Southeast Region
Regional director: William Tate, Covenant College william.tate@covenant.edu
2013 Regional Conference
The 2013 meeting of the Southeast Regional Conference on Christianity and Literature—SECCL—will be held at Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, GA, April 11-13, 2013.
SECCL invites the submission of papers exploring the relevance of Christian faith for Twentieth-Century Literature and the relevance of Twentieth-Century Literature for Christian faith. Especially welcome will be papers focused on writers who, beginning in 1992, have been honored with CCL's Lifetime Achievement Award. The list includes poets such as Richard Wilbur, Denise Levertov, and Geoffrey Hill; novelists such as Marilynne Robinson, Frederick Buechner, and John Updike; critics such as Wayne Booth, Paul Ricoeur, and Nathan A. Scott, Jr. A complete list can be found on the Christianity and Literature website at http://www.pepperdine.edu/sponsored/ccl/awardsandcontests/lifetimeachievement.htm
Proposals from undergraduates and proposals for projects exploring other intersections between faith and literature are also welcome. Presenters should be members in good standing with the Conference on Christianity and Literature.
Please send 400-500 word abstracts (preferably via email) to Dr. William Tate. The deadline to submit an abstract is Friday, January 18, 2013. For further information contact Dr. Tate atwilliam.tate@covenant.edu.
2012 Regional Conference
April 12-14, 2012
Anderson University, Anderson, SC
The 2012 Southeast Regional Conference on Christianity and Literature invites the submission of papers that explore interpretations and manifestations of God's Grace in literature, with particular interest in the works of Flannery O'Connor.
Proposals from undergraduates and proposals for projects exploring other intersections between faith and literature are also welcome. Presenters should be members in good standing with the Conference on Christianity and Literature. Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Ralph Wood of Baylor University.
2011 Regional Conference
Faith and the Supernatural
April 7-9, 2011
Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA
“I want you to believe. ... To believe in things that you cannot.”
-- Van Helsing in Bram Stoker’s Dracula
“I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”
--Puddleglum in C.S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair
“Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain.”
--Arthur Weasley in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Throughout history, we have used stories about the supernatural to better understand faith--to better understand what to believe in and what it means to believe.
2010 Southeast Regional Conference
“The Ethics of Literature”
April 8-10, 2010
Montreat College, Montreat, NC
Keynote Speaker: Don King, Ph.D.
About 70 people attended the 2010 regional conference. Nineteen presentations, including four from undergraduate students, were made. Program planners structured most sessions to include two papers and a prepared responder to those presentations. Along with plenary scheduling and large allotment of discussion time, the responder sparked lively, insightful conversation after the papers, according to conference organizers.
The 2011 regional conference will be held at Regent University, Virginia Beach, with Susannah Clements, as host organizer. Anderson University, in Anderson, South Carolina, will host the 2012 meeting.
2009 Southeast Regional Conference
"Hebrew Melodies: The Old Testament as Literature; The Old Testament in Literature"
Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, GA
Keynote Speaker: Scott C. Jones
Eighteen people presented papers at the April 2-4, 2009, conference at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, GA. Scott C. Jones was the key-note speaker. The 2010 regional conference will be held April 8-10 at Montreat College.
Paul Hesselink, Covenant College, program chair
2008 Regional Conference
Christian Humanism in a Postmodern Age
Ralph C. Wood was the keynote speaker of the 2008 annual meeting of the Southeast Region. The conference was held April 10-12 at Wingate University, twenty-five miles east of Charlotte, NC. About 35 people attended at least one session, and approximately 50 heard the keynote address. Seven sessions were conducted in which a total of 23 academic papers were read.
John Sykes, program chair
2007 Southeast Region Conference
Literary Representations of the Politics of Religion: Christian Perspectives
The 2007 regional conference was at Loyola University New Orleans from April 12-14. Nathan Bracher of Texas A&M University was the featured guest speaker.
Peter S. Rogers, S.J., program chair
2006 Southeast Region Conference
Christian Witness in a World of Clashing Cultures
More than 30 people attended the 2006 Southeast Regional Conference at Anderson University in Anderson, South Carolina, from April 6-8. Keynote speaker was Dr. Wesley Kort, Chair of the Department of Religion at Duke University and a C.S. Lewis scholar. The theme was Christian Witness in a World of Clashing Cultures, and papers and sessions examined the literary intersection between Christianity and other cultures and traditions.
Dr. Margaret Wooten, (mwooten@ac.edu.) of Anderson University, chaired the conference.