Call for Papers for “Ways of Knowing: Graduate Conference on Religion at Harvard Divinity School” (Oct 23-25, 2014 in Cambridge, MA)

Submission Deadline: July 1, 2014

The Science, Religion, and Culture Program at Harvard Divinity School announces the third annual graduate conference on religion. Last year, 120 students and early career scholars representing 60 graduate programs from across the United States and the world gathered to present their research. Following the success of our previous conferences, this multi-day event will be comprised of thematic panels that cross religious traditions, academic disciplines, and intellectual and theological commitments. The conference aims at promoting interdisciplinary discussion of prevailing assumptions (both within and outside the academy) about the differentiation, organization, authorization, and reproduction of various modes of knowing and acting in relation to religion.

General Call: We invite graduate students and early career scholars to submit paper proposals that explore religious practices and modes of knowing in relation to identities, authorities, discourses, texts, and experiences. Papers may focus on a specific period, region, tradition, person or group, and/or a set of practices, texts, doctrines, or beliefs. Projects that are primarily sociological, anthropological, theological, ethical, textual, historical, or philosophical are welcome, as are projects indebted to multiple disciplines.

Special Calls: This year’s conference will also feature 4 thematic modules. Several panels will be devoted to each of the following themes:
1) “The Study of Religion: Past, Present, and Future”
2) “Religion and Environmental Imagination”
3) “Epistemologies of Emotion”
4) “Religious Meaning of Skin”


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Conference Highlights

Keynote Speaker: Mark S. Cladis (Brooke Russell Astor Professor of the Humanities, Brown University)

“The Study of Religion” Panel
Discusses trajectories, trends, and challenges facing the academic study of religion, and reflects upon the discipline’s future.
Panelists include the following:
* Francis X. Clooney, S.J. (Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology and Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School)
* Janet Gyatso (Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies, Harvard Divinity School)
* Amy Hollywood (Elizabeth H. Monrad Professor of Christian Studies, Harvard Divinity School)

“Academic Jobs” Panel
Discusses job market readiness, job application processes, and different career path options for emerging academics.
Panelists include the following:
* Noah Feldman (Bemis Professor of International Law, Harvard Law School)
* Dan McKanan (Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity, Harvard Divinity School)
* Sharmila Sen (Executive Editor-at-Large, Harvard University Press)
* Dr. Laura Stark (Director of Career Advising and Programming for Master’s and PhD Students, Harvard University)


For further details on the Call for Papers, please see the conference website: www.hds.harvard.edu/gradreligionconference

All inquiries may be directed to gradreligionconference@hds.harvard.edu