CFP: Literature and Political Theology

The Center for Political Theology at Villanova University invites proposals for symposia of 2-6 contributors to be featured on its new blog, Literature and Political Theology, hosted on politicaltheology.com. The blog will publish essays of 1500-2000 words that each critically engage with the same literary text (poem, novel, short story, play, creative non-fiction) in conversation with political theology, broadly understood.

Examples of literary texts that might be the topic for a symposium proposal include:

• Octavia Butler’s Parables
• Aimé Césaire’s “Notebook of a Return to a Native Land”
• Virginia Woolf’s Orlando
• Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
• Billy-Ray Belcourt, This Wound is a World
• The Book of Job
• Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement
• Wole Soyinka’s “The Lion and the Jewel”
• Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead

We especially encourage symposia and essays that are experimental or unexpected; that approach familiar texts in new ways; that are in conversation with social justice movements; that engage with critical theory or anarchist/Marxist thought; or that engage with religious traditions outside Christianity. Feminist, queer, decolonial, Black, and Indigenous approaches are also especially welcome.

Proposals are due February 28, 2022. In a document of about 400-500 words: 

1. Describe which literary text your symposium focuses on, and why 
2. Discuss what possible approaches your contributors may employ 
3. Explain why you and the group of people in the symposium fit together and fit with the theme of your symposium 
4. List the possible best dates for your symposium to run between April 2022 and December 2023 
5. Provide link(s) to one or two writing samples from any member(s) of your symposium. 

We will value proposals that include a diverse range of authors from different career stages, a gender balance among authors, authors from the Global South, as well as non-academics.

Questions and proposals can be sent to Vincent Lloyd ([email protected]) or Laura Simpson ([email protected]). Notification of acceptance will arrive by mid-March 2022. Proposals will be evaluated by the blog’s editorial team:

Benjamin Balthaser, Associate Professor of English, Indiana University – South Bend

James Ford III, Associate Professor of English and Black Studies, Occidental College

Kris Trujillo, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Chicago

Brook Wilensky-Lanford, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Religion, University of Virginia

Mimi Winick, Post-Doctoral Fellow, “Transcendence and Transformation” 
Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School; Affiliate Instructor, Department of English, Virginia Commonwealth University