GTU's Professional Development Program (PDP) is aimed at developing skills that would help students succeed in their programs at the GTU as well as in their professional lives after their graduation. Towards that end, throughout the year, events and workshops are organized, and a monthly newsletter with scholarship deadlines, job openings, and announcements is circulated among students. This is the first of the three newsletters for this fall term.
You can access the PDP Newsletters from the past on the GTU Website. You will be able to access some of the previous recordings of PDP workshops through the links in those newsletters.
co-working Groups
Are you interested in meeting with your peers virtually/in person once or twice a week to work on your papers or exams? Co-Working Groups are a great way to stay motivated and be accountable to one another. Reach out to me if interested.
PDP Workshops
In general, the workshops for this term are internally focused, i.e., the workshops are aimed at navigating the doctoral program at the GTU. However, the first workshop in September was on Academic Writing, which is a common theme relevant to all students. Dr. Ashley Bacchi, Assistant Professor of Jewish History and Mediterranean Religions at the Starr King School for the Ministry and recipient of the 2021 Borsch-Rast Book Prize, led the workshop.
To complement the guidance you would receive from the above workshop, herewith I am attaching a tips sheet provided by Dr. Ted Peters for a similar workshop in the past.
The second workshop in September was geared toward helping students prepare for the Doctoral Council, which is an important step before embarking on the dissertation writing process. The Doc Council consists of the Dean, two faculty members, and two elected doctoral students. Dr. Kathryn Barush and Rev. Charissa Jaeger-Sanders, a faculty member and one of the student members on the council, respectively, facilitated the workshop on what to expect at the meeting with the Doc Council. Below you will find the recording of the workshop as well as a tips sheet shared by Charissa.
We have lined up two workshops for October. The first one is on comprehensive exams. Four of your peers will share their insights and experiences on how they navigated/are navigating the comprehensive exams phase. The second one is on how to apply for Newhall Fellowships. Dr. Diandra Erickson, Associate Dean of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment and Lecturer in Course Design and Pedagogy, will lead the workshop. Please do participate if you can.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Starting this month, I will include papers/articles that have been published in the recent past. If you wish to share your work with your peers, please email me the link for the publication along with the background, if there's any.
Porsia Tunzi earned a fellowship from Villanova University back in 2021 and the research she did for it got published through a national research project, Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations.
Here’s the link: https://www.covidreligionresearch.org/adapting-and-reimagining-west-coast-catholic-church-leverages-social-outreach-to-thrive-during-covid-19/
Call for Papers
The deadline for the call for papers for the American Academy of Religion Western Region (AAR/WR) 2023 is October 31, 2022. Please check this link for more details.
The World of Printed Prayers.Since its invention, print has been harnessed to promote piety, to proselytize, and to spread both orthodox and unorthodox beliefs. This conference will explore the multifaceted use of printed devotional objects from the earliest days of replicating text and image using printing techniques through the end of the nineteenth century. This conference is particularly concerned with the production, dissemination, and engagement with cheap printed prayers from all faiths, denominations, and religious traditions around the world. In particular, speakers are asked to explore relatively brief prayer texts that appear in in the form of short-printed pamphlets, chapbooks, micro-chapbooks, broadsides, flyers, posters, images with captions, saint cards (such as santini), etc. Deadline for submissions: October 17. Check here for details.
4th Global Conference on Women's Studies, November 24-26, 2022 in London, UK, encourages all to present their recent research work. This conference is considered a prestigious event organized with the motivation to provide an excellent international platform for academics, researchers, managers, industrial participants, and students to share their research findings with global experts. All full paper submissions will be peer-reviewed and evaluated based on originality, technical and/or research depth, accuracy, and relevance to the conference's theme. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is November 10, 2022. More details about the conference can be found here. If you have any questions, please reach email daungyewa@gmail.com.
