History of Christianity

by Sylvester Johnson

Journal of Africana Religions

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CONNECTICUT COLLEGE

CALL FOR DISCUSSANTS

EMOTIVE COGNITION & SENSUOUS DEVOTION

IN CATHOLICISM

A CONNECTICUT COLLEGE SEMINAR DIRECTED BY FRANK GRAZIANO

& FEATURING PRESENTATIONS BY

SIMON COLEMAN

Chancellor Jackman Professor of Religion & Anthropology

University of Toronto

JOHN CORRIGAN

Lucius Moody Bristol Distinguished Professor of Religion

Florida State University

JEFFREY F. HAMBURGER

Kuno Francke Professor of German Art & Culture

Harvard University

DAVID MORGAN

Professor of Religion

Duke University

OCTOBER 26-27, 2012

Seminar Themes

• Sensory stimuli (visual culture, tactile contact, silence and sound) and perception in relation to forms and experiences of devotion and to emotive cognition
• Ambient emotional cueing, including the ways in which material culture predisposes and informs religious affect and understanding
• The influences of specific emotions (love, fear, guilt, joy, gratitude) on devotion, perception, and cognition
• The effect of moods evoked by sensuous devotion on cognitive evaluation of beliefs, events, and memories
• Supernatural presence in statues and paintings, and interactive contemplation of these images
• The living attributes (animation, bleeding, expression of emotion) and agency (performing miracles) of certain sacred images
• Mental imagery
• Emotive effects of architectural acoustics
• Sensory intuition of divine presence
• Empathetic identification with represented suffering
• Emotive cognition of liturgical discourse
• Individual and collective imagination (including traditions) as they pertain to emotive cognition and sensuous devotion
• Any other themes pertinent to the seminar’s field of inquiry.

Seminar Format

The seminar is comprised of sixteen participants; four are presenters, upon whose work the seminar is based, and the others are discussants. Five of the discussants are selected through a national call for participants, and the others are selected from the Connecticut College community. The seminar will take place on October 26-27, 2012. It begins informally on Friday evening, meets on Saturday, and concludes with a dinner on Saturday evening.

Rather than reading their papers during the seminar, the presenters submit the papers one month in advance of the meeting date. The papers are circulated to all seminar participants, who agree upon selection to read the papers prior to the seminar and to prepare questions and discussion comments.

Each presenter is allotted seventy-five minutes on the program. The presentations entail a fifteen-minute opening statement (to identify themes, build context, show slides, or introduce discussion topics) followed by questions and by discussion led by the presenter.

Discussants

Faculty interested in participating as discussants may apply by sending a brief letter stating the relevance of the seminar to research interests and a one-page biographical note or two-page curriculum vitae. The deadline for receipt of these materials is March 5, 2012. Decisions will be announced by the end of March. Please send your materials to Nancy Lewandowski, nflew@conncoll.edu, using “Discussant Proposal” as the subject line. Discussants are not paid an honorarium or travel expenses but upon arrival are guests of Connecticut College (including hotel accommodations and meals). Please address any questions to Frank Graziano, John D. MacArthur Professor of Hispanic Studies, fgraz@conncoll.edu.

Audience

The seminar meetings are open to the public without charge. To register, please send your name and email to Nancy Lewandowski, nflew@conncoll.edu. Please use “Seminar Registration” as the subject line.

Location

The seminar will take place on the Connecticut College campus in New London, Connecticut. New London is located on Interstate 95, approximately midway between New York City and Boston (two hours to either by car). At a one-hour distance to the north and south, respectively, are Providence and New Haven. There are Amtrak, bus, and ferry (from Long Island) stations in New London, and the closest airports are Providence (the most convenient airport) and Hartford, both about one hour from campus.

Sponsors

This event is sponsored by Connecticut College’s Dean of the Faculty. Additional support was provided by the College’s Information Services and the Departments of Anthropology, Art History & Architectural Studies, and Religious Studies.

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The annual Winter 2013 meeting of the American Society of Church History (ASCH) will be held Thursday to Sunday, January 3-6, 2013, in New Orleans, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA).

