You are invited to a free public lecture by one of the world’s foremost Pali scholars.  In this lecture, Dr. Steven Collins places Buddhist ‘meditation’ in the larger context of spiritual practices and technologies of the self.  He begins by noting that “the denial that there is an eternal, unchanging self does not invalidate ordinary language talk about self; ‘practices of the self’ refers to an area of mental/physical focus, not to an item of metaphysics”

Steven Collins is the Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago.  He specializes in he social and cultural history of Buddhism in premodern and modern South and Southeast Asia, and in Pali language and literature.  Among numerous other works in the field of Pali Buddhist Studies, Prof. Collins is the author of Selfless Persons: imagery and thought in Theravada Buddhism, Cambridge University Press, 1982, and Nirvana: concept, imagery, narrative. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Friday April 19, 2:00 p.m. 303 Paterson Hall. Carleton University

Sponsored by the Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Fund in Religious Studies

Professor and Director in the College of the Humanities, Farhang Rajaee, has released a new book on the legacy of Kenneth W. Thompson as an international relation theorist.

Titled Kenneth W. Thompson, the Prophet of Norms – Thought and Practice, the book chronicles Thompson’s theories, thoughts and research.

Abstract

Kenneth W. Thompson’s legacy as an international relation theorist has been eclipsed by the voluminous works and multiplicity of topics he has authored, dealt with, edited, and published in more than half a century of public career in academia, national and international forums, and cultural institutions.

His work entitled Masters of International Thought (1980) includes the treatment of the thought of a host of modern international theorists such as Herbert Butterfield (1900-1979), Hans J. Morgenthau (1904-1980), Raymond Aron (1905-1983) and others. A major omission in that book is the name “Kenneth W. Thompson.”

Rajaee has rectified that omission in Kenneth W. Thompson, the Prophet of Norms . A theme that runs throughout the book is Thompson’s International Relations Theory and his contribution to the discipline’s development. Thompson’s career reveals that he has done this in three different ways; as an educator, as a facilitator of International Relations, scholarship and practice and more importantly as a theorist of norms. These three broad areas have shaped the organization of the present work.

Join The College of the Humanities for a multimedia lecture by Tibetologist Geoffrey Samuel on the various meanings and uses of Tibetan ritual dance.

Geoffrey Samuel is a Professor in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University, Director of the Body, Health and Religion (BAHAR) Research Group, and an Honorary Associate of the Department of Indian Sub-Continental Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. His recent publications include The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 2008 and Introducing Tibetan Buddhism. Routledge, 2012. Recent research projects include a study of Tibetan yogic health practices and a project on contemporary versions of Tibetan ritual dance in Bhutan.

Wednesday, January 30, 7:30 p.m.
303 Paterson Hall
Reception to follow

In the summer of 2011, fourth year Greek and Roman Studies student, Shelley Hartman, participated in a historic archeological dig on Baffin Island.  Though the research conducted on this dig was tremendously important, it was an adventure that very few people would have been brave enough to even consider.

On a team led by Patricia Sutherland, adjunct professor of archeology at Memorial University, Hartman partook in the 2011 Arctic Field Season excavation in search of Viking artifacts at two sites on the south shore of Baffin Island.

Despite the callous nature of digging on such a remote location –no heat, little means to bathe, freeze dried food, 24 hour sunlight and a real threat of polar bear attack, Hartman couldn’t decline when Sutherland approached her with an offer to join her on this 5 week excursion.

“It was the most dangerous and outrageous offer I’d ever received,” explains the 60 year old Hartman.  “So naturally, I said yes!”

Accompanied by two PhD level archeologists, one master’s student, two Inuit archeological technicians and one Inuit bear monitor, Hartman and the team uncovered many artifacts that tell an untold tale of the Norse people, and their relationship with the land, and other populations.

To learn more about Hartman’s adventure and the research of Dr. Sutherland and her team, tune into CBC’s The Nature of Things at on Thursday, November 22^nd at 8:00pm, to watch The Norse: An Arctic Mystery, written and directed by another Carleton alumnus, Andrew Gregg.

This episode of The Nature of Things will feature Hartman and the team’s discoveries, which are also prominently covered in National Geographic (Hartman is in the foreground of the article’s first image).

Read more about Hartman’s dig in this article.

Papyrus fragment. Copyright Norman Cluley

Carleton University’s Religion Program (College of the Humanities) is pleased to announce the 2012 edition of the Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Lecture.  This year’s Davidson Lecture features Hollis Professor of Divinity, at the Harvard Divinity School, Dr. Karen L. King.