PANEL: SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, ARTS, AND COMMUNAL RESILIENCE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE ASIA
This ASLE + AESS 2023 CONFERENCE (July 9-12, 2023, Portland, OR) PANEL highlights the role of Asian animist traditions and spiritual practices in the counter-worlding of the Anthropocene. Taking contemporary visual and performing arts as a vantage point of observation, it explores what common grounds are being formed among today’s arts, community resilience, environmental stewardship, and ontological inquiries when artists work with local communities in practicing and politicizing ritual dancing, chanting, rhyming, object-making, trance, healing, and worshiping, among other spiritual traditions. We seek insightful interpretations of such alliance from multiple ontological, sociopolitical, and ecospiritual perspectives—for example, how it enlivens diverse cosmological worlds in Asia and their biocultural manifestations in local ecosystems; what ways of mediation between humans, nonhuman species, potent geographies, and incorporeal beings it offers; how such mediations shape the experience and expressions of more-than-human sociality; and how these processes empower local communities’ political and ethical responses to the Anthropocenic climate change, biocultural extinction, and other forms of slow violence. The panel encourages scholars, art practitioners, activists, and community members from Asia to work collaboratively in bringing spiritual issues into visibility and intelligibility.
Please submit your proposal for a 15-minute presentation (within 300 words) and a brief bio (within 200 words) by 5 December 2022 to be considered for the panel. Submissions and questions can be directed to artsnecospirituality@gmail.com. More information is available on the conference website.
Princeton Conference on Ritual & Materiality in Buddhism: This conference is intended to foster work that explores the connections between ritual and different forms of materiality, including manuscripts, printed liturgies, paintings, images, statues, talismans, other ritual implements and technologies, and bodily engagement.
Paper proposals should be sent to ccsr@princeton.edu; please include “Ritual and Materiality Conference Proposal” in the subject line. Proposals should include a title and 250-word abstract. Proposals are due by Nov. 1, 2022. Learn more here.
You can find more CfPs and other resources at this website: The Religious Studies Opportunities Digest
Scholarships
A list of scholarships is available at: http://scholarships.gtu.edu. You can search the scholarship webpage based on your area of study, the stage in the program you are in, the deadline, or any other tags as listed in the sidebar.
Center for Studies in Religion and Society: University of Victoria. Multiple Fellowship opportunities ranging from Graduate student to Post-doc to Special Interests. Deadline: Varies depending on program choice. More Information: Fellowships & awards - University of Victoria (uvic.ca)
Call for Applications from the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (BCSR): New Directions in Theology Grants for Graduate Students
For the Spring 2023 semester, BCSR is offering eight fellowships of $3,750 each for graduate students to explore the relationship between democracy and theology through a focus on religion and health. Led by two BCSR faculty members (Ronit Y. Stahl and Munir Jiwa), students will meet bi-weekly to read key texts in the history of religion, explore research topics, and meet Berkeley and visiting faculty working in the field. Awardees will form a cohort of graduate students from diverse disciplines that share an interest in the study of religion and theology.
The Spring 2023 semester’s New Directions group will concentrate on the intersection of religion and health, broadly construed. Applications should be sent to info.bcsr@berkeley.edu by October 21 at 5 PM. More details are here.
job Opportunities
The Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (JST) invites applications for an Assistant or Associate rank position in Theological Ethics to begin in Fall 2023. Areas of sub-specialization are open but should complement existing faculty strengths. A strong candidate will offer evidence of engaging public and social issues through constructive and contextual methodologies. Please see this ad for more details.
Fairfield University’s Department of Religious Studies invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Religious Studies in the area of Religious Ethics, Moral Theology, or Theological Ethics, beginning in the fall of 2023. Check out the announcement here.
The Department of Religious Studies at DePaul University invites applicants for a tenure-track appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor beginning July 2023. We are looking for a candidate who specializes in Contemporary Islam in the Americas. Scholars working on critical approaches to gender and/or race are particularly encouraged to apply. Please find more information at this link.
Wake Forest University's Department for the Study of Religions invites applications for a tenure-track position in East Asian Buddhism with a focus on religion in society and/or cultural history at the Assistant Professor level, beginning July 2023. Here are the job details.
ANNOUNCEMENT
If you come across any calls for papers, job openings, or scholarships that might be relevant to your peers at the GTU, please share them with me. Also, if you have any questions concerning the workshops or suggestions to improve this newsletter, please email me at cmotupalli@gtu.edu. Thank you! - Chai