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Book Talk—"Sacred Snaps: Photovoice for Interfaith Engagement"

Wednesday, November 13, 2024 5:30–7:00 PM
  • Location
  • Description
    Join us as we welcome author Roman. R. Williams one of the authors of the book and founder of Interfaith Photovoice, which "combines amateur photography and structured dialogue" to promote interfaith understanding.
    About the BookSacred Snaps tells the story of a new approach to interfaith engagement. It is an invitation to see and engage religion, diversity, and inclusion through the lens of the mobile phone camera. These days, just about everyone owns a camera equipped smartphone. What if we recruited these cameras for the common good? When religion shows up in everyday life—at work, school, the mall, or the beach—often it is not welcome. At a time when so much of the public discourse is around equity, diversity, and inclusion, religion seems peripheral to important conversations about belief and belonging.
    Many embrace the wisdom that our workplaces, schools, and communities are enhanced when people can bring their whole selves into every aspect of their daily lives. But religion and spirituality are not gaining the same ground as other aspects of diversity such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and ability. To be more fully included in the cultural conversation about human flourishing, religion needs to be seen and heard in new ways. The old paradigm of interreligious dialogue is no longer adequate. A new paradigm focused on building relationships at the grass roots of daily life is emerging.

    About Roman R. Williams, PhDRoman Williams is the founder of Interfaith Photovoice, an organization that combines photography and sociology for intergroup and interfaith engagement. He holds a Ph.D. in the sociology of religion from Boston University and a Th.M. focused on global religions from Gordon-Conwell Seminary. Roman was a tenured associate professor of sociology at Calvin University (2012–2020) and served as the executive officer of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (2016–2021). His academic publications combine his interests in lived religion and participatory visual methodologies, which come together in his edited volume, Seeing Religion (Routledge, 2015).
    During his years in higher education, Roman experienced a shift in his personal and professional interests, one that led him into community-based participatory action research. The pandemic gave him the opportunity to step out of higher education and into his own consulting practice focused on belief, belonging, and human flourishing. Today, he fancies the idea that he is helping to make the world a better and more inclusive place one photo at a time.

    Roman Williams will be introduced by Chad Meister, an Ansari Institute faculty affiliate who is a scholar of global religion and is currently writing a volume on interfaith dialogue.
    Food and refreshments will be available following the formal portion of the event program. This is a free event and advanced registration is not required.
    Originally published at ansari.nd.edu.
  • Website
    https://events.nd.edu/events/2024/11/13/book-talk-sacred-snaps-photovoice-for-interfaith-engagement/

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