We invite ASCH members and other interested scholars to submit paper and session proposals on any aspect of the history of Christianity and its interaction with culture, including proposals for formal papers, panel and round table discussions, consideration of a major recent book, critical assessments of a distinguished career, and other relevant themes and issues.

In addition to traditional categories relating to periods, geographical areas, and special topics, we will give special consideration to proposals that consider broader themes across periods or regions; engage in interdisciplinary discussion; place theological ideas in historical context; examine particular genres, source materials or methods; or treat the current state of the study of church history.

We also invite sessions that deal with pedagogical issues of concern in the teaching of the history of Christianity, or with issues in the publication and dissemination of research to specialist and general audiences. Panels should exhibit diversity of gender, rank, and scholarly location in their composition.

Proposals for entire panels/sessions are strongly preferred, though proposals for individual papers will also be considered. The committee welcomes international participation and particularly encourages proposals (whether for full panels or individual papers) from those who live and work outside the United States.

Sessions are typically two hours in length and allow for three or four papers, a formal response, and Q&A with the audience. In order better to group individual papers into sessions, such proposals for individual papers should address one of the following themes:

Christianity and public life, or the relationship of church and state
Christian responses to disaster and suffering
Christianity and race, or creole cultures

The deadline for proposals is March 15, 2012.

(For those interested in submitting joint proposals to the AHA and the ASCH, the deadline for AHA proposals is February 15, 2012. (See www.historians.org.) Paper proposals should consist of:

(1) a short description of less than 300 words
(2) a biographical paragraph or CV summary of the applicant, and
(3) a current mailing location, email address, and phone number for the proposed presenter.

Session proposals should contain all of the above for each of the presenters, as well as:

(1) the session title
(2) a brief description of less than 300 words outlining the theme or topic of the session, and
(3) biographical data and contact details for the chair and the respondent (which can be the same person).

Use of audio-visual equipment is limited to the hotel provider’s equipment, has become very expensive, and must be restricted to presentations for which it is strictly necessary. The proposed use of computers, internet, or projectors in the session must therefore be stated and rationalized in the proposal.

Please send proposals, preferably by email, before March 15, 2012, to the program committee at asch2013@regent-college.edu. Acknowledgements and further information will be sent out as proposals are received. The program committee reserves the right to reconfigure sessions as needed.

NOTE: All program participants must register for the annual meeting and be members of the ASCH at the time of the Meeting.

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The Congregational Studies Team is pleased to announce the availability of Fellowships* to support scholars who are interested in disciplined inquiry into the life of local communities of faith. These 18-month fellowships include $18,000 in research support, plus $2000 for related travel. In addition, Fellowships include a program of mentoring by a senior-scholar coach and participation in two summer consultations that bring together the Fellows and coaches with the Team.

Applications are encouraged from scholars in a variety of disciplines — from practical theology to the social sciences, from history to biblical studies and contextual education — for projects that involve learning from and about living communities of faith. Fellows will explore avenues for making that knowledge available for the sake of those communities’ well being, as well as developing strong academic contributions appropriate to their disciplines. Applicants should have completed their graduate work and be placed in a professional position at the time of application. We especially encourage early-career scholars to apply, but will consider applications from persons who have recently been tenured.

Note that the application deadline has been extended to 1 February 2012. For application information and instructions, see the PDF listed below, visit www.hirr.hartsem.edu or contact the Engaged Scholars project office at Hartford Seminary (engagedscholars@hartsem.edu).

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Download Application Instructions (PDF)

*This program is administered by the Congregational Studies Team: Nancy Ammerman, Anthea Butler, Bill McKinney, Omar McRoberts, Larry Mamiya, Gerardo Marti, Joyce Mercer, James Nieman (project director), Bob Schreiter, Steve Warner, and Jack Wertheimer.

The Institute on World War II and the Human Experience and the Department of Religion

 Florida State University

“World War II and Religion”

November 30-December 1, 2012

Call for Papers

The Institute on World War II and the Human Experience and the Department of Religion of Florida State University seek paper proposals for a two-day conference in Tallahassee, Florida focusing on Religion and World War II.

