CREATION & PRESERVATION
The 9th Annual Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology has opened its Call for Submissions. Submissions for papers and creative/artistic works are due December 1, 2024. The conference will be held in-person on February 21, 2025 in New Haven, CT. We encourage submissions from graduate students globally and related to any spiritual or religious tradition.
The theme of this year's conference is "Creation & Preservation."
By creation we mean many things: the land, Turtle Island, erets (הארץ), the cosmos, the Word, the biosphere, the environment. But also, creativity, art, and innovation. Creation hangs in juxtaposition to preservation, though the two are deeply entangled. We understand preservation as conservation, absolutely: how do we keep the ravages of climate change from destroying landscapes and ecosystems; how do we manage land and agriculture; how do we relate human life to the more-than-human world? But in its desire to keep things the same, the theme of preservation must also acknowledge the element of time. We can see it not just as an effort to halt progress, but as sustenance, life in its constant flux, the living love of transient things which brings about the need to steward.
How are human theologies or cosmologies related to the land on which we live? What views and methods allow us to relate wisely and compassionately to interdependent life systems? How are we called to steward land (or not), on a practical, religious, or artistic level? What are other ways that creation and creativity sustain our land and our relationships to it? What are the implications of preservation and conservation, as opposed to or hand in hand with innovation?
What can I submit?
Papers & Artistic Submissions: We encourage you to submit creative works relating to this year's theme, including written word (e.g. poetry, traditional papers, fiction, creative nonfiction), musical compositions, two-dimensional visual art (e.g. photography, painting, drawing, collages), performance proposals, participatory workshops, and videos, among other things.
Accepted submissions will be presented or performed at the conference, or displayed in a pop-up gallery for conference attendees to peruse throughout the day.
All accepted presenters and performers will be invited to attend the conference in person or online. Those who submit artistic works for the gallery are welcome, but not required, to attend the conference.
Theme Inspiration:
We are seeking submissions from graduate students that might address topics such as, but not limited to:
- Histories, theologies, cosmologies of human relationships with the more-than-human world
- Philosophies and practices of conservation of land and natural resources, from ancient to modern
- Stewardship and land management, from sustainable logging to rewilding
- Creativity and art in understanding the role of the human in nature