The Palestine Taboo: Race, Islamophobia, and Free Speech

The true test of a democracy is the extent to which civil rights in law are enforced in practice for the most vulnerable groups in society. As members of Congress demand mass arrest and expulsion of college students exercising their free speech right to dissent against U.S. foreign policy in Gaza and the West Bank, the racial fault lines in American democracy are laid bare. Similarly, university presidents are buckling to external political pressure to violate academic freedom of Muslim and Arab faculty targeted by external anti-Muslim and pro-Israeli groups and politicians. In this timely lecture, Distinguished Law Professor Sahar Aziz examines how Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism intersect to produce systematic assaults on the civil rights of racialized communities.

Teaching Jewish Philosophy and Politics in the Aftermath of October 7 and the Campus Protests

The fallout following the events of October 7, 2023 has touched many spheres of American life, yet colleges and universities have seemingly been at the center. Headlines, controversy, and human suffering generated by Hamas’s attack and Israel’s response have gripped dozens of campuses including here at WashU. The surprising impact of a distant regional conflict on campus leadership and life dominated our news cycles with discussion of the conduct of university presidents, hostilities among students, appropriate “time, place, and manner” of campus protests, police involvement in dismantling encampments, and fundamental questions of free speech and identity.

Lost amidst all of this has been the effect of these events on what is perhaps the university’s central mission: teaching.

Join us for a conversation with Professor Shira Billet on how October 7 and the ensuing campus protests have affected the teaching of subjects related to Jewish philosophy and politics including the interrelationship of liberal democracy, Zionism, and antisemitism.

Realistic Hope: American Democracy and the 2024 Election

The John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics is pleased to host a special Danforth Dialogues event focused on the 2024 presidential election. Realistic Hope: American Democracy and the 2024 Election will explore the place of faith and imagination in our current politics and public life.

The Danforth Dialogues will be held in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis. The event will consist of a set of two conversations moderated by John Dickerson of CBS News. The first panel, with the poet Joy Harjo and novelist Valeria Luiselli, will prompt us to ponder how creativity and the arts can inflect our politics with hope that guides us through persistent dilemmas. The second panel, with New York Times Columnist Jamelle Bouie and former U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger, will concern the prospects for the 2024 presidential election—where it stands and what we can anticipate.

Our design is for these conversations to help us gain a deeper understanding of our national politics and do so with hopeful realism that equips each of us to play a part in sustaining American democracy.

Click on the button below to view the event schedule.

“These Stones Will Shout” Annual Lecture in Biblical Archaeology and Historical Geography of the Holy Land

Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus

A newly endowed annual lecture on biblical archeology and historical geography will debut this fall at the Seminary. The lecture will be presented by Dr. Jodi Magness, the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During her presentation, “Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus,” Magness will survey the history and archaeology of Jerusalem in the Late Second Temple period ending with the city’s destruction by the Romans in A.D. 70. The lecture will focus especially on Herod’s reconstruction of the Second Temple and sites related to Jesus’ final hours on earth. The lecture is free and open to the public.

This lecture series is made possible through the generosity of Tom and Linda Ray.