1

WAYS OF KNOWING
Graduate Conference on Religion at Harvard Divinity School
October 23-25, 2014
Harvard Divinity School
Cambridge, Massachusetts
General Call for Papers
Science, Religion, and Culture at Harvard Divinity School announces the third annual graduate
student conference on religion. Inaugurated in 2012, this multi-day event is 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.
We invite graduate students and early career scholars to submit paper proposals representative of
a variety of theoretical, methodological, and disciplinary approaches. We seek papers that
explore religious practices and modes of knowing especially in relation to identities, authorities,
discourses, texts, and experiences. We welcome the use of all sorts of theoretical tools, including
discourse analysis, gender theory, race theory, disability theory, postcolonial theory, performance
theory, and ritual theory. Papers may focus on a specic period, region, tradition, person or
group. They may address 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.
Possible approaches include, but are not limited to, the following: 1) an exploration of a specic
way of knowing, being, and engaging the world or particular discursive framework in relation to
religion; 2) an historical, sociological, and/or anthropological analysis of the cultural processes
that support a specic religious discourse or practice, its authoritative structures, and/or its
strategies of inclusion and exclusion; 3) an analysis of gender, sexuality, race, and/or
socioeconomic class with respect to religious texts, practices, or performances; 4) a comparative
examination of religious texts and/or their interpretations, with attention to the historical,
sociopolitical, cultural, and/or intellectual contexts that mediate and delimit different
interpretative strategies and practices; 5) an analysis of the interplay between religion and
scientic, moral, and/or legal discourses, practices, and authorities; 6) a theological construction
or analysis of a particular normative framework, which critically and/or comparatively engages
one or more religious traditions.
2
Special Call for Papers
In addition to the General Call for Papers, the conference will also feature four thematic
modules. Several panels will be devoted to each of the following themes:
The Study of Religion: Past, Present, and Future
The study of religion has changed considerably in the half century since Wilfred Cantwell
Smith's important text, The Meaning and End of Religion, questioned the viability of religion
as an analytical category. This module seeks to appraise the study of religion today and its future
in the academy in light of its past. We welcome a broad range of papers that address challenges,
trends, and methodological and interdisciplinary issues within the eld of religious studies.
Proposals might address such topics as: 1) the contribution of inuential scholars of religion and
the implications of their work for the eld today; 2) dening religion and delimiting the
boundaries of the eld and its interdisciplinary scope; 3) the making of the elds key analytical
categories or terminology; 4) constructive or critical insights from eldwork, historical inquiry,
or other disciplinary elds; 5) the global study of religion as it is pursued in various parts of the
world, and its inter-religious character; 6) the gains or losses that the elds tools and methods
bring to non-Christian and non-Euro/American contexts that have their own historical and
methodological traditions; 7) the extent to which Christian-centric paradigms and theoretical
assumptions continue to inuence the elds theoretical inquiries and historical priorities.
Religion and Environmental Imagination
This module will focus on how religious discourses and ritual practices relate human beings to
their environments. Assuming that the worlds we inhabit are always constructed, how does
religion contribute to their shape? The scope of the question is deliberately open, and papers are
invited to explore it with a variety of methodologies, historical contexts, and religious traditions.
Possible approaches to the topic include but are not limited to the following topics: 1) ways in
which practices of scriptural reasoning or liturgical performance are implicated in sustainable or
exploitative approaches to the environment; 2) the relationships between religious cosmologies,
cosmogonies, eschatologies, and environmental ethics; 3) the aesthetics of built environments
such as places of worship, memorial sites, gardens, public squares, or even shopping malls.
3
Epistemologies of Emotion
Interest in the nature and function of emotions is growing in the humanities and in the social and
natural sciences. Scholars like Adela Pinch have highlighted the importance of 18
th
and 19
th

century fascination with the origin and meaning of emotions like sympathy, sentimentality, and
enthusiasm. A 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion drew together
scholars working on the signicance of emotion in various Buddhist contexts. Meanwhile, many
are optimistic that current research in the neurosciences will offer insight into the relationship
between emotions and ethical behavior. This module seeks to foster contextual interdisciplinary
conversation around questions raised by these growing bodies of literature. How do specic
texts, rituals, and practices cultivate certain emotions? How are particular emotions thought to
contribute to the formation of economic and ethical subjects? How are emotions isolated,
understood, tested, and known? What do the depths and limits of distinct emotions suggest about
ideologies of gender, empiricism, and psychology in different socio-historical contexts? This
module invites historical and contemporary analyses of philosophical, theological, literary, and
aesthetic representations of emotion in various socio-historical contexts and in different religious
traditions.

Religious Meaning of Skin
In addition to being the largest organ of the human body, the skin is an historical and cultural
artifact. Traditionally, blemished skin has been a symbol of impurity in many world religions.
However, the meaning of skin in health and disease is constantly changing and deserves
elaboration. Contributions should explore the history of the skin from a religious perspective or
discuss the spiritual meaning of the skin in today's world. Topics might address such themes as:
the role of faith in coping with chronic dermatoses; an exposition on tzaraath in the Hebrew
tradition; Buddhist writings on leprosy; or the religious meaning of body modication or
tattooing. Papers from the disciplines of religion, history of medicine, anthropology, and
literature are welcome. Accepted contributions will enrich our understanding of the skin by
emphasizing its social construction and/or pointing out how its meaning changes across culture
and time. In addition, papers that deal with the religious dimensions of the esh, certain aspects
of healthy skin (e.g. anointing), and innovative papers on human skin color will also be
welcomed.
4
Submission Instructions
Proposals are to be submitted to gradreligionconference@hds.harvard.edu by Tuesday,
July 1, 2014.
Please include in your proposal the paper/panel title, presenters name, email address, and
institutional afliation. Notication of your proposals status will be emailed to you in the rst
week of August.
Submission Options
Individual Paper Proposals: Please submit a 300-word proposal explaining the topic, main
argument, and methodology of the project. Please specify whether you are submitting your
proposal to the General Call or to one of the Special Call modules. Individual papers will be
organized into panels and should not exceed 20 minutes in delivery.
Panel Proposals: Proposals for pre-organized panels on a particular topic may include three to
ve papers. Please submit the following: 1) a 300-word summary of the focus and purpose of the
panel and how each paper contributes to the panels theme; please specify whether you are
submitting the proposal to the General Call or to one of the Special Call modules; 2) a 300-word
proposal for each paper as explained above; 3) the name and contact information of the panel
organizer and the panel chair. The panel can be chaired by one of the presenters. Also,
respondents and chairs can be added to the panel after it is accepted.
For further details and for information on our previous conferences and programs please see
our website: www.hds.harvard.edu/gradreligionconference.
All inquiries can be emailed to Faye Bodley-Dangelo, Conference Coordinator:
gradreligionconference@hds.harvard.edu.