The Annual Davidson Lecture
The Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Lecture was established in 1983, thanks to a generous donation from the Davidson family and the Crabtree Foundation. The lecture is sponsored by the College of the Humanities, and focuses on bringing a prominent scholar in the area of religious studies and related areas to speak at 杏吧原创. These lectures are open to students, faculty, and members of the general public.
Past Davidson Lectures
- 2026: Meghan O’Gieblyn – 鈥淎ttention and the Sacred in the Age of AI鈥
- 2025: Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme – “The Future of Non-Religion in Canada”
- 2023: Aaron W. Hughes – “The Ubiquitous Muslim”
- 2021-2022: Davidson Online Lecture Series (in response to COVID pandemic)
- Brooke Schedneck – “Who Is a Good Monk? Everyday Scandals, Gender Policing, and the Lay Buddhist Gaze in Contemporary Thailand”
- Odulamini Ogunnaike – “You’re Studying Us, But Who’s Studying You? The Imperative and Perils of Decolonizing Religious Studies”
- Annamie Paul – “Intersections of Identity in Politics”
- 2020: Pamela Klaasen – “Going for Gold: The Geological Secular and the Religio-Racial Myth of Mineral Rights”
- 2019: Maureen Matthews – “Naamiwan’s Drum: Repatriation and the Animacy of Ceremonial Objects”
- 2018: Geoffrey Samuel – “The Goals of Mindfulness:鈥 Life-cultivation and Mind-body Practices in Asia and the West”
- 2017: Ruth Gavison – “State and Religions in Israel: The Regulation of Marriage and Divorce”鈥
- 2016: Leigh Eric Schmidt – “How Atheists and Unbelievers Made Their Way into American Public Life”
- 2014: Steven Collins – “Pali Buddhist Practices of the Self”
- 2013: Bruce Lincoln – “Contrasting Styles of Apocalyptic Time and the Politics of the Past in the Future”
- 2013: Geoffrey Samuel – “Tibetan Sacred Dance: ‘Cham’ In Context”
- 2012: Karen L. King – “Controversies over Sexuality and Marriage Among Early Christians: What a New Papyrus Fragment Can (or Can’t) Tell Us”
- 2011: Amanda Porterfield – “Conceived in Doubt: The Symbiosis between Evangelicalism and Politics in the Early United States”
- 2011: Wendy Doniger – “One God or Many: Monotheism and Polytheism in Hindu Mythology”
- 2010: Tariq Ramadan – “Identity and Engagement: Western Muslims and the Public Sphere”
- 2009: April D. DeConick – “The Magical Judas: Gnosticism, the Gospel of Judas, and a Gem”
- 2008: William Arnal – “What branches grow out of this stony rubbish? How 鈥渢he Bible鈥 can add to and subtract from the study of religion”
- 2007: William C. Chittick – “The Other Side of Islam: A Look at the Side Furthest Away from Current Events and Public Concerns”
- 2006: Norman Sjoman – “New Light on Yoga: The Philosophical Implications of Physical Movement”
- 2005: Nino Ricci – “Searching for the Historical Jesus”
- 2004: Thupten Jinpa – “Philosophy of Mind and Transformation of Consciousness in Tibetan Buddhism”
- 2004: Pearl Abraham – “Divinity School or Trusting the Act of Writing”
- 2003: Alan F. Segal – “Martyrdom and Immortality in Judaism and Early Christianity”
- 2002: Robert A. F. Thurman – “Tibet, Her Buddhism, and Her Gifts to Our World”
- 2001: Peter Richardson – “Herodian Architecture and the Jews”
- 2000: Dr. Shridhar Andhare
- 1999: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, ” Knowledge and the Sacred”
- 1997: Bernard Lewis – “The Middle East: Towards the Year 2000”
- 1995: George Steiner – “Reading Underwritten”
- 1993: “The Historical Jesus Seminar: Responses to John Dominic Crossnan,” featuring Paula Fredriksen, Sean Freyne, Burton Mack, Halvor Moxnes, and Jane Shaberg
- 1992: Charles Taylor – “Conflicts of World Views and Values in the Canadian Constitutional Debate”
- 1990: Vidya Dehejia – “A Cult of Multiple Goddesses: Yogini Temples of India”
- 1989: Wayne A. Meeks – “The Puzzle of Christian Beginnings”
- 1988: Oleg Grabar – “Art and the Divine”
- 1987: Meir Sternberg – “Double Cave, Double Talk: The Indirections of Biblical Narrative”
- 1986: Professor Janaki – “The Yoga of Art”
- 1985: E.S. Fiorenza – “Symposium on the Challenge of Feminist Biblical Interpretations”
- 1984: Carol Christ – “Finitude: Death and Reverence for Life”
- 1983: Hans K眉ng – “The Future of Religion: The Church and the Modern World”