What: Gods and Monsters: Historicizing Ritual, Public Memory, and the Religious Imagination
Where: San Francisco State University
When: 25 April 2015
Deadline for Submissions: 13 February 2015

Fertility is one of the conference themes.

Themes

The monster is a construct and a projection, always interpreting the moment in which it is created. So too we see constructions of self in cultural phenomena as diverse as comic book heroes, ghost stories, fertility rituals, hagiography-even the villainization of the “other” informs the moment in which it enter public consciousness.

It is in this spirit that the 2015 History Students Association Conference at San Francisco State University is seeking papers that explore the intersection between humanity and its constructs.

How does ritual inform mentality? What can the supernatural tell us about historic truth and memory? How can we interpret stories so as to better understand the storyteller? How does politicization shape religious experience? How does the demonization of the other inform cultural fear? What do the fantastic elements interwoven with oral histories help us to discover about cultural norms?

Cross disciplinary submissions from film studies, literature, religious and ethnic studies, art history, and anthropology are encouraged.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit abstracts of 300 words or less to hsa@mail.sfsu.edu. Please include the title of the submitted paper, your name, affiliated institution, field of study, and contact information. The deadline for submissions is February 13, 2015. If selected, final papers will be due to your panel chair no later than March 20, 2015.

Further Details

Contact name: Kelly Boylan, President, History Students Association, San Francisco State University

Email: hsa@mail.sfsu.edu

Conference website,