STUDY RELIGION IN BOSTON | hub of interreligious theological education

student conferences

One of the ways the BTI Consortium promotes interreligious learning and collaboration is through the funding of student conferences. We have supported a diverse mix of conferences in the past, and are always looking to support conferences that line up with the interest of BTI Consortium students from multiple perspectives and backgrounds. Along with financial support, usually ranging from $250-$1,500, the Consortium also offers promotional support through our connectivity with the administration of member schools.

 


2nd Annual Accessing the Divine Conference: Interdependent Bodies: Disability, Creation, and Reimagining Relationality 
(Disability and Theology Conference - March 3, 2023 @ BC STM Library)

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER //// CLICK HERE FOR CONFERENCE WEBSITE

In her keynote address at last year’s Accessing the Divine conference, Dr. Sharon Betcher offered a poignant reminder: “The advent of the Anthropocene makes humanity’s relationship with earth the most important aspect of our lives.” She suggested provocatively that “crips bring back to the theological table that interesting, ancient insight regarding the humus of our humanity and so urge release of that ‘dominion of the self’ [...]. Crip might thus be the avatar of a promising, green theo-religious swerve.” Ultimately, she invited us to recognize that, “disability may be territory from which to reconcile the gap between humanity and that with which flesh is always entangled—namely, the vegetal planet.”

Prompted by the invitation of Dr. Betcher, the 2nd Annual Accessing the Divine Conference invites graduate students and emerging scholars working in fields related to disability theology to submit proposals which engage interdependence, disability, creation, climate and/or relationality in conversation. Proposals which consider methodological reflections on approaches towards disability, interdependence, and climate are also invited.

Accessing the Divine invites participants to reimagine what it means to be human through the lens of disabled embodiment. We also welcome proposals on critical issues and themes from graduate students, faculty, religious leaders, activists, and academics in a variety of fields, such as disability theology, practical theology, liberation theology, systematic theology, comparative theology, religious studies, disability studies, area studies, sociology, ethics, psychology, and related subject matters.

 

 


 

Theology, Religion, and Dungeons & Dragons (March 25, 2023 - ONLINE)

Please register here (or at QR code in image): Click here to REGISTER.

Access the CFP by clicking here.

The steering committee for a new graduate student conference of the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium (BTI) is inviting papers on the intersections of academic disciplines of theology, religious studies, and the creative world of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and other related media. D&D is one of the most influential games ever created and helped launch role-playing games into popularity. The conference will include a keynote speaker, papers, and a live D&D game. 

Abstracts related to the intersections of these academic fields and the Dungeons & Dragons universe are welcome. While the focus of the conference is D&D, proposals on related topics like role-playing games, video games, tabletop games, ludology, etc., will be considered as well. 

We invite submissions from diverse disciplines, subdisciplines and perspectives such as (but not limited to): Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Game/Media Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Theology, Religious Studies, Narrative, Phenomenology, Ludology, Liturgical Studies, Philosophy, Sociology, Art, Literature, Performance, Critical Theory, etc. 

 

 

 


Past Student Conferences

1st Annual Accessing the Divine: Disability, Embodiment, and Claiming Joyous Futures (Disability and Theology Conference - March 25, 2022)

THANK YOU to everyone who helped to make the Accessing the Divine Conference a roaring success! We are grateful for your support. Recordings of some of the sessions and workshops, including the Keynote Address by Dr. Sharon Betcher, are available on the BTI Consortium Youtube Channel.

Planning team for the Accessing the Divine Conference posed in a group photo at the end of the conference.

Disability Language Guide

Presenter Bios

Ableist perceptions of disability, embedded in religious structures, construe disability as suffering, tragedy, and/or something to be avoided at all costs. In contrast, we affirm that the body—including the disabled body—“is the preeminent arena for God’s revelation in the world, the medium through which [the Divine] is most clearly expressed” (Luke Timothy Johnson). Accessing the Divine: Disability, Embodiment, and Claiming Joyous Futures invited participants to reimage what it means to be human through the lens of disabled embodiment. The conference keynote address was given by Dr. Sharon Betcher.

 

Lumen et vita 

 

 

Hosted annually at Boston College School of Theology and MinistryTwo students smiling. Both wearing name tags on lanyards. Behind them is a sign from the Sacred Secular conference.

 

Lumen et Vita, meaning "Light and Life," is the graduate student conference and journal of the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.

 

An online, open-access volume of research, reflections, and reviews by a range of STM students, its goal is to encourage ongoing dialogue within the school and to fuel interdisciplinary conversation across the entire Boston theological community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Engaging Particularities 

Hosted annually at Boston College Department of Theology

Engaging Particularities is the longest-running, student-run conference dedicated to theology/religious studies in the Northeastern sector of the United States. It seeks to foster at the level of graduate and post-graduate inquiries the possibility of interreligious enrichment and cooperation.

This is a comparative theology conference. Numerous participants from previous conferences are scholars non-affiliated, -associated, -identified with a religious community/tradition. Furthermore, this conference is continuously enriched with the participation of non-Christian students of religion. Comparative theologians, as scholars of another religious tradition,  are open to recognizing other religions as possible sources of truth and revelation that might inform and enhance truth through theological reflection, while maintaining the basic and meaningful commitments to the moral matrix of the scholar’s point of inquiry. The 2022 conference resulted in a special edition of the Journal of Interreligious Studies.

 

 


Future Student Conference Support

Have an idea for a student conference? We only require that your collaborators include three BTI Consortium Member schools, that you open attendance and contribution from all BTI Consurtium students, and that it is a topic that will be of interest to a range of students.

To apply, fill out the form or send us an email at btioffice@bostontheological.org. We would love to hear your ideas and know how we can partner with you!

 


STUDENT-LED CONFERENCE FUNDING APPLICATION


 

 

 


-->