Both articles consider how virtue-centered Jewish traditions (musar) may provide resources for responding to calls to justify the mass killings of innocent civilians.

The first article was published in the “Journal of Jewish Ethics” (vol. 9, no. 2). The article is titled and focuses on those four virtues.

The second article, 聽focuses more narrowly on virtues of justice and compassion. It was published in “Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas” (vol. 5, no. 1), the journal of the Shalom Hartman Institute.

This event comes as a response to the campus’s urgent need for education and dialogue during the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine. 黑料不打烊 faculty will host individual table discussions intended to help members of our campus community develop some understanding of and context for these troubling events in the Middle East. Each table will be dedicated to one topic or question that emerges out of a faculty member’s area of expertise.

Open to students, faculty and staff, the event is being organized by 黑料不打烊’s Council on Civic Engagement, the International and Global Studies program and the 黑料不打烊 Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society.

During his term, Kasim will pursue public scholarship projects that connect the legacies of Euro-American colonialism to public health and racial inequities, spearhead the CSRCS鈥檚 鈥淩eligion Trending鈥� series on religion in the news and develop programming that outlines the global intersections of religion and health.聽He will assume his position on June 1, 2022.

A historian of West Africa, he has deep research experience throughout the entire continent, especially in Ghana, his home, and in the East African nation of Kenya.

His current book in progress, “Sanitary Segregation: Cleansing Accra and Nairobi, 1908-1962,” examines contrasting 鈥渟aniscapes鈥� of the colonial governments of Africa that mapped the segregation of rich from poor, Black from white and Muslim from non-Muslim. In a second book project underway, Kasim draws on oral traditions and British colonial archives to examine the ways that Muslims in Ghana constructed identities in the context of colonialism and Christian missionary activity.

Kasim joins the CSRCS with an impressive record of interdisciplinary collaboration and timely public scholarship. At Washington University in St. Louis, he was a member of the Arthur W. Mellon Foundation-supported Divided City Advisory Committee that brought humanities scholars into dialogue with legal scholars, architects, urban designers, sociologists, geographers, GIS cartographers and others to address the persistent global problem of urban segregation. on the global reach of the protests following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis examines the colonial roots of the urban inequalities expressed in the protests.

At 黑料不打烊, Kasim has taught a remarkable range of topics including courses on Africa, the modern Middle East, urban history and Islam.

Kasim will succeed Sandy Marshall, assistant professor of geography, the first CSRCS Scholar who has served in this role since 2020. During his term, Marshall helped the CSRCS transition its operations to the fluid conditions of the pandemic, converting the “Religion Trending” series to an engaging online format and helping to retool the 2021 On the Edge Symposium, 鈥淩eligion at the Borders,鈥� into a successful virtual conference.

Marshall has also assisted to develop and deliver a full calendar of events that will extend into spring 2022 on topics ranging from Black foodways in the U.S. to indigenous water rights in Alamance County. Marshall has curated two photo exhibitions featuring life along the U.S.-Mexico border and he is organizing a February 2022 symposium on the 20th-century Black Muslim leader in the U.S., W.D. Muhammad. In addition, he has continued to advance his new research on contested religious sites in the West Bank, having presented his work at the Middle Eastern Studies Association and having obtained a research grant from the Palestinian American Research Center to continue field research next year.聽The CSRCS and the campus is grateful to Marshall for his many contributions to intellectual life at 黑料不打烊.

Brian Pennington, director of the CSRCS, said that Kasim will bring new strengths to the center. 鈥淒r. Kasim’s work will help us pursue areas that we have not had the resources to fully engage before. His rich knowledge of African history and his enduring interests in public health are critical resources at this moment of global crisis. We are very excited about the work we’ll be able to do together.鈥�

Faculty from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and Augsburg University in Minneapolis had come to 黑料不打烊 to conduct a site visit hosted by Amy Allocco, associate professor of religious studies, and Brian Pennington, professor of religious studies and director of 黑料不打烊’s Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society, who are the other members of the research team working with a grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. Through interviews and visits to departments and centers, research team members collected information about 黑料不打烊 programs such as the Multifaith Scholars, the Interreligious Studies minor, Truitt Center, and Kernodle Center for Civic Life. They wanted to better understand how these programs are helping to deliver one of the country’s most robust initiatives to make multifaith education a component of intercultural learning at 黑料不打烊 and to pursue research and teaching that examines the intersections of religious communities and traditions.

