For Every Time, a Season

Eighth Annual Braniff Conference in the Liberal Arts 

For Every Time, a Season 

Braniff Graduate School of Liberal Arts 

University of Dallas, Irving, TX 

March 4-5, 2022 

Plenary Speaker: Jonathan J. Sanford, University of Dallas 

Keynote Speaker: Andrew Willard Jones, Franciscan University of Steubenville 

The Braniff Graduate Student Association is pleased to announce the 8th annual Braniff  Conference in the Liberal Arts, focusing on the relationship between seasons and the human  person. As the world rediscovers and refreshes its sense of rhythm and routine, this timely theme  facilitates inquiry into the myriad of ways the human experience is marked by the passage of  seasons. In searching for a narrative order to the human story, countless thinkers have charted the  progress of consecutive epochs. From the frame of the Triduum in Dante’s Inferno to the gentle  variations in Monet’s “Haystacks”, seasonal changes have inspired artistic visionaries in every  age. In the world of practical applications, seasons demand preparation and foresight but also  foster conviviality and innovation, from the management of a harvest to the oversight of public  festivities. And interpersonal relationships go through “seasons” of closeness and distance, all of  which are marked by a kind of finitude and hope for regeneration. 

We invite papers from all disciplines which deepen our collective appreciation of and  understanding for the seasonality of the human experience. Preference will be given to those  working in the liberal arts disciplines including—but not limited to—philosophy, literature,  politics, theology, history, psychology, and the fine arts, and drawing from the classical,  medieval, modern, or contemporary periods. The conference committee will invite select  presenters to submit their essays to Ramify: The Journal of the Braniff Graduate School of the  Liberal Arts. 

The conference will take place at the University of Dallas in Irving, TX, in full cooperation with the University’s COVID safety policies.