A new “Religions on the Move” lecture series kicks off Sept. 28 at 5 p.m. with "Make the Sound the Creator Is Waiting for Us to Make': Native American Anti-Nuclear Activism." The lecture, given by religious historian Jennifer Graber, will be held in Rm. 106, White Hall.
In her talk, Graber will consider Native American anti-nuclear activism in light of scholarly conversations about spiritual sovereignty and jurisdiction. She will focus especially on Native activists’ understanding of their work in relation to earlier visionary movements, such as the 1890 Ghost Dance.
“Prof. Graber’s talk will address her current work on Native American religions, putting religious performance in conversation with anti-Nuclear activism. This is fascinating, as well as timely and compelling; and it richly complements the work our faculty on campus is pursuing,” said Chiara Formichi, director of the Religious Studies Program and professor of Asian studies in the College of Arts & Sciences (A&S).
Graber is professor of religious studies and associate director of Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her latest book, “The Gods of Indian Country: Religion and the Struggle for the American West,” considers religious transformations among Kiowa Indians and Euro-Americans during their conflict over Indian Territory, or what is now known as Oklahoma. She is also the author of “The Furnace of Affliction: Prisons and Religion in Antebellum America.” Her new project, "Our World Renewed: Ghost Dancing Across Native North America," focuses on Native actors, sources, and epistemologies in the Ghost Dance of 1890. Graber has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The second lecture in the Religions on the Move series “Race and US Evangelical Empire in the Pacific: Korean War ‘Orphans,’” will take place on Nov. 2, at 5 p.m. in Rm. 106, White Hall. The talk will be given by Helen Kim, Associate Professor of American Religious History at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
The Religions on the Move lecture series is sponsored by the Religious Studies Program (A&S) and is supported by a grant from Cornell University’s Migrations Global Grand Challenge and the Mellon Foundation’s Just Futures Initiative. Additional support for this lecture is provided by the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, a joint program of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the American Studies Program (A&S).