Conference organizers G. Kurt Piehler and John Corrigan seek papers that touch on the institutional, theological, and human impact of religion in World War II.   We are interested in the global dimension of this conflict and encourage scholars whose work focuses on Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East, and the Soviet Union, as well as Europe and North America.  We are interested in addressing the ways that combatants and civilians drew upon religious ideals and institutions to sustain them in an age of total war, and especially how soldiers, sailors, and aviators behaved religiously in the course of their service.  Additionally we solicit papers that consider the roles religious organizations and values played in fostering ethical conduct during the war, providing humanitarian relief, and protecting non-combatants and conscientious objectors, as well as analyses of various kinds of religious justifications for violence, including genocide.

Among the questions we seek to address:  did religious leaders and institutions foster a climate that encouraged rather than retarded the drift to total war?   Are there really no atheists in foxholes? What was the legacy of the war for religious institutions and ideals, especially in the defeated Axis Powers? How did religious institutions discredited by their support of the Axis Powers seek to regain their legitimacy?  What kinds of compromises did persons negotiate with their religious beliefs in wartime? In what way was pre-existent religious rhetoric deployed to characterize enemies as evil? How did the war diminish and exacerbate the perception of religious differences?

We encourage contributions from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.   The conference organizers hope to provide travel funding to graduate students and junior scholars to encourage their participation.  Plans call for the publication of an anthology drawn from the conference proceedings edited by John Corrigan and G. Kurt Piehler.

Those seeking to participate in the conference should submit a 750 word abstract along with a short 3-5 page c.v. via Microsoft word attachment or PDF File to G. Kurt Piehler at kpiehler@fsu.edu by March 15, 2012.  For further information about the conference, please contact John Corrigan at jcorrigan@fsu.edu or G. Kurt Piehler at kpiehler@fsu.edu.

G. Kurt Piehler, Director
Institute on World War II and the Human Experience

Department of History
Florida State University
401 Bellamy Hall
113 Collegiate Loop
Tallahassee, FL 32306-2200

Telephone:  (850) 644-9541

E: Mail:  kpiehler@fsu.edu

Website:  ww2.fsu.edu

The Florida State University Department of Religion is pleased to announce its 11^th Annual Graduate Student Symposium to be held February 17-19, 2012 in Tallahassee, Florida.

Last year’s symposium was a huge success, allowing over forty presenters from over twenty universities and departments as varied as Religion, Geography, Psychology, and Philosophy to share their research, learn from one another, and meet many of their peers and future colleagues.

This year’s symposium will be centered on the theme “Beyond Borders: Constructing, Deconstructing and Transgressing Boundaries.”

Dr. Manuel A. Vásquez, of the University of Florida, will deliver this year’s keynote address. His lecture is tentatively titled “Beyond the Fetishism of Commodities? Hyper-Animism and Materiality in the Present Age.” Also, we are pleased to host Dr. Kathryn Lofton of Yale University as a guest respondent.

Due to our commitment to collaborative scholarship, students from all fields with interdisciplinary interests in the study of religion and at all levels of graduate study are encouraged to submit paper proposals.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Building and Maintaining Identities
• Communities, both Local and Global
• Scholars Manufacturing Subjects
• Strategies of Empowerment and Subjugation
• Limits of Embodiment
• Political, Ethical and/or Gender Conflicts
• Discourses of (In)Justice.

Presentations should be approximately 15 to 20 minutes in length and will receive faculty responses. In addition, every year respondents select the best graduate paper to receive the Leo F. Sandon Award, an endowed award named for the Religion Department’s former chair.

Proposals including an abstract of approximately 300 words, a list of key terms, and a one-page CV should be submitted by December 15, 2011 for review. Final papers must be submitted by January 15, 2012. Please send proposals to Michael Graziano at fsureligionsymposium@gmail.com.

