Saints Monsters Collaboration (Pre-conference Session)

This pre-conference session brings together the process and accomplishments of the AAR "Hagiology" seminar and "New Directions in the Study of Religion, Monsters, and the Monstrous” seminar. The aim of the session is to use case studies in order to explore areas of overlap and future collaboration between the seminar's participants and insights. The seminars have historically shared methodological and substantial overlap in terms of their subject matter, as well as their ethos around disciplinary innovation, multimedia studies in and at the margins of religion, and cross-cultural attention through the lens of concepts ("saints," "monsters"). The pre-conference session includes a methodological section and an applied section. Both sections will be based upon working examples in either or both sainthood and the monstrous, using skills from one of the seminars.