McFarland Center Events
Explore the complex interrelationships between religion, ethics and culture.
The Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture sponsors and supports programming that explores basic human questions of meaning, morality and mutual obligation.
2025-2026 Events Schedule
Starts: Mon, Feb 2, 2026 at 4:30pm
Ends: Mon, Feb 2, 2026 at 6:00pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism Professors Ari L. Goldman and Gregory Khalil hold different, often opposed worldviews on issues related to Israel/Palestine and the broader Middle East. Yet they have taught together for years, appearing on CBS/CNN and taking their students on reporting trips to Israel/Palestine. Ari and Greg will share how building a robust pedagogy creates the space to dive into fraught issues, including the events of October 7th and the encampments at Columbia University.
Part of the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.
Maurice Weiss, photographer
Starts: Thu, Feb 12, 2026 at 4:30pm
Ends: Thu, Feb 12, 2026 at 6:00pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Sven Beckert, a scholar of nineteenth-century U.S. and global history, speaks on the history of capitalism and its economic, social, political, and transnational dimensions. He is the award-winning author of Empire of Cotton: A Global History, which won the Bancroft Award, the Philip Taft Award, and the Cundill Recognition for Excellence as well as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Starts: Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 4:30pm
Ends: Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 6:00pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
For generations, American Catholics went to confession regularly and in large numbers, admitting their sins to a priest and receiving God's forgiveness through him. The sacrament served as a distinctive marker of Catholic identity, shaping parishioners' views of their relationship to God, their neighbors, and the larger world. It gave them a clear moral framework for thinking about their own personal behavior. But starting in the 1970s, most Catholics abandoned confession altogether. This talk will describe and analyze the reasons for the flourishing of the practice and then the reasons for its decline.
Part of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.
Starts: Thu, Feb 19, 2026 at 4:30pm
Ends: Thu, Feb 19, 2026 at 6:00pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Ray Madoff explores the transformation that has occurred over the past forty years from a tax system that was designed to impose its greatest burdens on those with the greatest capacity to pay, to one that now allows the richest Americans to entirely remove themselves from the burdens of paying taxes leaving the rest of us to pick up the slack, and what can be done to bring them back into the system.
Starts: Wed, Feb 25, 2026 at 4:30pm
Ends: Wed, Feb 25, 2026 at 6:00pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Steven Fransblow, Chief Data and Technology Officer at Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, describes how BSA employs data-driven methodologies to conduct comprehensive research on Americans’ attitudes and behaviors related to Jewish hate, systematically monitoring more than 500 million social media posts daily and analyzing online discourse surrounding antisemitism, Judaism and Israel.
Part of the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.
Starts: Thu, Feb 26, 2026 at 4:30pm
Ends: Thu, Feb 26, 2026 at 6:00pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Gen Z -- young men in particular -- are being shaped less in stable communities of family, Church and community and more by the unbridled digital cultures of the “manosphere”. Is this a crisis and how should the Church respond? Four millennial Catholic intellectuals--Susan Reynolds, Paddy Gilger, S.J., Margaret Felice and Peter Nguyen, S.J.-- consider this radical recent shift in the moral formation of young people.
Starts: Wed, Mar 11, 2026 at 4:30pm
Ends: Wed, Mar 11, 2026 at 6:00pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
In calling for a global war on terror following the attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush said the conflict “will be a different type of war than we’re used to … this is a different type of enemy than we’re used to.” But during the age of overseas American empire, the United States has engaged in such wars and pursued such enemies many times. In the past, U.S. politicians and the press often couched the danger in the language of the “bandit” or “savage.” In the present, the term most often used is “terrorist.” These terms all suggest criminality, incivility, and illegitimacy of cause and means. Moreover, these pejorative descriptions have served to dehumanize opponents and enable the bending or breaking of established rules of warfare to combat them. Drawing from examples in his new book, Chasing Bandits: America’s Long War on Terror (University of North Carolina Press), Neagle argues this moral framework has been useful in justifying militarized violence against challengers abroad in places of strategic interest.
