Institute for Religious and Cultural Understanding
Cultivating awareness of religious and cultural diversity on campus and beyond
About Us
The Institute for Religious and Cultural Understanding works to cultivate awareness of religious and cultural diversity locally, domestically, and internationally. The educational and research goals of the institute serve two complementary objectives: to enhance religious and cultural literacy and to support reasoned analysis of religion in public discourse. The institute reaches beyond the borders of campus to effect change in the local community and beyond through the cultivation of both a physical and virtual presence.
WorldViews
WorldViews invites the campus community to engage with diverse perspectives shaped by lived experience, culture, values, and religious traditions. Through conversation and reflection, these programs explore how context influences belief, action, and our understanding of one another.
At the heart of WorldViews is a commitment to empathy and thoughtful engagement with the human condition and the many ways people make meaning in the world.
Join us as we welcome guests who challenge us to see our shared community through new lenses.
2026-2027 Programming
Meditation, Yoga, and Wellness as Spiritual Practice With Sheetal Contractor
September 8 at 7 p.m. in the Seegers Event Space, Seegers Union | Livestream Link
Many people seek spiritual fulfillment outside traditional religious institutions through practices like meditation, yoga, and wellness training. We’ll explore how these practices form their own spiritual worldview, examining the beliefs and philosophies that guide contemporary wellness culture.
Inside the New Thought Tradition With the Rev. Kevin Kitrell Ross
October 6 at 7 p.m. in the Seegers Event Space, Seegers Union | Livestream Link
New Thought is one of the most influential religious movements to come out of 19th century America, though many people are not familiar with it. It has been a major influence on how we think about the mind, the spirit, and human potential. The Rev. Kevin Kitrell Ross, a Unity minister, joins us to explain what New Thought teaches, how he practices it, and how it has grown within African American Christianity.
Pennsylvania Dutch Folkways and Identity With Patrick Donmoyer
February 16 at 7 p.m. in the Seegers Event Space, Seegers Union | Livestream Link
Pennsylvania Dutch culture remains a living presence in our region with its own language, foodways, and folk traditions. Our conversation with Patrick Donmoyer, director of the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University and an inheritor of these traditions himself, considers how that way of life is lived and handed down today.
Being Jain in America With Nikhil Bumb
March 16 at 7 p.m. in the Seegers Event Space, Seegers Union | Livestream Link
Jainism is one of the world’s oldest religions, and one of its smallest. Nikhil Bumb grew up in a Jain family in South Carolina and now works in social impact strategy consulting with corporate, foundation, and nonprofit clients globally. He is based in the Washington, D.C., area and remains an observant Jain. He joins us to talk about what Jains believe and practice, from nonviolence to the idea that no single view holds the whole truth, and how those commitments emerge in personal and professional life.
ReligionWise Podcast
ReligionWise features educators, researchers, and other professionals discussing topics on religion and their relevance to the public conversation.
Wallenberg Tribute
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Budapest Jews from the Nazis during the last year of WWII. He was taken into Soviet custody just days after Budapest was liberated and was never again accounted for by Western sources; some Soviet reports put his death in 1947 in a Moscow prison. Each year since 1984, Muhlenberg College and the Institute have paid tribute to Raoul Wallenberg by honoring one or more individuals who are recognized for their courageous moral action on behalf of others.
The annual Wallenberg Tribute includes a public lecture and reserved seating dinner. If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive an invitation, please email us at [email protected].
2026 Wallenberg Tribute Lecture
The Next 250 | Engaging Religion in International Affairs
Sunday, November 8 at 3:30 p.m. in the Seegers Union Event Space || Join us in person or via livestream
David Hunsicker, former senior conflict and peacebuilding advisor to USAID.
The 2026 Wallenberg Tribute Lecture will be presented by David Hunsicker, former senior conflict and peacebuilding advisor to USAID. Hunsicker is a leading specialist on Strategic Religious Engagement, the practice of partnering with religious communities and faith-based organizations to advance shared development and humanitarian goals.
During his two decades at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), he served as the Religion, State, and Society Specialist for USAID’s Central Asian regional mission, provided technical oversight for congressionally-mandated Israeli- Palestinian peacebuilding programs, and worked on conflict prevention and religious engagement in the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, and the Balkans.
A Lehigh Valley native, he brings to this lecture a career-long conviction that religious literacy and local understanding are essential to how the United States understands itself and engages the world.
- 2024: Rev. Dr. Falres Ilomo
- 2023: Krysta Hankee Memorial Fund
- 2022: Jewish Family Services of Delaware, Refugee Integration Support Effort (RISE)
- 2021: Lehigh Valley Sikhs
- 2020: Krista Tippett
- 2019: The Rev. Dr. Jesper Svartvik
- 2018: Deacon Elizabeth Miller
- 2017: Rabbi Ambassadaor David N. Saperstein
- 2016: Rabbi Allen Juda
- 2015: Alan Jennings
- 2014: 25th Anniversary Celebration (no honorees)
- 2013: Ilene Wood
- 2012 :The Rev. Dr. Walter Wagner
- 2011: Rabbi Dr. Irving R. Greenberg
- 2010: The Rev. Christine Nelson
Our Team
William “Chip” Gruen, Ph.D. (Director)
Gruen is a professor of religion studies at Muhlenberg who joined the campus community in 2006 after completing his doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania. Gruen has published in a wide variety of highly respected outlets, including the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Early Christianity, and Inside Higher Education. His current research considers how marginal religious groups are (mis)remembered and (mis)interpreted in source texts from antiquity.
Christine Flicker (Media and Graphic Design Specialist)
Flicker is also the administrative assistant for the Department of Religion Studies. After earning a B.A. in Art and Graphic Design from California State University, Fresno, Christine spent several years as a graphic designer and website development director for a marketing agency. She is uniquely gifted at creating aesthetic and interesting designs that also accomplish the strategic goals as set forth for the institute.
Contact and Contribute
Connect with Muhlenberg’s Institute for Religious and Cultural Understanding at [email protected].
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