Call for Papers: Science and Religion in America

OVERVIEW Princeton University's Program in American Studies invites paper proposals for its annual graduate student conference. This year's 1.5-day conference will address the intersection of scientific knowledge and religious belief in all periods of American history, literature and society. Papers from History, English, Anthropology, Sociology, American Studies and other departments are welcome. The intersection of science and religion in American history is as complicated and multivariate as it is important. Papers written from interdisciplinary perspectives, or that have the potential to spur cross-disciplinary dialogue, are especially encouraged. The conference organizers will arrange accepted submissions into three-paper panels by theme or period, and a faculty respondent will be provided for each. Examples of possible paper topics include: How the boundaries between scientific and religious thought were policed or trespassed in early-American literature and public life. Historical and literary analyses of American religious and spiritualist movements and their use or rejection of scientific knowledge. How political movements encompassed claims from both scientific and religious perspectives (e.g. conservation, "scientific racism,"). Studies of the effect of religious belief on health care and climate legislation in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. How changing views of epistemology have affected religious and scientific discourse in America. Keynote addresses will be provided by David Hollinger (Preston Hotchkis Professor of American History, UC Berkeley) and Priscilla Wald (Professor of English, Duke University) SUBMISSIONS Please submit one-page abstracts, in PDF format to hcowles@princeton.edu and rmrosen@princeton.edu by 18 March 2011. All authors will be notified by April 15, 2011.