Past MOCRA Events
Browse the chronological list of events at the Saint Louis University Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA), or search for a specific event. Click “View” for more information about an event. If you need further information about an event, please contact us.
Two Lectures: Ellen Dissanayake and Jack Renard
April 15, 1999
MOCRA presents lectures by two distinguished scholars.
Ellen Dissanayake
“In the Beginning, Art”
An innovative scholar makes a case for an innate human drive to “make special,” drawing on evolutionary biology, anthropology and sociology.
Ellen Dissanayake is a scholar, lecturer, and author of three books, What Is Art For?, Homo Aestheticus (with translations into Chinese and Korean), and Art and Intimacy. Combining her interests in the arts and evolutionary biology, and using insights drawn from fifteen years of living and working in non-Western countries (Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, India, and Nigeria), she has developed a unique perspective that considers art to be a normal, natural, and necessary component of our evolved nature as humans. She has held Distinguished Visiting Professorships at Ball State University in Indiana, the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Western Australia. Additionally, she has taught at the National Arts School in Papua New Guinea, the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, Sarah Lawrence College, and the New School for Social Research in New York City. She lives in Seattle where she is Affiliate Professor in the School of Music at the University of Washington.
Jack Renard
“Words Alight: Islamic Calligraphy and the Art of Bernard Maisner”
A prominent scholar of Islam and Islamic culture brings his expertise to bear on the resonances between Islamic calligraphy and the illuminated manuscripts and paintings of artist Bernard Maisner.
Dr. Jack Renard joined the Saint Louis University Department of Theological Studies in 1978, after completing a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies, in Harvard University's department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, focusing on religious literature in Arabic and Persian, and religious art and architecture. His research has centered on Islamic Humanities, with a specialization in the religious histories and literatures of major Middle Eastern cultures such as those of Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. He has concentrated particularly on medieval sources in Arabic and Persian related to the history of Sufism, Islamic mystical traditions, Islamic hagiography, and, most recently, comparative study of Islamic and Christian theologies.
Renard has taught a wide variety of graduate and undergraduate courses, including: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; Religious Traditions of Asia; Islam: Religion and Culture; Islamic Art and Society; the religious arts of Hinduism and Buddhism; Comparative Theology; and Medieval Seminars on various topics within the greater Mediterranean world.
These lectures are presented In conjunction with the exhibition Bernard Maisner: Entrance to the Scriptorium, and are made possible by a grant from the Arts and Education Council of Saint Louis.
above, from left:
Ellen Dissanayake and Jack Renard
Related programming
Bernard Maisner: “The Art of the Illuminator”
“The Hand Acts Out a Joyous Dance”: Celebrating the Art of Bernard Maisner
Listen to an interview with Ellen Dissanayake in Episode 12: Ellen Dissanayake.
Watch Jack Renard in So That You Know Each Other: Intercultural Reflections on Art, Beauty, and Islam
