Schedule
4:00-5:00 p.m.: Panel Session III
H.) Ancient and Modern Religion and Sexuality, HL 205
Respondent and Chair: Prof. Virginia Burrus (Syracuse U)
Nina Rondon (Syracuse U) “Woman: to a new understanding of religion”
Carolyn Beard (Princeton U) “Warning to the wise: revisiting the women of Proverbs
31 through the eyes of the intended readership”
I.) Transcendental Philosophy and Religion, HL 215
Respondent and Chair: Prof. Vincent Lloyd (Syracuse U)
Alex Enescu (Concordia U) “The silent mystic: Wittgenstein's critique of
transcendental discourse”
David Johnson (Ithaca College) “Philosophy as autobiography: Emerson as a religious
philosopher”
Andrew Bock (W Virginia U) “Waking up from the dreaming argument: a
nondualistic, nonsubstantial ontological answer to Cartesian skepticism”
J.) Film, Pop Culture, and Religion, HL 202
Respondent and Chair: Prof. M. Gail Hamner (Syracuse U)
Jennifer Pike (Ithaca College) “The Rocky Horror Picture Show and religion”
Wesley Kimball (Concordia College) “Not all terrorists are created evil: an analysis of
the portrayal of terrorists in modern films”
Patrick Maroun (Fordham U) “The popular theological: Mumford & Sons, service,
and love”
Undergraduate
Conference
on Religion and
Culture
5:00-6:00 p.m.: Closing Reception with Snacks, HL 214
28 March 2015
Saturday
Syracuse University
Hall of Languages
Schedule
10:00-10:50 a.m.: Registration and Coffee, HL 214
11:00-12:00 p.m.: Keynote Address, HL 207
Prof. S. Brent Plate (Hamilton College) “A history of religion in 5 1/2 objects: Why
bodies matter more than belief”
12:00-1:00 p.m.: Lunch and Professionalization Workshop, HL 214
with Prof. James Watts (Syracuse U)
1:00-2:15 p.m.: Panel Session I
A.) Buddhism, HL 205
Respondent and Chair: Sara Swenson (Syracuse U)
Shuyuan Chen (Syracuse U) “The sexual transformation of Kuan-yin in China”
Danny Bowman (Skidmore College), “Dogen’s Soto Zen: A radical interpretation of
traditional Mahayana Buddhist thought”
Ryan Schwartz (Skidmore College), “Nishitani and the problem of representation:
isolation on the field of consciousness”
Gabriel Lefferts (Ithaca College), “Seeking Buddhism in American spirituality”
B.) Pluralism & Interreligious Dialogue, HL 211
Respondent and Chair: Prof. Joanne Punzo Waghorne (Syracuse U)
Leslie Bellwood (Concordia College) “Doctors and diversity: using interfaith literacy
and interfaith dialogue to improve patient care”
Alyssa Gilbert (U North Florida) “Religious pluralism, discourse, and
governmentality”
Joshua Sandford (Syracuse U) “An interfaith dialogue with Buddhism”
Erin Gardosh (Ithaca College) “Inter-religious dialogue: communication within the
eternal present”
C.) Institutions and Religion, HL 215
Respondent and Chair: Prof. James Watts (Syracuse U)
Taylor Turnbull (U South Carolina) “Religion as an exciting cause for insanity in the
American south”
Gayle Eanes (U North Florida) “Cherokee of Georgia tribal grounds powwow”
Jared Teschner (DePaul U) “Recovering histories with the Gospel of Judas: evidence
for the reanalysis of formative Christianity”
Schedule
2:30-3:45 p.m.: Panel Session II
D.) South Asian Materiality and Religion, HL 205
Respondent and Chair: Dan Cheifer (Syracuse U)
Marissa McFadden (U Vermont) “Gender in the age of contemporary India:
masculinity, feminity and law”
Clarissa Pulley (Austin Paey State U) “Jaina liberation: the starvation of the
feminine”
Sherryn Vykunthanathan (U Toronto) “Identifying constructions of masculinity and
the modes of articulation within the modern Hindutva movement”
Corey Purcell (Skidmore College) “First, do no harm: developing a religious
encironmental ethic among lay Jains”
E.) Religion and Politics, HL 211
Respondent and Chair: Prof. Vincent Lloyd (Syracuse U)
Anna Boadwee (George Washington U) “KDU-CSL in the Czech Republic:
historical development to current platform”
Brittany Griffith (Alleghany College) “Onward, Christian soldiers”
Annabel Zinn (Alleghany College) “American Protestantism and commercial culture:
friends, enemies or both?”
F.) Medieval Religion and Philosophy, HL 215
Respondent and Chair: Prof. James Watts (Syracuse U)
Hannah Musgrove (Texas A&M) “Maiden of many names: an analysis of the breast
feeding Madonna”
Margaret Slaughter (U Toronto) “Seeing poverty: the living icon of the thirteenth
century”
Albert Kohn (Albert List College, Jewish Theological Seminary) “Essentialism of
being a rationalist or a mystic: a comparison of the thought of Maimonides and
the Zohar”
Robert Revzin (Hunter College) “Critical thinking in modern education: an AlGhazali interpretation”
G.) Religion & Literature, HL 202
Respondent and Chair: Prof. M. Gail Hamner (Syracuse U)
Benjamin Shannon (SUNY Purchase) “Perceptions of God in Faulkner”
Blake Taylor (Syracuse U) “Mirroring: the reflection of social norms”
Amelia Livingston (Vassar College) “Harry Potter and the modern mundane: how J.
K. Rowling re-enchanted secular muggledom”
John Peel (Seton Hall U) “Claudius’ religious conflict in Hamlet”