Religious Resistance to Authoritarianism Speakers

Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat is Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University, and a leading scholar of authoritarianism, propaganda, and democracy protection.  She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, and publisher of the Substack newsletter Lucid on threats to democracy in the United States and globally.  She is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and other honors.  She serves as an advisor to the organization Protect Democracy; appears frequently on MSNBC and other networks; and has served as a consultant for businesses, civil society organizations, and television and film productions, including Guillermo del Toro’s Academy Award-winning 2022 movie Pinocchio and the 2024 Netflix docuseries Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial.  (photo © Beowulf Sheehan)

Asad Dandia is a Brooklyn-born public historian, university lecturer, tour guide, and community organizer, with a master’s degree in Islamic Studies from Columbia University.  He is the founder and director of New York Narratives, a walking tour project that advances new perspectives on the city by highlighting erased, underrepresented, and forgotten community stories.  He also lectures at CUNY and leads tours at the Museum of the City of New York.  As an undergraduate, Asad founded a mutual aid organization to feed his community.  The organization was infiltrated by an NYPD informant, prompting Asad to join an ACLU-led lawsuit, Raza v. City of New York, which successfully challenged NYPD surveillance of New York City’s Muslim communities following 9/11.  The lawsuit resulted in policy changes that strengthened civil rights protections for all New Yorkers.

HRM Queen Mother Dr. Dòwòti Désir, Sêmévo 1st, was enthroned in 2022 in the Benin Republic as Queen Mother of the African Diaspora.  With a mission to spotlight African spirituality and promote the history and culture of the West African country, she serves as Ambassador-at-Large of the High Counsel of Kings of Bénin, and is the Founder of the Imperial Corps Agoodjié of the African Diaspora, an educational and leadership program for women of African descent and their allies.  Queen Mother Désir was born in Haiti, and is ordained as a Manbo Asogwe (high priest) in Haitian Vodou.  In addition to her work with the Royal Palace of the African Diaspora, she has served in leadership roles with numerous organizations, including the NGO Committee for the Elimination of Racism, Afrophobia, and Colorism; the International Movement for Reparations; and the Organization of Religious Traditional Intellectuals of Benin.

Sukhman Singh Dhami is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Ensaaf, a human rights organization working to end impunity and achieve justice for crimes against humanity in India, focusing on Panjab.  Sukhman is a human rights attorney, who earned his J.D. and M.A. from the American University.  Among other awards and recognitions, he received the 2004 Unity Award from the San Francisco Coalition of Minority Bars and South Asian Bar Association for outstanding service to the legal community; a two-year fellowship from the Ford Foundation to work with the Center for Justice & Accountability; and a 2006 Echoing Green Global Fellowship.  Sukhman has published several articles and reports on human rights in India with The Hill, Christian Science Monitor, Human Rights Watch, and The Public International Law & Policy Group, where he also serves on the Advisory Board.

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum has dedicated her life to promoting social justice, LGBTQ+ and human rights, and progressive values within Judaism. She is the founder and director of The Beacon, which mobilizes people of all faiths and none to stand for compassionate democracy and against cruelty, fear, and despair.  She previously served for 32 years as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City, the largest LGBTQ+ synagogue in the world — for people of all sexual identities and genders — where she is now Senior Rabbi Emerita. The BBC named her one of its 100 Women of 2024, and Newsweek named her one of the 50 most influential rabbis in America. President Biden appointed Rabbi Kleinbaum a Commissioner to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.  (photo © Harold Levine)

Dr. David Greenberg is distinguished professor of History and of Journalism & Media Studies at Rutgers University. His latest book, John Lewis: A Life, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, has been called “panoramic and richly insightful” (Brent Staples, The New York Times) and a biography that “captures Lewis’s life, achievements, and times with heart-stopping precision” (Booklist). A Guggenheim Foundation, NEH, and Cullman Center fellow, Greenberg is the author or editor of several books on American history and politics including Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image (2003) and Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency (2016). Formerly acting editor of The New Republic and columnist for Slate, he now writes regularly for Politico, Liberties, and many other scholarly and popular publications. He holds a PhD in history from Columbia University and a BA from Yale and lives with his family in Manhattan.

Dr. Michael E. Lee is Director of the Francis & Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University in New York where he is Professor of Theology and member of the Latin American and Latine Studies Institute. He researches and teaches courses in Roman Catholic theology and history, liberation theologies, Latin American and US Latine theologies, especially as those emerged in El Salvador. He has served as President of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS) and on the governing board of the Catholic Theological Society of America.  He is the author of  Revolutionary Saint: The Theological Legacy of Óscar Romero (Orbis, 2018), Bearing the Weight of Salvation: The Soteriology of Ignacio Ellacuría (Herder & Herder, 2010), and editor of Ignacio Ellacuría: Essays on History, Liberation, and Salvation (Orbis, 2013). He recently provided a new introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of Gustavo Gutiérrez’s A Theology of Liberation (Orbis 2023).

