Conferences and Seminars

Harvard Divinity School and the members of its faculty organize and host occasional conferences, symposia, and speaker series, often in collaboration with other faculties of the University.

The Women's Studies in Religion Program on occasion hosts conferences on gender and religion, and the Center for the Study of World Religions has, over the years, organized a variety of conferences, panels, and symposia.

How Bodies Matter: The Intersection of Science, Religion, and the Humanities in the Study of the Ancient Mediterranean World

March 15-16, 2013

Scholars in the areas of New Testament, archaeology, Roman history, and physical anthropology will meet at HDS to share what human remains might reveal about health, nutrition, kinship, ability, and propensity to disease and to consider how such information might help us to understand religious life and practice in the Roman Empire; to advance the study of the social, economic, and political environment of the emergence of earliest Christianity and the period of the high Roman Empire; and to see what data can be collected and shared across the disciplines of classics/Roman history, New Testament/early Christianity, archaeology, physical anthropology, and science. Symposium website »

The Year of the Body

During the 2012-13 academic year, the Science, Religion, and Culture program at HDS is hosting "the year of the body," an effort to foster collaboration across different anthropological, historical, and theological areas of interest through a series of colloquia, courses focusing on the body, panels, and other events.

In addition to hosting panels and presentations by Harvard faculty members, the colloquium will host speakers who will be invited in conjunction with four courses focusing on the body at Harvard Divinity School taught by Janet Gyatso, Karen King, Ahmed Ragab, and Mayra Rivera. Colloquium website »

Recent Conferences and Series

Begun in 2006 and continuing through 2012, the Business across Religious Traditions seminars have brought together professionals who share an interest in the relationships between religion and business, exploring the challenges and opportunities of globalism and pluralism in the twenty-first century.

Seminar on Debates about Religion and Sexuality, offered in 2011 and 2012, was a program intended for advanced doctoral students, recent recipients of the doctorate, and writers working outside the academy who hoped to change the terms of current debates about religion and sexuality, and aimed to help participants write their first large project while encouraging them to collaborate with others in the field.

When Worlds Collide: The Study of Religion in an Age of Science, a series of four science and religion events at HDS in 2007.

Lecture videos:

Theorizing Race and Ethnicity in Religion, a speaker series, supported by the HDS Dean's Office and the Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity, Harvard University, that was part of the 2007-08 Religion and Society doctoral colloquium, to "bring rising scholars, whose work theorizes race and ethnicity in theology and the study of religion" to HDS.

William James and Josiah Royce a Century Later: Pragmatism and Idealism in Dialogue, a conference held in 2007 to assess the interactions, contributions, and continuing resonance of two major American philosophers and Harvard professors. Speakers included John Clendenning, Harvey Cormier, Mathias Girel, Peter Hare, Jacquelyn Kegley, James T. Kloppenberg, Felicitas Kraemer, David Lamberth, John Lachs, John J. McDermott, Frank Oppenheim, Hilary Putnam, Robert Richardson, Sandra Rosenthal, Linda Simon, Chris Skowronski, Ignas Skrupskelis, Cornel West, and others.

Finding Our Way, two conferences exploring new directions for progressive churches in the wake of significant and steady decline. Hosted by the HDS Office of Ministry Studies, featured speakers in 2007 were Marcus Borg, Brian D. McLaren, and Diana Butler Bass, and in 2010, Krista Tippett, host of American Public Media's Speaking of Faith, engaged HDS faculty and students, ministers, and laypeople in a constructive conversation about the contemporary religious landscape and its implications for both churches and education for ministry.

Video of the 2007 conference:

Solutions: Emerging Trends in Community Transformation involved two working conferences, hosted by the Office of Ministry Studies in 2007 and 2008, with the goal of developing grassroots projects for revitalizing urban communities.