COV&R-Bulletin No. 15 (Oct. 1998)
Future Meetings
COV&R MEETING IN ORLANDO. Saturday, November 21, 1998, 9:30 a.m.-12 noon.
Annual brief meeting in conjunction with the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature (AAR/SBL).
Place : Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel, Room Oceanic 4
Theme : Fieldwork in Sacred Violence: Applying Girard outside the Academy
Papers:
'Standing with the Scapegoat: Post-Sacrificial Possibilities through Prayer and Social Action' Fred Boehrer, Catholic Worker Community, Albany, NY
'I Preach Christ Crucified: Girard in Pulpit and Parish'
Paul Bellan-Boyer, All Nations Lutheran Church, Jersey City, NJ
Respondents: Rusty Palmer, Thee Smith, Walter Wink
Announcement of the 8th International Symposium of the Colloquium on Violence & Religion June 3-5, 1999
CALL FOR PAPERS / REQUEST FOR PRACTICUMS
Violence Reduction in Theory & Practice: From Primates to Nations
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA June 3-5, 1999
All the traditions are worn out, all the creeds abolished; but the new program is not yet ready . . . This is the cruelest moment in the life of societies. Pierre Joseph Proudhon
The moral arm of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Martin Luther King, Jr.
COV&R members and other interested scholars/practitioners are encouraged to submit either (1) papers or (2) proposals for practicums (or a combination of both), for presentation at the next annual meeting in Atlanta, June 3-5, 1998. Hosted by Emory University, the conference is designed to explore the theme, "Violence Reduction in Theory & Practice: From Primates to Nations". That theme reflects the rich resources available at Emory and elsewhere in Atlanta in the area of (a) violence studies and (b) violence reduction practices; hence the dual emphasis on theory and practice.
Emory resources range along a spectrum. At one end of the spectrum are found primate studies in animal conflict resolution conducted at the Yerkes Primate Center. At the other end is the international conflict resolution program of the Carter Center (also associated with Emory). Hence the conference offers a rare opportunity for an inclusive framework: "from primates to nations". Along that spectrum we find other valuable theory/practice resources at Emory and in Atlanta, such as the Violence Studies Minor in the Emory College curriculum, the Consortium on Negotiation & Conflict Resolution (CNCR) comprising other universities in the area, and not least Atlanta's diverse activist communities including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
Presenters of papers and practicums are invited to contribute to, or provide critical counterpoints for, the conference hypothesis: that a convergence of violence reduction theory and practice already exists that can significantly ameliorate the still epidemic levels of violence occurring in the world today. By hypothesis: It only remains to correlate and synthesize the already available theories and practices of violence reduction, ranging from primate studies to international affairs, in order to garner for the next millennium the most promising resources for fostering violence-free societies in the future.
COV&R members in particular, in addition to other scholars/practitioners familiar with the work of René Girard, are strongly urged to address the conference theme with close attention to "the mimetic model of the relationship between violence and religion in the genesis and maintenance of culture" (The COV&R Bulletin). Other scholars/practitioners are warmly encouraged to submit papers and practicum proposals that will make available a repertory of best resources for violence reduction theory and practice for the next millennium. COV&R welcomes presentations within and across all disciplines including: literary criticism and aesthetics, political science, economics, social ethics, biblical theology, systematic theology and philosophy, psychology and psychiatry, gender studies, education, social practices and performance theory/practice, anthropology, and religious studies.
The conference format will permit only brief synopses of papers, and only sample presentations of practicums, in order to allow maximal time for audience response and participant review of the presentations. Papers and practicum proposals are solicited that will best facilitate that format, which aims to advance the overarching goal of the conference: correlating and synthesizing prospective resources for envisioning and creating a violence-free future.
Deadline : January 15, 1998
Addresses:
Prof. Thee Smith Department of Religion, Callaway Center,
Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Tel. (404) 727-0636 FAX: (404) 727-7597
E-mail: relths@emory.edu
Dr. Fred Smith Interfaith Health Program, The Carter Center,
One Copenhill, Atlanta, GA 30307, USA
Tel. (404) 420-3847 FAX: (404) 420-5158
E-mail: fsmith@emory.edu
