“Uses of ‘Religion’ in 19th C. Studies”

The conference will engage questions being asked ever more frequently among scholars of the nineteenth-century in a variety of disciplines concerning the category, “religion.” Scholars have noted that the modern, Western category of “religion” is a unique historical construction, which has grown up alongside notions of “the secular,” and been deeply entangled with–among other things–the formation of state power, imperial expansion, and unfavorable portrayals of non-Europeans.  The conference invites presentations that seek to advance scholarship on nineteenth-century literature and culture by critically reflecting on the historical formations of “religion” and the uses to which the concept has been put. Fifteen proposals will be accepted for the conference, and all participants will receive generous financial support for travel and accommodations.  The hope is to collect essays from the conference into an edited book.