More-than-human Religion: Indigeneity, Objects, and Ecologies
Florida State University
April 25-28, 2024
Thursday (April 25)
5 pm – 6:30 pm Welcoming remarks and the Bartholomeusz keynote lecture
Globe Auditorium, Center for Global Engagement
Remarks from Elizabeth Cecil, Sonia Hazard, and Martin Kavka, chair of the FSU Religion Department
Radhika Govindrajan (Washington): “‘The Two Wives of Masan’: On Haunting, Ritual, and Interspecies Kinship in Himalayan India”
6:30 pm – 7:15 pm Public reception
Globe Auditorium foyer
7:30 pm Dinner for invited speakers
Friday (April 26)
9 am – 10:30 am Indigenous ontologies and ethics in the Americas
Student Union, room 2211
Natalie Avalos (UC Boulder): “A Native Teleology: Stewardship and the Sovereignty of Plant Medicines”
Rebecca J. Mendoza (Harvard): “Resisting Objectification: Relational Possibilities Among More-than-human Materials in the Museum”
James Waters (Villanova): “Vignettes of Lakota Ecological Ethics: Historical, Ethical, and Contemporary Perspectives on More-than-Human Persons”
Moderated by Martin Kavka (FSU Religion)
10:45 am – 12:15 pm Modern Languages and Linguistics plenary lecture, with support from the Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies
Student Union, room 2213 – Flannery Student Life Project Room
Wai Chee Dimock (Yale): “A Long History of Pandemics.” This talk explores the community-based science of the Cherokees and Navajos as a new form of more-than-human spirituality.
12:15 pm – 1 pm Catered vegetarian lunch for all conference attendees
Student Union, Ballrooms A & B (across the hall from 2213)
1 pm – 2:30 pm Panel discussion with Wai Chee Dimock
Student Union, room 2213 – Flannery Student Life Project Room
Panelists:
Andrew Frank (FSU History)
Amitav Ghosh
Franz Prichard (FSU Modern Languages and Linguistics)
Antje Muntendam (FSU Modern Languages and Linguistics)
Moderated by Elizabeth Cecil (FSU Religion)
3 pm – 4:30 pm Enchantments, materialities, agencies
Student Union, room 2211
Paul Christopher Johnson (Michigan): “‘My Mutilated Gods’: Rodin and the Modes of Statuary Life”
Sonia Hazard (FSU Religion): “Theory From Religion: Living in Joseph Smith’s World”
Nathanael Stein (FSU Philosophy): “Divinities and Disenchantment: Explaining the Natural World in Ancient Greek Philosophy”
Moderated by Alison Sperling (FSU English)
5 pm – 6:45 pm Keynote lecture featuring Amitav Ghosh
William Johnston Building Auditorium, room 2005
Welcoming remarks by Andrew Frank, Director of FSU’s Native American and Indigenous Studies Center
Amitav Ghosh: “Deadly Simplifications: Imagining the Future in a Warming World”
6:45 pm Public reception and book signing
7:30 pm Dinner for invited speakers
Saturday (April 27)
9 am – 10:30 am Ecologies of word & image in Indigenous art
Student Union, room 3010 – Senate Chambers
Kristin Dowell (FSU Art History): “Fite Fuaite, Interwoven: Relationality within Irish Language and Art”
Elizabeth Cecil (FSU Religion): “The Living Rock: Lithic Media, Indigenous Ecologies, and the Building of Hinduism in Southeast Asia”
Michael Carrasco (FSU Art History): “Images, Agency, and the Organization of Matter in Mesoamerica”
Moderated by Sonia Hazard (FSU Religion)
11 am – 12:45 pm Landscapes, objects, and animality
Student Union, room 3010 – Senate Chambers
Daniela De Simone (Ghent): “Ritual Landscapes and Ceremonial Objects of Premodern South Indian Upland Forest-Dwellers”
Jayur Mehta (FSU Anthropology): “Indigenous Fisheries, Shell Middens, and Monumentality: Describing the Longue Duree of Floodplain Landscapes in the Atchafalaya”
Joseph Hellweg (FSU Religion): “Ecology as Eschatology: Indigenous Hunting, Song & Sacrifice in Islamic West Africa”
