If you have an interest in church-state relations, empire, protest, and regimes of control, you’ve found the right session! We welcome your curiosity and your questions as three panelists and a respondent discuss carceral reform institutions run by women religious in the 19th century U.S. West, churchstate violence in the colonial Philippines, and theologies of protest in recent anti-authoritarian uprisings in South Korea.
Homes of the Good Shepherd, run by the Catholic Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, reformed and incarcerated ‘fallen’ women and girls in the U.S. as early as 1843, making it the first institution in the nation to exclusive incarcerate women and girls. The Good Shepherds in the Western United States operated in collaboration with the state to incarcerate wayward girls before structures existed at the state level, showing an uncharacteristic willingness by western states to rely on Catholic institutions for state-building. This paper frames the construction of girls’ carceral institutions in the West as arising from the precarious collaboration of the Catholic church and of state governments, while placing the Sisters of the Good Shepherd within the larger context of the federal government’s reliance on Catholic sisters to run boarding schools for Native children.
Against the background of the unsuccessful “emergency” military decree by South Korean President Yoon, Suk Yeol December 3, 2024 this paper explores how popular culture social protests by college-age Koreans has developed from the 1980’s anti-authoritarian demonstrations against martial law dictatorships. The 2024-2025 protests saw newer formats of collective resistance and response using many of the dynamics popularized by the “soft power” associated with the Hallyu (“Korean cultural wave of K-Pop and K-Drama K-Pop and K-Drama). This presentation begins with a brief summary of the backgrounds of the Korean political protests in the 1980’s and in 2024-2025 . Next each genre type of protest demonstrations is outlined, highlighting both common elements, and performative differences, while lifting up key common denominators such as is the strong sense of collectivity found in both genres of protests. The paper concludes with a theological interpretation in line with the Convention theme of Freedom.
In late October 1841 some 500 members of a pious association of lay Catholics were killed in battle by Spanish forces in the colonial Philippines. When surviving members of the group were questioned as to the purpose of their uprising, they responded, “To pray.” This paper attempts to unpack this statement by placing the Cofradía in the broader history of the Church's response to expressions of popular piety. Under what circumstances are the devotional practices of the laity tolerated by or incorporated into the Church, and under what conditions are they suppressed? Why was the Cofradía's membership determined to pray, up to the point of violent confrontation and death, and what made this desire so threatening to Spanish authorities that the group had to be met with violence? What can this case tell us about the modern relationship between Church and State, or religion and politics?
| Winnifred Sullivan | wfsulliv@indiana.edu | View |