In Boston, Massachusetts!
| Thursday, May 29 | |||
| Afternoon | Boston tours for those interested | ||
| 4:30p | BU Castle | Registration; Wine and cheese reception | |
| 5:30p | BU Castle | Dinner with opening remarks by Dean Bryan Stone | |
| 7:30p | CAS B12 | Film Screening: Mass (2021), with discussion following moderated by John Lyden | |
| Friday morning until 3pm--Boston explore | |||
| Friday, May 30 | |||
| 8:00a | STH | Registration; Coffee, fruit, pastries | |
| 8:30-10:15a | CAS B12 | Plenary Session #1 – Simulating Religious Violence (2024) | |
| Screening of Simulating Religious Violence followed by conversation with the filmmakers and researchers | |||
| 10:15-10:30a | STH | Break – Coffee, Fruit, Pastries | |
| 10:30a-12:00p | First Presentation Block | ||
| CAS 211 | Concurrent Paper Session 1a: Reflections on Systemic Violence
Josh Neuberger (moderator) |
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| Kendall Doty (Boston University School of Theology, U.S.), “Whose Violence Counts? A Critique of the 2024 Film Simulating Religious Violence” | |||
| Dohyung Cha (Boston University School of Theology, U.S.), “A Meta-Future Crafter: MLK Jr. as an Applied Psychologist in Selma (2014)” | |||
| Javier Fernandez (California State University, Long Beach, U.S.), “‘Ohana’ Means Some Get Left Behind: An Examination of Displacement, Post-Colonialism, and Religious Syncretism in Disney’s 2002 Lilo and Stitch” | |||
| CAS 211 | Concurrent Paper Session 1b: AI and Altered Realities
Regan Hardeman (moderator) |
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| Heather Bigley (BYUradio), “An articulation of God-anxiety in recent AI-films” | |||
| Jaira Koh (Boston University School of Theology, U.S.), “Radicalising Theological Anthropology with Her” | |||
| Anne-Marie Fowler (University of Toronto, Canada), “Origin and Creation Illuminate Violence to Time-lines: A Reading of James Ward Byrkit’s Coherence (2013)” | |||
| 12:00-1:30p | Lunch Break (on your own, or we may have boxed lunches for those who prefer) | ||
| 1:30-3:00p | Second Presentation Block | ||
| CAS 211 | Concurrent Paper Session 2a: Philosophical perspectives
Jaira Koh (moderator) |
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| Joseph Kickasola (Baylor University, U.S.), “Bazin Redux: Realism Re-Considered” | |||
| Pablo Alzola Cerero (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain), “Malick and Dostoevsky: the Pursuit of Beauty, Wonder, and Love” | |||
| Srdjan Sremac (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), “Cinematic Truth-Telling and the Limits of Representation: Film, Trauma and the Sacred” | |||
| CAS 224 | Concurrent Paper Session 2b (Christian influence in cinema)
Mike Heyes (moderator) |
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| Brenda Cuellar Marines (National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico), “Virtue and Vice: Catholic Values and Class Stratification” | |||
| Javier Ortiz Echague (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos), “Burning to Fly: the Journey of the Dark Night in José Val del Omar’s Fuego en Castilla (1960)” | |||
| Richard Lindsay (Graduate Theological Union), “Extra or Star? The ‘Jesus-Adjacent’ Film in Postwar Hollywood” | |||
| 3:00-3:30p | STH | Break – Snacks | |
| 3:30-5:00p | Third Presentation Block | ||
| CAS 211 | Concurrent Paper Session 3a: Islamic Cinema
James Thrall (moderator) |
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| Kristian Petersen (Old Dominion University, U.S.), “Queer Muslims in North American Cinema” | |||
| Adnan Hussain (University of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), Joyland and the invisible world of trans people in an Islamic State | |||
| David Sander (Stonehill College, U.S.), “Sword and the Soul: A Comparative Analysis of Japanese and Islamic Cinema” | |||
| CAS 224 | Concurrent Paper Session 3b: Horror cinema
Bryan Stone (moderator) |
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| Mike Heyes (Lycoming College, U.S.), “Longlegs Has Long Reach: The Influence of the Satanic Panic on Contemporary Media” | |||
| Preston Blakely (University of Mississippi, U.S.), “Early American (Eco)theologies of Horror in Robert Eggers’s The Witch: A New-England Folktale (2015)” | |||
| Taylor Thomas, “How Nosferatu Challenges Our Understanding of Agency” | |||
| 5:00-7:30p | Dinner break (on your own) | ||
| 7:30p | CAS B12 | Film Screening: Troubled Water (with discussion following moderated by Gereon Terhorst and Douglas Finn) | |
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| Saturday, May 31 | |||
| 8:00a | STH | Coffee, fruit, pastries | |
| 8:30-9:45a | CAS B12 | Plenary Session #2 – Reflections on Troubled Water (2008) | |
| Gereon Terhorst (University of Muenster, Germany), “Holy Communion and Reconciliation: Liturgical Insights from Erik Poppe’s Troubled Water” | |||
