UPCOMING CONFERENCES

SOUTHWEST

Theme: ALIENS AND ALLIES

2023 Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature

Baylor University, Waco TX

September 21-23, 2023

To speak of our historical moment as one of great cultural upheaval is trite understatement, to be sure. Ours, however, is not merely an age of change; it is a period of ongoing change.  The “unprecedented” has been normalized.  Crisis and scandal and outrage all have become de rigueur, the “new normal,” of our disorienting change. In the midst of this tumult and change, human relationships have been transformed.  The Conference on Christianity and Literature exists, in part, to explore “the relationships between Christianity and literature” in hopes of discovering how one might, as the psalmist wrote, “sing the songs of the Lord/while in a foreign land.” Or, to borrow from Robert Frost, perhaps literature in a fallen world (would it exist in any other kind of world?) is one of humanity’s efforts to address the question of “what to make of a diminished thing.” The psalmist who longs for a particular homeland, the poet who abides in exile—these paradigmatic voices echo and resound in our age.  In light of this reality, the 2023 SWCCL conference theme is Aliens and Allies. 

Possible paper topics include, but are not limited to:

• Christianity, literature, and homecoming
• literature as advocacy
• war and literature
• pilgrimage and place
• art and propaganda
• story in an age of narrative collapse
• art and freedom
• Christian friendship
• literature as a mode of knowing
• defending the defenseless
• Christianity, literature, and the scandal of particularity
• poetics and/vs. rhetoric
• Christianity, politics, and the Kingdom of God
• political freedom and Christian freedom
• Christianity, literature, and hospitality

As always, SWCCL is open to other proposals concerning the relationship of Christianity and literature, including panel proposals and creative works. Readings of original poetry and fiction will be considered. Graduate students accepted to the conference are encouraged to apply for the CCL Travel Grant. Strong proposals from undergraduates, for a special undergraduate panel, are also encouraged. Undergraduates must submit their entire paper for consideration; eligible papers will be entered into the national CCL Undergraduate Writing Contest for a cash prize and publication on the CCL website.

Keynote speakers

Dr Lori Branch (University of Iowa)

Dr Branch is the author of Rituals of Spontaneity: Sentiment and Secularism from Free Prayer to Wordsworth (Baylor University Press, 2007), winner of the Christianity and Literature Book of the Year Award 2007, and of the forthcoming books Postsecular Reason: A Manifesto, and The Violation of God: Masculinity and Secularism in the Enlightenment. She is editor of the monograph series Literature, Religion, and Postsecular Studies for Ohio State University Press. Her keynote address will be entitled, “Religion and Secularism: Postsecular Allies?”

Dr Natalie Carnes (Baylor University)

Dr Carnes is the author of Motherhood: A Confession (Stanford University Press, 2020); Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia (Stanford University Press, 2017); and Beauty: A Theological Engagement with Gregory of Nyssa (Cascade Books, 2014). Currently, she is working on a project that explores intersections of poverty, aesthetics, luxury, and art, pursuing the question: What is the place of art in a world of poverty and suffering? Her keynote address will be entitled, “The Artist as Ascetic: How the Denials and Excesses of Art Witness to Christian Hope”.

Please e-mail a one-paragraph abstract for an individual presentation or a one-paragraph abstract for a group panel session by June 15, 2023 to luke_ferretter@baylor.edu 

Conference Team

Stephen Barnes, sbarnes@umhb.edu

Toby Coley, tcoley@umhb.edu

Luke Ferretter, luke_ferretter@baylor.edu

Lynne Hinojosa, lynne_hinojosa@baylor.edu

Moisés Park, moises_park@baylor.edu

 

WEST

ConVersing/ConServing: Care, Creation, Communion

2024 West Regional Conference on Christianity and Literature

 

May 9-11, 2024

Trinity Western University

22500 University Drive

Langley, BC Canada V2Y 1Y1

 

In Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, our conference keynote speaker Marilyn McEntyre presents literary art and the study of literature as a form of stewardship. Caring for words is akin, she says, to environmental concern and action, for we hold both language and the land in common. The conference invites presentations and conversations exploring the relations among literature and conservation, of serving together creatively to keep and pass on what has been given to us. Our topic is intentionally broad to encourage engagement across historical periods and genres. We invite professors, graduate and undergraduate students, and scholars from multiple disciplines.

“A large, almost sacramental sense of the import and efficacy of words can be found in early English usage, where . . . to converse was to foster community, to commune with, to dwell in a place with others. Conversation was understood to be a life-sustaining practice, a blessing, and a craft to be cultivated for the common good.” – Marilyn McEntyre

 

Our keynote speaker:

Marilyn McEntyre’s teaching and writing focuses on topics including American literature, medical humanities, literature and the natural world, portraiture and character in literature and art, and approaches to autobiography. Her many articles and books include Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies and Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict. She leads retreats and writing workshops and is deeply interested in the connections among spirituality, language, and healing.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, literary creation conversing with

• the work of conservation: ecology, creation theology, contemplative/active practices of creation care
• the work of dwelling: sacred, secular/post-secular accounts of place, pilgrimage, migration, exile, reinhabitation
• the work of honoring First Nations or Indigenous ways of knowing and ways of life
• the work of cultivating words: exemplars, strategies, practices of language stewardship
• the work of recovery: re/discovering forgotten or marginalized voices
• the work of empathy: emotion and affect, caregiving, accounts of suffering, grief, illness
• the work of social justice: remembrance, lament, protest, reconciliation
• the work of the Inklings: Christian imagination and cultural criticism, mythopoeisis, literary community
• the work of liturgy: sacred services, sacrament, spiritual practices
• the work of God: grace, transformation, restoring all things in Christ

 

Proposal submissions: E-mail an abstract of no more than 300 words for an individual presentation or a group panel session by November 1, 2023, to Dr. Katharine Bubel at katharine.bubel@twu.ca.

Undergraduate students must submit their entire paper for consideration; eligible undergraduate papers will be entered into the national CCL Undergraduate Writing Contest for a cash prize and publication on the CCL website. Graduate students are encouraged to apply for the CCL Travel Grant. For more details on these undergraduate and graduate opportunities, visit https://www.christianityandliterature.com/Awards-and-Grants 

 

REGIONAL CONFERENCES

Regional conferences afford members an opportunity to learn from one another and to build networks of support for their scholarly and professional endeavors. They also offer graduate students an opportunity to gain valuable experience presenting at conferences.

For the themes of past and recent regional conferences, please click on the regions below:

Western

Midwest

Southeast

Eastern

Southwest