Dr. Kim Shively is professor emerita of anthropology at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.  Her research has focused on the anthropology of religion in the Middle East, with a special focus on the relationship between Islam and politics in Turkey beginning in the mid-1990s.  Dr. Shively is now engaged in a field research project examining the end-of-life concerns among Turkish and other Muslim immigrants living in the United States.  She has published numerous articles and book chapters, including “Pragmatic Politics: The Gülen Movement and the AKP” (2016).  Her book Islam in Modern Turkey, was published in 2021 with Edinburgh University Press.  Dr. Shively holds a PhD in anthropology from Brandeis University, a BA in religious studies from the University of Chicago, and a Masters from Harvard Divinity School.  In addition to her academic work, Dr. Shively is active in civic life, serving as an elected member of the Bethlehem Area School District Board (though she is certainly not speaking on behalf of the school board).

La Troupe Makandal evokes the power of traditional Afro-Haitian music and dance to represent the history and culture of Haiti, as well as the sacred music and dance of Haitian Vodou.  Founded in 1973 by a group of young artists from Port-au-Prince, the company left Haiti in 1981 and regrouped in New York City, where it attracted new artists, both Haitians and friends of Haiti, under the direction of Master Drummer Frisner Augustin, a 1999 NEA Heritage Fellow.  Since Maestro Augustin’s passing in 2012, Makandal has kept his spirit and legacy alive in ongoing educational, performance, and documentary service.  The Troupe’s workshops, classes, performances, and online resources challenge ingrained stereotypes, while educating, entertaining, and healing racial and cultural divisions.

The Peace of Heart Choir is a volunteer community choir that came together shortly after the September 11, 2001 tragedies.  The choir works to promote healing, diversity, community bonding, and mutual understanding through music.  They perform free of charge for communities in need, in partnership with social service providers, including local shelters, hospitals, hospices, elderly homes, and providers of services to the disabled.  Choir members believe that the power of music is universal. The music they sing reflects the ethnic, racial, cultural, and spiritual traditions of their membership and audiences.  The choir’s goal is simply to leave audiences joyous.

Rev. Dr. Chloe Breyer is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Center of New York, a nationally-recognized nonprofit organization that has worked for over 25 years to overcome prejudice, violence, and misunderstanding by activating the power of NYC’s grassroots religious and civic leaders. ICNY works with hundreds of religious leaders from diverse faith traditions, building partnerships with civic officials to address social issues that impact all New Yorkers.  An Episcopal priest in the Diocese of New York, Breyer also serves as Associate priest at the Church of St. Edward the Martyr in East Harlem. Breyer is the author of The Close: A Young Woman’s First Year at Seminary, as well as chapter contributions in other books. She received her Ph.D. in Christian Ethics from Union Theological Seminary, where her doctoral dissertation explored interfaith responses to Islamophobia.

Ruth Messinger is the Co-Chair of the Board of the Interfaith Center of New York, the inaugural Global Ambassador for American Jewish World Service (where she served as President from 1998 to 2016), and a former New York City Council member and Manhattan Borough President.  A tireless advocate and social change visionary, Ruth has also served in various roles on the US State Department’s Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group; the World Bank’s Moral Imperative Working Group on Extreme Poverty; the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy; the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; and her synagogue SAJ: Judaism that Stands for All.  Ruth has been honored for her leadership with awards from many national Jewish organizations and honorary degrees from five rabbinical seminaries.  She was named one of the 10 most inspiring women religious leaders of 2012 by The Huffington Post; the sixth most influential Jew in the world by The Jerusalem Post; and was listed annually on The Forward’s “Forward 50” for nearly a decade.  (photo © Jeff Zorbedian)

Dr. Hussein Rashid is a free-range academic, public educator, and community leader, currently serving as an Adjunct Professor of Interreligious Engagement at Union Theological Seminary. He is a board member of the Interfaith Center of New York. Hussein’s research and teaching have focused on Muslims in U.S. popular culture and Shi’i theologies of justice. He has served in various academic and culturally creative capacities, most recently as Project Director of The Arts of Devotion at the Smithsonian’s National Muslim of Asian Art. He is also a producer of the PBS Digital Series American Muslim Stories and of the award-winning New York Times op-doc The Secret History of Muslims in the US.

Rev. Adriene Thorne is the eighth senior minister of the historic Riverside Church in the City of New York, and the first African American woman to hold the position. Prior to leading Riverside, Rev. Thorne served the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn for six years, where she cofounded the award-winning Brooklyn Heights Community Fridge, and served for eight years at Middle Collegiate Church in a variety of ministerial roles, concluding her service there as the Executive Minister.  Rev. Thorne received her Master of Divinity degree from The Pacific School of Religion, and completed post-graduate studies in pastoral care and counseling at The Blanton-Peale Institute.  She is a healer, Presbyterian minister, and classically trained dancer, who uses movement to heal bodies in the church and community.  Rev. Thorne grounds her Christian practice and leadership in an appreciation for imperfection that attempts to embody robust vulnerability. She leads with an understanding that even the resurrected Christ came back in a flawed body – what hopeful news for us!

Sunita Viswanath is the Executive Director of Hindus for Human Rights, and has worked for over 25 years with a wide range of faith-based and secular women’s rights and human rights organizations. In 2001, Sunita co-founded Women for Afghan Women, an international women’s human rights organization. In 2011, she co-founded the Sadhana Coalition of Progressive Hindus, in order to mobilize Hindu Americans to connect their faith to social justice and human rights. She was honored by President Obama at the White House in 2015 as a “Champion of Change” for her work with Sadhana. In 2019, she co-founded Hindus for Human Rights, a U.S.-wide human rights advocacy group that is committed to the ideals of multi-religious pluralism both in the United States and India.