The Graduate Theological Union is pleased to host Dr. Kathryn Barush, Thomas E. Bertelsen Jr. Associate Professor of Art History and Religion, for the sixth annual Borsch-Rast Lecture for her 2021 publication, Imaging Pilgrimage: Art as Embodied Experience (Bloomsbury Visual Arts). Register for this event on Eventbrite.
In her acclaimed book, Dr. Barush explores contemporary artworks created after pilgrimage experiences, which are intended to act as a catalyst for the embodied experience of others. Each chapter focuses on a contemporary artwork that links one landscape to another—from the Spanish Camino to a backyard in the Pacific Northwest, from Lourdes to South Africa, from Jerusalem to England, and from Ecuador to California, ultimately comprising the first full-length study to engage contemporary art that has emerged out of the embodied experience of pilgrimage.
“Dr. Barush invites readers to see with fresh eyes the forms and roles of pilgrimage in contemporary society,” said Dr. Judith Berling, a member of the Borsch-Rast selection committee, Professor Emerita of Chinese and Comparative Religions, and former Dean at the GTU. “The interdisciplinary approach of Imaging Pilgrimage explores often ignored dimensions of religious pilgrimages and focuses our attention not solely on verbal explanations but on how the material aspects of pilgrimage express meanings to those who experience them.”
Dr. Barush will be joined by Dr. Simon Coleman, who will be responding to her book. Dr. Coleman is Chancellor Jackman Professor, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto and his most recent book is Powers of Pilgrimage: Religion in a World of Movement.