2023 Call for Papers and Creative Submissions Now Closed

Earth's Lamentation: Ecological Grief and the Paradox of Hope

The 7th Annual Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology has opened its Call for Papers and Creative/Artistic Submissions. Submissions for papers and creative/artistic works are due November 30, 2022. The conference will be held on March 3, 2023.

The theme of this year's conference, "Earth's Lamentation: Ecological Grief and the Paradox of Hope," invites participants to consider the necessity of lamentation and the complexity of hope in the face of climate change. We are seeking submissions from graduate students that might address topics such as, but not limited to:

• How we can or should lament with the Earth as individuals and religious communities; how we can learn from, share in, and support diverse forms or traditions of grieving

• The dual nature of Earth's grief (the dual pain of ecosystems and individuals from 1. human-imposed crises and 2. being forgotten or forsaken in this pain)

• What it means for us to be both perpetrators and victims of ecological crisis at the same time (and who is included in "us")

• Over-reliance on myths of resilience (ecological, individual, community)

• Problems with deluded, "greenwashed," toxically positive, self-serving, and/or colonized hope; if (or how) religious traditions promote these false hopes

• If (or how) radical hope can still be claimed in particular (religious and nonreligious) communities in the face of Earth's great ecological grief

• The intersectional nature of grief: how the ecological crisis is mirrored and compounded by social, political, and economic crises related to race, class, gender, sexuality, etc.

As in years past, we will be accepting proposals for academic presentations related to this theme. Each accepted presenter will be invited to attend the conference in-person for a presentation and Q&A session. We are happy to work with virtual presenters if travel will be a barrier to your participation.

For the first time, the Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology is also pleased to accept creative and artistic submissions. The climate crisis is personal in its impact and complex in its solutions, and we are excited to welcome all ways of knowing and engaging.

We encourage you to submit creative expressions relating to this year’s theme, including written word (e.g. poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction), spoken word, musical compositions, two-dimensional visual art (e.g. photography, painting, drawing, collages), and short video submissions. Accepted submissions will be posted on the conference website and, as format and resources permit, displayed or performed physically at the conference venue.

We encourage written submissions up to 3 pages in length and video or recording submissions up to 5 minutes in length but are open to accepting exemplary longer works. (Please note this change from our original call for submissions.) Submissions should be .PDF, .PNG, .JPG, .DOC, .DOCX, .MP4, .MOV, or .MP3 files. If you have any questions or an idea for a submission that doesn’t fit into our categories, please contact anna.lenaker@yale.edu, our Creative and Artistic Coordinator.

Please limit your submissions to one presentation proposal and/or two artistic proposals. We encourage submissions from graduate students globally. Project proposals are due by midnight EST on November 30, 2022.

Please submit your paper proposal or creative project here: https://cglink.me/2dA/s79448