| Douglas Finn (Assumption University, U.S.), “Memory, evil, grace, and forgiveness in Erik Poppe’s 2008 film Troubled Water” *Get title* | |||
| GET READY FOR PRESENTATION | |||
| 10:00-11:30a | Fourth Presentation Block | ||
| CAS 224 | Concurrent Paper Session 4a: Religious Responses to Trauma and Violence Rachel Wagner (moderator) | ||
| Eric Martin (Loyola Marymount University, U.S.), “Antifascist Critique & Theology in Costa-Gavras” | |||
| Alex Setliff (Lycoming College, U.S.), “The Word of God in Martin Scorsese’s Silence“ | |||
| James Thrall (Knox College, U.S.), “Ritual, Conflict, and Loss in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Still Walking (Aruitemo aruitemo)” | |||
| CAS 224 | Concurrent Paper Session 4b: Saints and Heros
John Lyden (moderator) |
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| Dennis Etzel, Jr. (Washburn University, U.S.), “‘The Hero We Need’: The Batman as a Modern Mythology and Christian Symbolism Moving from Conflict to Resolution with the Struggle between Hypermasculinity and Healing from Trauma” | |||
| Fred Mason (University of New Brunswick, Canada), “The (Apo)Theosis of Rocky Balboa” | |||
| Mariola Marczak (University of Warmia and Mazury, Poland), Life for Life: Maximilian Kolbe and Martyrdom | |||
| 11:30-1:00p | Lunch (on your own) | ||
| 1:00-2:30p | Fifth Presentation Block | ||
| CAS 211 | Concurrent Paper Session 5a: Visions of Reconciliation
Joe Kickasola (moderator) |
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| Hessam Abedini (University of Oregon, U.S.), “The Sacred Act of Burial: Death Rituals as Reconciliation from Firdausi’s Shahnameh to Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry (1997)” | |||
| Irena Sever Globan (Catholic University of Croatia), “The Role of Female Characters in Constructing the World of Peace and Reconciliation” | |||
| Rachel Wagner (Ithaca College, U.S.), “‘Worlding Worlds’: Worldbuilding Is Not Neutral” | |||
| CAS 224 | Concurrent Paper Session 5b: Buddhism and Hinduism
Kristian Petersen (moderator) |
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| Kathy Lin (Georgetown University), “The Parable of the Gut-shot Deer: A Neo-Confucian and Buddho-Daoist Vision of Ecological Redemption in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist” | |||
| Shankar Ramaswami (O.P. Jindal Global University, India), “Religion, Politics, and Nonviolence: Meanings of Dharma in Cinematic Retellings of the Ramayana“ | |||
| Nikky Singh (Colby College) “When the Other is the Self: Religious Harmony and Religious Violence in Yash Chopra’s Dharmputra” | |||
| 2:30-3:00p | STH | Snack Break | |
| 3:00-4:30p | Sixth Presentation Block | ||
| CAS 211 | Concurrent Paper Session 6a: Reconciliation and Sacrifice
Rebekah Neuberger (moderator) |
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| Caralyn Ware (Iliff School of Theology/University of Colorado, U.S.), “Selfless Sacrifice: Moral Injury, Spiritual Violence, and Reconciliation in Avatar: The Last Airbender” | |||
| John Lyden (University of Nebraska, Omaha, U.S.), “Killing Christ Again: Film Violence and the Function of Sacrifice” | |||
| CAS 224 | Concurrent Paper Session 6b: Religion and the Secular
TBD (moderator) |
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| Mohammed Mehdi Kimiagari (Brown University, U.S.), “Affective Nexus of the Sacred/Secular: The Cinematic Screen and the Reconfiguration of the Immanent Frame” | |||
| Kianna Mahony (Harvard Divinity School, U.S.), “The Practice of Crafting Meaning and Morality in the Secular Community by Reflecting on Movies” | |||
| Henry Shiu (Emmanuel College of Victoria University – University of Toronto, Canada), “Breaking the Hell’s Gate: Exploring Post-Secularism, Feminism, Religious and Cultural Tensions in The Last Dance” | |||
| 4:30p | STH | Concluding words and farewell | |
Alamo Drafthouse Film
https://drafthouse.com/boston
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https://maps.app.goo.gl/DPjsGukw6QqHQzkq8
The Brattle Theatre
Even if you don’t recognize any title on this arthouse theater’s schedule, you’ll certainly leave entertained—no matter what early-aughts indie or spine-chilling silent film is on the big screen. (Nosferatu circa 1922, anyone?)
40 Brattle St., Cambridge, brattlefilm.org.
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https://maps.app.goo.gl/aNF5HjmVHiSjv4e97
Coolidge Corner Theatre
Fresh off a $15 million makeover, this Brookline institution balances sleek upgrades with its cherished community vibe. New hits, cult faves, and 70 mm showings still grace its screens.
290 Harvard St., Brookline, coolidge.org.
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https://www.somervilletheatre.com/
Sunday morning
good bye, Boston!
