Past Thulin Lectures
Kristy Nabhan-Warren
Professor, V.O. and Elizabeth Kahl Figge Chair in Catholic Studies
Departments of Religious Studies and Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies
University of Iowa
"Meatpacking USA: What We Learn about Work, Faith and Ourselves When We Study Today's Slaughterhouses"
November 2, 2024
Video from the event is available here.
J. Kameron Carter
Professor, Religious Studies and Co-Director of the Center for Religion and the Human at Indiana University
"The Religion of Whiteness: An Apocalyptic Lyric"
September 27, 2022
Video from the event is available here.
Khaled Abou el Fadl
Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor at the UCLA School of Law
"Islam, Human Rights, and Contemporary World Politics"
April 7, 2021
Video from the event is available here.
David P. Gushee
Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics
Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University,
"From Wilberforce to Malala: Assessing the Religious and Ethical Journeys of Transformative Leaders"
March 6, 2019
R. Marie Griffith
Director, John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics
John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor
"Sex and American Christianity: The Religious Divides that Fractured a Nation"
April 12, 2018
Video from the event is available here.
Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.
Chair of the Center for African-American Studies and
William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African-American Studies, Princeton University
“An Uncommon Faith: W.E.B. Du Bois and African American Religion"
April 13, 2017
Video from the event is available here.
Garry Wills
Professor of History Emeritus, Northwestern University
Winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, the 1998 National Medal for the Humanities, the 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, the 1979 Merle Curti Award from the Organization of American Historians, and the 1978 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction
“Earth, Our Home: A Theology of Nature”
April 21, 2016
Video from the event is available here.
Vasudha Narayanan
Distinguished Professor of Religion, University of Florida
Founding Director, Center for the Study of Hebrew Traditions
“Global Hinduism”
April 9, 2014
Moshe Halbertal
Professor of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Hebrew University
Recipient of the Rothschild Foundation’s Bruno Award and the Goren Goldstein Award for the “Best Book in Jewish Thought” in the years 1997-2000.
“A Talmudic Perspective on Charity and Dignity”
September 12, 2013
Martin E. Marty
Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago
Recipient of seventy-five honorary doctorates, the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Award, and the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
“Because I Am a Citizen: Religion and the Common Good in Today's America"
April 12, 2012
Video from the event is available here.
John L. Esposito
Professor of Religion and International Affairs, and Professor of Islamic Studies, Georgetown University
Founding Director, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Walsh School of Foreign Service
"The Future of Islam & US-Muslim World Relations"
April 14, 2011
Sabina Alkire
Director, Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford
"How an Adequate Notion of Human Flourishing Challenges Economics"
April 7, 2010
Video and audio from the event is available here.
FOCUS 580 WILL radio interview with David Inge
Jon Butler
Howard R. Lamar Professor of American Studies, History, and Religious Studies, Yale University
Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
"The Surprise of Religion in Modern America"
March 10, 2009
Photographs, video, and audio from the event can be found here.
FOCUS 580 WILL radio interview with David Inge
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School
"Scripture and the Rhetoric of Empire"
April 10, 2008
Photographs, video, and audio from the event can be found here.
Charles E. Curran
Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values, Southern Methodist University
"The Church and Politics"
March 29, 2007
Photographs from the event can be found here.
FOCUS 580 WILL radio interview with David Inge
Stanley Hauerwas
Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke University Divinity School
"Sacrificing the Sacrifices of War"
April 6, 2006
A set of web pages developed by David Suryk devoted to Prof. Hauerwas's visit to UIUC that include an audio recording of the Thulin Lecture by Professor Hauerwas can be found here.
Photographs from the event can be found here.
FOCUS 580 WILL radio interview with David Inge
David R. Loy
Professor at the Faculty of International Studies, Bunkyo University
"The Religion of the Market"
April 5, 2005
Diana Eck
Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, Harvard University
"America's Religious Pluralism: Challenges for the New Century"
April 15, 2004
Focus 580 WILL radio interview with David Inge
Farid Esack
Visiting Professor in Religious Studies at the University of Hamburg
"Between Playing Dead and Asserting Faith: Progressive Islam and the Clash of Civilizations"
April 3, 2003