From: Francis Stewart <francis.stewart@PROTECTED>
Date: Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 5:01 AM
Subject: Implicit Religion USA conference

Hello Colleagues, 

I am writing to you in regards to a new USA based conference I have created for Implicit Religion, which is intended to run alongside the UK conference of over 40 years. The US Implicit Religion Conference will be held from 3 -5th June at Monmouth University in New Jersey, with the key speaker being Dr Elayne Oliphant of NYU. The theme for the conference is "Implicit Religion: What Might That Be?" 

The conference is aimed at students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, early career scholars, under-employed and precariously employed academics, and marginalised and under-represented scholars. It is also open to interested members of the public. It is intended to be a space for support and growth as people explore what we mean when we use terms such as 'religion', 'secular', 'sacred' and 'profane'. Therefore we are anticipating that people will present on their works in progress, rather than finished pieces, participants will then be given an appropriate mentor and any other additional support necessary to develop their work into a final piece that best suits their needs. This might be a paper to deliver to the UK conference to have an international conference on their CV, or an article that can be submitted for peer review to the Journal of Implicit Religion, or a different publication. Undergraduate students will have the opportunity to work their presentations into a peer reviewed blog posting on the UK Implicit Religion website. Students not yet ready to present, but wanting to participate can state so and they will be given the opportunity to introduce speakers, chair panels and network with appropriate levels of support and guidance. 

I am writing to ask you to promote this to your students and any relevant colleagues, networks or friends. Full details are available on the website https://implicitreligionus.wordpress.com/ and I am very happy to answer any questions at any time. If anyone wants any additional resources on teaching Implicit Religion they can be made available to you, including free guest lectures by myself through digital means such as Skype. 

Thank you in anticipation for your support and promotion of the conference, it is very much appreciated as we try to create something new and build up the Implicit Religion community within the field of religious studies more broadly.

Best wishes

Francis

Dr Francis Stewart

Implicit Religion Research Fellow

Theology and Religious Studies Dept. 

131A Skinner Annexe 

Ext no. 3763

Author of: https://www.routledge.com/Punk-Rock-is-My-Religion-Straight-Edge-Punk-and-Religious-Identity/Stewart/p/book/9781472489661