Personhood, Place & Possession Conference

When:
May 28, 2013 – May 30, 2013 all-day America/Los Angeles Timezone
2013-05-28T07:00:00+00:00
2013-05-30T07:00:00+00:00
Where:
McCune Conference Room, HSSB 6020
Contact:
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PERSONHOOD, PLACE, & POSSESSION
Embodiment & Emplacement in Special Contexts

THOMAS CSORDAS, DAVID HERSHENOV, & TANYA LUHRMANN

This conference will explore social, cognitive, philosophical, and religious conceptions of personhood. Presenters will offer cross-disciplinary theories and methods for imagining the creation, transformation, and loss of personhood in a variety of cultural and religious settings.

Panels are organized around the following themes:
The Fantastic, the Demonic and the Gothic; Theology and Animality; Personhood and Memory; Oracular Possession in South Asia; AfroCarribbean and Pentecostal Possession; and Suffering, Healing, and Conversion. The conference will also feature a special screening of the film “Jathilan: Trance and Possession in Java.”

Keynote speakers:
Thomas Csordas is professor of anthropology at UC San Diego and author of Body/Meaning/Healing. He is researching contemporary exorcisms.

David Hershenov is professor of philosophy at the University at Buffalo and works on metaphysics, bioethics, and religion, in relation to identity.

Tanya Luhrmann is professor of anthropology at Stanford University and author of When God Talks Back. She is conducting ongoing research into theory of mind and unusual sensory experiences.

This conference is generously supported by the Cordano Endowment in Catholic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, the Department of Philosophy, and the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at UCSB.

Sponsored by the Religion, Experience, and Mind Lab Group