The Religion Graduate Organization invites you to submit paper and panel proposals to the semi-annual Religion Graduate Conference, Encountering the Unexpected: Glitches, (Dis)placements, and Marginalia. This conference actively encourages interdisciplinary discussions about unexpected encounters in the field and in the archives. Specifically, this conference aims to explore surprise occurrences in academic work when ideas, texts, people, and places collide or interact in unpredictable ways. Consider moments in the research process which unsettle the positionalities and potentialities of bodies, politics, images, and texts. We invite both M.A. and Ph.D. students to submit abstracts from a variety of thematic and theoretical backgrounds.
Keynote: Pamela Klassen, University of Toronto
We particularly invite papers on the following themes:
- The unavailable, unexpected, and interruptive
- Hauntings/spirits, ghosts in the shell, alien encounters
- Bridges and barriers
- Wormholes
- Transitions, transgressions, and mistranslations
- Hacking, coding, cybernetics
- Fragments/fragmentation
- Lacunae, redactions
- Miracles, surprises, and moments of the surreal
- Bricolage, montage, overlapping images, photoshopped reality
- Reconfiguring theories and methodologies
- Unexpected ethnographic or field work encounters
- Displacement, diaspora, boundaries
- Coups, treaties, and alliances
- Synergy, flow, short-circuits
- Film, texts, performances
- Flashpoints/breaking points
- Mystical positionality and experience
- Emergence/divergence/convergence
Abstracts are welcomed from various fields and disciplines, including but not limited to:
- Anthropology
- Area Studies
- Art History
- Art, Film and Visual Culture
- Cultural Studies
- English
- Gender Studies
- History
- Philosophy
- Psychology
- Political Science
- Queer Studies
- Religion
- Sex and Sexuality Studies
- Sociology
- Science and Technology Studies
- Theology
Panel submissions are greatly encouraged.
- A panel should consist of 3 papers
- Ideally a panel should include scholars from more than one institution
We are particularly interested in panels on:
- Pamela Klassen’s Spirits of Protestantism: Medicine, Healing, and Liberal Christianity
- Exploring the intersections of Native American Studies and Religious Studies
- Cultural Memory and the Study of Religion
- Memory, Memorialization, and The Search for Public Meaning
- Visions of the Future: Past and Present
- Social Media as Social Revolution
- Religion on the Margins
Panel or paper proposals should contain the following:
- A one-page abstract (350 words for papers; 500 words for panels) describing the nature of the paper or panel. No names or institutional information should appear on the abstract to facilitate a blind selection process.
- Cover page which includes the name(s), institution(s), and contact information for participant(s)
- Current CV for the participant(s)
- For panel proposals, identify the primary contact person for the panel.
- Submit all materials to SUReligionConference@gmail.com on or before February 5th, 2016
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