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Graduate Student Conference 2020

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Religion Graduate Student Conference will be held over the course of two days: February 21-22, 2020

We will have the following events on the first day of the conference (Friday, February 21, 2020)

  1. Movie Screening, “Yemanja Wisdom from the African Heart of Brazil”  at 2:30 pm in McCarty B G086, UF.
  2. Keynote Address by Dr. Leah Sarat at 4:00 pm at McCarty B G086, UF.

Title: ‘Welcoming the Stranger’ on Occupied Land: Migration, Metaphor, and the Decolonial Challenge to Faith-based Border Activism”

Abstract: Drawing upon her research on immigrant detention in addition to nine years of experience navigating the borders between academic, activist, and faith-based spaces in Arizona, Sarat will examine contemporary Christian responses to immigration in the United States against a broader historical backdrop of colonization and incarceration in the Americas—and ask how attention to this history, along with attention to changing trends in global migration, might spur deeper reflection on the metaphors commonly embraced within faith-based immigrant-welcoming spaces today.

Leah Sarat’s work explores the intersection of religion and migration in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, with special attention to ways in which people draw upon religion to formulate notions of belonging and confront the physical, emotional, and psychological challenges of the migration experience. Sarat received her doctorate in religion in the Americas from the University of Florida and joined the religious studies faculty at Arizona State University in 2010. Her book, “Fire in the Canyon: Religion, Migration, and the Mexican Dream” (New York University Press, 2013) centers on the relationship between migration, Pentecostalism, and tourism in an indigenous community in central Mexico that has created an innovative U.S.-Mexico border crossing simulation for tourists.
We will have 16 paper presentations in Dauer Hall 215, UF on the second day (Saturday, February 22, 2020).

8:15 – 8:45 | Coffee/Breakfast

Session 1 | Social and Environmental Justice I | Chair: TBD

9:00 – 9:15 | Carol Rodriguez
Ahimsa and Ecology: How Jain Concepts of Karma, Rebirth and Nature relate to the Development of a Planetary Ethic

9:15 – 9:30 | Thelma Ranjitsingh
Building a Movement for Economic Equality

9:30 – 9:45 | Sarah Nahar
Blocking Harm, Building Alternatives, Being Aligned: Buddhist Peace Fellowship’s Spiritual-Political Framework

9:45 – 10:00 | Kimi Floyd Reisch
Beloved and Loved: The Reclamation of Faith as a Tool for Protest and Engagement by Transgender, Non-binary, Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, and Queer, Black and Indigenous Activists

10:00 – 10:20 | Discussions

10:20 am – 10:40 am | Break

Session 2 | Social and Environmental Justice II | Chair: Dr. Leah Sarat

10:40 – 10:55 | Victoria Machado
Art&Spiritual Expression in the Quest for Clean Water

10: 55 – 11:10 | Amelia Anderson
Areítos through the Ages: Taíno Religion and Resistance from 1492 to Today

11:10 – 11:25 | Sam Carwyn
White Savior Complex in Social Justice Work

11:25 – 11:40 | Julio César Díaz Calderón
JuanGa/Aguilera Moves through/in the Mexican Border(lands): Sexuality, Sovereignty, and Religiosity

11:40 – 12:00 | Discussions

12:00 – 13:00 | Lunch | Anderson 117, UF

Session 3 | Art and Media | Chair: TBD

13:00 – 13:15 | Kelly Kelly
Media Coverage and the Process of Framing: The Meditation Movement from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to Deepak Chopra

13:15 – 13:30 | Diane Chidimma Ezeh Aruah
“God himself removed it”. Exploring Healer’s Communication Patterns, Patients’ Testimonials and Viewers’ Responses to Spiritual Healing Videos on YouTube: A Case Study of Emmanuel TV Channel

13:30 – 13:45 | Nicolas Austin
‘Co-Creators with Him’: The Catholic Worker, Prayer, and Personalism

13:45 – 14:00 | John MacDonald
Ethics as First Philosophy and First Religion in The TV Series “Good Omens:” With Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Deleuze

14:00 – 14:20 | Discussions

14:20 – 14:40 | Break

Session 4 | Protest and Spirituality | Chair: TBD

14:40 – 14:55 | Liz Ibarrola
Activism and Religion: Intersections in Local Immigrant Justice Initiatives

14:55 – 15:10 | Jonathan Brenneman
The Spiritual Practice of Social Activism: What Nonviolent Direct Action has to offer to Christianity

15:10 – 15:25 | Sarah Fisher
The Right to Remain Silent: An Explication of Silent Protests

15:25 – 15:40 | Francesco Bianco
Race to the Altar: Christian Counter-Framings of Latinidad at the Intersection of Activism and Spirituality

15:40 – 16:00 | Discussions

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