Author: Timothy Knepper

On Thursday, March 27, at 6:00 pm, in Drake’s Sussman Theater (lower level of Olmsted Center), Dr. Julia Watts Belser, Professor of Jewish Studies at Georgetown University, will deliver a lecture on “Radical Rest: Jewish Sabbath Practice as Resistance to Ableism.”

We live in a world pitched toward productivity, where we often face intense pressure to measure our worth on the basis of our work. In this talk, Julia Watts Belser brings the insights of disability culture into conversation with Jewish wisdom about Shabbat and Sabbath practice to explore how traditions of radical rest can counter productivity culture. How might Sabbath practice and other forms of intentional slowness offer resources for challenging ableism? How might reimagining religious practice to take seriously disabled people’s experiences of living with limits spur us to build a world that better honors the needs and the yearnings of all our bodies and minds?

On Thursday, March 6, at 6:00 pm, in Drake’s Sussman Theater (lower level of Olmsted Center), Dr. Amy Donahue, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Kennesaw State University, will deliver a lecture on “The Bhagavad Gītā’s Yoga Model of Disability.”

Contemporary medical models of disability assume notions of “normal” human embodiment and functioning that South Asia’s Hindu philosophical and religious traditions largely do not share and in many cases implicitly challenge. Rather than assuming normalcy and ability as default human conditions, Hindu traditions generally assume that human experience begins with ignorance and dysfunction. All persons, in other words, are in some state of “disability,” and overcoming our traumas takes work that no one initially wants to start. According to the Gītā, this work involves yoking reflexive tendencies, including deep-rooted habits of (mis)identification that distort a person’s authentic nature (svabhāva). Realization of our true selves requires, first, replacing attachments that lead to torpor, confusion, and conflict with habits leading to clarity and joy, and second, uprooting even these habits for the sake of a perfect harmony of all beings. This yoga model of disability found in the Gītā therefore contests contemporary medical accounts while offering critical guidance for contemporary cultural disability theorists.

On Sunday, February 23, from 3:00–5:00 pm, Drake University’s The Comparison Project, in conjunction with the “Iowa Interfaith Exchange,” hosts “Roads to Religion” in the Olmsted Center (Parents Hall) on Drake’s campus. The event, which is free and open to the public, features dozens of local religious communities, collectively representing at least a dozen religious traditions. These communities will be arranged throughout the hall as if on a map of the metro area. Visitors will receive a map to guide them in their exploration of them. Refreshments will be provided by Drake’s catering service, Sodexo.

The Comparison Project engages in the practice of comparative philosophy of religion, increases understanding of local-lived religion, and cultivates interfaith literacy and leadership. It is supported by Drake’s Center for the Humanities, Drake’s Slay Fund for Social Justice, Drake’s Stringfellow and Hay Lectureships, Humanities Iowa, and Cultivating Compassion: The Dr. Richard Deming Foundation.

The ”Iowa Interfaith Exchange” includes Drake’s The Comparison Project and three other local nonprofits: CultureALL, the Des Moines Area Religious Council, and Interfaith Alliance of Iowa.

On December 8^th at 5:00pm, Plymouth Congregational Church (4126 Ingersoll Ave, Des Moines) holds a Soup Supper and Carol Sing.

On November 2^nd at 5:00pm, the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Iowa (33916 155th Lane, Madrid) holds diwali services and celebrations.

The celebration begins at 3:00 pm and concludes with fireworks as follows:

3:00 PM	Lakshmi and Ganesha Abhishekam
4:30 PM	Anna Koot and Govardhan Pooja
5:00 PM	Darshan followed by thirtha, prasadam, and dinner (available for purchase)
6:30 PM	Fireworks at dusk