ab•er•ra•tions
(n.pl.) a departure form what is normal unusual, or unexpected typically one that is unwelcome

The Religion Graduate Organization of the Department of Religion at Syracuse University announces the 2020 Graduate Student Conference: “Aberrations”
March 27th-28th

ABERRATIONS seeks to explore the unusual, the odd, and the different. With the word “aberrations” as our point of departure, we invite participants to embrace the full field of possibilities unfolding from the term itself. By considering the word’s connotations, negative and otherwise, we approach the dangerous edge of difference, the unwanted aspects of otherness.

To this end, we ask: what is it to be an aberration, to be called an aberration, to call another an aberration? What is the relationship between “religion” and “Aberrations”?

We encourage an open interpretation of these terms, inviting participants to find inspiration in the word “Aberrations” itself and in the communities, structures, and figures upon which it is grafted.
We provoke participants to think critically and creatively through all possible valences of the term. We welcome a diversity in topics, theoretical approaches, and methodologies from all academic fields and disciplines across a broad range of histories, geographies, and religious traditions.
Papers and panels might engage the following themes (but are not limited to):

·Normativity and abnormativity
·Misogynoir, toxic masculinity, gender
·Queer and trans* identities, politics, and communities
·Sexism, reproductive rights, sexuality, misogyny ·Afrofuturism, afropessimism, critical race theory
·Extraterrestrials and ideas of the alien ·Apocalypticism, utopianism, and the apocryphal
·Community, class, geography, place, space ·Texts, definitions, linguistics, narrative ·Environments, landscapes
·Heath, life, biopolitics, necropolitics ·Technology, transhumanisms, robotics, artificial intelligence
·Temporalities, histories, economies ·Immigration, activism, white national politics, racism

Keynote: Diana Walsh Pasulka
Please submit a short abstract (350 words for papers; 500 words for panels) and a CV in PDF format to: SUReligionConference@gmail.com by February 20th, 2020.