Events

Lectures, conferences, symposia, a film series, field-trips and special events—these are some of the channels through which knowledge generated from CSRS research is shared with the community. With few exceptions, CSRS events are free and open to all members of the public and university community.

Click here to attend our lectures online 

You can attend each lecture online by clicking the button above from five minutes prior to the starting time. Please find the starting time of each lecture indicated in the table below. 


Click the above icon to watch our past lectures on our YouTube Channel

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The CSRS Weekly Lecture Series

September-December 2024

These CSRS lectures feature our fellows and special guests. They are held from 5:00-6:00 pm Pacific Time on Thursdays throughout the academic year, with the exception of some special lectures (see dates below with an asterisk* for exceptions). 

Scholars in the Square: Our Public Lecture Format

We are pleased to highlight the research of our fellows and visiting scholars in our Scholars in the Square public lecture series. The lectures are held weekly in an intimate venue, with a maximum audience of 20 people. The unique format includes a 20 minute lecture, a 20 minute discussion with a designated dialogue partner, and 20 minutes of audience Q&A. This format helps us to share with the world the very best of the CSRS: collegial conversations that build bridges between specialists and broadly curious members of the public.

The general public is welcome to join us online. To join the lecture online, click the button below. Please sign in at least five minutes prior to the lecture.

Click here to attend the lecture online

All lectures include audience Q&A. 

An invitation for in-person attendance for each lecture is sent to subscribers of our Lecture Notices. Please sign up from the green button above.

Video/audio recordings of our past lectures are available on YouTube from the link above, UVic's SoundCloud site (audio only), and Vimeo page. 


Sept. 12th, 2024 Rebekka King Enoch’s Modern Echoes

Sept. 19st, 2024

Paige Thombs Called to the Bar: Religious Lawyering in the Secular Practice of Law
Sept. 26th, 2024 Mar Griera Why We Might Know Better: The Scholar Practitioner in Context
Oct. 3rd, 2024 Martin Adam AI Buddhas and Other Delusions along the Techno-enthusiast Path to the Future
Oct. 10th, 2024 Amy Verdun and Zoey Verdun Well-being of Bangladeshi Migrants in Italy: Religion, Economic Challenges

Oct. 17th, 2024

Jingjing Li Emotion and Feminism in the Buddhist Philosophy of Consciousness-only

Oct. 24th, 2024

Titus Hjelm Religion and Spirituality Are Not Something We Have (Or Do Not Have), They Are Something We Do

*Oct. 29th, 2024

Tuesday

Peter Beinart Protest, US Politics, and the War in Gaza

Nov. 7th, 2024 

Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly Borders, Boundaries, and Frontiers in the Torah and Talmud
Nov. 21st, 2024 Daniel Orogun Health Merits and Demerits of Religious Fasting
Nov. 28th, 2024 Gary Kuchar Defiant Loyalism: The Literature of ‘Anglican’ Survivalism

Dec. 5th, 2024

Ashraful Mobin Faith-Driven Economic Choices: Principles and Trade-Offs

 

 

The CSRS Weekly Lecture Series - May 2024

These CSRS lectures feature our fellows and special guests. They are held from 12:00-1:00 pm Pacific Time (unless otherwise noted). The general public is welcome to join us online. Simply click the lecture attandance button on top of this events page to do so. Please sign in at least five minutes prior to the lecture.

Scholars in the Square: Our New Public Lecture Format

We are delighted to continue to provide the brand-new Scholars in the Square format that launched in September 2023. These lectures will be held in an intimate venue, with a maximum audience of 20 people. The speaker will present their lecture in 20 minutes, after which the CSRS director and an interlocutor with expertise in the speaker’s topic will engage the speaker in conversation for 20 minutes. The “Square” in our new format refers to the public square, and so in the final 20 minutes of the event, we will take questions from the other people in the room and from an online audience. The talks will then be posted on our website. This format helps us to share with the world the very best of the CSRS: collegial conversations that build bridges between specialists and broadly curious members of the public.

All lectures include a live audience Q&A (unless otherwise noted)

A limited number of in-person attendance is also available. Please sign up here for the green button above for our weekly Lecture Notices mailing list to receive invitations for the in-person attandance. Recordings of past lectures are also available on our YouTube channel

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May 2, 2024

Tina Block

"Virtuous Atheists": Unbelief in Postwar Canada

May 9, 2024

Bouchra Mossmann Making the Arctic a Muslim home

*May 14, 2024

Tuesday

Elliot Hanowski The Struggle for a Godless Canada

May 23, 2024

Braden Russell

Understanding Identity and Belonging of Queer Jews in Germany

 

The CSRS Weekly Lecture Series

January-April 2024

These CSRS lectures feature our fellows and special guests. They are held from 5:00-6:00 pm Pacific Time on Thursdays throughout the academic year, with the exception of some special lectures (see dates below with an asterisk* for exceptions). 

