This seminar is dedicated to exploring the “hagiographical” as a category that transcends the particular contextual boundaries of religious traditions, while functioning as a focused and sustained site of collaboration, pedagogical exploration, and theoretical foundation for better refining the Study of Religion. It takes up the question of “hagiography,” and, using a comparative method, interrogates its broad analytical utility. By inviting a wide-range of traditions and types of scholarship (textual, materially-oriented, ritually-conceived, oral, historical, and contemporary) into a diverse scholarly conversation and collaborative community, we seek to challenge the normative, Christian rendering of the term. We place the growing need for cross-fertilization at the center of our methodological approach, building it into our theme and function. Hagiology is an inquiry that has been marked by a range of interpretive strategies and vectors of influence, from early practitioners and emulators, to authors and compilers, to commentators and historians, to societies and contemporary practitioners, to re-imagined historical prominence. It has finally emerged as a dynamic area for comparative studies. Ultimately, this seminar will foster dialogue among scholars from a range of institutions and intellectual traditions. Its aim is to use the collaborative and comparative methods to resituate hagiology within the current religious studies context, and to explore how this field can best support, articulate, and inform the broader field regarding the importance of doing Hagiology in a productive manner that is commensurate with the prevalence of its material forms.
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Hagiology Seminar
Call for Proposals for November Meeting
The Hagiology Seminar is engaged in a multi-year call for contributions to a field-defining reference work for Comparative Hagiology. This volume, A Companion to Comparative Hagiology, introduces the field, its comparative and collaborative ethos, issues in theory and method, and provides a series of case studies on key themes. This year the Hagiology Seminar invites proposals to join roundtables on the following themes:
Power and transgression
Extraordinary individuals (saints, sages, heroes, etc.) are often transgressors. They cross boundaries (actual and imagined), they break rules (sacred and profane), and they challenge norms (about sex, gender, class, etc.). How does the extraordinary status (or sanctity) of these individuals endow them with the power to transgress, for better and/or worse? How do those who honor such personages make sense of their transgressive power? What can this power tell us about the role of the extraordinary individual for the community that gathers in their wake?
In keeping with the collaborative ethos of the Hagiology Seminar, this roundtable will involve participation in three virtual conversations leading up to an in-person session at the 2024 AAR Annual Meeting. The roundtable will be headed by Jon Keune (Michigan State University).
Violence and translation
Media about extraordinary individuals (saints, sages, heroes, etc.) often entails the work of translation. The lives of such personages translate the values of their community; disciples translate and transmit their story; sometimes devotees even translate the body from one place to another. Moreover, those studying such media are frequently faced with the need to translate ideas from one linguistic and conceptual world to another. But do these acts of translation entail violence? Do devotees and/or scholars disfigure the extraordinary individual when they carry (compel?) them across cultures, traditions, moral frameworks, and contemporary understandings of identity (race, sex, gender, religion, secularity, etc.)? As scholars, what are our ethical responsibilities in the face of such (alleged) violence?
In keeping with the collaborative ethos of the Hagiology Seminar, this roundtable will involve participation in three virtual conversations leading up to an in-person session at the 2024 AAR Annual Meeting. The roundtable will be headed by Reyhan Durmaz (University of Pennsylvania).
Statement of Purpose
Chairs
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Todd French, Rollins College1/1/2020 - 12/31/2025
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R. Brian Siebeking, Gonzaga University1/1/2020 - 12/31/2025
Steering Committee Members
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Reyhan Durmaz, University of Pennsylvania1/1/2020 - 12/31/2025
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Scott Harrower, Ridley College, Melbourne1/1/2024 - 12/31/2029
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Jon Keune, Michigan State University1/1/2020 - 12/31/2025
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Massimo Rondolino, Carroll University1/1/2020 - 12/31/2025
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Barbara Zimbalist, University of Texas, El Paso1/1/2020 - 12/31/2025