CFP: Embodied Religious Experience

Call for Abstracts || Embodied Religious Experience

Inviting abstracts for two Embodied Religious Experience workshops! The common purpose of these two workshops is to expand contemporary understandings of religious experience by incorporating perspectives and methods from within

• the philosophy of gender and sexuality
• mystic religious traditions (particularly in the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian traditions)
• social ontology and epistemology.

Each workshop will have a similar structure and theme; in particular, both workshops will explore how social structures (such as religious, sexual, and/or class hierarchies) impact not only who is seen as having ‘genuine’ religious experiences, but also the ways those experiences are expressed or reported (and even their experienced content). While we especially welcome philosophical approaches to these topics, we also encourage perspectives from other disciplines, such as sociology, theology and religious studies, psychology, and anthropology. 

Workshop I will be held March 14-16, 2016 in Princeton, New Jersey.

Deadline for abstract submission: December 15, 2015. Decisions will be made by January 15, 2016.

Workshop II will be held August 8-10, 2016 in Boulder, Colorado.

Deadline for abstract submission: March 1, 2016. Decisions will be made by April 1, 2016.

Lodging and meals will be provided at both workshops; we also expect to be able to cover travel expenses for participants. 

Submission Guidelines:  

Abstracts should be prepared for blind review and approximately 500-750 words. Abstract should also include a separate cover page stating the abstract title, as well as the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and email address. All submissions should be sent to [email protected]. Any questions for the project leaders -- Christina Van Dyke (Calvin College) and Robin Dembroff (Princeton University) -- should be sent to the same address.

More information about the Embodied Religious Experience project--as well as a list of confirmed participants for each workshop--is available at our project website, www.princeton.edu/~ereligion. (This initiative is funded by The Experience Project, a multi-disciplinary research project supported by the John Templeton Foundation. More information about the larger project can be found here: http://the-experience-project.org.)