2026-27 Annual Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Lecture: “Get Craft”- Kathryn Lofton
Thursday, November 5, 2026 from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
- In-Person event
- 303, Paterson Hall, Carleton University
- 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6
The last decade of the twenty-first century has witnessed an increased public popularity of crafting, including the creation and promotion of craftcations, crafting communities, and craftivism. This kind of rejoinder to an increasingly automated age is nothing new – an ardently handmade reaction follows every epoch of insurgent technology. This talk uses findings from the study of religion to profile the values that craftmaking cajoles human beings to protect. It also questions whether slower pacing and human deliberation will finally compete, much less be sustainable, in the face of machine learning. Alongside discussions of quilting, fly fishing, and woodworking, this presentation includes scholarship itself as an intriguing test case for craft in a society of mass production.
Kathryn Lofton is Lex Hixon Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies, Professor of History and Divinity, at Yale University. Lofton is a historian of religion focusing on popular culture in the United States.
In addition to over seventy articles and book chapters, she is the author of two books, Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon (2011) and Consuming Religion (2017), and an edited collection, with Laurie Maffly-Kipp, Women’s Work: An Anthology of African-American Women’s Historical Writings (2010).