Call For Abstracts: “Frontiers: Cosmos, Curiosity, Creativity”
McGill University, Montreal, November 12-13, 2016

Cultures approach religious questions in ways informed by their cosmologies and vice versa. Traditions and concerns considered religious therefore interact closely with cosmological investigations and ideas, in the imaginative work of public and private world-building. “Frontiers” is an interdisciplinary event sponsored by the Centre for Research on Religion (CREOR) with the cooperation of McGill’s School of Religious Studies and the McGill Space Institute (MSI), highlighting and investigating the significance of these interactions.

From Religious Studies and other Arts students we invite paper proposals on topics including but not limited to the following themes:

Astronomy and Belief Systems, Ancient and Modern /// Shapes and Uses of Cosmic Questions /// Creativity and Critical Thinking vis-à-vis Big Questions and Wonder /// Speculation, (Science) Fiction and Religious Imagination, Ancient and Modern

(Astro)Physics and other Science students are warmly invited to discuss their work, especially in the context of the Big Questions that drive such research, regarding:

Early Universe /// Fundamental Physics /// GUTs /// How does your work help us to better understand the universe, and how does it interact with popular questions and culture at large?

Guidelines: Graduate student proposals welcome. Please submit an abstract of 200 words or less. Presentations must advance research-supported arguments addressing ongoing scholarly conversations. Works of advocacy or mere summary will not be considered. To maximally widen our event’s horizons, proposals from (astro)physics students will be given particular attention, along with proposals involving Indigenous or Asian cosmologies, Islam, Law, or Medicine.

Submission Deadline for Proposals: September 15, 2016.
Contact: Frontiers Team at creor2016frontiers@gmail.com

Website: https://creor2016frontiers.wordpress.com

Opening remarks will be delivered by Prof. Andrew Cumming, Associate Professor of Physics at McGill and Associate Director of the McGill Space Institute. The keynote speaker will be Prof. Christopher J. Corbally, S.J., Associate Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Arizona, and President of the National Committee for Astronomy, Vatican City State, International Astronomical Union.