Sightings Articles
Connection and Celebration at the World's Parliament of Religions
At the height of racism in the US and Western colonialism, the Parliament was one attempt to mitigate human division and the sectarian passions nurtured and released by religious certainty.
May 25, 2023
This is the Way: Daoist Themes in Star Wars
Return of the Jedi resonates with themes, ideas, and symbolism from real-world religious traditions.
May 3, 2023
The Symbolism of a Kiss?
A single human action can take on multiple meanings, personal, social, cultural, and even moral and religious.
April 21, 2023
When Women’s Fears are Twisted into Myth
Women should not be the subject or target of myth as they should not of any anti-abortion legislation. Rather, they should have the central and deciding voice in all matters regarding pregnancy care and childbirth.
April 13, 2023
On ChatGPT: A Letter to My Students
The rapid development of AI-generated content has led to something of a crisis in higher education.
April 6, 2023
Tolerance as Tourism? Dual Developments in the Arab Gulf
Through the Abrahamic Family House, the UAE carefully curates the public sightseeing of what counts as true religion, what is tolerable and what is not, and what never reaches open discussion in the first place.
March 23, 2023
Public Education as Cultural Battleground
Attacks on public schools cannot be extricated today or historically from the use of religion as a unifying source of grievance and a particular vision of the nation fueled by an intense fear about cultural change.
March 16, 2023
Oedipus Then and Again … And Again
Pasolini’s Edipo Re reminds us of the boldness at the heart of humanistic learning: the conviction that the texts we decide to study should matter not just for us but for anyone.
March 9, 2023
Banning Books; Banning Brains
Neglect of commitments to education has profound social and political implications.
March 2, 2023
What’s So Special about the Asbury Revivals?
Even moments that seem most sacred, amid revival, have the potential to reinscribe the racially and politically profane.