Skip to main content

Home
Academics
People
News
Calendar
Centers
Giving

Friesen, Steve 2009

September 11, 2012September 11, 2012 Tony Chabolla

Friesen, Steve 2009 (Photo by Marsha Miller/UT Austin)

Upcoming Events

all-day International Conference “The Ma... @ Rob Gym 1005

International Conference “The Ma... @ Rob Gym 1005

Mar 3 – Mar 5 all-day

Organized by Fabio Rambelli and Vesna A. Wallace (UCSB), with the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. With support from The Robert N.H. Ho Family Foundation Global, the Uberoy Foundation, UCSB Chair in Shinto[...]

Add

Add to Timely Calendar
Add to Google
Add to Outlook
Add to Apple Calendar
Add to other calendar
Export to XML

Twitter

Tweets by @UCSBReligion

Statement

The Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara stands in support of the protests for racial justice and police reform. Black lives matter.

We commonly hear that “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” This sentiment echoes in the national response to the current health crisis, where thousands and thousands have died and continue to die daily.

Our expertise lies in the academic study of the world’s religions. Each emphasizes the sanctity of life. In Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, human life is holy because God is holy (Lev 19:4; Qur’an 5:32, 6:131; 1 Corinthians 3:16). In the Buddhist tradition, the first and foremost precept is the prohibition against taking life (any life, not only human); at the same time, the human condition is unique and precious because Buddhas can only appear in human form. In religious traditions of the African Diaspora, Black gods and ancestors rise up to defend Black and Latinx lives in historical rebellions and revolutions. The most well-known of these is the Haitian Revolution that began with the invocation Vodou deities in 1791 at Bwa Kayiman.

Racially motivated killings are often processed as a statistic, notwithstanding the well-known killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery, among many others. In the violent taking of George Floyd’s life, witnessed by the world, we have not a statistic but a tragedy. It is both a reminder of the anti-Blackness embedded in our society and an example of the systemic institutional brutality directed towards minoritized communities.

Recent News

Job Posting: Marsha and Jay Glazer Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies
In Announcement
October 31, 2024
Job Posting: XIVth Dalai Lama Endowed Chair in Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies
In Announcement
October 31, 2024
Obstacle Illusion: A Multimedia Performance by ACVilla and Thollem on Feb 8, at 6:30 pm at Hatlen Theatre, UCSB
In Announcement
February 2, 2023

Search:

Search for:

Department of Religious Studies
Mail Code 3130
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3130
© 2021 Regents of the University of California,
All Rights Reserved

Site Administration

Log in
Entries RSS

Contact Us
Resources & Links
Website Demo Videos
Giving
Terms of Use

X

Newsletter 2016-2017- Persian Language and Literature

Newsletter 2016-2017- Persian Language and Literature in the Department of Religious Studies