Conference Schedule
Thursday, April 22, 2004 – Whig Hall Senate Chamber
4:30 PM: KEYNOTE ADDRESS
- Welcome from Stephen F. Teiser, Acting Director of Princeton's Center for the Study of Religion and D. T. Suzuki Professor of Buddhist Studies, and Valerie Smith, Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature and Chair of the Program in African American Studies.
- "Feminism, Collaboration, and the Poetics of Diaspora." Keynote lecture by Brent Hayes Edwards, Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University and author of The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism (Harvard University Press, 2003)
6:00 PM – Public reception – Prospect House
7:00 PM – Dinner for 40 at Prospect House – Presidential Dining Room
Friday, April 23, 2004 –Whig Hall Senate Chamber
9:00 – 9:15 – Opening remarks by R. Marie Griffith, Princeton University, Barbara Dianne Savage, University of Pennsylvania;
9:15 – 11:45 AM: RELIGIONS IN THE AFRO-ATLANTIC DIASPORA
- Chair: Tim Watson, Princeton University
- Rachel Harding, Iliff School of Theology, "Slavery, Embodiment, and Obligation to History in Afro-Brazilian Candomblé."
- Tracey Hucks, Haverford College, "Women and the Yoruba-Orisha Tradition of Trinidad."
- Paul Christopher Johnson, University of Missouri, "Joining the African Diaspora Dynamics of Migration and Urban Religion."
- Respondents: Kim Butler, Rutgers University; & Elizabeth McAlister, Wesleyan University.
11:45 – 12:45 – Lunch in Whig Hall, Stokes Lounge (first floor)
12:45 – 2:45 PM: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN’S RELIGIOUS ORGANIZING
- Chair: Noliwe Rooks, Princeton University.
- Martha S. Jones, University of Michigan, "African-American Methodists Debate the 'Woman Question,' 1870-1900."
- Anthea Butler, Loyola Marymount University, "Black Women's Bible Bands."
- Respondents: Albert J. Raboteau, Princeton
University; Bettye Collier-Thomas,
Temple University, and Nancy A. Hewitt, Rutgers University.
2:45 – 3:00 – BREAK
3:00 – 5:00 PM: RELIGION THROUGH ART AND DRAMA
- Chair: Yvonne Chireau, Swarthmore College.
- Lisa Gail Collins, Vassar College, "The Arts of Loving."
- Judith Weisenfeld, Vassar College, "Religion and African American Women's Drama in the 1920s and1930s."
- Respondents: Margaret Rose Vendryes, Princeton University; and Valerie Smith, Princeton University
6:00 –Dinner for Conference participants, Prospect House Room E (Alternately, participants may go their own way for dinner and submit receipts for reimbursement.)
Saturday, April 24, 2004 –Whig Hall Senate Chamber
8:30 – 10:30 AM: AFRICA, RELIGION, AND DIASPORA
- Chair: Tisa Wenger, Princeton University.
- Bella Mukonyora, University of Virginia, "Women of the African Diaspora Within: a Masowe Apostles Case Study."
- Deidre Crumbley, North Carolina State University, "Power in the Blood: Menstrual Taboos and Women's Power in an Indigenous African Church."
- Respondents: Nicole von Germeten, Oregon State University, and Sandra Greene, Cornell University
10:30 – 10:45 – BREAK
10:45 – 12:45 PM: PRACTICES OF AGENCY AND AUTONOMY
- Chair: Leslie D. Callahan, University of Pennsylvania
- Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Colby College, "The Force of Faith: Black Women Community Workers' Religious Agency and Its Consequences."
- Wallace Best, University of Virginia, "'The Spirit of the Holy Ghost is a Male Spirit': African-American Preaching Women and the Paradox of Gender."
- Respondents: Diane Batts Morrow,
University of Georgia; and Lawrence Little,
Villanova University
12:45 – 1:45 – Lunch in Whig Hall, Stokes Lounge
1:45 – 3:45 PM: RELIGIOUS MEDIA AND CONSUMER CULTURE
- Chair: R. Marie Griffith, Princeton University.
- Marla Frederick, Harvard University, "'But, It's Bible': African American Women and the Novelty of Television Preachers."
- Carolyn Rouse, Princeton University, "Shopping with Sister Zubayda: Locating African American Sunni Muslim Agency Through Consumption."
- Respondents: Cecilia Moore, University of Dayton; and Mia Bay, Rutgers University
3:45 – 4:00 –BREAK
4:00 – 5:00 PM: SUMMATION AND FINAL COMMENTS
- Chair: Barbara Dianne Savage, University of Pennsylvania
- Farah Griffin, Columbia University
- Eddie Glaude, Princeton University
- General discussion to follow
5:00 PM – Reception and cocktail buffet – Prospect House, drawing room
6:00 PM – Dinner for 40 – Prospect House, Presidential Dining Room
Center for the Study of Religion