Call for Papers

***Deadline extended to Monday 31st July***

Apocalyptic Times: Spirituality in Global Revolt

Workshop: 7-8th September, Digital Humanities Lab, University of Exeter and Online

What role does spirituality play within contemporary political and cultural critique? In recent years, ideas and practices of spirituality have become increasingly prominent within activism and protest across the political spectrum, from ecological and decolonizing movements to populist revivals of religious nationalism. The apocalyptic has also been revived as an enduring and powerful mode of critiquing Western secular modernity, from eco-apocalyptic literature to the political worldview of russkiy mir.

This workshop aims to bring together different examples of ‘critical spirituality’ from across geographical regions and spiritual traditions. In doing so, it aims to explore a global history of critical spirituality by asking:

• How is spirituality and religion entangled in political and cultural protest movements or activism around the world? Can we make connections between local, national and transnational movements?
• Can attention to spirituality help make sense of contemporary political and cultural critiques and their historical roots? 
• How might these examples of ‘critical spirituality’ alter our histories of modern religion, secularization, and ‘de-secularization’?

We invite scholars from across disciplines and geographical regions to contribute 20 minute papers on topics related to the theme of critical spirituality. Possible topics include, but are by no means limited to:

• The relationship between religion, secularity, spirituality, and the (post)colonial
• The place of spirituality in reconceptualisations of the environment, gender and health
• Spirituality as a means of political and cultural resistance: political martyrdom, populism, public religion
• Critiques of categories such as spirituality, religion, secularity, etc.

Please send a 150 word abstract and a short bio, or any questions you might have, to ir299@exeter.ac.uk by Monday 31st July.