Spotlight on the Audience: Learning about Religion & Spirituality through the Arts
Third Annual Faculty Lecture By Dr. Laura Yares

Surveys of contemporary American religious life often segment people into categories like religious, non-religious, or spiritual. But do these bifurcations really capture the complex ways that people engage with religious themes and belongings in their everyday lives? In this talk, Laura Yares will share findings from her new book on audiences at Jewish cultural artistic productions, describing what people learn about religion and how they form social connections through these leisure time activities.

Laura Yares is Assistant Professor of Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. Her work explores contexts of education and learning in American religion, and especially in American Judaism. She is the author of Jewish Sunday Schools: Teaching Religion in Nineteenth Century America, which was published by NYU Press in 2023. Her most recent book is a study of the informal learning of audiences who engage with Jewish cultural arts, which will be published by NYU Press in 2026.

SPONSORED BY THE FOGLIO ENDOWED CHAIR OF SPIRITUALITY, CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE STUDIES IN THE ARTS & HUMANITIES (IAH), COLLEGE OF ARTS & LETTERS, DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES, SERLING INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH STUDIES AND MODERN ISRAEL

EVENT WILL BE ON ZOOM—REGISTER IN ADVANCE: https://tinyurl.com/yares2025