VIRTUAL LECTURE | CSRS Weekly Lecture Series: Prayer as Transgression?

Free virtual event | Zoom access

The editors of Prayer as Transgression? The Social Relations of Prayer in Healthcare Settings will discuss the subject matter of their book as part of the CSRS Weekly Lecture Series. The lecture will include a live audience Q&A. An audio recording will then be made available on UVic's SoundCloud page.

• Sheryl Reimer-Kirkham, dean and professor of nursing at Trinity Western University, teaches health policy, qualitative research, knowledge translation, and health leadership.
• Sonya Sharma is associate professor of sociology at Kingston University London.
• Rachel Brown is program coordinator at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at University of Victoria.
• Melania Calestani is an anthropologist and a lecturer at Kingston University London and St George's, University of London, in midwifery and clinical research.

The CSRS Weekly Lecture Series is hosted by the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at University of Victoria in British Columbia.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Through critical ethnographic research in Vancouver and London, Prayer as Transgression? reveals how prayer occurs in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and community-based clinics in a variety of forms and circumstances. Prayer occurs quietly on the edges of day-to-day healthcare provision and in designated sacred spaces. Some requests for prayer, however, interrupt and transgress the clinical machinery of a hospital, such as when a patient asks for prayer from the chaplain while the operating room waits. With contributions by researchers, healthcare practitioners, and chaplains, the authors consider how prayer transgresses the clinical priorities that mark healthcare, opening up ways to think differently about institutional norms and social structures. They show how prayer highlights trends of secularization and sacralization in healthcare settings. They also consider the ambivalences about prayer arising from staff and patients' varied views on religion and spirituality, and their associated ethical concerns amidst clinical and workload demands.