Scholars in the Square: Our New Public Lecture Format

We are delighted to launch the brand-new Scholars in the Square format in September 2023. These lectures will be held in an intimate venue, with a maximum audience of 20 people. The speaker will present their lecture in 20 minutes, after which the CSRS director and an interlocutor with expertise in the speaker’s topic will engage the speaker in conversation for 20 minutes. The “Square” in our new format refers to the public square, and so in the final 20 minutes of the event, we will take questions from the other people in the room and from an online audience. The talks will then be posted on our website. This format helps us to share with the world the very best of the CSRS: collegial conversations that build bridges between specialists and broadly curious members of the public.

The general public is welcome to join us online. To join the lecture online, click the button below. Please sign in at least five minutes prior to the lecture.

Click here to attend the lecture

Click speakers' names for more details.​ Click here to access our YouTube channel for recordings.

All lectures include audience Q&A. 

Audio recordings of past lectures are available on UVic's SoundCloud site and the videos for the John Albert Hall Lectures are available on our Vimeo page. 


Jan. 11th, 2024

Shobhana Xavier Sufism, Rumi, and Religious Appropriation
Jan. 18th, 2024

Seçil Daǧtaș

Online only

An Uneasy Coexistence: Rethinking Minority Lives in Turkey 

*Jan. 25th, 2024

 

Zohra Batul

*This lecture is postponed to a later date.

Harold Coward India Fellow lecture: 

Sites of Resistance: Gender and Sacred Space

Feb. 1st, 2024

Meghan Richey Ecospirituality in Gen Z

Feb. 8th, 2024

5:00-6:30pm

MACA144

Linn Tonstad

*A recording of this lecture will become available soon.

John Albert Hall Lecture

Queerness Isn't Inclusive, and Church Shouldn't Be Either

Feb. 15th, 2024

Amina Ejaz Islam and 'Art-ivism' in Pakistan

*Feb. 24th 2024

Saturday

9:30am-3:30pm

U-club

Keynote lecturer: Michael W. Higgins

*A recording of this lecture will become available soon.

The Prophetic Vision of Bishop Remi De Roo: A Symposium

*Click here for more details.

Feb. 29th 2024

Kristen Cheney

*This lecture is postponed to a later date.

"God is not a child protection policy"
March 7th, 2024 Arvind Kumar The (Sacred) Stories We Tell: Stigma and Myth in India

March 14th 2024

Sean Kiley Music and Trance: Mapping Altered States through Sound

*March 21st, 2024

5:00-6:15pm

SUB Upper Lounge

Georgia Angelopoulos


 

Artist-in-Residence lecture

Sacred Technologies

 

 

Coming up for John Albert Hall Lectures 

(click the title for more detail)

Recent JAH lecture:

Queerness Isn't Inclusive, and Church Shouldn't Be Either wth Dr. Linn Tonstad (February 8, 2024) 


The John Albert Hall Lectures are a multi-part speaker series featuring expert perspectives on the changing role of religion in contemporary society. Support for this series is generously provided by the Anglican Diocese of Islands and Inlets John Albert Hall Trust. 

Watch here our past JAH lectures on the CSRS YouTube channel. 

Special Events

The CSRS hosts a range of special events including conferences, symposia, tours, and one-off lectures, often in collaboration with other UVic departments, community organizations, or affiliates such as MEICON.

  • 14th Annual MEICON-BC Student Conference on the Middle East and the Islamic World (March, 2024)


Distinguished Lecture in Islam

The CSRS presents lectures from an eminent scholar working in fields related to Islamic studies. A fund supporting this lecture series was established in 2007 by an anonymous donor who wished to increase the community's understanding of Islam.


Conferences, Seminars, & Symposiums

In collaboration with community and university partners the CSRS hosts special events such as conferences, seminars, and symposiums. Check back for information about upcoming events as they are schedulled.

Recent Events

2023 ASRI Lecture 

Past Events

March 15th, 2019 -- "Religion and its Others: Power, Sovereignty, and Politics in Indian Religions Past and Present" Sponsored by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. Please click here for the symposium agenda.

Centre-Cine Film Series

Examples of past Centre-Cine films:

Night and Fog (Director: Alain Resnais) Watch it here on Vimeo.

Just Mercy (Director: Destin Daniel Cretton) Watch a trailer here.

From September through April, the CSRS presents feature or documentary films as part of the Centre-Cine Film Series. The films are carefully chosen to explore questions of morality, culture, the search for meaning, and other themes arising from the human spiritual journey.

Centre-Cine participants from centre fellows will be sent the name of selected films. It is up to participants to locate and watch the films themselves. All participants are then invited to meet for a group discussion on the films with CSRS Artist-in-Residence, Terry Marner, acting as a facilitator. All films in the series will be available on Netflix and most will be available from the Greater Victoria Public Library (GVPL) on DVD. Viewers may have to place a hold on the movie if they are using the GVPL.