King’s appearance at Carleton is a timely one.  In recent weeks, she has been thrust to the center of a fervent international discussion over a piece of papyrus which she was the first to identify.   The papyrus is written in fourth-century Coptic and contains the words “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife…’”

Though King insists that the papyrus does not prove that Jesus was married, she does draw attention to the fact that Jesus’ marital status was a point of debate a mere approximate century after his death.

Predictably, the implication that the historical figure of Jesus Christ may have been married has generated a great deal of attention.

The finding was featured on page A1 of the September 19, 2012 edition of the New York Times under the headline “A Faded Piece of Papyrus Refers to Jesus’ Wife.”

King made the fragment of papyrus public on September 18th, 2012 at the International Congress of Coptic Studies.  The provenance of the finding is unknown, and its owner has asked to remain anonymous.

The mysterious origin of the papyrus has added to a debate that is already partly focused on authenticity.  The heart of the discussion lies in trying to decode what this finding could mean for Christianity and the role of women within the religion.

King will tackle these issues and more in her talk entitled “Controversies over Sexuality and Marriage among Early Christians:  What a New Papyrus Fragment Can (or Can’t) Tell Us.”

The 2012 Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Lecture featuring Karen L. King will be held on October 25th at 7:30pm, in Robertson Hall’s Senate Room.

Karen L. King

Karen L. King was appointed to the Divinity School in 1998 and from 2003 to 2009 served as the Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History. In October 2009, she became the first woman appointed as the Hollis Professor of Divinity, the oldest endowed chair in the United States (1721). Trained in comparative religions and historical studies, she pursues teaching and research specialties in the history of Christianity. Her books include The Secret Revelation of John; The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle; What Is Gnosticism?; Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity (with Elaine Pagels); and Revelation of the Unknowable God. Other publications include Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism (ed.) and Women and Goddess Traditions in Antiquity and Today (ed.). Her particular theoretical interests are in discourses of normativity (orthodoxy and heresy), gender studies, and religion and violence. She has received research grants and awards for excellence in teaching and research; among them are grants from the Luce Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst, and the Graves Foundation. King is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Biblical Literature, the International Association for Coptic Studies, and Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas.

More Information on the 2012 Davidson Lecture

Timotheos – Arrakis (Album cover)

Frank Herbert’s classic 1965 science fiction novel Dune has been the inspiration behind a seemingly infinite amount of media and art.  The Dune series has been adapted to television, theatre and was released as a hugely popular film in 1985.  It has inspired multiple comic book series, spinoff novels, board games, card games and video games.  Akin to series like George Lucas’s Star Wars and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Dune has cemented itself as one of the great fictional universes ever created.  Dune is one of only a handful of science fiction imaginings that have made an identifiable cultural dent that has subsequently changed the social perspective of millions of fans worldwide for the past half century.

Instructor in the College of the Humanities, Tim Pettipiece is one of those fans.  In addition to his work teaching and researching in the Classics and Religion, Pettipiece is also a talented musician with a number of album releases under his belt.  As a creator of ambient music, Pettipiece goes by the handle Timotheos, a nod to his love of ancient Greek culture.  His latest release is a sonic landscape meant to represent evocative aspects of the Dune series.  He attributes much of his interest in Dune to the intense correlation between the ‘Duniverse’ and his focus as an academic.

“I was surprised how much attention is paid to religious themes in the series, even though its attitude to religion is quite ambivalent,” explains Pettipiece.  “There’s a strong tension in the work between viewing religion as a cynical means of control while at the same time a means of human progress. This is the same tension one faces when studying religious traditions in an academic setting.”

Pettipiece grew up in southern Ontario just cross the river from Detroit.   Raised on classic rock, he got his first guitar at age thirteen.  During his budding teenage years he began his career as a performer, playing in various original and cover bands.  It was in high school that he realized his love for ambient and experimental music and eventually began recording.  This led to Pettipiece’s first release: a four track cassette entitled Astronomy.

As can be said for many young artists, as Pettipiece grew older, his music took a back seat to his education and professional life.  While pursuing a degree in Classical Languages and an MA and PhD in Religious Studies, he ultimately gave up playing music entirely.  It wasn’t until his graduation, when his wife surprised him with a new electrical guitar, that his passion for playing live music was re-ignited.

