Department of Religious Studies, Northwestern University
Religion and the Trans-…
Graduate Student Conference
October 12-14, 2012

The Northwestern University Department of Religious Studies is pleased to invite you to a graduate student conference on “Religion and the Trans-…” in Evanston, IL on October 12–14, 2012.
 
Our conference will focus on the emergent understanding of boundaries in the interdisciplinary study of religion – whether they are political, cultural, or intellectual – as permeable and transformative.  Keynote speakers, panelists, and attendees will engage in conversations about the crossing of geographic and conceptual borders, and on “the trans” as a productive space for the study of lived religions.

Keynote addresses from three exemplary theorists of religion and the trans will frame our conversation over the course of the weekend:

• Thomas Tweed (Religious Studies, University of Texas at Austin)
• Thomas Csordas (Anthropology, University of California, San Diego)
• Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (Political Science, Northwestern University)

Twenty-three graduate student presenters will join our keynote speakers, representing a variety of disciplines and speaking on topics as wide-ranging as globalizing Catholicism, translating Islamic cosmology in China, transmitting religious values in Hindu summer camps, and the transnational intertwining of Persian mysticism and Black activism. 

            Conference website and to register: http://sites.weinberg.northwestern.edu/religionandthetrans

Please join us for this graduate student conference at Northwestern University, October 12–14, for an exploration of the study of religion and the transnational, transcultural, transformative, and transcendent.

Co-sponsored by the American Academy of Religion

Tonei Glavinic, a first year MASJCD student, has just started an IPS Relay for Life team. If you’re interested in either joining the team or supporting the cause, please see the below note and link from Tonei. Thanks!

Hi all,

I started an IPS team for Relay for Life this morning. If you’re not familiar with it, Relay is the signature fundraising event of the American Cancer Society and the largest fundraiser in the world. It culminates in a 12-hour overnight event where teams gather and play games, raise money, and walk laps around a track, representing the idea that “cancer never sleeps, so for one night, neither do we.” 

The central ideals of the event are celebrating successes, remembering those we’ve lost to cancer, and fighting back by raising money to further research, advocacy, and direct services. My mom is undergoing cancer treatment in Seattle right now, and ACS has offered significant support to her directly in addition to the indirect benefits of its larger efforts. If you’d be willing to help me support their work, I would really appreciate it.

Registration is $10, and since we’re the first team signed up on the website, it won’t take much for us to look really impressive. Let’s show ’em what we’ve got!

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?team_id=1249207&fr_id=48482&pg=team

Thanks,
Tonei

Please take the time to head over to www.luc.edu/ips to check out our new website design. The IT team in University Marketing and Communications has been working long and hard on the new site and we are very proud to unveil their good work.

Dr. Melissa Browning is at it again! This week she writes on The Huffington Post about the recent developments in the ongoing Chick-fil-a saga.

“…each time I walk past a Chick-fil-A without stopping in, I reaffirm my commitment to not contribute to an organization that marginalizes people based on their sexual orientation. In this small act, I am paying attention to my own moral formation. The decisions we make each day, especially the ordinary ones, shape the people we are becoming. In boycotting, I am less concerned about Chick-fil-A’s reaction, and more concerned about my own conscience. Changing ourselves is the first step in creating change in our world.”

Right on, Dr. Browning! Check out the article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-browning-phd/the-nugget-boycott-week-two_b_1696104.html

Dr. Melissa Browning, Director of the MA in Social Justice and Community Development graduate program, is a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post’s Religion Section. This week she reflects on the HIV/AIDS crisis, in particular, she connects its impact on sub-Saharan African women to the biblical figure of Bathsheba.

She explains in the piece, “Like the story of David and Bathsheba, death and love are too often linked in the stories of women living with HIV and AIDS in Africa. If we want to see this pandemic end, then women must be given space to have power and control over their own lives.”

You can find the article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-browning-phd/2-samuel-11-1-15-patriarchy-and-hiv-aids_b_1699687.html

Stay tuned for a more detailed profile of Dr. Browning in an upcoming IPS In Action blog post! In the meantime, check out her awesome website: http://www.melissabrowning.com/mb/Home.html

Loyola University Chicago’s Madonna della Strada Chapel is home to Goulding and Wood Opus 47, the Katheryn “Kay” Stamm Memorial Organ. This pipe organ of three manuals and pedal, 70 ranks is the musical crown jewel of our chapel. This exciting new instrument invigorates worship at Madonna della Strada and further pronounces the integral relationship between music and liturgy. The new instrument serves the community at Loyola as well as the artistic community in the greater Chicago area.

Besides leading the music every weekend for Sunday Mass, Loyola’s department of Sacramental Life is hosting a series of organ concerts throughout the year, to give Loyola and the surrounding community an opportunity to hear this instrument first hand.  Concerts take place the 3rd Sunday of the month at 3:00 p.m.  For a complete schedule of program information, check this link:  http://www.luc.edu/sacramental_life/organ/organyear.shtml