BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//UCLA Humanities - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://humanities.ucla.edu
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for UCLA Humanities
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Los_Angeles
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20250309T100000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20251102T090000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20260308T100000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20261101T090000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20270314T100000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20271107T090000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260121T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260121T173000
DTSTAMP:20260423T032745
CREATED:20251201T165351Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260121T203322Z
UID:2193802-1769011200-1769016600@humanities.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:A Tattered Leaf Covers the Torn: Class Dynamics of Buddhist Charity in Vietnam
DESCRIPTION:Professor Sara Ann Swenson (Dartmouth College) presents new research on how global trends in humanitarianism are enacted at the local level through the everyday ethics and informal practices of low-income and middle-class Buddhist volunteers in Vietnam. \nStudies of humanitarianism tend to focus on the large-scale. They analyze disaster relief\, international diplomacy\, development politics\, and privatized welfare. These studies highlight trends and policies that suggest generosity is becoming homogenized into “industrialized philanthropy.” Yet when global trends actualize in local communities\, diverse ethics and interpretations of care reemerge. Differences flourish and conflicts arise over how to best care for others.  \nSara Ann Swenson’s research examines the point at which national trends toward philanthropy are enacted on the ground by focusing on the role of low-income and middle-class Buddhist volunteers in Vietnam. Informal giving and “random acts of kindness” are difficult to quantify\, meaning they are often overlooked among large-scale studies of humanitarianism. Yet these everyday ethics of care are also a major way that citizens—particularly low-income earners and middle-class workers—transform ethics of care into civic engagement and moral citizenship. Moreover\, as volunteers draw on Buddhist teachings and practices to explain care in Vietnam\, their religious ethics permeate secular and public institutions such as hospitals\, universities\, and social service programs. Close qualitative research shows how—even as processes of giving are increasingly globalized—the motivations\, experiences\, and relationships that arise from giving can vary greatly by context\, depending on intersectional dynamics between donors and recipients. Researchers must always attend to questions of who is giving to whom and why for a comprehensive understanding of how social service needs are being met amid high-speed development and privatization in late socialist countries like Vietnam. \nRegister here. \nSara Ann Swenson is an Assistant Professor in Religion at Dartmouth College. She researches contemporary Buddhism in Vietnam. She holds a PhD and MPhil in Religion from Syracuse University\, an MA in Comparative Religion from Iliff School of Theology\, and a BA in English from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Her book Near Light We Shine: Buddhist Charity in Urban Vietnam is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. \nSponsor(s): Center for Buddhist Studies\, Center for the Study of Religion\, Center for Southeast Asian Studies
URL:https://humanities.ucla.edu/event/a-tattered-leaf-covers-the-torn-class-dynamics-of-buddhist-charity-in-vietnam/
LOCATION:Royce 243
CATEGORIES:CSR
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://humanities.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Header_multi-image_Sara-Ann-Swenson-event-gIeBA5.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260127T143000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260127T163000
DTSTAMP:20260423T032745
CREATED:20260107T205545Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260127T203302Z
UID:2194269-1769524200-1769531400@humanities.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Satellite Ministries: The Rise of Christian Television in the Middle East
DESCRIPTION:In this book talk\, Febe Armanios (Middlebury College) will present on her recently-published monograph Satellite Ministries\, which explores how modern expressions of faith\, technology\, and political power intersected and clashed across the Global South and beyond through the analysis of sixteen Christian television channels in the Middle East. In 1981\, a satellite television station called Star of Hope began broadcasting from Israeli-occupied South Lebanon. Later renamed Middle East Television (METV)\, its programming included American soap operas\, sports\, and evangelical content alongside innovative Arabic Christian televangelism. METV spurred the growth of competing Christian broadcasters and reshaped the Middle East’s media and religious landscape over the next four decades. Through extensive fieldwork and archival research\, Febe Armanios explores how Western evangelicals and indigenous Christians harnessed terrestrial and satellite technologies to promote Christian television in the Middle East. \nThis is a hybrid event   \nIn- person RSVP – click here. \nRegister here to attend online. \nCo-sponsor: Center for Near Eastern Studies
URL:https://humanities.ucla.edu/event/satellite-ministries-the-rise-of-christian-television-in-the-middle-east/
LOCATION:Bunche Hall 10383
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://humanities.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/header-image_Febe-Armanios-talk-UDEHN2.png
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR