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The Department for the Study of Religion turns 50 in 2025-2026!
We are marking this milestone with a host of lectures, parties, concerts, and panels that will reunite alumni and invite new friends to join in the celebration. The DSR was formed out of two initiatives in the 1970s: the undergraduate Department of Religious Studies was founded in 1975 and the graduate Centre for the Study of Religion was established in 1976.
In 1992, the graduate and undergraduate programs united, forming what is now known as the Department for the Study of Religion. Today, the DSR is a lively place for faculty, postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students to undertake cutting-edge humanistic and social scientific inquiry into the phenomenon of religion, past, present, and even future!
Our anniversary events focus on bringing back alumni to reflect on how the study of religion has shaped how they see the world and influenced their lives and careers. Lecturers and panelists include eminent and emerging professors and professionals across diverse career pathways. In addition to The Annual DSR Alumni & Friends Lecture, in September the DSR will host the Tennoji Gakuso Garyokai Ensemble in a special performance of Japanese music and dance art forms that have been performed for over a thousand years.
Throughout the year, the DSR Lecture Series will feature nine separate talks by alumni at the forefront of innovative approaches to methods and theories in the study of religion. A special panel of alumni will also present at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in Boston, in November 2025. We will cap off the celebrations with our Annual Undergraduate Research Conference in the spring, as well as a big reunion party!
Everyone is warmly welcome to all the anniversary celebrations. We are grateful to our donors and the Faculty of Arts & Science for supporting our 50th anniversary events. If you would like to donate in support of the continued vibrancy of the DSR, please find more information here.
The Annual DSR Alumni & Friends Lecture: Thursday, September 25, 2025
This special lecture event will kick off the celebrations, with a reception to follow.
[Registration will open soon – contact us at religion.comms@utoronto.ca to be notified]
The occasion will be a conversation with the pre-eminent scholar of the Qur'an and Muslim-Christian relations, Jane McAuliffe, who completed her MA and PhD at the DSR, and also holds an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Toronto. Professor McAuliffe served as chair of the DSR from 1992 to 1998, before becoming dean of Georgetown College at Georgetown University and then president of Bryn Mawr College. She also served as President of the American Academy of Religion in 2004.
In conversation with Professor McAuliffe will be Professor Amir Hussain, DSR MA and PhD alumnus, also an eminent scholar of religion specializing in the study of Islam. A professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University, Professor Hussain also served as the President of the American Academy of Religion in 2022, after a long run as the editor of the flagship Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
We are delighted to have Professor McAuliffe and Professor Hussain return to the University of Toronto to commence our 50th anniversary celebrations.
Public Lecture and Tennoji Gakuso Garyokai Ensemble Performance: September 26 and 27, 2025
Friday evening, September 26, 2025: "Divine Harmonies: Gagaku and Music in Buddhism"
[Time and location tba. Contact us at religion.comms@utoronto.ca to be notified when details are confirmed.]
A lecture by Fabio Rambelli, Distinguished Professor of Japanese Religions and Cultural History and International Shinto Foundation Chair in Shinto Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
His many publications include: Buddhas and Kami in Japan (with Mark Teeuwen, 2000), Buddhist Materiality (2007), The Sea and the Sacred in Japan (2018), Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan (2019), and Gagaku: The Cultural Impact of Japanese Ceremonial Music (2025).
His research interests span several cultural dimensions of religious discourses in Japan, such as theories and practices of representation, materiality and the cultural meanings of objects, political thought, economics, and geopolitical constructs. He is currently working on an intellectual history of Gagaku.
Saturday evening, September 27
7:30 pm, Walter Hall, University of Toronto Faculty of Music, 80 Queens Park, Toronto, ON M5S 2C5. Free event, open to the public. Registration is not required to attend.
An evening of Japanese imperial court music and dance performed by the Tennoji Gakuso Garyokai Ensemble as part of the DSR's 50th anniversary celebration. Co-sponsored by the Department for the Study of Religion, the Robert H. N. Ho Centre for Buddhist Studies, and the Government of Japan’s Agency of Cultural Affairs, this event will feature traditional Gagaku music and Bugaku dance, art forms that have been performed for over a thousand years in Japanese Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, and in the Japanese Imperial Court.
The Tennoji Gakuso Garyokai Ensemble is based at Shitennoji Buddhist Temple in Osaka. They are one of the three major Gagaku troupes to have carried the tradition of Japanese court music since the Heian period, and are currently directed by Maestro Ono Shinryu, who began training at Shitennoji Buddhist Temple as a child and became a member of the Tennoji Gakuso Garyokai in 1993 before assuming the role of director. Maestro Ono received his doctorate in literature from Kyoto University and is currently an associate professor at the Faculty of Humanities at Soai University.
DSR Lecture Series 2025-2026
While all details have not yet been finalized, the dates for your calendar are below.
Celebrating the expertise and influence of DSR alumni around the world, our program features distinguished scholars at a variety of career stages, all with distinctive and original voices.
This page will be updated on an ongoing basis as soon as we have confirmed details. The information will will also appear on the DSR Lecture Series page, where in the meantime you can find details of our previous speakers' talks and links to interviews with them carried out by our very own DSR graduate students.
2025-26 Series |
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Jane McAuliffe (DSR PhD, 1984) Amir Hussain (DSR PhD, 2001) |
Thursday, September 25, 2025, time and location tbc The 2025 Annual DSR Alumni & Friends Lecture Title tbc |
Details tba |
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Annie Heckman (DSR PhD, 2023) (84000 Translating the Words of the Buddha) |
Thursday, October 23, 2025, 3:00-5:00 pm, location tbc Title tbc In collaboration with the Yehun Numata Program in Buddhist Studies |
Details tba |
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Bill Arnal (DSR PhD, 1997) (University of Regina) |
Thursday, November 6, 2025, 3:00-5:00 pm, location tbc Title tbc |
Details tba |
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Basit Iqbal (DSR MA, 2012) (McMaster University) |
Thursday, December 4, 2025, 3:00-5:00 pm, location tbc Title tbc |
Details tba |
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Speaker tbc | Thursday, January 22, 2026, 3:00-5:00 pm, location tbc | Details tba |
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Yaniv Feller (DSR PhD, 2016) (University of Florida) |
Thursday. February 5, 2026, 3:00-5:00 pm, location tbc Title tbc |
Details tba |
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Speaker tbc | Thursday, February 26, 2026, 3:00-5:00 pm, location tbc | Details tba |
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Speaker tbc | Thursday, March 12, 2026, 3:00-5:00 pm, location tbc | Details tba |
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Speaker tbc | Thursday, March 26, 2026, 3:00-5:00 pm, location tbc | Details tba |
