Spring 2019 Undergrad Religion Symposium: Call For Papers

Calling all Undergrads!

Students Organized for Religious and Cultural Exploration (SORCE)—a.k.a. the "Religion Club"—announces the Seventh Undergraduate Student Religion Symposium, Saturday, April 13, 2019 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., location to be determined. Coffee, lunch, and refreshments will be provided. This year’s theme is “Embodying Religion.” Our deadline for proposal submissions is Friday, February 22 at 11:59 p.m.

Conference Theme

This conference explores the use of, ideas about, and dynamics centered on bodies in religious thought and practice across time and space. We aim to explore religion beyond its purely textual expressions, although texts about or created with reference to embodied realities and practices are of interest. Other related topics include asceticism, conflict, dance, disability, ecology, feminism, food, gender, health and healing, human rights, illness, labor, moral and/or political theology, music, narratives, performance, pilgrimage, race, ritual, religious spaces, reproduction, sacred geography, sexuality, stigmas and stereotypes, slavery, social movements, spirituality, and violence. Other topics related in some way to or bearing on embodiment are also welcome.

We seek paper, poster, and brief video documentary submissions from students interested in participating. Presentations will be ten-minutes in length (for papers, roughly five double-spaced pages in twelve-point Times New Roman font with one-inch margins on all sides). We welcome posters and ten-minute film documentaries or excerpts as well. Students may present on work, including final projects, that they have done for a current or previous religion-related course at FSU, a directed independent study (DIS), honors-in-the major thesis, or independent research or service-learning project. If you have presented at a previous religion symposium, we encourage you to apply again with a new proposal!

Submission Deadlines

Please submit your proposals to Emily Weiss, president of SORCE, at esw17c@fsu.edu, with the following information by Friday, February 22, at 11:59 p.m.:

  1. a clear thesis statement 
  2. an abstract of 150-300 words summarizing the paper, poster, or brief film's content
  3. clear references in your proposal to the theme of the conference as discussed above.

If we select your proposal for presentation, we will ask you to participate in a workshop for writing, editing, and presenting student research scheduled for Thursday, March 7 at a time and location to be announced. The workshop will give presenters an opportunity to develop their work and practice presenting prior to the event.

Even if you have yet to complete your paper or related research, we encourage you to apply, as long as you will have five pages/ten minutes of material to present by Saturday, April 13.

Full copies of your presentations are due for final review by Friday, March 29, at 11:59 p.m.

Thank you, and we look forward to receiving your submissions!