[Csrfac] FW: Religious Studies graduate student conference: Presence & Absence

[Spitulski, Nick]

From: Gitlitz, Abby [mailto:agitlitz at indiana.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2016 11:43 AM
Subject: Religious Studies graduate student conference: Presence & Absence

Hello all,

The Graduate Religious Studies Association at Indiana University invites abstracts for its annual graduate student conference, Presence and Absence<http://indiana.edu/~relstud/graduate/graduate-student-conference>, to be held April 7 - 8 at Indiana University Bloomington.

Below you will find our Call for Papers. Please distribute to any and all graduate students. We look forward to submissions! All questions can be directed to iugradconf at gmail.com<mailto:iugradconf at gmail.com>.

Best,
Hannah Garvey and Colton Ames
GRSA Conference Chairs 2017
________________________________

[cid:image003.jpg at 01D23F35.67972160]<http://indiana.edu/~relstud/graduate/graduate-student-conference>


The Graduate Religious Studies Association at Indiana University
Announces its Annual Graduate Student Conference:


Presence and Absence
April 7 – 8, 2017
Indiana University Bloomington
Keynote Address: TBA



How do humans conceive and perceive of presence? Absence?


The Graduate Religious Studies Association at Indiana University invites abstracts for its interdisciplinary spring conference investigating the meaning of presence and absence in the human experience. We welcome submissions from all disciplines and fields, encouraging biological, psychological, linguistic, philosophical, historical, political, and literary responses to and understandings of presence and absence.
Abstracts will be due December 31, 2016.


We embark on this conference in light of recent scholarship addressing presence in the study of religion. How do we as scholars respond to these questions of experience across disciplines? We seek to facilitate conversations about the role that the transcendent has both as present and as absent in the human experience across all traditions and cultures.

The committee is pleased to offer modest travel awards for graduate students. These funds will be determined following abstract selections and distributed via reimbursement.

Below are a few themes we find intriguing which are by no means exhaustive.



Presence and absence manifest in:

-          Materiality [idols, relics, objects]

-          Spaces [shrines, pilgrimages, natural worlds, alternate worlds, boundaries]

-          Texts [recitation of, reading practices]

-          Experiences [epiphanies, trances, visions, ecstasies, possessions, transcendental states, and paranormality]

-          Persons [authorities, prophets, practitioners, scholars]

-          Technologies [machines, virtual worlds, robots, cyborgs, artificial intelligence]



As well as:

-          Spaces between absence and presence

-          Conceptions of the divine as present and/or absent

-          Influence of conceptions of modernity and secularism on religious/spiritual presence

-          The universality of presence and absence

Please send a 250-word abstract, an academic CV, and any questions to:
iugradconf at gmail.com<mailto:iugradconf at gmail.com> by December 31.
Please provide all submissions in PDF format.


We will notify applicants of acceptance status via email by: January 18., 2017


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