2nd Biennial Conference on Religion and American Culture

Paul Harvey

The following conference announcement comes to us from Phil Goff, Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture in Indianapolis. The first Biennial Conference was hosted in Indianapolis in the summer of 2009; click here for our contributor Linford Fisher's report from that conference, and click here for the full conference proceedings from 2009. Full schedule and registration/hotel information for this conference in the first weekend of June is below. I'm looking forward to it already.

Second Biennial Conference on Religion and American Culture
Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture
Indianapolis, Indiana
June 2-5, 2011

We are pleased to announce the Second Biennial Conference on Religion and
American Culture, to be held at the new J.W. Marriott in downtown
Indianapolis, June 2 through June 5. The theme for this meeting is "change,"
focusing both on changes in religion in North America over time and changes
in how we understand the topic. Scholars from multiple perspectives will
serve on multidisciplinary panels. The conference schedule is given below.

Like the conference in 2009, the room will be set up in a circle with
audience members on risers around the central round table. This set-up
promotes more participation from the audience and deeper conversation among
the panelists and those surrounding them. The hotel is again conveniently
located in downtown Indianapolis among restaurants, museums, and public
parks - all very conducive to continuing conversations begun in sessions.

Thanks to a grant from Lilly Endowment, we have reserved a block of rooms at
the J.W. Marriott at the special rate of $74.50 per night. Once those rooms
have sold out, rooms will be $149, so please be sure to reserve your room
right away. Early registration rates are available until May 5. To reserve
your room, register for the conference, or print a copy of the schedule,
please go to www.iupui.edu/~raac/<http://www.iupui.edu/~raac/>. (Note: the
special hotel rate of $74.50 will not appear on the screen but will be
billed correctly.)

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Thursday, June 2

Arrival and Registration
Opening Reception

Friday, June 3

PART A: CHANGING WHAT "RELIGION" MEANS
"What are our academic assumptions about religion?"
Panelists: Penny Edgell (Sociology, University of Minnesota)
Robert Orsi (Religious Studies, Northwestern University)
Ann Taves (Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara)

"Revisiting the secularity/secularization question"
Panelists: Tracy Fessenden (Religious Studies, Arizona State University)
Paul Froese (Sociology, Baylor University)
Rhys Williams (Sociology, Loyola University Chicago)

PART B: CHANGING RELIGION IN A CHANGING CULTURE

"Religion's role in political identity"
Panelists: Edward Curtis (Religious Studies, Indiana University -
Purdue University Indianapolis)
Paul Djupe (Political Science, Denison University)
Clyde Wilcox (Government, Georgetown University)

"Religion's role in immigration and globalization"
Panelists: Gerardo Marti (Sociology, Davidson College)
Timothy Matovina (Theology, University of Notre Dame)
Fenggang Yang (Sociology, Purdue University)

Saturday, June 4

"Religion's role in personal identity"
Panelists: Sylvester Johnson (Religious Studies, Indiana
University-Bloomington)
Sally Gallagher (Sociology, Oregon State University)
Laurie Maffly-Kipp (Religious Studies, University of North
Carolina)

"Market models for understanding religion"
Panelists: Roger Finke (Sociology, Pennsylvania State University)
James Hudnut-Beumler (Vanderbilt Divinity School)
Kathryn Lofton (American Studies and Religious Studies,
Yale University)

PART C: CHANGES IN THE FUTURE, REAL AND IMAGINED
"Changes in the understanding and uses of scripture"
Panelists: Charles Cohen (History and Religious Studies, University of
Wisconsin)
Kathleen Flake (Vanderbilt Divinity School)
Charles Hambrick-Stowe (First Congregational Church, Ridgefield,
CT)

"The future of religion in America"
Panelists: David Daniels (Church History, McCormick Theological Seminary)
Mark Silk (Religion, Trinity College)
Julie Byrne (Religion, Hofstra University)

Concluding reception