Arya Adityan (FSU Religion): “Bonds Beyond Human: Human-Boar Relationships in the Early Skandapurāṇa and Tulu Paddhanas”
Moderated by Amee Parikh (FSU Religion)
12:45 pm – 1:45 pm Catered vegetarian lunch for all conference attendees
Student Union, Ballrooms A & B (downstairs from the Senate Chambers)
1:45 pm – 3:15 pm Plenary panel with museum professionals from the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, Seminole Tribe of Florida
Student Union, room 3010 – Senate Chambers
Panelists:
Gordon (Ollie) Wareham
Cypress Billie
Chandler Demayo
Tara Backhouse
Joseph Gilbert
Moderated by Arya Adityan (FSU Religion) and Michael Carrasco (FSU Art History)
3:45 pm – 5:15 pm Institutions, spaces, and the state
Student Union, room 3010 – Senate Chambers
Talia Burnside (FSU Religion): “Un/Queer Ecology: Statecraft and the Religions of Animal Husbandry”
Tyler McCreary (FSU Geography) and Rebecca Hall: “Settler-Colonial Psychiatric Care and the Confinement of the Senile Indigenous Subject”
Ian MacCormack (Hebrew University of Jerusalem/FSU Religion): “Primordial Perfection and World Transformation: Buddhist Politics in Early Modern Tibet”
Moderated by Radhika Govindrajan (Washington)
6 pm Dinner for invited speakers
Sunday (April 28)
9 am – 10:30 am Graduate student workshop 1: Art and ecologies
Student Union, room 2214 – Student Affairs Development Council Meeting Room
Haylee Glasel (FSU Art History): “‘Let the River Live’: Contemporary Sámi Environmental Action and Artistic Practice”
Tess McCoy (FSU Art History): “Sonya Kelliher-Combs: Embodying Alaska Native Knowledge and Resilience”
Sheila Scoville (FSU Art History): “Full of Sweet Magueys: Agave–Human Symbiosis in Colonial Nahua Codices”
Moderated by Talia Burnside (FSU Religion)
11 am – 12:30 pm Graduate student workshop 2: Spirits and ethics
Student Union, room 2214 – Student Affairs Development Council Meeting Room
Amanda Brown (FSU Religion): “Tibetan Buddhist Rituals Invoking the Fierce Deity Yamāntaka: Material and Immaterial Actors of the Macabre”
Ajiththa Suganthan (FSU Religion): Serpent Deities (Nagas) in Ancient Sri Lanka: Evidence from the Kaddukarai Excavation
Kaitlynn Balmer (FSU Religion): “Beyond Anthropocentrism: Posthumanist Reflections on Technology, Plants, and Animals”
Moderated by Bryan Cuevas (FSU Religion)
12:30 pm Catered vegetarian lunch for all conference attendees and goodbyes
We are grateful to the following sponsors for their generous support:
FSU Native American and Indigenous Studies Center
Florida Humanities
American Academy of Religion (International Collaborative Research Grant)
FSU’s Council on Research & Creativity (Arts & Humanities Program Enhancement Grant)
FSU Religion Department
FSU University Libraries
FSU College of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Office
FSU College of Fine Arts
FSU Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies
FSU Departments of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Geography, History, Philosophy, Art History, Anthropology, and English
FSU Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities
FSU Center for Global Engagement
Special thanks to the following individuals:
Martin Kavka, Andrew Frank, Susan Stetson, Julia Yarboro, Jonathan Bridges, Aiden Briesacher, Beth Coggeshall, Matthew Mewhinney, and Robert Romanchuk
Funding for this project was provided partly through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The AAR logo is reproduced here with permission and may not be reproduced elsewhere without express consent from an authorized AAR representative.