Summer 2012 NEH Institute for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities
Spatial Narrative and Deep Maps: Explorations in the Spatial Humanities
June 18-29, 2012
Call for Proposals: Applications due Friday, February 3, 2012

The Virtual Center for Spatial Humanities (VCSH), a multidisciplinary collaboration among Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI), Florida State University, and West Virginia University, is pleased to announce an NEH Advanced Institute for summer 2012 designed to advance exploration of key topics in the spatial humanities.

The institute will offer scholars the opportunity to discover the benefits of a spatial-analytical approach to humanities scholarship and to explore how to bend geo-spatial technologies, including GIS and Web 2.0 tools, to the needs of the humanities. Two areas of emphasis will be spatial narratives and deep maps. Fellows participating in the program will learn both by engaging with a variety of existing projects as well as through the production of a prototype project in collaboration with the VCSH team. Fellows also will have an opportunity to present their own work and to contribute to scholarly and Web products that result from the institute.

The institute will meet in Indianapolis from June 18 to 29, 2012 and will be administered by IUPUI’s Polis Center. It will draw upon a multidisciplinary faculty from the three collaborating institutions, as well as leading scholars in the field of spatial humanities from the US and UK, and will be supported technically by the advanced technology group of the Polis Center. The institute schedule will allow time for fellows to interact with the staff and to seek advice for their own projects or project ideas, but the primary focus will be on how to use geo-spatial technologies to enhance the narrative and analytical traditions of the humanities. The fellows will work with project staff to develop a prototype deep map to support multi-scalar and contingent analysis of problems of interests to humanists. To focus this work, the institute will explore the spatial contexts of American religion, using the Digital Atlas of American Religion, an NEH-supported project of VCSH, and the multi-faceted evidence from the Polis Center’s six-year study of the intersection of religion and urban culture in a mid-sized American city.

About the fellowships:

Up to 12 fellowships will be awarded to individuals or teams who demonstrate serious interest in the application of geo-spatial technologies to problems in the humanities. While scholars in all humanities disciplines are eligible to apply, we are especially interested in collaborating with those who have experience in one or more geo-spatial technologies as well as scholars who have thought about the spatial dimensions of American religion.

During the institute, fellows will explore central issues in the spatial humanities, including such topics as database structures and information architectures, interactive design, and collaborative research, while situating these concerns within the fields of American history and religious studies. Guest lecturers during the summer include Ian Gregory (historical GIS and digital humanities, Lancaster University), Anne Knowles (historical geography, Middlebury College), Katy Börner (informatics and advanced visualization, Indiana University), and Art Farnsley (sociology of religion, IUPUI), among others. Institute leaders are David Bodenhamer (history, IUPUI), John Corrigan (religious studies, Florida State), and Trevor Harris (geography, West Virginia University).

All fellows will participate in a two-week residency June 18-29 at IUPUI. The residency will include colloquia and working sessions in which participants collectively will develop project foundations and address relevant issues in spatial humanities. Fellows also will be provided the opportunity to present their own projects. Applicants need not be proficient with geo-spatial technologies but must demonstrate some level of engagement with them as well as with spatial questions and analyses. Evidence of the capacity for successful collaboration and for scholarly innovation is required. Fellowship awards will include a stipend of $3,000 for each participant, as well as a travel allowance.

Accommodation and meal costs will be the responsibility of each fellow, but the institute will seek to arrange low-cost housing for participants. We welcome scholars from all career levels, from advanced graduate student to full professor.

About the proposals:

Proposals should include the following:

• Two to three-page statement of how participation in the institute will fit the scholarly and professional goals of the applicant. 

 

• One-page description of the applicant’s experience with geo-spatial technologies and spatial analysis. 

 

• Brief CV (maximum of three pages). 

 

• Letter of support from department chair for non-tenured faculty or from dissertation adviser for doctoral candidates. 

 

Projects that articulate a clear understanding of the potential of spatial humanities and the problems associated with the use of geo-spatial technologies in humanities scholarship will be regarded favorably.
lectronic applications are required. Submit to ddearth@iupui.edu.

Deadline for applications: Friday, February 3, 2012. Fellowship recipients will be notified in mid April, 2012.

Questions may be directed to ddearth@iupui.edu.