#  Transcendentalism Initiative Events 

 



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Public events for the Transcendentalism Initiative have concluded for the 2025-26 academic year. Please check back soon for events in 2026-27.



 

##  Past Events 

 

  [### Ken Burns Presents "Henry David Thoreau": A Screening and Discussion with the Filmmakers and Scholars

 ](/news/2026/04/03/ken-burns-presents-henry-david-thoreau-screening-and-discussion-filmmakers-and) April 03, 2026 

 The Center for the Study of World Religions’ Transcendentalism Initiative will host a special screening of Episode 2 of Henry David Thoreau, a new documentary directed by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers and produced by Ken Burns. The film is... 

 

 

   ![Title card for "Henry David Thoreau": A screening and discussion with the filmmakers and scholars](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/YT%20Thumbnail.Transcendentalism_Thoreau%20Doc%20Screening%20and%20Talk%20%281%29.png?itok=OjjVfRyd) 

 



 

 

   [### VIDEO: Book Talk with Lawrence Buell: Henry David Thoreau: Thinking Disobediently

 ](/news/2026/04/02/video-book-talk-lawrence-buell-henry-david-thoreau-thinking-disobediently) April 02, 2026 

 As part of our Transcendentalism initiative, we are pleased to host a book talk with Lawrence Buell in celebration of the publication of Henry David Thoreau: Living Disobediently (Oxford University Press, 2024). While no single event could fully encompass... 

 

 

   ![Title card for Book Talk with Lawrence Buell](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/YT%20Thumbnail.Transcendentalism_Lawrence%20Buell%20Book%20Talk%20%281%29.png?itok=Clc-H-TH) 

 



 

 

   [### VIDEO: Thoreau’s Solar and Lunar Philosophy

 ](/news/2026/03/23/video-thoreaus-solar-and-lunar-philosophy) March 23, 2026 

 Charles Stang and Sarah Schorr discussed Thoreau’s extraordinary encounters with, and meditations on, the sun and the moon, and the significance of those for their ongoing book collaboration, Skywater. CHARLES STANG joined the Faculty of Divinity in 2008... 

 

 

   ![Title card for Thoreau's Solar and Lunar Philosophy](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/YT%20Thumbnail.Transcendentalism_Schorr%20Stang%20Thoreau%20Solar%20%26%20Lunar.png%20%281%29.png?itok=PzmKoXTy) 

 



 

 

   [### Thoreau, Abolition, and Resistance: Lessons for Our Present

 ](/news/2025/11/18/thoreau-abolition-and-resistance-lessons-our-present) November 18, 2025 

 A Talk by Lewis Hyde. Sponsored by the Constellation Project. It has happened before, the occupation of an American city by federal forces, and national guard troops commandeered without local consent. It happened first in 1854 when President Franklin... 

 

 

   ![Title card for Thoreau, Abolition, and Resistance: Lessons for our present](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/YT%20Thumbnail.Transcendentalism_Lewis%20Hyde%20Abolition%20and%20Resistance%20%281%29.png?itok=-tYNRQ78) 

 



 

 

   [### Ephemeral Field Journal: Book launch and introducing Skywater

 ](/news/2025/09/30/ephemeral-field-journal-book-launch-and-introducing-skywater) September 30, 2025 

 We celebrated the publication of the book, Ephemeral Field Journal: Climate + Love in Claude Monet’s Garden (Kehrer Verlag, September 2025) by Artist-in-Residence Sarah Schorr with an essay by CSWR Director Charles Stang. When Claude Monet settled in... 

 

 

   ![Sarah Schorr siting at the edge of Walden Pond photographing art work](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-08/SchorrWalden%20%281%29.jpg.crop_.jpg?h=c942f6f0&itok=XKUTj37K) 

 



 

 

   [### VIDEO: Book Talk with Richard Higgins: Thoreau's God

 ](/news/2025/09/25/video-book-talk-richard-higgins-thoreaus-god) September 25, 2025 

 HDS alum Richard Higgins, the author of Thoreau’s God , explored Henry David Thoreau as an original voice in American religion. Although a harsh critic of the Christianity of his day, Thoreau was religious to the bone and had a profound sense of the holy... 

 

 

   ![Title card for Thoreau, Abolition, the Unseen and Unheard: Thoreau's Religious Quest](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/YT%20thumbnail.Transcendentalism.Richard%20Higgins%209.25.25.png?itok=Rq1kp_H5)