Endowed Lectures

The Department of World Religions has been endowed with two funds, the Abbie Ziffren Fund and the David and Sherry Berz Fund, that support annual lecture events. Past speakers have covered wide-ranging and current topics including Muslim life in America in the wake of recent elections, religious views on life on other planets, Jewish and Christian views on the biblical commandment to love one’s neighbor, Christian Nationalism, human agency in Chan/Zen Buddhism, West African religious traditions, and much more!

AY25-26 Lectures

Ziffren Lecture Poster for Oludamini Ogunnaike

Ziffren Lecture: "When the Elephants Fight, the Grass Suffers"

February 5, 2026
Oludamini Ogunnaike
Lecture from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
MPA B07

Berz Lecture: "Darkness before Light: Hawaiian Accounts of the World's Origin"

March 4, 2026
Michael Ing
Lecture from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Funger 108

Abbie Ziffren Annual Lecture

Rabbi Shai Held delivered the 2019 Abbie Ziffren Lecture at the GW Religion Department. — Rabbi Shai Held delivered the 2019 Abbie Ziffren Lecture at the GW Department of World Religions.

Abbie Ziffren was a professor in the Department of World Religions in the 1980s and 1990s, and she was a committed Jew as well as a devoted activist in progressive social causes. The annual lecture is named in her honor.

Past Ziffren Lectures

2025: Jimmy Yu
2023: Ruth Ozeki
2022: Rebecca Todd Peters
2021: Eman Quotah
Fall 2019: Jill Hicks-Keeton and Cavan Concannon
Spring 2019: Shai Held
2018: Elizabeth Bucar
2017: Thupten Jinpa
2016: Film screening, Rosenwald
2015: Amy Eilberg and Aziz Abu Sarah

David and Sherry Berz Lecture

Ken Knoespel delivered the 2019 Berz Lecture at the GW Department of World Religions.

The David and Sherry Berz Endowed Lecture is made possible by a gift from David Berz, BA ’70, JD ’73, and Sherry Berz, BA ’72, MA ’73

Past Berz Lectures

2024: Amanda Tyler
2024: William Waldron
2022: Eman Quotah
2021: Dan Wildcat
2020: Shankar Nair
2019: Ken Knoespel
2018: Ayaz Virji
2017: David and Sherry Berz graciously allowed the Department of World Religions to use the endowment for the annual lectureship in their name to support a one-day conference on the subject of religion and environment.
2016: Conference, “Sunnis and Shi’ites in Historical Perspective: Differences and Commonalities”
2015: Panel event co-sponsored with the GW Confucius Institute, “Religion in Contemporary China”

Faculty Gather after Berz Lecture for Conviviality Dinner

GW Faculty gather for conviviality dinner with Professor William Waldron (3rd from left) and his partner Ananda Tamang (1st on the left) after his Berz Lecture, "Shaping Our Collective Worlds: Lessons from Yogacara Buddhism" (Spring 2024).