos and films produced by North American missionaries in early 20th-century China — a dynamic and transformative time in Chinese history.  Register here to receive the Zoom link.
 

Fri. Oct 8 at 1-2:30pm “The End of the World in 1844!” A tour of the MSU Millerite material culture collection with Dept. Chair Amy DeRogatis. The tour can accommodate 15 students. Please sign up in the Religious Studies office.

Tue. Nov. 2 at 4:30 pm Dr. Jon Keune, “Spirituality in a Global Perspective.” 303 International and Virtual

Tue. Nov. 2 at 7 pm  Dr. Bruce D. Haynes, “Black Folks and the Jewish Experience.” Virtual. Co-sponsored with the Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel.

Thr. Nov. 4  at 7pm (virtual)  Brandon Vaidyanathan (Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology, Catholic University) “Mercenaries and Missionaries: When Global Capitalism Meets Global Catholicism” – part of the annual American Catholic Thought speaker series, administered by the College of Arts and Letters. 

Fri. Nov 5 at 12 PM Dr. Laura Yares will present her research on panel “Sharing Research Technologies across Disciplines.” Virtual.

Fri. Nov 5 at 1 PM Explorations with the Chair! A tour of “(Per)Sister: Incarcerated Women of the United States.” Meet at the MSU Broad Museum. 

Tue. Nov 30 at 4:30-6pm (virtual talk, co-sponsored by Foglio Chair and Asian Studies Center/India Council) – Raj Balkaran “The Syncretic Significance of Indian Spirituality: Reflections from Working with Western Seekers” – on ways in which diverse people growing up in the West understand and interact with aspects of Indian traditions, Frichallenging what constitutes insiders, outsiders, adopters, inheritors, appropriators, etc.

 

Past Events

Monday, January 18, 7pm: Panel on “Macron and Islam”

Monday, January 25, 7pm: Rosemary Admiral, “Muslim Women Jurists”

Thursday, February 4th, 7pm (tentative): Ahmad Al-Jallad, “Arabia before Islam” (his focus will be religion)

Thursday, February 25, 7pm: Sean Anthony, “The Historical Muhammad”

April 8-9th, Muslim Studies Program’s annual conference. This year’s theme: “Global Islamophobia and the News Media, Entertainment Media, and Social Media.”

The Muslim Journeys program at the MSU Library which will feature the following three events:

Thursday, February 18th, 7pm: The Lover: A Sufi Mystery by Dr. Laury Silver, presented by Silvers herself

Wednesday, March 3, 7pm: I Was Their American Dream by Malika Gharib

Tuesday, March 23, 7pm: The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad by Lesley Hazelton, led by Dustin Byrd