This event is cosponsored by Peace and Conflict Studies.
Starts: Wed, Mar 18, 2026 at 4:30pm
Ends: Wed, Mar 18, 2026 at 6:00pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Over the past two decades, the “New Native Cinematic Renaissance” has seen a growing number of films and streaming series created by Indigenous directors and writers, with Native actors in leading roles and stories centered on kinship, healing, and balance. Brady DeSanti (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe) explores spiritual representations in the First Nations film Don’t Say Its Name and in Echo and Reservation Dogs, using them to examine historically rooted and ongoing issues in 21st-century Indian Country.
Starts: Mon, Mar 23, 2026 at 7:00pm
Ends: Mon, Mar 23, 2026 at 8:30pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Dignity is a term found in varied domains: law, activism, philosophy, and Catholic social thought, among others. What does it mean to take accounts of dignity emerging from grassroots social movements seriously, and how can they inflect discussions of ethics and public policy? Drawing on examples from prison reform and Black justice movements, Vincent Lloyd will expand how we understand the concept of dignity.
Part of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.
John Shetron Photography
Starts: Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 4:30pm
Ends: Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 6:00pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Tia Noelle Pratt, Assistant Vice President for Mission Engagement and Strategic Initiatives at Villanova University, will offer insights and reflections from her first book, Black and Catholic: Identity, Racism, and Religion, published in Fall 2025. Ten years in the making, this book offers a sociological analysis of systemic racism in the U.S. Catholic Church and its impact on African American Catholic identity.
Starts: Thu, Mar 26, 2026 at 4:30pm
Ends: Thu, Mar 26, 2026 at 6:00pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Benjamin Santer reflects on three decades of speaking science to power, from his role as a lead author on the 1995 IPCC report that first concluded there was a “discernible human influence” on global climate—an assertion that sparked intense political and ideological backlash. Tracing the journey from that contested moment to the U.S. National Academies’ 2025 determination that human-caused climate change is “unequivocal,” he examines the challenges of communicating evidence in an age of disinformation and the moral responsibilities of climate scientists today.
This event is cosponsored by Environmental Studies (ENVS).
Photo courtesy of Nando Ochando
Starts: Wed, Apr 15, 2026 at 4:30pm
Ends: Wed, Apr 15, 2026 at 6:00pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
This talk reflects on what animates the most recent iteration of attacks on liberal arts higher education and considers how we might respond most effectively. Polemically, Wendy Brown argues that the classroom is not a place to teach or promulgate values, but rather a place to teach how values are made—how worlds are built in their image, and how we carry them, often unwittingly, in our ways of seeing and interpreting, in our language and in our conduct. Substantively, the talk explores how to sustain the distinction between promulgating and analyzing values in order to teach students to take values more seriously, think about them more carefully, and cultivate them more deeply.
Starts: Fri, Apr 17, 2026 at 9:30am
Ends: Fri, Apr 17, 2026 at 6:30pm (America/New_York)
Location: Rehm Library, Smith Hall
Margins in Motion: Latin American and Caribbean Cinema and the Ethics of Representation
This one-day symposium brings into focus the ethical challenges and political stakes of representing marginalized experiences in Latin American and Caribbean cinema. Through three thematic panel sections—on marginalized musical traditions, the depiction of contested or non-normative motherhoods, and the visual treatment of illness, disability, and environmental harm—the event interrogates how film addresses ethical witnessing and social critique. Moreover, the program will feature a keynote speaker, and a screening of a notable contemporary film followed by a conversation with its director.
Organized by:
Reynaldo Lastre, Justo Planas, Juan G. Ramos
Cosponsored by the Department of Spanish and by the following Le Moyne Departments: World Languages, Literatures and Cultures; Dean of Art and Science Office; Noreen Reale Falcone Library and by ArtMattan Productions
Recent Events
To address the challenges of our time and the forces that shape our world at the intersections of religion, ethics and culture, the McFarland Center works alongside Holy Cross faculty to sponsor dozens of on-campus programs annually. Many of these events are also available to watch online.
