The Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies (University of Leeds) is issuing a call for papers for “Empowerment and the Sacred,” an interdisciplinary conference to be held June 24-26, 2011:

At a moment when the ‘resurgence of religion’ is calling into question the secular orientation of global futures, we ask: isn’t it time for cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary debate about the role that the sacred plays in our ideas and our histories of personal and collective agency, power and change?

THE EVENT: This conference will bring together scholars, professionals and arts practitioners to investigate the ways in which sacred traditions – in diverse cultural and historical contexts – have shaped discourses and practices of empowerment, emancipation, change, resistance and survival.CALL FOR PAPERS – OPEN NOW: We invite proposals for 20-minute presentations, addressing the relationship between empowerment and the sacred, to be given at the conference.Keynote Speakers: Professors Kim Knott (University of Leeds), Bart Moore-Gilbert (Goldsmith’s University) and Neil L. Whitehead (University of Wisconsin)

This conference will bring together scholars, arts-practitioners and professionals to investigate the ways in which sacred traditions – in diverse historical and cultural contexts – have shaped discourses and practices of empowerment, emancipation, change, resistance and survival. 

We invite proposals for 20-minute presentations, which address the relationship between empowerment and the sacred, to be given at the conference. 

Proposals are due February 20, 2011. Read more about the conference here, and read the full CFP here.