Religion

Romanticizing the Premodern: Charting Indices of Indigenous and Asian Religions in Contemporary American Spirituality

Slide show and talk by documentary and fine art photographer, Kevin Bubriski. Kevin’s fine art photographs are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. He was recipient of Guggenheim, Fulbright and NEA fellowships. Sweta Gurung, Founder/Director–Himalayan Crossroads, and Adrian Smith (’97.5), will discuss their work in rural Nepal as well as Kathmandu Valley providing relief for village people displaced by the recent earthquakes.

Students and members of the Middlebury community are welcome to join this meditation circle with world renowned Mevlevi Sufi Shaikh Kabir Helminski.

How should we understand the relation between Buddhist meditation and neuroscience and philosophy? This talk seeks to chart out a middle path between ‘Buddhist Neuro-Apologetics’ and cultural relativism—drawing upon Kant and two classical Indian Buddhist philosophers, Buddhaghosa and Santaraksita.

Open to the Public.

The Legacy of the Reformation: Roundtable Conversations

Session II: The Protestant Reformation and the Study of Religion
4:30-6:00 pm, Robert A Jones House

The Legacy of the Reformation: Roundtable Conversations

Session I: The Protestant Reformation and the Humanities
3:00-4:30 pm, Robert A. Jones House

On the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in Europe, scholars from across the Middlebury College faculty will discuss the impact that this major historical event has had on the study of art, history, music, language, literature, politics, and religion. The Thursday evening lectures and the Friday roundtable discussions are open to the public.

Ruth Dunnell, James P. Storer Professor of Asian History, Kenyon College

Performativity and Agency of the Material Guise (Vesham) in a South Indian Goddess Tradition

Joyce Flueckiger situates stri vesham in a wider repertoire of guising in Gangamma traditions, which provides commentary on the agency of material guising, and argues that stri vesham does not make men women, but transforms their masculinity.