A public lecture about the shared delight in the arts, and the role they play when they help us to tread a path back toward public truth and the common good.
At a time when notions of shared truth, goodness, and beauty are under threat and suspicion, it is essential to our common humanity to be able to find expression in areas illustrating our shared longing across religious or ideological divides. In this lecture, the Rev. Dr. Ben Quash (King’s College London) will propose that the arts are indispensable toward this end.
Dr. Evan Freeman (Hellenic Canadian Congress of BC, and BC Chair of Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University) will offer a response to Dr. Ben Quash.
This lecture will be held at UBC’s Sage Lecture Hall (6331 Crescent Road, Vancouver, BC V6T1Z1). A reception will take place before the event from 5:30 PM to 6:50 PM. All are welcome. No RSVP required.
This lecture will be recorded and subsequently posted on the “Media” section of our website.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Dr. Ben Quash is Professor of Christianity and the Arts at King's College London. Quash grew up in County Durham and Monmouthshire. He studied English as an undergraduate at Cambridge, and then theology as a second degree, while in training for ordination at Westcott House. His doctoral work on the theological dramatic theory of Hans Urs von Balthasar combined these literary and theological interests. He was Chaplain and Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and a lecturer in the Cambridge Theological Federation from 1996 to 1999. He then returned to Peterhouse as Dean and Fellow, where he served until he came to King’s as its first Professor of Christianity and the Arts in 2007.
From 2004 to 2007 Quash was also Academic Director of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme in the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity, developing research and public education programs in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and their interrelations—establishing the practice and theory of Scriptural Reasoning.
Dr. Evan Freeman is Hellenic Canadian Congress of BC Chair in Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University. He studies art and ritual of the Byzantine Empire and cross-cultural interactions in the wider medieval world. He completed his PhD in the Department of the History of Art at Yale University and has held an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Smarthistory, the Center for Public Art History, and an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Before joining the Department of Global Humanities at Simon Fraser University, he taught at Queens College, City University of New York, and Portland State University. He has produced videos, essays, an edited volume, and other open educational resources for Smarthistory, Khan Academy, and other digital and public humanities projects. His research focuses on Byzantine ritual objects, mobility, monumental church art, and materiality.