Our meetings are open, but a RSVP is required. Columbia University’s COVID guidelines apply to our in-person meetings: https://news.columbia.edu/news/update-covid-19-university-guidance. If you have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to write to me (dar2111 [at] columbia.edu).
Details for our meetings in 2025/2026 will be posted as they become available. As in the last years, I expect to schedule both hybrid and ZOOM only events. Hybrid events will be accessible to both ZOOM and in-person participants. The in-person participants will convene in the Faculty House on Columbia’s Morningside campus (64 Morningside Drive, New York, NY 10027; for directions, please click here; for accommodation of access, please see below).
Completed program of 2024/2025
October 1, 2024 – Jonathan Peterson (Columbia University), Disfiguring the Divine: Vyāsa’s Body between Polemic and Procession
October 29, 2024 – David Hollenberg (University of Oregon): Reverend Easson’s Burden: A Nineteenth-Century Nusayri Manuscript between Ottoman Reform and an American Missionary’s Enthusiasm
February 11, 2025 – Verena Böll (Independent Scholar, Dresden): Judas or John – Who Kissed Jesus? A Revealing Caption in an Ethiopian Manuscript
April 29, 2025 – Johannes Makar (Harvard University): Cultivating Gardens of Knowledge: Copts and the Waṭan in Khedival Egypt
Speakers in 2025/2026
Justin Ritzinger (University of Miami)
Neslihan Şenocak (Columbia University)
A. Gibran Siddiqui (IBA Karachi)
Columbia University encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. University Seminar participants with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations may contact the Office of Disability Services at 212.854.2388 or [email protected]. Disability accommodations, including sign-language interpreters, are available on request. Requests for accommodations must be made two weeks in advance.
The official page of the Columbia University Seminar 751 is available at: http://universityseminars.columbia.edu/seminars/religion-and-writing/. For more information about the seminar’s history, please see: https://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/islamicbooks/religionwriting/usem751history/. The abstracts of all talks since January 2012 are archived at: https://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/islamicbooks/religionwriting/abstracts/
Dagmar A. Riedel, chair
Columbia University
dar2111 [at] columbia.edu
Heidi Hansen, rapporteur
Columbia University
Department of History
heh2135 [at] columbia.edu
First published, 1 February 2012
Last updated, 3 May 2025