Five years on and countless live performances later, a major shift came in his music playing career when one of his Humanities students recorded a four song demo album as a creative project for one of his courses.  The student’s project was a four song exploration of the life of Simeon Stylites, an early Christian monk who famously lived on top of a pillar for much of his life.  This work inspired Pettipiece both sonically and thematically.

The project illuminated the world of ‘Do it Yourself’ digital recording to Pettipiece, and consequently, he has since recorded two full length album’s of ambient music, and two EP’s.

Tim Pettipiece

His first full-length project was called Hierosolyma: a Musical Meditation on Jerusalem (2010), and was inspired by a course on the origins of western religions which he taught at Carleton in the College of Humanities.

His most recent project is of course his newly released musical tribute to the Dune series.   As a lifelong aesthete of classic science fiction (particularly the work of Philip K. Dick), reading the Dune series was a pursuit Pettipiece had meaning to partake in for a number of years.  It was over the months of 2010-2011 that he was finally able to read the iconic series.  He describes this venture as one of the most profound reading experiences of his life.

“I was starting a new recording project while I was about midway through reading the series and was so totally immersed in the experience that it came through the creative process.”

Pettipiece has a wide range of influences from early music to Brian Eno, but throughout the course of recording Arrakis, Peter Gabriel’s Passion soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s, The Last Temptation of Christ, Tangerine Dream’s Rubycon as well as some post-rock and neoclassical recordings played central roles of inspiration for his album.

After several months of recording and numerous technical setbacks, Arrakis: Music Inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune, has just been released as a digital download.

Sample/Buy Here

Timotheos Site

Pettipiece Carleton Profile

During his summer vacation, Greg Fisher hammered out an archaeological adventure novel. The Iranian Conspiracy combines fact and fiction, past and present, and East with West.

The Iranian Conspiracy (Book Cover)

“People who like ancient mysteries, have an interest in modern politics, and enjoy a good romp, will hopefully find this fun to read,” said Fisher, a professor of Greek and Roman Studies in the College of the Humanities.

Although written in four short weeks, the plot percolated in Fisher’s imagination over the years since he completed his doctoral research. “I wrote about archaeological sites that I have visited for research.”

The story focuses on the mystery surrounding the burial site of Shapur the Great, a third-century Iranian leader. During a battle in 259 Shapur captured his arch enemy, the Roman Emperor Valerian.

“Valerian was reportedly skinned and turned into a footstool, so that Shapur could always have his feet on the Roman Empire!” Fisher explained.

Set predominantly in the Middle East with a jaunt to Oxford, England, the story follows an archeologist and a journalist as they race to find the lost tomb while under the threat of a shadowy ultranationalist group seeking exploit the grave for their own nefarious reasons.

The mystery series will unfold in a second book, The Syrian Project. This sequel will follow our protagonists as they unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Saint Sergius, a Syrian Christian Saint martyred in the third century AD.

The Iranian Conspiracy is available through barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com. An electronic version will also be produced for all e-readers.

Only the most intrepid explorer would be galvanized by an adventure which boasted hard physical labour, cold weather, a remote location and the risk of polar bear attacks. 

Shelley Hartman, entering her fourth year in Greek and Roman Studies was not to be deterred from participating on an archeological dig in the Arctic. Not even the requirement of a firearms permit hindered her.

This summer, Dr. Pat Sutherland, the Canadian Museum of Civilization’s curator for the Eastern Arctic led a team of seven on two sites in Cape Tanfield in the Hudson Strait.

“The area shows occupation by Dorset, Thule and Norse, dating from roughly the same time as the Greenland homesteads and L’Anse Aux Meadows, AD 900-1000,” said Hartman of the site which is thought to have been a trading centre for the region.  “The artifacts include native tools made of chert, slate and quartz crystal, skins and hair, and Norse artifacts.” Among the latter were a variety of tools used for counting, weaving, sharpening and weighing.

In addition to toiling in trenches illuminated by near 24 hour daylight, Hartman spent five weeks eating freeze-dried food and clothed in the same outfit. 

“We slept in tents surrounded by a bear fence, had a latrine, no showers  – just an arctic pond,” said Hartman.

So great was the risk of attacks by polar bears, it was necessary for each participant to have a gun permit, and for a bear monitor to be employed to keep watch over the group.

Left to Right: Moses, Shelley, Ikkid

When warned by Dr. Sutherland that the dig would be grueling work, Hartman said she replied “this sounds like the scariest thing I have ever thought of doing… I’m in!” It turned out to be a once in a life time opportunity.