Student Affairs
This weekend the CRGC fellows hosted the university’s first regional interfaith conference, titled Intersections of Interfaith. In the months we spent planning this event, we all made the consideration of the spiritual and logistical needs of our invitees a top priority. Every week I took pride in watching the other fellows advocate for not only …
Right now, I’m trying to figure out what it means to be a humanist. In my work with the Center for Religion and Global Citizenry over the past months, I have continually found myself constructing an identity based on what I am not (i.e. I’m not a Christian/Muslim/Buddhist/etc.) rather than what I am. This is …
Three years ago, I made the decision to stop eating animals, a decision I attribute to two moments. In my first semester at the University of Wisconsin, I enrolled in a Philosophy course called ‘Food Ethics.’ I knew nothing about ethics, but I was interested in agriculture and economics and I thought that this class …
There’s a frightening intensity to the feeling of numbness. To have your brain become a cacophony of thoughts that have no way of ordering themselves. And though I was numb, I still felt something, or maybe I felt everything—rage, fear, hope. My emotions and thoughts were all over, but I remember thinking after I received …
Forty-nine Muslims were killed in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand this Friday. They were murdered by a white supremacist, right-wing extremist, terrorist Brenton Tarrant, along with other possible accomplices. Tarrant live-streamed the premediated attack and published a manifesto entitled “The Great Replacement.” This was an act of Islamophobia, borne of white supremacist ideology that …
The death of 49 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand was an act of terrorism, a clear manifestation of religious and ideological intolerance. To specifically target a house of worship on a day when attendance is guaranteed to be high, and then to livestream the massacre, shows a horrifying disregard and callousness for …
The first thing I heard this morning was “at least forty-nine people are dead in a two mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand” (NPR). The second thing I heard this morning was that perpetual “why” that has lingered in my head ever since visiting the National Holocaust Museum last year. Here I am, looking forward …
Religion is a core pillar of my life, and in Hindu tradition the rituals, practices, tales, worship and prayers are integral to its fabric. However, the most valuable points I have taken away from my faith are the lessons of everyday basic living and the ones, which I can practically apply to my life to …
I worked with a program called ‘Our Wisconsin’ my sophomore year, which involved facilitating workshops that encouraged dialogue on diversity and inclusion on UW’s campus. Interestingly, while discussing identities surrounding sexual orientation and racial and ethnic diversity, religion and faith was one aspect, which was always excluded. Perhaps because in secular parts of America, the …
We are living in trying times. Both in this country and around the world, inequalities of class, race, gender, and sexuality are widening. Democracy is eroding and environmental destruction is rampant. The crises of the planet require everyone to contribute according to their own abilities and fight against hate, intolerance, and oppression. This includes faith …