[csaa-forum] cfp: Grounding the Sacred through Literature and the Arts Conference

[Andrew Hickey]

Grounding the Sacred through Literature and the Arts Conference
Thursday 23 July – Sunday 26 July 2015 inclusive
Australian Catholic University, 25A Barker Road, Strathfield NSW 2135, Australia

Grounding the Sacred is the third and most ambitious in a series of conferences presented by The Sacred in Literature and the Arts (SLA), a community of interest that brings Australian and international writers, artists, musicians, academics, religious and members of the general public together to discuss the interplay between the arts and the sacred.


Call for Papers and Presentations

‘The sacred’ is a term we often use when we want to talk about God, about worship, and about the mystery that defies naming but which has the power to transform our understanding of life.

The Grounding the Sacred conference asks how literature and the arts can make the sacred tangible: are they a conduit between the divine and the everyday, a means of enabling us to touch the sacred?  Do the arts offer a way of structuring – earthing – our experiences of the sacred?  Do they provide a common ground for people of different faiths – or maybe none – to explore the ineffable?  And where does creativity sit in relation to religion and the search for meaning?  Are a sense of the sacred and the means to express it essential for human flourishing?

Abstracts of 250 words are invited for 20-minute papers and presentations that address the conference theme.  They may be from artists talking about their work as it expresses the sacred; from researchers seeking to explain the relationship between creativity, religion and well-being; and from interpreters bringing to light the sacred dimensions of pre-existing creative works.  Abstracts should be sent to Elaine Lindsay at SLAConference at acu.edu.au<mailto:SLAConference at acu.edu.au> by 27 February 2015, using the subject header ‘SLA 2015 abstract’.  Submissions should include the author’s name, affiliation, email address, title of abstract, body of abstract, and a short biography.  Acceptances should be advised by 10 April 2015.

Selected conference contributors may be invited to expand upon their work for a special 2016 Australian edition of the Oxford journal Literature and Theology, http://litthe.oxfordjournals.org/ which will be edited by Michael Griffith and Elaine Lindsay.  Presenters who wish to have their work considered for inclusion should forward their full papers to SLAConference at acu.edu.au<mailto:SLAConference at acu.edu.au> by 13 March 2015, using the subject header ‘L&T 2016 paper’.  Please follow the journal’s instructions on formatting, to be found on its website.


The Conference

Invited conference presenters include Professor David Jasper (Glasgow University), Professor Thaddeus Metz (University of Johannesburg), writers Kevin Hart, Carmel Bird, Michael McGirr and David Malouf, Warmun artist Shirley Purdie and recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey.  Professor Kathleen Deignan (Iona Spirituality Institute) will appear via Skype.

Conference details, including registration, are updated regularly on http://www.acu.edu.au/groundingthesacred.  Inquiries can also be directed to the conveners, Associate Professor Michael Griffith (Michael.griffith at acu.edu.au<mailto:Michael.griffith at acu.edu.au>) and Dr Elaine Lindsay (Elaine.lindsay at acu.edu.au<mailto:Elaine.lindsay at acu.edu.au>), Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University.  Grounding the Sacred is part of ACU’s 25th anniversary celebrations in 2015 and is supported by a generous grant from the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.


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