Antiquitopia

Finally, here are my closing remarks that I gave during the closing round-table discussion: I originally envisioned this conference as an ongoing dialogue. And I attempted to implement this in the very organization of the panels. The panels, in some ways, can be seen as interactive, with later panels commenting on the topics of earlier panels. With this in mind, I created the closing discussion as a “respondents’ panel,” in which the respondents could take the insights from their panels and put them directly into dialogue with one another in order to identify cross-panel themes as well as identify a few gaps in the conference, providing fertile directions for further inquiry. (Unfortunately, our third respondent, Jack Hawley, could not be with us, and so I am going to fill in for him, but by no means are my comments or interests reflective of his.) Bracketing issues suggested in the call for papers but not really discussed today, one key aspect of the institutional shapi...

As noted in my previous post, I decided to post my introductory remarks to the "Instituting Religion" conference: Good morning and welcome to “Instituting Religion: Investigating Trajectories of the Study of Religion in Institutions of Higher Education.” This is the Columbia Religion Graduate Students Association’s fourth interdisciplinary conference. This year we are sponsored by the Department of Religion and the Graduate Student Activities Council. Our first two conferences focused primarily upon theoretical and methodological issues regarding the study of religion within and without religious studies. Last year our theme turned to a more thematic discussion of Religion and Popular Culture. This year, returning to earlier concerns, we hope to take the institutional setting and shaping of the categories, theories, methods, general approaches, and assumptions we use in the study of religion/s (including the concept of religion itself). Therefore, instead...

It has now been a few weeks since my little conference, "Instituting Religion" at Columbia on April 10. I think I have finally recovered! And so I'll just give a few observations. Firstly, the conference went rather well. I enjoyed the presentations, the questions, and the discussion. I almost wish I could have recorded some of the Q & A times. As usual with such conferences, there just never is enough time for discussion early on, and by the end of the day everyone is a bit too tired to discuss too much. There were some very solid papers. Given that I was the conference organizer, I was in and out much of the day, and so I missed a few of the papers. But I was able to stay in the room for the entire first panel and response, and it was definitely very solid: Luke Moorhead (Yale) gave a theoretical discussion of Bourdieu with regard to the field, capital, and habitus of Religious Studies as it is negotiated with the competing capital of other fields of study i...

I usually read a variety of things at the same time--I often have stacks of books that I have started. So, today I am reading some good old Ugaritic texts (though not in Ugaritic--alas, that is a language I have not picked up) while reading Hegel's Introduction to the Philosophy of History . Here are some excerpts from Hegel that have so far caught my eye, and maybe someone would like to comment on: "When we are occupied with a remote world of the past, that world becomes present to the mind through the mind's own activity--and that recaptured world is the mind's reward for its labor. The events vary, but they are connected into one pattern in their universal and inner meaning. This is what negates the event as past, and makes it present. Pragmatic reflections, abstract though they might be are thus what is in fact present, and they bring the accounts of the past to life in our present-day world. But whether reflections of this kind are really filled with interes...

I have always liked the smell of old books. I am the guy who prefers to walk the stacks at the library rather than check the online catalogue. I would take having a book physically in my hands rather than reading it online any day. So, on the note of the wondrous musty smell of old books, the following was in the Chronicle today (and click here or on the link below for a longer version from Glasgow's website)... Investigating the Smell of Old Books Researchers at Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde are studying the smell of old books to “sniff” out the chemical signs of aging. Books are placed for 24 to 48 hours in a sealed chamber, where “material and compounds responsible for the odour from the books” will be extracted and analyzed, according to a university press release. Findings from the analysis will be used to determine the best practices for storing old books—and may also explain where that musty old-book smell comes from. The study is being conducted by the uni...

Please note the extra page elements I have placed on the right hand side. Firstly, I have posted a link to my newly written online academic bio on the Columbia Religion Department website. Secondly, I have posted the flyer for the "Instituting Religion" conference occurring this Thursday! Be sure to come if you are around! Soon, I hope to add a slideshow as well that will show some of my pics from my travels around the Mediterranean.

The Columbia Religion Graduate Students Association's conference, "Instituting Religion," is merely a week away now. If you are going to be in the New York City area on April 10, please feel free to stop by and hear some up and coming graduate students speak. For a schedule and to register (for free), check out our website: www.columbia.edu/cu/religion-gsa