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.

Scholars in the Square (SITS): Our Public Lectures

These lectures feature a 20-minute academic presentation, followed by 20 minutes of conversation with a scholar working in a related (and sometimes unexpected) field, followed by 20 minutes of Q & A with the audience.

To attend online, simply click the lecture attendance button below to do so.

The CSRS Weekly Lecture Series - September to December 2026

These CSRS lectures feature our fellows and special guests. They are usually held from 5:00-6:00 pm Pacific Time on Thursdays throughout the academic year.

Past lectures are recored and available on YouTube , UVic's SoundCloud site (audio only), and Vimeo page.

See our full schedule below (*indicates a different time--click the lecturer's name for full details)


September 17, 2026	Christopher Douglas	Jesus as Baal in Contemporary Christian Fiction
September 24, 2026 (Royal BC Museum)*	Rachel Greening and Spencer Greening	Gyetk: Coastal Fusion and Ancestral Knowledge from a Ts’msyen Kitchen
October 1, 2026	Andrew Preston	Religion and US Foreign Policy in the Age of Trump
October 7, 2026 (Wed., 12:00pm)*	Rastislav Nemec	Spirituality and Wellness Among Young People as a Path to Relational Resilience
October 8, 2026	Martin Dojčár	What Is Spiritual in Yoga?
October 15, 2026	Jessica Ziakin-Cook	Illuminating Post-Modernism: Contemporary Catholic Art in North America
October 22, 2026	Todd Klaiman	When the Rubber Becomes the Road: Buddhist Enterprise and Economic Power
October 29, 2026 (6:30pm)*	Erika Finestone	(Be)longing on Campus: Jewish Experiences and Desired Futures in Higher Education
November 5, 2026	Senkoris Kassa	The Hidden Code of Ethiopic Poetry
November 19, 2026 (6:00pm)*	Bruna Brito	Carnival in Brazil: Where Samba Becomes Sacred
November 26, 2026 (6:30pm)*	Carmen Celestini	Divine Fury: God’s Angry Men and Their Political Playbook

The CSRS Weekly Lecture Series - April-May 2026

These CSRS lectures feature our fellows and special guests. They are held from 12:00-1:00 pm Pacific Time on Wednesdays (unless otherwise noted). The location of the lecture is available upon registration for limited in-person audience. The general public is welcome to join us online without registration. Simply click the lecture attendance button on top of this events page to do so. Please sign in at least five minutes prior to the lecture. Click lecturers' names to see more details.

Scholars in the Square (SITS): Our Public Lecture Format

April 22nd, 2026	Ben Schonthal	Practising Legal Pluralism across Many Lives: Monks and Multi-legality in Southern Asia
April 29th, 2026	Aminat Muibi	Contested Care: Stigma, Foreignness, and Reproductive Health in Nigeria
May 6th, 2026	Matt Huculak	The Idea of a Library: Religious Origins, Uncertain Futures
May 13th, 2026	Rory Dickson	The Sufi Way: Falling in Love with Reality
May 20th, 2026	Simi Kang	River, Field, Swamp, & Sea: Food as Practice

The CSRS Lecture Schedule: January to April 2026

Held in an intimate venue with a maximum in-person audience of 20 people, these 20-minute lectures are followed by a 20 minute conversation with an expert on related to the speaker’s topic. The final 20 minutes of the event are reserved for questions from the audience--the “Square” in this format refers to the public square--the general public is welcome to join us online.

All past lectures are recored and available on YouTube , UVic's SoundCloud site (audio only), and Vimeo page.

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.

See our full schedule below (*indicates a different time: see poster for details)


Jan. 15th, 2026	Todd Klaiman	Buddhist Relics and Beauty Pageant Winners in Cold War Asia
Jan. 22nd, 2026	Bouchra Mossmann	North of Ordinary: Muslim Lives in the Canadian Arctic
Jan 29th, 2026	Peter Evans	Imitation and Scapegoat in Coast Salish Myth
Feb. 5th, 2026	Youssef Benzouine	Muslim Masculinities in Quebec
Feb. 12th, 2026	Megan Swift	The Revival of Indigenous Religions in Russia
Feb. 26th 2026	Sarah Madsen	Conspiracy, Catholicism, and the Courts during the Popish Plot Crisis
March 5th, 2026	Jessica Fichtner-Nolin	Un-silencing Voices of Religious Trauma
March 12th, 2026	Suad Ahmed	Through our Eyes: The Social and Emotional Lives of Somali Muslim Youth
March 17, 2026	Shubham Arora	Sexual Pleasure as Thought: Erotics in Premodern South Asia*
March 19th, 2026	Distinguished Lecture in Islam	Hidden Heritage: Decorated Qur'ans from Coastal East Africa*
March 26th, 2026	Melanie Siebert and Neil Griffin	Artist-in-Residence Gala*

The CSRS Weekly Lecture Series - September-December 2025

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).

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


Sept. 18th, 2025	Rachel Brown	Beyond Food Fights: Religion, Food, Power and Politics
Sept. 25th, 2025	Ken Derry	Religion 101: How do we introduce students to the study of religion?
Oct. 9th, 2025	John Thatamanil	The Enlightenment: Cause or Cure for the Post-Truth Crisis?
Oct. 16th, 2025	Shemine Gulamhusein	Navigating Muslimhood in Sport and Recreational Spaces
Oct. 23rd, 2025	Matt Sheedy	Muslims in North American Popular Culture
Oct. 30th, 2025	Brian Pollick	The Shape of the World: Knowledge Visualization in the Medieval Ages
Nov. 6th, 2025	Mélisande Séguin	Indigenous Campesino Resistance: A Researcher's Dilemma
Nov. 13th, 2025	Sarah Kathleen Johnson	John Albert Hall Lecture Understanding and Valuing Occasional Religious Practice
Nov. 20th, 2025	Sarah Roberts	Occult Visions: Surrealism, Spirituality and Resistance in Film
Nov. 27th, 2025	Martin Adam	What is Life? Buddhist Reflections on Artificial Consciousness