Research in Religious Studies Conference (RRS): University of Calgary May 8-9, 2014
Call for Papers for our 2014 Research in Religious Studies Conference (RRS): University of Calgary May 8-9 (Thursday to Friday).
The conference provides Undergraduates and Masters students from any educational institute with the opportunity to present papers on the history, belief,
practices, cultural contexts, and artistic or literary expressions of any
religious tradition. Proposals for papers from any discipline are
welcome.
The RRS conference has been held in Lethbridge since its inception in
2003; however, for 2014, the conference will be in Calgary. This will make
travel to the conference much easier for students from other locales in
and outside of Alberta. The University of Lethbridge will be working
closely with the Department of Religious Studies at the University of
Calgary. The U of L will be the primary contact person in terms of
looking after the vetting of paper proposals, scheduling, and so forth.
While, the conference session and other activities will be at the U of
Calgary.
The RSS Conference has had hosted students from institutions across
Western Canada and some from Central and Eastern Canada. While we do not
always get submissions from the United States; we have had participants
from Stanford, Auburn, Vanderbilt, and Rice universities in past years.
The students are an interdisciplinary mix from Anthropology, Archaeology,
Classics, History, Political Science and Sociology.
Our conference is clearly filling the need for students to find venues for
their work outside of the classroom and to compare notes and make
connections in the larger world of academia. It is a great opportunity for
researchers at the beginning of their careers to learn from others.. The
variety and sophistication in topics and approaches on display at the RRSC
clearly shows the depth of research conducted in undergraduate and Masters
level programs. And, yes this is an adjudicated conference; so, it is an
excellent opportunity for undergraduates who are considering future
graduate work
We organize our conference on the model of professional conferences: each
participant is given 30 minutes in which to make their presentation of ca.
20 minutes leaving some time for questions. Our website has some aids in
preparing papers for presentation and dealing with the question-period.
Unlike many professional conferences, however, question time tends to be
very supportive and often amounts to a brainstorming session.
Unlike professional conferences, we do not pre-arranged session topics as
this alienates potential contributors who may feel their research falls
through the cracks in our topic selection. Rather, we make the sessions
after all the paper proposals are in. It also allows us to accept as many
papers as possible and in our experience; students enjoy the variety that
sometimes ensues.
Although we cannot offer financial aid for travel or accommodation we do
attempt to keep costs as low as possible. We would be grateful if you
could recommend the conference to your students. Please contact me if you
have questions.
James Linville
Associate Professor of Religious Studies
University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge AB
403 3292537
james.linville@uleth.ca
