From: Joanna and Edward Bailey <edwardianbailey@PROTECTED>
Date: October 13, 2016 at 6:43:24 AM EDT
To: joannna.bailey1@PROTECTED
Subject: Implicit Religion Conference May 2017

40th annual conference in Implicit Religion 

19th-21st May 2017

Sarum College, Salisbury, UK

Theme:  'Materiality and Immateriality’

The Trustees of CSIRCS (The Centre for Implicit Religion and Contemporary Spirituality) are pleased to tell you that the 40th annual conference in Implicit Religion (formerly known as the Denton Conference) will take place from the 19th to 21st May 2017 at Sarum College, Salisbury. The trustees are very grateful to Dr Francis Stewart for once again organising this annual conference. 

The theme in 2017 will be 'Materiality and Immateriality’. The conference will focus on the coupling, tension and interaction between ‘materiality’ and ‘immateriality’. Studies of religion often focus on separating these two terms in relation to methodologies, focus of research and legitimacy, and even place them in opposition at times. Increasingly, scholars of religion in fields such as sociology, anthropology, digital humanities, film studies and religious studies have explored the question of embodiment, the materiality of thought, and the notion of affects. New studies of art have reopened the problem of materiality through the conceptualisation of sound, matter, practice and nature. And in its relation to politics, religion has recovered the notion of materiality, placing it at the core of a number of concepts, such as labour, emancipation, and resistance.

The Edward Bailey Lecture will be delivered by Professor Brent Plate. Professor Plate is an Associate Professor at Hamilton College in New York State. His area of specialism is Material Religion with a particular emphasis on how ways of seeing affect ways of being religious. He has published numerous key texts in the field of material religion, religion and film and visual culture, his most recent monograph is "A History of Religion in 5 1/2 Objects". Plate bases his work on the argument that religion must be understood in the first instance as deriving from rudimentary human experiences, from lived, embodied practices rather than from abstractions and ideologies alone. He is one of the founders of the Material Religion journal and is the editor of the Material Religion series published by Bloomsbury Books. 

Papers Spaces for 17-18 paper givers. (There will also be a "scratch session" for work in progress, please see website for further details).

Accommodation in ensuite rooms is available for up to 30 people.

Cost for conference attendance, accommodation (Friday and Saturday nights) and all meals will be £170.

Further detailed information is available on the website http://www.implicitreligion.co.uk