Call for Papers_Bridges and Boundaries: Religious Diversities in the 21st Century Classroom
Toronto, ON – January 12-14, 2025
Interreligious teaching and learning is happening both in classrooms (including in professional schools with a secular mission and in theological schools founded in a sectarian traditions), as well as outside of classroom contexts in social movements and activism circles. This conference investigates important
questions that are related to interreligious teaching and learning both in and outside of classrooms. For example, what wise practices for bridging different identities and contexts have emerged in interreligious contexts? What boundaries remain important to observe, and what boundaries can be redefined? How do we practice interreligious teaching and learning in ways that promote social justice? We invite proposals that discuss teaching amid religious diversities on topics including:
- defining interreligious, multireligious, or interfaith pedagogy
- trauma-informed approaches
- race and racialization
- decolonizing interfaith pedagogies
- secular-religious dynamics
- categories such as “religion,” “theology,” “culture,” and “vocation”
- intersectional identities and encounters
- power and privilege
- tradition-specific perspectives on interfaith teaching
We welcome papers that present case studies, qualitative research, and/or literature-based research. We also welcome collaborative work, particularly between professors/staff and students, in a variety of formats. We also welcome presentations by educators in other settings.
In your proposal, please identify the format you are proposing:
- a traditional (20 minute) paper by either a single scholar or a pair of scholars,
- a collaborative session (90 minute) proposed by a group of three or four scholars, such as a
workshop, artistic presentation, or other praxis-based engagement with the theme;
collaborative sessions should model collaborative inquiries and pedagogies. - a poster presenting emerging research, research in progress, or current practices and programs.
Please also indicate whether you would be willing to be considered for another format if space does not permit your preferred format. Your proposal should include a 250-word abstract and a 100-word bio for each presenter.
This symposium is jointly sponsored by Emmanuel College in celebration of its multireligious programs and by the Alway Symposium at the University of St. Michael’s College. This sponsorship includes a limited number of stipends to be awarded to teams that include students. These will be awarded when
proposals are accepted.
Marianne Moyaert, author of Christian Imaginations of the Religious Other: A History of Religionization (Wiley Blackwell, 2024) and professor in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at KU Leuven (Belgium), will present the keynote address, “Nostra Aetate: What Has It Taught and Mistaught Us about Interreligious Dialogue?”
Other invited interfaith panelists to be announced soon.
Please submit proposals through the online submission form no later than September 30. Questions?
Contact Wendy Cranston at w [dot] cranston [at] mail [dot] utoronto [dot] ca.
Here is a PDF version of the Call for Papers.