Recent events include:
Recent Conferences
Thursday, October 24, 2024 - Saturday, October 26, 2024
This colloquium will explore the varied epistemologies and tangible practices across the ancient Mediterranean world, as well as their suppression within ancient political contexts and modern disciplinary practices. The participants, professors in Classics and Biblical Studies, will scrutinize assertions of power and expressions of resistance, as well as the hegemonic processes, ancient and modern, of silencing and appropriating those expressions.
Tat siong Benny Liew, Class of 1956 Professor in New Testament Studies, organized this workshop-style colloquium.
Thursday, April 18 - Friday, April 19, 2024
April 7, 2024 marks the 30th commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda. In solidarity with Rwandans, this two-day symposium gathers international scholars to unpack the complex role of the Catholic church in the genocide and its aftermath, as well as explore broader implications for the global church today. View the schedule here.
Conference Keynote: Theology and Ecclesiology from Wounds of the Genocide
Thursday, April 18, 2024
7:00 p.m., Rehm Library, Smith Hall
How does a compromised church rise from the wounds of the genocide? Rev. Marcel Uwineza, SJ, a genocide survivor, considers the historical, social, political, and theological circumstances that led to the genocide and proposes a different way forward. Uwineza is the Principal of Hekima University College in Kenya, a Jesuit School of Theology and Peace Studies.
This Catholics & Cultures conference is organized by Audrey Seah, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. The talks will result in an upcoming issue of the Journal for Global Catholicism.
Saturday, March 25, 2023
In conjunction with the Cantor Art Gallery exhibition curated by Amanda Luyster, this symposium explores the impact that the Crusades had on medieval western Europe. The Crusades were marked both by brutal violence, much of which was directed against people who were not European (Latin) Christians, and by sustained cross-cultural encounters which, for many Europeans, affected their sense of self for centuries to come. It can be difficult to process both of these truths simultaneously, yet essential to develop this more complex and more accurate understanding of the Crusades. The symposium will be held under the auspices of the New England Medieval Consortium and is supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.
The Medieval Academy of America, the largest organization in America promoting medieval studies, has awarded this exhibition the 2024 Monica H. Green Prize for Distinguished Medieval Research. This Prize is awarded "for an exceptional project that shows the value of medieval studies in our present day."
April 18-20, 2023
Incidents involving free expression on campus are riling campus communities and pitting against each other pedagogical perspectives about whether students learn best in contexts where discussion of ideas is completely unfettered, or whether some topics and ideas make students feel under attack and inhibit opportunities for learning. How do we balance the needs of protecting our students from harmful and incendiary views and helping them confront difficult and often divisive material? How do we model respectful dialogue in the interest of intellectual inquiry? The College of the Holy Cross is convening a cohort of 30 scholars, administrators and leaders, representing a range of perspectives, disciplines and roles on campus, to clarify the challenges and imagine pedagogical responses in the classroom and across campus. This conference will help us identify the distinctive tensions facing private, liberal arts educational contexts and how best to address them in order to promote a healthy campus climate and well-educated citizenry. The conference is made possible with the generous support of the John and Laura Broderick Family Foundation.
International Conference: New Communities as a Theological Setting
April 28-30, 2023
In Côte d'Ivoire, hundreds of charismatic Catholic lay communities have transformed Catholic life. This conference drew hundreds of leaders of those communities to engage with theologians and to think together about how those leaders are prepared and can benefit from ongoing theological education. Co-sponsored with Institut de Théologie de la Compagnie de Jésus, Abidjan.
March 13-14, 2021
In preparation of their edited volume, "The Intelligentsia in Russia: Myth, Mission, Metamorphosis," Olga Partan, Associate Professor of Russian at Holy Cross, and Professor Sibelan Forrester of Swarthmore College virtually convene the book's contributors to present and solicit feedback on their draft work. The volume offers a multidisciplinary approach to addressing spiritual and moral missions of the Russian Intelligentsia, tracing its evolution over time from the 18th century to the post-Soviet era.