In succeeding months, as it became clear that the coronavirus would have long term effects on higher education and the murders of George Floyd and others ignited national outrage, the team’s summer plan to convene in Chicago to consult with the nonprofit Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) and begin to write up the grant’s results was shelved. Instead, the research team turned to reassessing the future of interreligious studies in light of the “twin pandemics” of the summer of 2020: systemic racism and COVID-19. IFYC has published its preliminary reflections on what has been learned about how interreligious studies is taught nationally and how these recent national traumas might and should shape the future of the emerging field of study.

“In our discussions聽about聽how to move our grant on effective interreligious pedagogies forward, we realized that addressing them and confronting the ways that they are intertwined WAS the way forward.聽Indeed聽these two pandemics call us to ‘the fierce urgency of now,'” the authors wrote, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr.

Team members are currently drafting a final report for publication. In the meantime, a summary of their preliminary findings on IFYC’s Interfaith America website is available聽

During his term, Marshall will develop a statement of best practices for community-based research and learning in multifaith settings and pilot a storytelling project.

鈥淐ommunity-based learning with religious organizations presents opportunities for students as well as challenges for educators,” Marshall said. “These include reconciling the secular worldview of university education with the faith-based mission of community partners and avoiding exploitative partnerships.鈥�

Marshall believes these standards will prove useful both for teaching and research conducted on or near campus, as well as research conducted abroad and for travel-embedded courses.

In addition, Marshall intends to develop 鈥満诹喜淮蜢� Story Place,鈥� a digital storytelling center on campus that can serve as a resource for students, faculty, community organizations and local schools interested in utilizing practices of deep listening and storytelling for research and action. Marshall will work to produce a series of digital stories highlighting the 鈥渓ived religion鈥� of members of the community recorded in these stories.

Marshall has also proposed a monthly podcast version of the CSRCS鈥檚 successful 鈥淩eligion Trending鈥� event series, in which 黑料不打烊 faculty, staff and/or special guests provide their 鈥渉ot takes鈥� on trending topics relating to religion. The CSRCS will archive these dialogues so that students their faculty can access them for courses.

Marshall comes to this position with strong credentials for the work he proposes. As a human geographer whose work examines the impact of conflict, division, and displacement on children and youth in the Middle East, religion has been a consistent crosscutting theme in his research. Participatory and community-based forms of knowledge production have been guiding ideals of his scholarly practice.

Marshall has worked with Palestinian refugee children and a community-based youth organization to curate photo exhibits and film festivals to display the creative outputs produced by the participants. He has worked with youth organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, and Lebanon to design digital storytelling projects with youth, and he developed a community-based learning project in the Tuscon, Arizona area in which students produced digital stories about the food traditions of refugees living in the region that became the basis of the Emmy-nominated documentary film,

CSRCS Director, Brian Pennington, notes that Marshall has already made significant contributions to the work of the CSRCS. 鈥淪andy has been an important voice on our Advisory Committee, and he has proven a gifted research mentor for our Multifaith Scholars and other students doing high-quality projects in which religion is a central focus,” Pennington said. “We are delighted he is joining the CSRCS in this new capacity.鈥�

During a two-year appointment, CSRCS Scholars undertake activities and initiatives that promote their own professional development and assume leadership in some of the CSRCS鈥檚 ongoing initiatives.

For more information about the CSRCS Scholar position, contact Brian Pennington at bpennington4@elon.edu.

​To be offered biannually, the 2017 symposium was organized around the theme “On the Edge of Apocalypse” by Mould and Lynn Huber, associate professor of religious studies who specializes in the Christian Book of Revelation.

Explaining the concept of the symposium, Huber observed, “We tend to think of apocalyptic thought as being about the future, but it is really about the present.” Mould added, “Apocalyptic thinking helps us evaluate our current circumstances and then project them into the future. Are we headed for disaster? Or are we headed for peace and prosperity?”

Eleven scholars from universities across the US and Canada explored those ideas and presented their own research tracing the edges of apocalyptic thought and practice. Those scholars joined 黑料不打烊 faculty conveners of the symposium, Huber and Tom Mould, as well as CSRCS Director Brian Pennington for three days of analysis and discussion of contemporary and past millenarian practice.

​Those in attendance were able to consider their understanding of apocalypticism as it manifests in various religions and cultures in light of the research that others in the room were doing. “The quality of the conversations and the many expressions of appreciation for the work 黑料不打烊 is doing to foster new scholarship on religion were very gratifying,” Pennington said.

Symposium sessions were titled, “Apocalypse and Temporal Imaging,” “Apocalypse and Social Cohesion,” “Apocalypse and Gender in Popular Culture,” “Apocalypse as Contemporary Ideology” and “Apocalypse as Queer Unveiling.” Papers ran the gamut of end-times thinking, from depictions in popular culture such as “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” to the political rhetoric of the 2016 US Presidential campaign to the imaginings of 16-century Afghani apocalypticists. The symposium’s sessions were all open to 黑料不打烊 students and faculty.

Thursday night’s keynote address entitled “Every Time a Horn Goes, Another Replaces It: Cyclicality and Conquest in Muslim Apocalypticism,” offered by David Cook of Rice University, drew a standing room only crowd in McKinnon Hall in the Moseley Student Center.

The 黑料不打烊 community was able to get involved in other ways. Students conducting undergraduate research in religion and anthropology had the opportunity to share their research with the visiting scholars during a poster session on Friday afternoon. This opened the door for productive conversations for both visitors and students alike. Numerous 黑料不打烊 faculty joined the discussions over the symposium’s three days.

The next “On the Edge” symposium will be held in 2019 to once again bring together scholars working at the theoretical and methodological boundaries of fields that have a stake in the critical analysis of religion—law, history, psychology, anthropology, literature/textual studies, philosophy, art history, political science, classics, and gender studies. Through this year’s symposium and future meetings to come, the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society hopes to contribute to a richly contextualized and multi-layered understanding of the role of religion in societies past, present, and future. 

Hussain will challenge the stereotypes about Islam that are common in post-9/11 America and will uncover the ways in which Islam has been instrumental in the formation of American identity and culture. Hussain argues that America would not exist as it does today without the essential contributions made by its Muslim citizens. In his book, Hussain writes, “Islam is viewed in a three-fold way: as new to America; as foreign to America; and as comprised of adherents who are violent, ‘un-American,’ and a threat to our nation. The reality is that Muslims have helped us to be more American, to be better Americans.”

Hussain writes about contributions of notable Muslim Americans in sports, music, art and politics including Mohammed Ali, Ahmet Etregun, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Keith Ellison. “Muslims and the Making of America” also sketches the history of Islam in North America beginning with the Muslim slaves forcibly brought to the New World. 

Hussain has held a longstanding commitment to interfaith work and has written extensively on the topic. He authored a book entitled “Oil and Water: Two Faiths One God” about the relationship between Christians and Muslims in North America today. The book seeks to inspire an ongoing interfaith dialogue between the two groups about finding a space for reconciliation, where both groups can feel recognized and honored by the other.

Hussain holds his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate from the University of Toronto and has been the co-editor of several textbooks including the fourth editions of “World Religions: Western Traditions” and “World Religions: Eastern Traditions.” He has also published over 50 book chapters and scholarly articles about religion. Hussain serves on the editorial boards of three scholarly journals, the Journal of Religion, Conflict and Peace; the Ethiopian Journal of Religious Studies; and Comparative Islamic Studies.

The lecture will take place in McKinnon Hall in the Moseley Student Center at 5:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the 黑料不打烊 Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society.

Along with Dr. Tom Mould (Anthropology/Sociology), Huber has worked to identify and invite eleven scholars from around the US and Canada to present research on apocalyptic thought Feb. 9-11. Huber’s own research focuses on the book of Revelation in the Christian New Testament. The idea of working collaboratively with other scholars on a wide-ranging, comparative study of apocalypticism inspired her to organize this small conference with Mould. Topics of the papers to be presented include the Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando, Florida, Hindu nationalist supporters of the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and contemporary Iranian horror films. Reflecting on the variety of perspectives represented in the meeting, Mould observed, “You find evidence of humanity’s enduring fascination with the idea of the end of the world in an incredible number of places around the world and across time.”

Called “On the Edge” to emphasize the new and innovative scholarship it will showcase, the symposium will be hosted every two years by 黑料不打烊’s Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society (CSRCS). Each year it will be organized by 黑料不打烊 faculty members who will announce the theme and invite participants. CSRCS director, Brian Pennington, explained that this kind of regular, scholarly meeting was part of the original vision for the CSRCS when it was founded in 2011. “This symposium will position 黑料不打烊 as a place where serious, collaborative scholarship on religion takes place, and it will support the work of our own faculty in disciplines across the university who are doing research on the role of religion in society,” he said. Mould, whose work in Folklore has examined religious narratives in both Choctaw and Mormon cultures, was a member of the planning committee who originally envisioned the CSRCS as a center for research and education about religion that would complement the multi-faith initiatives at 黑料不打烊. “We saw these symposia as opportunities to explore the overlapping edges of our different disciplines,” he said. “It’s at those intersections that some of the most interesting work gets done.”

The keynote address for the symposium will be given by David Cook of Rice University on Feb. 9 at 5:45 in McKinnon Hall in the Moseley Student Center. His talk, “‘Every Time a Horn Goes, Another Replaces It’: Cyclicality and Conquest in Muslim Apocalypticism,” will discuss the history of Islamic thought about the end of the world. The keynote is free and open to the public. Other sessions of the symposium will take place in small working groups where the scholars in attendance will offer feedback on the papers in progress. Huber, Mould, and Pennington expect to publish an anthology of this research in a forthcoming book.

The symposium will also offer an important professionalization opportunity for 黑料不打烊 students to observe and take part in its deliberations. “They will be able to see how scholars discuss and debate one another’s ideas,” Pennington explained. In addition, he said, a poster session in which undergraduates present their projects to the symposium participants will take place on Friday afternoon. “It will also give many of our students a chance to interact with some of the country’s best scholars of religion and discuss their own undergraduate research findings with them.”

More information about “On the Edge of Apocalypse” can be found on the website of the CSRCS here: . For further information call 336.278.7729.

According to the United Nations, the Syrian crisis continues to be the “biggest humanitarian emergency of our era.” After five years of war and as many as 500,000 dead, nearly five million refugees have fled to other parts of the Middle East or Europe with no end to the conflict in Syria in sight.

Ghadbian is a Syrian pro-democracy activist and academic. He served on the board of the Day After Project, a cooperative movement by members of the Syrian opposition to outline a plan to rebuild the country and end the Syrian conflict once Bashar al-Assad is out of power.

Helping arrange Ghadbian’s visit to 黑料不打烊 has been Associate Professor of Management Systems Haya Ajjan, who was born in Damascus, Syria, and has worked to bring several representatives of the coalition to 黑料不打烊 since the war began in 2011. She has several family members remaining in Syria with whom she is in regular contact. “The situation in the besieged areas of Syria is a humanitarian catastrophe,” Ajjan said. “People are watching their loved ones die of starvation and of diseases and injuries that are treatable. The suffering of civilians is being used as a tactic of war by different fighting groups.”

“黑料不打烊 is fortunate to host a figure so central to the multinational negotiations over the shape of a post-conflict Syria as Dr. Ghadbian,” said CSRCS Director, Brian Pennington. “Dr. Ghadbian is a long-established champion of democracy in the Middle East and a democratic Syria.”

The event on Wednesday, Sept. 7, at 5:30 p.m. in the McBride Gathering Space of the Numen Lumen Pavilion is free and open to the public.

With the theme “To Take Place: Culture, Religion, and Home-making in and beyond South Asia,” the conference attracted more than 50 attendees from the South Indian city and featured 16 presenters from throughout India and five additional countries. Speakers addressed the means and practices by which migrants, displaced persons and various other subcommunities in South Asia establish physical, conceptual and emotional spaces that put them at home or give rise to conflict with other groups.

The keynote address, “Making a Himalayan Abode: Conflict, Aspiration and Power at a Garhwal Shrine” was delivered by CSRCS Director, Dr. Brian Pennington.

Pennington has been working with Ponniah this year to develop a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would facilitate further cooperation between the two institutions. “This MOU will give students and faculty involved in several of 黑料不打烊’s Winter Term Abroad courses in South India the opportunity to work with counterparts at this historic university in the beautiful, seaside city of Chennai,” said Pennington.

The University of Madras was founded in 1857. Its original buildings are among the finest examples of Indo-Saracenic architecture in the world, and its iconic campus buildings stand across the street from the bustling public beachfront and the Bay of Bengal. It has 73 academic departments and offers several different degrees in the study of religion.