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CALL FOR
PAPERS:
The Center for
Millennial Studies at Boston University
Unbinding Prometheus to Build the New Jerusalem: Millennialism, Power
and Technology
November 3-6, 2001
Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
Millennial beliefs, because they foresee a radical change in
this world, often trigger movements that achieve considerable
social power, and even, in rare cases, take political power. In other
situations, political elites -- often new or reforming elites -- will use
millennial symbols and rhetoric -- both demotic and heirarchical -- as a
part of their political program. On the other hand, the more successful
they are in instituting their millennial projects, the more they must
confront the failure of the expectations. What happens to such movements
as a result of this "successful" development will be one of the
subjects of this year's conference. At the same time, millennial
movements are often innovators in both the creation of new technologies
and, still more, at the cutting edge of adopting new technologies
(especially communication technologies) at every stage of their
development, including their "re-entry" into normal time. These
two, interrelated topics will be the foci of this year's Millennial
Studies conference.
Deadline: June 1, 2001
Send 1 page abstracts and CVs with both summer and fall contact
information to:
Beth Forrest
Center for Millennial Studies
Suite 205
Boston University
704 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
Or via email: [log in to unmask] or fax: 617.358.0225
Please don't hesitate to contact us with questions (phone: 617.358.0226)
Individual papers or complete sessions welcome!
If you'd like to chair, let us know your specialty.
Possible Topics:
· Hieracharical Millennialism and the traditions of salvific rulers (Last
Emperor, World Conqueror, Messianic Kingship)
· Demotic Millennialism and the anti-authoritarian traditions
(Anabaptism, Anarchism, Communism)
· Utopianism and communes (Oneida, Owen, Saint-Simon, New Age communes,
kibbutzim)
· Totalitarianism and Democracy as post-apocalyptic products of
Millennial revolutions
Communications Revolutions as both spur to and product of millennialism
(Printing Press, Electronic media, Cyberspace)
· Science and Millennialism: the magus tradition and science (Yates
thesis), mythologies of scientific investigation, scientific utopianism
· Productive Technology and "soft" landings (the role of manual
labor and labor-saving devices in the formation of "enclave"
communities, the economic success of millennial movements)
· The "unintended" consequences of Millennial movements (Weber
thesis as a model for understanding the long-term effects of
Millennialism)
· Millennialism and Modernity (Millennialism as either anti-modern [e.g.,
nativist revolts, Ghost Dance], modernizing [revitalization movements,
communism, transhumance], or some combination [nazism, UFO groups, cargo
cults]).
· Millennialism and the technological challenges of the future (Y2K as
dress rehearsal for global warming, new technology as a millennial tool
or weapon).
· Globalization and Millennialism (globalization as spur to
Millennialism, Millennialism as path to "joining" the global
community, policy options concerning religion's role in the process of
globalization).
· Transportation: from ecstasy to migration, from flights of imagination
to cargo cult airport fantasies, and from prospects of extraordinary
motion to fears of immobility.
· Physics and Engineering of the Millennium: how the millennial vision
re-views
the operations of matter and material forces, explosives and explosions,
implosives and implosions
· Scientific progress and millennialism: artificial intelligence,
cyborgian syntheses of human and machine, cloning and the genome project,
etc.)
· Science fiction and millennialism
Richard Landes
Center for Millennial Studies at Boston
University Department
of History
704 Commonwealth Ave. Suite
205 226
Bay State Road
Boston MA
02215 Boston
MA 02215
617-358-0226 of
358-0225
fax 617-353-2558
of 353-2556 fax
http://www.mille.org [log in to unmask]