At a time when existing views of the human condition are being challenged by developments in the biological sciences, cultural studies, and global ethical norms, the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School is embarking on a year-long examination, from interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and multireligious perspectives, of the very notion of what it means to be human. During the 2007-08 academic year, the CSWR will convene a series of events designed to explore questions of human nature, human rights, and the limits of human experience, taking into particular account religious, ethical, and cultural perspectives within diverse historical and contemporary settings.
The series will include five panel discussions spread over the course of the academic year. Each panel, featuring a distinguished speaker and two respondents, will examine a topic relevant to this theme. Additionally, a series of films will be shown on this theme, and a culminating conference on May 12 and 13 will conclude this series of reflections on rethinking the human. Sponsored by the CSWR, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, and the Humanities Center at Harvard.
The following is a list of events in line with this theme. For full event announcements and a comprehensive listing of all public events at the CSWR, visit the Calendar.
2007-08 Events
Who Is the Human in "Human Rights"?
October 4, 5:15-7:15 pm (refreshments to follow)
Braun Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue
Human
rights must by definition be universal, but how can that be, given the reality
of profound cultural and religious differences? How can the rights of human
beings be protected by the state against the state? How can a human being be
both the subject of these universal rights and the agent who must ensure their
protection?
A lecture by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law, Emory University, with responses by Martha Minow, Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, and Jay Garfield, Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Smith College. Bryan Hehir, Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life, John F. Kennedy School of Government, will moderate.
"Rabbit-Proof Fence"
October 29, 7-9 pm
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Avenue
A
screening and discussion of the 2002 film directed by Phillip Noyce. Australia's aboriginal integration program of the 1930s
removed children from their parents and placed them in orphanages in an attempt to integrate them into white society. This
film depicts the true story of three girls who escaped their captors and walked the 1,500 miles home. HDS Professor
Michael D. Jackson will lead a discussion after the screening
of the film.
"Or What's a Heaven For?" Bioscience and the Alteration of Human Limits
November 8, 5:15-7:15 pm (refreshments starting at 4:45)
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Avenue
It
is the nature of democracies to believe in the possibilities of every human
person: for justice, for beauty, for argument, and for wisdom. It is the very
nature of freedom to imagine capacities and choices beyond what is now possible.
Yet, our capacities for these technologies and our support for the intellectual
and moral project of basic science is often tempered by our sense that the
alteration of human physical, intellectual, and moral limits will change our
world in complex and unpredictable ways. How ought we to balance our reach and
our grasp in basic science? What are our duties and responsibilities toward the
present and the future? How can we frame the moral arguments about science and
human limits?
A lecture by Laurie Zoloth, director of the Center for Bioethics, Science and Society and Professor of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, Feinberg School of Medicine, and Professor of Religion, Northwestern University, with responses by William LaFleur, Professor in Japanese Studies, University of Pennsylvania and Dan Brock, Professor of Medical Ethics, Harvard Medical School, and director, Division of Medical Ethics and University Program in Ethics and Health. David Lamberth, Associate Professor of Theology, Harvard Divinity School, will moderate.
"Ali: Fear Eats the Soul"
December 3, 7-9 pm
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Avenue
A
screening and discussion of the 1974 film by German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The film centers on two individuals
looked down on by society. Moroccan immigrant Ali and Emmi, a widowed cleaning woman 20 years his senior, fall in love and
marry, thereby opening themselves to further judgment even from those closest to them. The film explores complex social
identifiers such as race, gender, age, and class, and how people relate to one another because of or despite these factors.
CSWR director
Donald Swearer will lead a discussion after the screening
of the film.
"Salaam Bombay!"
February 25, 7-9 pm
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Avenue
A screening and discussion of the
1988 film by Indian director Mira Nair, which explores the lives of street children in Bombay.
Anne Monius, Professor of South Asian
Religions, Harvard Divinity School, will lead a discussion after the screening of the film.
