INSBS Summer 2023 - Call for Papers - Science and Religion in Popular/Media Cultures
INSBS Summer 2023 Conference Panel Proposal
Anthony K Nairn and Alex Hall
Science and Religion in Popular Culture and Media
The field of science and religion has grown in methodological sophistication and scope over the past thirty years, but it is only within the last ten that it has begun to branch out into more diverse cultural and topical contexts. Unfortunately, media and popular culture more generally and their study have had little contact with the exciting work being done in the field of science and religion. This panel proposal seeks correction of this sparse area of study, calling for scholars who dip into both the ‘territories of “science” and “religion”’, and who investigate the dynamics, however that may be, at work in texts of media and popular culture. This panel will consider how science and religion are portrayed, discussed, shown, etc. in media and/or popular culture, specifically and in detail. Open to a wide range of humanities and social science methods, we will seek out how and where the interactions of science and religion play out in everyday, public, and popular mediums. We will compare and contrast how portrayals, discussions, visualization, etc., of science and religion differ from academic discourses, dive into motivating factors, reveal the narrative framing at work, and more. Our task will be to have scholars of popular culture push the boundaries of what the field of science and religion currently offers by bringing into discussion a rather overlooked aspect of the popular imagination—popular culture and all it entails. In being popular, it invites scrutiny but also respect in being widely accessible and highly influential. In hosting this panel, we hope to add to and build up the field of science and religion while also developing new avenues of investigation and scholarly discourse for scholars of media and popular culture.
Drawing the boundaries of popular media and culture broadly, contributions to the panel may cover a wide range of texts, from, for example, anything from nineteenth-century popular periodicals, art-house or Hollywood films, comic books, music videos, through to best-selling video games, etc. Our intention is to bring together and more formally adopt humanities and social science research on media and popular culture into dialogue with established theoretical frameworks within the growing field of science and religion. As such, we welcome a wide range of abstract submissions that adopt methodologies that investigate both science and religion in popular culture and media.
To submit a paper proposal to this area of the INSBS 2023 conference, please write a title and abstract (of no more than 300 words), alongside a biographical note of no more than 200 words (including your institution, title/position, research interests, etc.) and send them to Anthony K Nairn, cc’ing Alex Hall, with the subject title “INSBS 2023 Submission - [YOUR NAME]”.
Under the gracious generosity of the INSBS, funding is available for those travelling to the conference. Note too that this conference will be in hybrid format, so participants who are unwilling/unable to travel are welcome to submit abstracts as well.