Religious studies professor awarded American Academy of Religion Grant

Brian Pennington, director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society and professor of religious studies, received a $4,000 grant from the American Academy of Religion for his project, “On the Edge: Launching a Regional Interdisciplinary Symposium in the Southeast.”

Co-authors on the grant are Tom Mould, professor of anthropology, and Lynn Huber, associate professor of religious studies. This grant will provide seed money for the inaugural meeting of a two-day scholarly symposium that seeks to foster interdisciplinary collaboration across institutions in the Southeast and to forge new pathways in the academic study of religion.

The symposium will be hosted by the Elon Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society and will bring scholars working in such fields as law, history, psychology, anthropology, literature, philosophy, art history, political science, classics and gender studies into conversation with those from religious studies and will result in a major publication in the interdisciplinary study of religion, with regional scholars serving as both editors and contributors.

The inaugural symposium with the theme, “On the Edge of Apocalypse,” will be held Feb. 9-11 and will host eight to 12 scholars who study apocalyptic groups and texts from around North America.

More information about the 2017 symposium can be found here.