Humanity, Ethics, and Our Animal Nature
March 5, 5:15-7:15 pm (refreshments starting at 4:45)
Braun Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue
Attitudes
toward our own animal nature have influenced philosophical treatments of ethics
as well as some interpretations of the traditional argument from design for the
existence of God. Although Kantian ethics is based on a plausible identification
of the nature of the human/animal difference, it implies both that we have
duties to the other animals and that we are committed to including their welfare
in any assessment we make of the goodness of the world.
A lecture by Christine Korsgaard, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy and director of Graduate Studies in Philosophy, Harvard University, with responses by John Grim, Senior Research Scholar, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Paul Waldau, director of the Center for Animals and Public Policy, Tufts University. Kimberley Patton, Professor of the Comparative and Historical Study of Religion, Harvard Divinity School, will moderate.
Is There an Innate Sense of Morality?
March 19, 5:15-7:15 pm (refreshments starting at 4:45)
Braun Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue
The
indication that the very young (2 years old) are capable of empathy suggests
that sympathy or compassion is a defining characteristic of being human. This
claim in Confucianism or Buddhism may be substantiated by "empirical"
observation. Sympathy or compassion, as well as rationality, is the
basis of morality. Therefore, although moral feelings can and should be
cultivated, they are essentially innate.
A lecture by Tu Weiming, Harvard-Yenching Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy and of Confucian Studies, Harvard University, with responses by Jerome Kagan, Daniel and Amy Starch Research Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and Marc Hauser, Harvard College Professor and Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Program in Neurosciences, Harvard University. Sean Dorrance Kelly, Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Harvard University, will moderate.
"The Secret of Roan Inish"
April 14, 7-9 pm
Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Avenue
A
screening and discussion of the 1995 film by director John Sayles. This magical
story, based on the Celtic myth of the half woman/half seal "selkie," tells of the legend which surrounds a small Irish fishing village in the 1940s. The discussion after the screening of the film will be led by
Kate Chadbourne, PhD in Celtic from Harvard, where she teaches courses in Irish language, folklore, literature, and storytelling.
The Resurgence of Imagination
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN
POSTPONED AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED FOR A DATE
IN FALL 2008
April 24, 5:15-7:15 pm (refreshments starting at 4:45)
Braun Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue
As
a mode of apprehending the world, imagination—which propels us into the world
of dreams, images, symbols, and, yes, enchantment—is becoming increasingly
vital to our image of what it means to be human. Do some of the key elements of
imagination, such as empathy and fluid boundaries of the mind, also have a
spiritual dimension?
A lecture by Sudhir Kakar, psychoanalyst and writer, Goa, India, with responses by Anne Monius, Professor of South Asian Religions, Harvard Divinity School, and Richard Kearney, Charles Seelig Professor in Philosophy at Boston College. Francis Clooney, Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology, Harvard Divinity School, will moderate. Space is limited and reservations are required for this event.
May 12-13 Conference: Rethinking the Human
Keynote address to begin at 4 pm
on May 12
Conference to resume on May 13, 8:30 am-5:30 pm
Sperry Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue
In our globalized world, seemingly different conceptions of human nature and human values raise critical questions as to whether universal and partisan claims, interests, and perspectives can be reconciled, whether interreligious and intercultural conversations can have a positive effect on building human community, and whether a pluralistic ethos can effectively transcend the uncompromising notions now current as to what is true, good, necessary, just, and real. This conference invites intellectuals in religious studies, the humanities and the social sciences to offer historical and contemporary insights into how these issues might be usefully explored and practically resolved.
Registration is full for this event.
Keynote speaker:
- Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Department of English, Harvard University; director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University; and Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities at University College, London
Conference presenters:
- Arthur Kleinman, Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, and Professor of Medical Anthropology in Social Medicine and Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
- Michael Puett, Professor of Chinese History, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
- John P. Reeder, Jr., Visiting Professor of Ethics, Harvard Divinity School
- Veena Das, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University
- Lila Abu-Lughod, Professor, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University in the City of New York
- Charles Hallisey, Senior Lecturer on Buddhist Studies, Harvard Divinity School
Photographs: Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, by Rosalind Hackett; Laurie Zoloth, courtesy Northwestern University; Christine Korsgaard, by Frank Monkiewicz; Tu Weiming, courtesy Harvard-Yenching Institute; Sudhir Kakar, by Ulf Anderson.
