religion

UPDATED CALL FOR PAPERS: BUDDHISM IN AMERICA

ABSTRACTS NOW DUE 15 NOVEMBER 2006

2007 Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association
Conference

Artful Strategies/Necessary Risks: The Shifting Borders between Success and
Failure

April 20th and 21st on the campus of California State University, Sacramento

Definitions of failure and success are not bound by timeless, objective
criteria but ultimately lie in the eyes of the observer answering to ever
changing parameters of time and culture. Thus what accounts for success in
one context may well be construed as failure in other contexts, by other
observers, or by succeeding generations. The conference aims to lend a forum
to ideas that examine the shifting borders between success and failure in
literature, the arts, history, anthropology, sociology, law, politics,
religion and related fields.

2007 Stanford French and Italian Graduate Conference

"Conversions"

January 26 and 27, 2007

"The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it."
(Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, /Meditations/)

Call for Papers

Physical Pain in Early Modern Culture
October 2007

Call for Plays: ATHE Religion and Theatre Focus Group
"Sore Spots"

In the human body, soreness is a symptom of stress. It can indicate rapid
growth or long neglect, the beginning of repair or the end of exertion.
Religion both generates and heals sore spots. Not only institutional
religions but all forms of spiritual practices and beliefs can be used to
probe wounds, or as a salve; they can medicate, or can celebrate recovery.

Call for papers: 'C.S. Lewis: Critic, Christian and creative writer', April
13-14, 2006, University of Manchester, UK

Contributions are invited for a major international and interdisciplinary
conference reassessing the critical, creative and theological work of C. S.
Lewis. This conference is being hosted by the University of Manchester, UK, and
is being planned in conjuction with the Centre for Literature and Belief,
University of Ulster, UK.

Contributors should send a 100-word abstract and brief CV to crawford.gribben
[at] manchester.ac.uk by Friday November 24 2006.

Dulia et Latria (roughly translated as service to man and service to
God) is an online journal dedicated to exploring dulia and latria
within the Christian faith. In his late 14th century Tractatus de
Mandatis Divinis, John Wycliffe, writing against iconic idolatry within
the Catholic church, defined dulia as the reverence men and women owe
to each other and latria as the reverence a man or woman owes only to
God. He was interested in developing a taxonomy for and an analysis of
duties involved in the horizontal relationship between created beings
themselves and the vertical relationship between the created and the
creator, and so are we. With our journal we wish to showcase some of

MP Feminist International Journal is seeking submissions for its Fall 2006
issue on the theme "Religion, Politics and the Great Pumpkin". In the comic
strip "Peanuts", the character Linus once said "There are three things I
have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great
Pumpkin." In this issue, we'd like to talk about the great taboo subjects.
Religion, spirituality, politics, and other taboo subjects, such as women
and money, are welcomed. The most important thing we'll be looking for in
these submissions is that they challenge taboos and explore the subject
intelligently and uniquely. We are primarily seeking academic articles using

CALL FOR PAPERS

"Parables in Drama"

Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference
New Orleans
July 26-29, 2007

Parables and drama, and specifically parables in drama, work performatively
to "redescribe" the world as we know it and force the audience to perform a
redescription of reality. They deserve our attention for the ways in which the
self and our world are constructed and deconstructed. But most especially,
parables in drama consider layers of readings that highlight what the best of
both genres have to offer.

JEWISH HOLLYWOOD
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The Jewish Studies Area of the Popular Culture Association is organizing at=20
least one panel on specifically evaluating the major influence of Jewish stu=
dio=20
executives, producers, and directors in Hollywood for the 2007 conference of=
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the ACA/PCA in Boston, Massachusetts, April 4-7, 2007.
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Many of the =E2=80=9Cfounding fathers=E2=80=9D of Hollywood were Jewish busi=
nessmen who=20
became de facto film moguls. Among them were Samuel Goldwyn, David O. Selzn=
ick,=20
Louis B. Mayer, and the four Warner brothers -- Samuel, Albert, Harry, and (=
the=20

JEWS IN SPACE =20
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The Jewish Studies Area, in conjunction with the Science Fiction and Fantasy=
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Area, of the Popular Culture Association is organizing at least one panel on=
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Jewish influences on the science fiction genre in literature, film, and=20
television for the 2007 ACA/PCA Conference being held in Boston, Massachuset=
ts, April=20
4-7, 2007. =20
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Areas to be explored include -- but are not exclusive to -- the following=20
topics:
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-- Isaac Asimov, father of modern science fiction, professor at Boston=20
University, and originator of such science fiction staples as the

THE KABBALAH AND HOLLYWOOD
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The Jewish Studies Area of the Popular Culture Association is organizing at=20
least one panel on Hollywood celebrities and their interest and study of th=
e=20
Kabbalah for the 2007 conference of the ACA/PCA in Boston, Massachusetts, Ap=
ril=20
4-7, 2007.
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In recent years study of the Kabbalah has become more and more popular among=
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non-Jewish believers. Specifically, pop singer Madonna and her film directo=
r=20
husband Guy Ritchie, and actress Demi Moore and her actor husband Ashton=20
Kutcher are converts to Kabbalah, making study of Kabbalah the =E2=80=9Cin=
=E2=80=9D thing for many=20
people.
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JEWISH MYTHOLOGY
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The Jewish Studies Area of the Popular Culture Association is organizing at=20
least one panel on Jewish Mythology for the 2007 conference of the ACA/PCA i=
n=20
Boston, Massachusetts, April 4-7, 2007.
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>From Lillith to the Golem, Jewish mythology has been an important part of=20
Jewish life. The story of the Golem is considered by some to be part of the=
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inspiration for Mary Shelley=E2=80=99s Frankenstein. =20
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Presentation proposals should examine the history and the significance of=20
Jewish mythology on Jewish culture and non-Jewish culture, especially in the=
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United States.
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READERS, READING AND RECEPTION IN DEVOTIONAL LITERATURE AND PRACTICE
(Essay Collection)
 
We are currently soliciting proposals for essay-length studies about
readers, reading, and reception in devotional literature and practice,
with particular interest in England in the later Middle Ages. This
collection of essays draws on current scholarly interest in medieval
readers, reading, and reception that extends across such disciplinary
bounds as art history, architecture, social history, and literature
studies. We seek proposals for papers that investigate a wide variety
of approaches to and examples of devotional readers, reading or
reception in the later Middle Ages.