Conferences and Announcements
Check here to find news and announcements relating to CCL and CCL members. Also listed here will be information about conferences, calls for papers, and other happenings that may be of interest to anyone exploring various themes in Christianity and literature.
CCL Elections
New officers and directors have been elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Conference on Christianity and Literature. They are:
• President: Harold K. Bush, Saint Louis University
• Treasurer: Lisa Siefker Bailey, Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus
• Director at Large: J. Robert Baker, Fairmont State University
• Northeast Director: Mary-Anne Vetterling, Regis College
• South-Central Director: Claudia Champagne, Our Lady of Holy Cross College (re-elected to second term)
All terms begin January 1, 2010. The President and Treasurer are elected to two-year terms, and the regional directors are elected to three-year terms.
Mideast 2010 Regional Conference
Pilgrims in Place
March 11-13, 2010
Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania
Deadline for proposals extended to Nov. 16, 2009
The 2010 Mideast Regional Conference on Christianity and Literature will explore intersections between Christianity, literature, and notions of pilgrimage and place—particularly the seeming tension between the necessary discipline of place that Wendell Berry writes about and the equally compelling disposition of Gabriel Marcel’s homo viator or Walker Percy’s castaway (among many others). G.K. Chesterton’s concern with cultivating a proper kind of exile, which he termed “homelessness at home,” may also illuminate our discussions. Stories of return, penitential or existential journeys, liturgical processions, ventures of immigration or emigration, the involuntary exile of the refugee, the ethic of hospitality, “lighting out for the territory”—all of these might prove fruitful as well.
This conference will include traditional panels by faculty and undergraduate student panels with faculty moderators. Proposals for panels, roundtables, or individual twenty-minute presentations are invited. Send 300-word abstracts or panel proposals by November 16, 2009, to H. Collin Messer, English Department, Grove City College, 100 Campus Drive, Grove City, PA 16127 or hcmesser@gcc.edu.
For more details about the conference and the call for papers please visit the conference website: www2.gcc.edu/dept/engl/CCLmideast2010.
Northeast Regional 2010 Conference
Christianity and the Detective Story
March 5-7, 2010
Pace University, New York, NY
Featured Speaker: Ralph McInerny
Ralph McInerny, author of the Father Dowling Mysteries, will be the featured speaker at the Northeast Regional meeting. Presentations will be made on the topic of "Christianity and the Detective Story" and other topics related to Christianity and literature. For more information, contact Dr. Walter Raubicheck, Chair/English at Pace University, 41 Park Row, New York, NY 10038, or by email at wraubicheck@pace.edu.
For more information, click here to download a copy of the conference flyer.
West 2010 Regional Conference
“Thicker than Water?”: The Family in Literature and Culture
March 25-27, 2010
California Baptist University, Riverside, CA
Keynote Speakers: Gary Schmidt, Diana Pavlac
“You don’t choose your family,” says Desmond Tutu. “They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.” Indeed, one of the primary metaphors for the church is as the family of Christ; the use of such terms as “Father,” Son,” “bride” and “children of God” permeate the New Testament. Writers from Sidney to Dostoevsky to C. S. Lewis have made the family a central element of their fiction, and metaphors for the family often manifest in pop culture. Politicians run on “family values” platforms, and “family-friendly” films often seek endorsements from religious communities, but is the concept of family still relevant in a post-modern, post-Christian world? Is our family a gift, a “haven in a heartless world” (attributed to Christopher Lasch), or has that concept become outdated or limited?
The 2010 Western regional conference welcomes proposals for panels, roundtable, or individual twenty-minute presentations that address the shifting definitions and nature of “family” in the context of Christianity, literature, technology/society, etc. Please send 350-word proposals by January 10, 2010, to cclwestregion@gmail.com or by regular post (CCL 2010, c/o Modern Languages and Literature Department, California Baptist University, 8432 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, CA 92504; Attn: Laura Veltman).
Please click here for a detailed Call for Papers. A website including registration information for potential attendees is pending. Please visit our Facebook page (Conference on Christianity and Literature - West Region), as well.
Southeast 2010 Regional Conference
“The Ethics of Literature”
April 8-10, 2010
Montreat College, Montreat, NC
Keynote Speaker: Don King
In recent years, literary scholarship has been increasingly concerned with ethics, both as a theme in literature and as an approach to it. Where and how do ethical concerns interrelate with literature, literary scholarship, and the academy?
Papers suitable for a twenty-minute presentation [approx. 2,000-2,500 words] are invited on the following or related topics:
- The ethics of literary pedagogy
- The ethical nature and needs of the academy
- Literature and socio-political ethics
- Religious ethics in literature
We also welcome papers on other topics regarding the intersection of Christianity and literature. Send 250- to 500-word abstract AND a complete manuscript (MSWord or PDF electronic submissions only) by Dec. 15, 2009, to mdtowles@liberty.edu.
Or send hard copies to Dr. Matthew Towles, Assistant Professor of English, English Department, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA 24502.
Southwest 2010 Regional Conference
Christian Literary Values and the Changing Print Culture
Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2010
Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City
Guest Speaker: Dana Gioia
In his essay “Disappearing Ink,” Dana Gioia identifies poetry as one of humanity’s “essential spiritual resources” for a time when the printed text faces strong competition from other media. Following the tradition of Christian writers, critics, and readers who have contemplated the spiritual value of works in all literary genres, the conference will explore the continuing role of literature as an essential spiritual resource.
This CCL regional conference is being held in cooperation with Oklahoma Christian University’s McBride Center for Faith and Literature. A call for papers is forthcoming.
Address inquiries to the Program Chair: Merle Gatewood, Department of Language and Literature, Oklahoma Christian University, Box 11000, Oklahoma City, OK 73136-1100, merle.gatewood@oc.edu.
Festival of Faith and Writing
Call For Academic Sessions
April 15-17, 2010
Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Sponsored by the English Department at Calvin College, the Festival of Faith and Writing celebrates and encourages serious imaginative writing by Christians from all denominations and welcomes other writers whose work is informed by—or responds to—various faith traditions. At the Festival, a community of readers and writers gathers for three days of celebration and conversation about the many connections between faith and writing.
For more information, please visit the Festival website, http://www.calvin.edu/academic/engl/festival/conference/papers.php.CCL Sessions at MLA Convention
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
December 27-30, 2009
The Modern Language Association has released a schedule for the CCL sessions during the 2009 conference.
Monday, Dec. 28, 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.
"A Reading by Dana Gioia,"
Paul Contino presiding
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 12 p.m.
CCL Luncheon, Capital Grille, 1338 Chestnut St.
Lifetime achievement awards will be presented to Dana Gioia (in person) and to Geoffrey Hill (in absentia). Other CCL awards will also be announced at the luncheon.
Wednesday, Dec. 30, 1:45 to 3 p.m.
"Faith and Fable in the Poetry of Geoffrey Hill,"
Roundtable discussion, Emily Merriman presiding
More information about the 2009 MLA meeting.
Travel Grants
CCL offers grants to help cover travel expenses to scholars and writers and who are members of the Conference on Christianity and Literature and need financial support to help cover travel needed to support research and writing. Applications for grants to be awarded for 2011 are due by September 1, 2010. More details and applications on the Scholar Travel Grant Page.
CCL is also offering graduate-student members travel grants of up to $500 to meet travel expenses and registration fees for regional CCL meetings and the annual meeting of CCL at the MLA convention. More details are on the Graduate Student Grant page.
Information about all CCL regional organizations
Questions to Tammy Ditmore (tammy.ditmore@pepperdine.edu)