Join Dr. Emily Clark for a look at seances and spiritualism in 19th century New Orleans! 

About this Event:  

Talking with the spirits of the dead is a practice with a long history in the United States. In the 1800s, it became a full-fledged religion: American Spiritualism. Grounded in seances and communing with the dead in a fantastic variety of means, this religion swept through the nation like wildfire until the 1920s. In this lecture, Dr. Emily Clark will introduce you to a small group of politically active men in post-Civil War New Orleans who sought guidance from the spirits of the dead on how to remake the nation into one where liberty, equality, and fraternity might rule.  

About this Speaker:  

Emily  Suzanne  Clark is a Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, where she is also affiliate faculty with the Department of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. Her research and teaching focus on religious material culture, alternative spiritualities, African American religions, American Catholic history, haunting, and colonialism. She is the author of the multi-award-winning book A Luminous Brotherhood: Afro-Creole Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans. She is also co-editor of two volumes, one on new religious movements and the other on digital religion. She is currently finishing a book on Spiritualism and material culture from the Rochester Rappings to the Ouija Board, which will be published by the University of North Carolina Press.  

This lecture is made possible with support from the New Orleans Recreation and Culture Fund.