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News & Upcoming Events: October 7, 2016

Friday Bulletin, October 7, 2016

News and Upcoming Events

The American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program (Department of Religion) will be presenting on Native Peoples’ Recognition Day at UF with the Screening of the Film, “The Seventh Fire” on October 10, 2016, at 4:05pm. Place: MCCB G086. “The Seventh Fire” explores the Native American gang crisis and the urgent need for criminal justice reform.
“The Seventh Fire” premiered to critical acclaim at the Berlin International Film Festival and was recently featured at a special screening at the White House as part of President Obama’s campaign to pass criminal justice reform. Seminole activist David Narcomey will present the film and discuss other, current native issues.
Professor Richard Madsen (Sociology, UC San Diego), one of the most eminent sociologists and scholars of religion in the US, will give a Delton Scudder Public Lecture. This event is sponsored by the Religion Department, and is organized by Professor Mario Poceski (contact person).
Topic: How Christianities became Chinese Religions
Time: October 27, 2016, starting at 5:00 pm
Venue: 219 Dauer Hall
Lecture Abstract 
Many types of Christianity have taken root in China, some of them so different that it is best to talk of them sociologically (if not theologically) as Christianities.  In Chinese popular discourse, these are all called “foreign religion.”  However, they have all in their own ways become indigenized into various parts of a pluralistic Chinese culture.  In some cases, this has come from above, through the efforts of elite religious and political leaders.  In others, from below, through grassroots creativity.  A challenge today for these pluralistic Christianities in a pluralistic culture is that the Chinese government is trying to create a unified Chinese culture to support a strong unified political system.
Speaker
Richard Madsen received an M.A. in Asian studies and a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard. He is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology the University of California, San Diego, and was a co-director of a Ford Foundation project to help revive the academic discipline of sociology in China. Professor Madsen is the author, or co-author, of twelve books on Chinese culture, American culture, and international relations. His best known works on American culture are those written with Robert Bellah, William Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven Tipton: Habits of the Heart (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1995) and The Good Society (New York, Knopf, 1991). His books on China include Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2007), Chen Village under Mao and Deng (co-authored with Anita Chan and Jonathan Unger) (Berkeley, UC Press, 1992), Morality and Power in a Chinese Village (UC Press, 1984) [winner of the C. Wright Mills Award], Unofficial China (co-edited with Perry Link and Paul Pickowicz) (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989), China and the American Dream (UC Press, 1994), China’s Catholics: Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society (UC Press, 1998), and Popular China: Unofficial Culture in a Globalizing Society, co-edited with Perry Link and Paul Pickowicz (Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002).

Presentations

Professor Jonathan Edelmann has kindly agreed to meet with the RGSA (Religion Grad Student Association) to talk aboutabout how to put together CVs. The meeting will be on Friday, October 7, 2016, at 10:00am in the conference room. Coffee and light snacks will be provided! Look forward to seeing you all there.

Publications

Professor Bron Taylor’s article, “The Sacred, Reverence for Life, and Environmental Ethics in America” has been published in The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics, eds. Steve Gardiner and Allen Thompson (London, Oxford University Press, 2016), 248-261.

Ken Chitwood (PhD student, Americas) published a paper entitled, “Globalizing the Study of American Islam: Approaches to the Field Through the Lens of Globalization Theory,” in the Waikato Islamic Studies Review, September 2016, Vol. 2, No. 2 edition. Ken is also a University of Waikato Islamic Studies Group Corresponding Associate Research Member. The recent review is available online at the following link: http://www.waikato.ac.nz/fass/UWISG/WaikatoIslamicStudiesReview-Vol2-No2.pdf