The Center for Sermon Studies at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia announces its second annual Conference on Sermon Studies, to be held October 11-14, 2018, in Montreal, Quebec.
The conference is multidisciplinary and interfaith. The organizers’ goal is to bring scholars, practitioners, and interested laypersons together to discuss sermon texts and the art of preaching from a variety of academic and religious perspectives.
The theme for 2018 is “Space, Place, Context.” Topics related to the theme might include
- Sermons delivered on special occasions (coronations, funerals, natural disasters, etc)
- The relationship between space (cathedral, chapel, outdoor setting) and sermon
- Interdenominational and interfaith pulpit exchanges
We are also interested in projects focusing on all aspects of the sermon, including
- Preaching in antiquity and the medieval period
- Preaching by women
- Jewish and Islamic preaching
- Preaching in areas other than Britain and the United States
In addition to traditional panels of papers, the program will include
- “Pop-up” or “unconference” sessions, in which the topic/agenda are determined during the conference
- Workshops and continuing-education opportunities. These could run longer than the typical conference session (from several hours to a half-day), with participants discussing “best practices” for sermon preparation and delivery, giving and receiving feedback on drafts, or even giving sample sermons.
Proposals
All proposals must be submitted online at http://mds.marshall.edu/sermon_conference/2018. Please provide the following information:
- For individual papers (20 minutes): Title, abstract (150-250 words), contact information, and a 1-2 sentence biographical sketch.
- For complete panels (Three 20-minute papers): A session title and abstract (150-250 words), titles and abstracts for each paper (also 150-250 words), and biographical and contact information for each participant.
- For roundtables: A session abstract (150-250 words), along with biographical and contact information for each participant.
- For workshops: An abstract stating the workshop’s topic and goals, along with biographical and contact information for each facilitator.
Publication
Accepted abstracts will be published as part of the online program. After the conference, participants will have the option of contributing their complete papers to the online proceedings and/or submitting revised/expanded essays to Sermon Studies, a peer-reviewed open access journal.
Robert Ellison, Marshall University