November 6-8, 2020
This virtual conference seeks to bring together scholars from two disciplines that have much in common but that have seldom been in conversation in recent times—New Testament studies and Classics. Sessions examine if and how the New Testament, an ancient collection of texts with its own distinctive set of religious, social, and rhetorical strategies, can serve as a helpful resource in understanding our obligations to take moral stands on issues that are dividing our world with increasing fury. Organized by Religious Studies and Classics faculty with support from the McFarland Center.
April 2-3, 2019
This two-day conference highlights a new, historically-sensitive translation of the Revised Common Lectionary intended to reduce the potential for anti-Judaism by enriching Christianity through its roots in Judaism. The conference will provide an opportunity for clergy and scholars to engage with the translation team and will feature talks by Taylor Burton-Edwards, Chair of the Consultation on Common Texts; Everett Fox, the Allen M. Glick Professor of Judaic and Biblical Studies at Clark University; Adèle Reinhartz, professor of classics and religious studies at the University of Ottawa; and a keynote by Mary C. Boys, vice-president of Academic Affairs and dean and the Skinner & McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary, on "Seeing Judaism Anew: Jewish Christian Dialogue." The conference is supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.
Friday, March 28, 2025, and Saturday, March 29, 2025
Penned in 1984 by an ecumenical group of ten deaf and hearing women and men from North America, the Claggett statement (English and ASL) was an early expression of Deaf Liberation theology produced at a time of cultural awakening and creativity among Deaf people. This symposium spotlighted this important statement on its 40th anniversary, by bringing together scholars and practitioners from the United States and beyond to examine the past, present, and future of the Claggett Statement for Deaf Christians across the world.
This symposium was co-organized by Audrey Seah (College of the Holy Cross) and Kirk VanGilder (Gallaudet University) with the support of the Deaf Studies and Sign Languages program, the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, and the Deaf Catholic Archives, Archives and Distinctive Collections at College of the Holy Cross.
Saturday, May 10, 2025 - Tuesday, May 13, 2025
This workshop set a new agenda for the future of British medieval art and anticipates its development over the next quarter century. In this workshop and its later associated publication, both established and emerging scholars explored medieval British art within its larger context of religious and ethical meaning, focusing on areas of current scholarly and popular interest, including eco-criticism, the significance of animals, emotion, and the mobility of people, resources, and objects. The resulting volume will be published by Harvey Miller (London).
This workshop was sponsored by the McFarland Center and co-organized by Amanda Luyster (Holy Cross) & Matthew M Reeve (Queen's University).
Wednesday, May 28, 2025 - Friday, May 30, 2025
This workshop supported the development of an edited volume called Taking Stock: Stereotypes from Asian America to the Ancient Mediterranean.
Fifteen contributions drew on frameworks from social psychology and Asian American studies to analyze the function of stereotypes within ancient Greek and Roman cultures, and in the scholarship that investigates them, showing how stereotypes can function both to alienate and to assimilate, to challenge and reimagine structures of power and privilege.
The workshop was co-organized by Katherine Lu Hsu (College of the Holy Cross) and Tori F. Lee (Davidson College) and sponsored by the McFarland Center and the Department of Classics.
Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity
This series explores the place of religious and spiritual life in a world that is sometimes at odds with faith, other times in search of it, and always at work reshaping it.
Sample Lectures:
Sample Lectures:
Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding
The Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding supports campus and community-wide educational initiatives that foster understanding of Judaism and Jewish culture, as well as dialogue between Jews and Christians. The McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture administers the program, including scholarships for students and faculty to study in Israel as well as regularly scheduled on-campus lectures.
Sample Lectures:
Sample Lectures:
Thomas More Lectures in the Humanities
The Thomas More Lectures explore ways the humanities illuminate moral dilemmas, enhance our capacity for understanding and empathy and help us to imagine more just ways of living.
Sample Lectures:
Sample Lectures: