Upcoming Events
 |
Blessings Beyond the Binary: Transparent and the Queer Jewish Family Join us for a discussion with contributors to the new book Blessings Beyond the Binary about the show Transparent. We’ll discuss the show’s emphasis on Jewish culture and traditions, its focus on gender and sexuality, where it connects and diverges from today’s trans and queer politics, and the show’s legacy. An audience Q & A will follow. Speakers include Jodi Eichler-Levine (Lehigh University), Joshua Lambert (Wellesley College), Nora Rubel (University of Rochester), and Brett Krutzsch (New York University). Wednesday, September 25, 2024 ***Register for this Zoom event here.*** Co-sponsors: NYU’s Skirball Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies and the Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality
|
Recent Events
 |
The Meaning of Monsters, Premodern and Modern
Thursday, April 18, 2024, 6:15– 7:45PM Monsters have always overflowed with meaning, crying out for interpretation. But some periods become obsessed with monsters: early modern Europe was one such monster moment, and the contemporary United States seems to be another. In the early modern period monsters could be individuals—people or animals with congenital anomalies—or self-reproducing species. In both cases their differences from their non-monstrous counterparts were easily visible, evoking emotions ranging from horror or terror to wonder, and the frameworks for interpreting them were primarily religious; they could be signs of divine disapproval or emblems of God’s power and creativity. In contrast, modern monsters are almost always species: humanoid ones like zombies and vampires, who may not be immediately recognizable and who evoke emotions of fear or horror, and non-human species, who can be benign. Moralized interpretations have largely replaced theological ones. These premodern/ modern contrasts and connections are the starting point for thinking about how monsters magnetize attention and what the current monster moment says about who we are now. |
 |
Slandering the Sacred: Blasphemy Law and Religion in India Monday, April 1, 2024 Join us for a discussion with Dr. J. Barton Scott about his new book, Slandering the Why is religion today so often associated with giving and taking offense? Through the origin and afterlives of a 1927 British imperial law, J. Barton Scott weaves a globe-trotting narrative about secularism, empire, insult, and outrage that explores issues of religion and free speech, colonialism, and the law. Co-sponsors: NYU Departments of History and Religious Studies
|
 |
Facing Monsters: an Evening with horror makeup master Josh Turi Thursday, March 28, 2024 What happens when the mask melds to the face? Why do we love becoming monstrous? How is that done in horror films? Come watch Emmy-award-winning artist Josh Turi work in real time to build a character for us. Bring your questions and be ready to face a terrifying makeover!
Joshua Turi is a 3-time Emmy award winning make-up artist and prosthetic designer. He and his company, Designs to Deceive, have been supplying specialty services to the entertainment industry for over 3 decades. His work can be seen in, “Jules” (Bleecker street), “Knock at the Cabin” (M. Night Shyamalan), “Dr. Death”, Season 1 and 2 (Peacock), “White House Plumbers” (HBO), “Mr. Robot” (USA), and much more. Josh spent 15 years as the Make Up Key and Lab Supervisor for Saturday Night Live (NBC), and 6 years as the Prosthetic Make up Dept. Head for Marvel TV (Netflix). These shows included “Punisher,” “Daredevil,” “Iron Fist,” “Luke Cage,” “Jessica Jones,” and “The Defenders.” His work can also be seen on Broadway. His prosthetics are used in the shows, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Lion King” and various shows at Lincoln Center.
Co-sponsor: Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life at Columbia University.
|
 |
Keep Your Zombies Close: How I Stopped Shuddering & learned to Love Ideological Critique Wednesday, February 28, 2024 Have you noticed that our monsters are creeping closer to us? That vampires attend high school (constantly), that werewolves seduce us with their moral anguish (as much as their glamorous hunky good looks)? But what about zombies? Does narrowing the gap, as TV series IZombie does, humanize zombies or recognize our own monstrosity? Should we be forgiving or horrified? This panel will investigate the politics and passions of zombie creep today.
Speakers: Sarah Lauro (University of Tampa), author of The Transatlantic Zombie: Slavery, Rebellion, and Living Death (2015) in conversation with Angela Zito, co-Director of the Center for Religion & Media,
Co-sponsor: Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life at Columbia University.
For a full-length recording of the Zoom event, please click here.
|
 |
Monstrous AI Wednesday, December 6, 2023 “AI is the Scariest Beast Ever Created.” And “The AI Monster Awakens.” These are just two recent headlines (in Newsweek and the Seattle Times, respectively) following on the heels of Chat GPT. But the monster imaginary, and monster theory, has long informed our perceptions of artificial intelligence. This panel explores the changing role of artificial intelligence in relation to its human creators.
Speakers: Lydia Chilton (Columbia University); Philip Butler (Iliff School of Theology); Timothy Beal (Case Western Reserve University). Moderated by Lydia Liu (Columbia University).
Coordinated by the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life at Columbia and co-sponsored by the Center for Religion and Media at NYU.
For a full-length recording of the Zoom event, please click here.
|
 |
Monsters Inside Out: American & Other Horrors NYU’s Angela Zito led a conversation between Rachel Wagner, author of the forthcoming, Cowboy Apocalypse: Religion, Media, Guns, and W. Scott Poole, author of Dark Carnivals: Modern Horror and the Origins of American Empire about the relationship of monsters to themes of gun violence, mainstream media, the military industrial complex, and contemporary politics. |
 |
Reagan’s Religious Vision for America and How It Shapes Today’s Politics Dr. Diane Winston and Dr. Brett Krutzsch discussed Dr. Winston’s book, Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan’s Evangelical Vision.
|
 |
Jews and Comedy
Dr. Sarah Emanuel and Dr. Jennifer Caplan discussed the connection between Jews and comedy to mark the release of Dr. Caplan’s new book, Funny, You Don’t Look Funny: Judaism and Humor from The Silent Generation to Millennials. For a full-length recording of this event, please click here. |
 |
Christian Nationalists, The Possibility of War, and the Future of American Democracy Dr. Bradley Onishi, author of Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism — And What Comes Next, spoke with NYU’s Brett Krutzsch about Christian nationalism’s prominence, if we’re facing more violence like January 6, and what the midterm elections foretell about the 2024 race. For a full-length recording of this event, please click here.
|
 |
Religion and Hip Hop Dr. Alejandro Nava, author of Street Scriptures: Between God and Hip Hop, joined Dr. Erika Gault, author of Networking the Black Church: Digital Black Christians and Hip Hop, for a conversation about hip hop, religion, and race. For a full-length recording of this event, please click here.
|
 |
The Power of Catholicism in Secular France Elayne Oliphant discussed her book, The Privilege of Being Banal: Art, Secularism, and Catholicism in Paris, with Alyssa Maldonda-Estrada. The two addressed topics such as the role Catholicism plays in nonreligious spaces in France and the power that Catholicism has in shaping French life and politics. For a full-length recording of this event, please click here.
|
 |
White Evangelical Racism Ann Neumann sat down with Anthea Butler, author of White Evangelical Racism, to discuss the role racism plays in white evangelical communities, how racism shapes evangelicals’ political involvement, and what the country need to do to confront white supremacy. For a full-length recording of this event, please click here. |
 |
Broadway and Belief Jacob Johnson, author of Lying in the Middle: Musical Theater and Belief in the Heart of America, and Stacy Wolf, author of Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theater Across America, discussed what Broadway musicals have to do with religion, what beliefs they foster, and what ideas they promote about America that reverberate across the country. For a full-length recording of this event, please click here. |
 |
Not Your Grandparents’ Language: Yiddish in the 21st CenturyThe most widely spoken Jewish language before the Holocaust, Yiddish has since found new speakers and inspired new ways to give voice to Jewish culture. What is the place of Yiddish today? Jeffrey Shandler (Rutgers) addresses this question in his new book, Yiddish: Biography of a Language. He sat down with Alisa Solomon (Columbia) to talk about the place of Yiddish in today’s culture and why it inspires new generations.For a full-length recording of this event, please click here. |
 |
A Marathon Run: Simran Jeet Singh, author of the acclaimed new children’s book Fauja Singh Keeps Going, joined Dr. Drew Thomases (San Diego State University) to discuss religious diversity, racial equality, and why more scholars should consider writing children’s books. An audience Q & A will follow. For the full-length recording of this event, please click here. |
|
|
Christian Nationalism and the 2020 Election: What’s at Stake for the Separation of Church and State Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, joined Dr. Brett Krutzsch (NYU) for a conversation about Christian nationalism, the separation of church and state, and how to protect American democracy. An audience Q & A followed. For the full-length recording of this event, please click here.
|
|
Friday, Nov. 8 – Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019 |
As China becomes the world’s largest film market, dominated by commercial and propaganda-oriented blockbusters, independent documentary filmmakers continue to train their cameras on a rapidly transforming Chinese society. They regard and engage disfranchised communities, conflicting values, the rural/urban divide, and new subjectivities in the making including the migrant, the queer, or the physically marked as different. Among the selections for this year, several also concern the ambivalent legacy of the socialist period, especially the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, its impact on individual and collective memory, and the politics of its representation. Click here for the full program.
|
Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019 |
Jeff Sharlet, author of the 2008 book on the powerful secretive Christian organization, The Family, joins series director Jesse Moss and Erica Robles-Anderson (MCC, NYU) for a screening and discussion. For more information, click here. |
Sign up for our event e-mailing list