“Pentecostalism, Poverty, and Power”

Ruth Marshall, Assistant Professor in the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, will be speaking February 26th at 5:30 pm as part of the Religions and Public Life speaker series.

Marshall’s academic interests include religion and politics, African politics and post-colonial theory, political philosophy, transnational religion, and Pentecostalism. Her research focuses on Africa, especially West Africa, with a focus on transnational religion, war and violence, youth militias, citizenship, ethno-nationalism, autochthony, and international interventionism.  Some of her publications include “Prospérité Miraculeuse: Les pasteurs pentecôtistes et l’argent de Dieu au Nigéria”; “Mediating the Global and Local in Nigerian Pentecostalism”; and “‘God is not a Democrat’: Pentecostalism and Democratisation in Nigeria” in  Paul Gifford (ed.) The Christian Churches and the Democratisation of Africa.

The Religions and Public Life initiative is sponsored by the Kenan Institute for Ethics, the Divinity School, and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.

February 26, 5:30 pm
Westbrook Building room 0014

Changing Attitudes toward Homosexuality: Do Policies Matter?

Attitudes toward homosexuality have been changing rapidly in the last three decades, amidst activism and conflict over lesbian and gay rights. Americans have fought about whether workplaces should have the legal right to fire a lesbian or gay employee. We argued whether it should bea crime for two men or two women to have sex with each other, consensually, in the privacy of their own home. And we debated whether same-sex marriage should be legitimated by the state.Various U.S. states have made different choices about lesbian and gay rights. Using ANES (American National Election Survey) data and multilevel modeling, my colleagues and I test whether the adoption of pro-gay or anti-gay policies at the state level as an impact on the attitudes of residents of those states.

Tina Fetner is Associate Professor of Sociology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She teaches introduction to Sociology, as well as the sociology of sexualities, social inequality, and gender. She does research on sexualities and social movements. Her book, How the Religious Right Shaped Lesbian and Gay Activism, explores the history of contentious politics around lesbian and gay rights in the United States and examines the dynamics of opposing movements. in other work, co-authored with Robert Andersen, she examines the role of social forces in changing attitudes toward homosexuality. She has active research projects on Gay-Straight Alliance student groups in high schools, and on same-sex marriage in Ontario, Canada, with Adam Green and Barry D. Adam. She received her PhD in Sociology from New York University in 2001.

Duke Amnesty International and Vision for North Korea present a talk with two student refugees from North Korea Friday, February 15 at 6:30 pm in the Fitzpatrick Center’s Schiciano Auditorium.

The people of North Korea face great difficulties in human rights, food attainment, and basic freedoms. Two students, ages 19 and 21, will be speaking about their experiences living in and escaping North Korea.

This event is a recipient of a KIE Campus Grant, and has additional sponsorship from the Duke Korea Forum, the Department of Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Sanford School for Public Policy, the Student Organization Finance Committee, the Asian and Pacific Studies Institute, International Comparitive Studies, and the Duke Human Rights Center at the FHI.