Paper proposal deadline: Friday, September 9th, 2011.

Description and goal of the conference:

Similar to previous years, the topic for the conference, while directly pertinent to the study of religion, also welcomes and invites an interdisciplinary approach to the topic in a limited, yet guided format. The goal of the conference is: a) to give graduate students an opportunity to present research papers in front of colleagues with similar interests and create a positive space for constructive feedback, b) to provide an opportunity to open dialogue and network with the larger graduate student community, and c) to become better acquainted with our current and future colleagues. We also hope to foster graduate student membership in the new and exciting multidisciplinary organization, The Centre for Research on Religion/Centre de Recherche sur la Religion (CREOR), which aims to create a broad academic platform to coordinate and support research on the identities of the main religions of the world, their differences and their common grounds, and how they contribute to a better understanding of past and present-day culture, ethics and politics. We are interested in contributions from all disciplines, including, but not limited to, philosophy, political science, religious studies, law, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, ritual studies, and art history.

Call for papers:

The ‘rise of religion’ and its place in the public sphere has been a matter of much scholarly and political debate. This has particularly been the case in secular liberal democracies, where religious
institutions and beliefs are often judged to be antithetical to ‘public reason’. The secular public sphere in these states tends to be represented as ‘post-ideological’, governed by a progressive,
inclusive and pragmatic politics, which has no place for the pre-modern, exclusive and absolutist, in other words, ideological standpoint that is seen to be endemic to religious beliefs and practices. With the failure of the secularization thesis—that modernization would lead to a decline in religious faith and would thus cleanse the public sphere of ‘unreasonable’ belief—we are currently witnessing a surge of religiously motivated political actors who wish to and, in some cases, have already entered the public forum. This movement is forcing us to rethink and question the very frame of our liberal democratic order. Though this conference takes as its starting point the Study of Religions, we welcome and encourage an interdisciplinary approach to the problematic. Thus, we are looking for papers that address questions such as: What are some of the underpinning tensions between religious belief and liberal democracies? Is religious belief inherently ideological? Can religious institutions enter the ‘non-ideological’ public sphere without sacrificing their oteriological aims? Are political institutions truly capable of being ‘post-ideological’? If so, how can this be
achieved? If not, how can we successfully negotiate the tensions that exist between the ideological agendas of political institutions and religious organizations? Can and does religious discourse challenge the notion of ‘post-ideological’ politics? Does the ‘rise of religion’ provide an opportunity for us to fruitfully re-imagine our political framework?

Paper proposal deadline: Friday, September 9th, 2011.

We cordially invite proposals for short paper presentations (20 minutes). Proposals should include: an abstract (450 words maximum), biographical sketch or CV including your institutional affiliation
plus contact information, and any technical requests such as audio/visual equipment. Please send proposals, questions and requests for further details to:

gradconference.relgstud@mail.mcgill.ca. All applicants will be notified by Friday, September 16th, 2011.

Publishing possibility: To further promote the aims of the conference, the Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University (ARC), has offered to publish a select number of high quality papersshowcasing superior insight and academic potential in their contribution to the conference and scholarship at large.

Sarah Shea or Richard Greydanus
William and Henry Birks Building
3520 University
Montreal, QC, H3A 2A7
Email: gradconference.relgstud@mail.mcgill.ca

The conference will focus on the following three aspects of research:

1. «The Metropolitan and His Church»: Sheptyts’kyi’s activities as the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, as Church leader and ecclesiastical administrator; the practical steps he took to strengthen the church’s institutional efficiency, the convocation of synods and his role in major church issues. Special emphasis will be placed on (a) the «great turn eastwards» introduced by the Metropolitan in the life of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church at the beginning of the twentieth century, and (b) his establishment of the Lviv Theological Academy in 1928-1929.

2. «The Metropolitan and His People»: Sheptyts’kyi’s activities as shepherd of his people, pastoral letters and addresses to the faithful, his concern regarding the moral state of the people, participation in public life and leading role in the development of Ukrainian national culture. Special attention should be focussed on activities which testify to the Metropolitan’s bold readiness to «go against the current» and to criticize those aspects of his contemporaries’ political activity which he considered to be morally detrimental.

3. «The Metropolitan and His Ecumenical Universe»: The universal dimension of Sheptyts’kyi’s achievements, his international contacts, including those with non-Catholics, with special regard to the Metropolitan’s ecumenical legacy, much of which was misinterpreted during his lifetime and remains unknown; those aspects of his legacy which makes it possible to speak of him as an ecumenic visionary. His ecumenical view of Christian unity, which he often referred to as «union» but which, after deeper analysis, reveals to be a concept that extends far beyond historical «unions».

The aim of the conference is to review existing sources, to evaluate the current state of research, and to stimulate further study of the activities and legacy of the Metropolitan Sheptyts’kyi.

Conference working languages: Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, English (no translation will be provided).

The conference will conclude with a solemn ceremony honoring the Metropolitan and with a Divine Liturgy that will take place on Sunday, November 1 – the official day of remembrance of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptyts’kyi.

Please confirm your intention to participate in the conference and indicate the subject of your presentation by 30 May 2009.

We look forward to receiving your abstract, up to 5 pages in length, by email and kindly request that you send the abstract to the following persons simultaneously: Yury Avvakumov, yavvakum@ucu.edu.ua; Ulana Holovatch, holov@ucu.edu.ua. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is the end of July 2009.

All participants will be provided with board and lodging for three nights. In exceptional cases, participants may apply to the organizers for a grant to cover travel costs. A submitted abstract and a short justification are mandatory for it.

For more information and details, please write to Ulana Holovatch: holov@ucu.edu.ua

Conference Organizing Committee:

Borys Gudziak, Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University
Yury Avvakumov, Head of the Organizing Committee
Liliana Hentosh
Ulana Holovatch
Andriy Mykhaleyko
Oleh Turiy

All participants in the conference are strongly encouraged to visit the website of Religious Information Service of Ukraine (RISU): risu.org.ua and familiarize themselves in advance with the major confessions in Ukraine , the type of religious news distributed, and sections on liturgy or church in society.

Conference Program

Tuesday, May 11 (UCU)

3:45-5:15 Religion and Journalism in Ukraine (Conference Room)
Moderator: Natalya Klymovska

Wednesday, May 12 (Dnister)

8:30-10:30 Icons as liturgy, fine art, and historical artifact: academic training, production, conservation, restoration (Dnister Hotel Conference Room)
Moderator: Sister Victoriya Luka

10:30-11:00 Break

11:00-12:30 The Use and Authority of Icons: Church Renewal and the Ecclesial Commission. Issue: what is a ‘real’ icon and what will its restoration accomplish?
Moderator: Sister Victoriya Luka

Thursday, May 13 (UCU)

9:00-10:30 Liturgical Renewal (UCU Chapel)
Moderator: Vasyl Rudejko
“Stritennia”, “Krylos”, “Majsternia pisni”, “Sahmos”

10:30-11:00 Break

11:00-12:30 Religious Education in Eastern Europe . The task is to consider the role of media and the arts in theological education (Conference Room)
Moderator: Fr. Marko Bliaza, SJ

Friday, May 14 (Dnister)

9:00-10:30 Scholarship on religion, art, and media in E Europe
Moderator: Mykhaylo Perun

10:30-11:00 Break

11:00-12:00 Scholarship, continued

Local Organizers and Staff

Myroslav Marynovych (marynov@ucu.edu.ua) – Vice-Rector of UCU, Director of the Institute of Religion and Society, former political prisoner with the Helsinki group, 10 years in the gulag, civic leader, ecumenical advisor to Patriarch Lubomyr (Cardinal Husar), published translation of Church Documents on Social Communication

Prof. Jeffrey Wills (wills@ucu.edu.ua) – Vice-Rector of UCU, role similar to a provost in the US , formerly professor of Classics at the Univ. of Wisconsin

Sr. Victoria Luka (victoria@ucu.edu.ua) – iconographer and scholar of the theology of icons, licentiate in theology ( St. Paul Univ. , Ottawa )

Michael Petrovych – professor of liturgy, Director of Institute of Theological Terminology

Natalia Klymovska (klymovsk@ucu.edu.ua) – Director of the Information Office (press and public relations), moderator of panel on Religion and Journalism.

Mykhailo Perun – finished seminary in Lviv, now writing a doctorate at the Gregorian Univ. on social communication, organizer of various religious concerts in Lviv

Vasyl Rudeyko (jeretyk@yahoo.com) – formerly seminarian in Lviv, now writing a doctorate on liturgy at the Catholic Univ. of Eichstaett, teaches liturgy at UCU

Roman Rytsar (rytsar@ucu.edu.ua) – licentiate in Lublin , teaches Christology

Oksana Rybak (fisher@ucu.edu.ua) – assistant to the Rector, administrator of the conference

Guest participants

Gabriel Hanganu (Romania) – Oxford doctoral student in visual Anthropology working on a thesis on icons in Eastern Europe

Vlad Naumescu (Romania) – doctoral student in anthropology in Germany writing on Ukrainian and Romanian Greek Catholic Churches

Marek Blaza (Poland) – Jesuit, teaches in Poland and at UCU, wide experience in Eastern Europe

Roman Hurko (Canada) – composer, develop international working group of scholars and performers in Ukrainian sacred music

Bohdan Kuz (Kyiv) – director of the Vydubychi Church Chorus

Group from the Centrum Spirituality in Slovakia

• Fr. Milan Lach SJ
• Jan Burda SJ
• Tomas Majda
• Fr. Marcel Gajdos
• Simon Marincak.

The Center was founded to promote the Christian Unity especially in Slovakia , but also to explain the mentality of eastern Christian to the western one. Those were original intentions. Since the Center was founded during the communist times, all plans were merely theoretical. Nowadays, the Center has met various obstacles and its aim is to answer to various challenges. The first is to search for the religious identity of the Catholics of Byzantine Rite in Slovakia (so called Greek Catholics). They are in big minority and suffer from Latin preponderance (insertion of various Latin elements into their liturgical and religious traditions). So the Center should become the Institution that provides a scholarly work in the fields, such as Byzantine liturgy, liturgical music, history, theology, spirituality, canon law, etc.

Fr. Milan Lach SJ is a future student of the Pontifical Oriental Institute (he has focused on the studies of eastern spirituality) and a temporary Director of the Center. Jan Burda SJ, his religious fellow, is also a potential student of the PIO. Toams Majda studied in Olomouc ( Czech republic ) and is expert in the eastern dogmatic theology. Fr. Marcel Gajdos is specialist in liturgical texts and their translations, and Marincak works in the field of the liturgy and liturgical music.