CALL FOR PAPERS
For an international conference on
Women and Spirituality
LERMA, Université d'Aix-Marseille,
in collaboration with Queen Mary University, London,
to be held in Aix-en-Provence, France, 12-13 June 2009.
This conference, focusing on the English-speaking world, will explore
the complex relationships between women and spirituality. Culturally
defined by their gender, women occupy an ambiguous place both at the
centre and on the margins of the spiritual sphere. Such ambivalence is
palpable in the Judeo-Christian heritage, where virginity and
motherhood are valued respectively as badges of purity and
fruitfulness, whilst the biological processes which underlie them are
considered taboo or impure. Throughout history, women are in turn
represented as inferior, defective creatures or as privileged 'empty
vessels' in their relationship with the divine. This dual conception of
the nature of woman has influenced the way in which religious
institutions, learned writers, or indeed women themselves came to
consider the female relationship with the divine.
We will explore spirituality as a broad concept, of which religions are
a crucial, visible part but which can also take a variety of pagan or
secular forms. Studies of various aspects of female mysticism, wisdom
or contemplation will therefore be appreciated.
This multi-disciplinary conference welcomes papers belonging, amongst
others, to the fields of history, literature and the history of arts.
Studies offering a comparative analysis with France will be gladly
considered, as will any papers exploring such themes as:
- The position of religious institutions and religious authorities
towards women
- Female spirituality and the construction of a religious orthodoxy
- Accounts of female spirituality (autobiographies, diaries,
hagiographies, eulogies ...)
- Feminist perspectives, re-membering the history of women's
spirituality
- The historiography of female spirituality
- Female bodies and female spiritualities
Women and spirituality in fiction and the visual arts
Proposals (approx. 400 words) to be sent to Dr Laurence Lux-Sterritt ( [log in to unmask]"
ymailto="mailto:[log in to unmask]">laurence.sterritt@univ-provence.fr
<mailto:[log in to unmask]"
ymailto="mailto:[log in to unmask]">laurence.sterritt@univ-provence.fr>
) and Dr Claire Sorin ([log in to unmask]"
ymailto="mailto:[log in to unmask]">clairesorin@hotmail.com)
before 15 November 2008. Languages spoken at the conference will be
English and French; papers will not exceed 25 minutes each.
