Call for Papers: Conference on the Sacred and the Secular
Dear HumanDHS network friends
Please find below a Call for Papers: Conference on ‘The Sacred and the Secular’
Kind regards
Brian Ward
Call for Papers: Conference on ‘The Sacred and the Secular’
September 19-21, 2008
hosted by the School of Humanities (English),
University of Southampton, UK
At a time when the prevalent rhetoric pitches the relationship between the sacred and the secular as one of conflict, this conference will focus on a more productive and dialogic exchange between the two concepts. The associations of the “secular” with enlightenment and progress and the “sacred” with religious institutionalisation and primitivism are not only inadequate but also inaccurate.
The secular and the sacred are constituted by the intersecting discourses of the social, political, cultural, legal, and the economic. This postcolonial conference will address how these intersections are manifested through lived, local practices; syncretic music and art forms; eclectic religious practices; everyday codes of living and resistant activist movements.
The conference will provide a forum for discussion between academics, artists, activists, film-makers and arts practitioners. We invite papers which address the relationship between the sacred and the secular in some of the following ways:
How are the sacred and/or the secular performed? Papers might address dance, music, drama, political speech, and how these modes of performance function in various sites, such as media, parliament, the street, religious buildings.
How are the sacred and/or the secular represented in literature, film and/or art? What is the relationship between the sacred and/or the secular and textual or cultural authority?
What is the relationship between governance and the sacred? And in what ways must secular states accommodate the sacred in order to sustain a functioning civil society?
What is the relationship between the sacred and the profane?
Why is conflict so often articulated in terms of oppositions between the sacred and the secular?
How are the sacred and/or the secular fetishized in media and other discourses? What are the justifications and dangers of declared secular states fetishizing state power?
How do sacred and/or secular discourses approach gender, sexuality and/or the erotic?
What are the intersections between the sacred and/or the secular and the regulatory discourses of science, medicine, business, economics, and the law?
Confirmed Speakers include:
Sumathi Ramaswamy (Duke University), Kajri Jain (University of Toronto), Ananda Abeysekara (Virginia Polytechnic), Michael Jagessar (University of Birmingham), Patricia Murray (London Metropolitan University), and writers Nadeem Aslam (author of Maps for Lost Lovers), Monica Arac de Nyeko (winner of the Caine Prize 2007), Tahmima Anam (author of The Golden Age), Aamer Hussein (author of Cactus Town), and Philip Glassborrow (writer and artistic director, Winchester Passion).
A selection of essays will be published in the peer-reviewed journal Interventions.
Please submit a 200-300 word abstract via email or post to the address below by 6 June 2008:
Sandy White, English, School of Humanities, University of Southampton, Southampton, S017 1BJ. E-mail: sw17[@]soton.ac.uk
Queries can also be directed to Dr. Sujala Singh, e-mail: s.singh[@]soton.ac.uk
For registration details please see the conference website:
http://www.soton.ac.uk/english/news/sacredandsecular.html