Workshop Report
Twelve presenters, the keynote speaker, the committee members, seven
professors, and one graduate student registered for the workshop for a
total of twenty-three participants from ten different universities. The
workshop opened on the evening of Wednesday 23 May at Saint Mary’s
University and prior to the keynote address participants were welcomed
by Dr. Kevin Vessey, Associate Vice President Research at Saint Mary’s
University and by Dr. Terry Murphy, Chair of the Board of Directors of
the Atlantic Metropolis Center. Professor Alec Soucy’s talk raised many
issues about the contemporary study of religion in Canada and
transnationally and was framed by his research on Vietnamese Buddhists
in Canada and Vietnam. He argued that religion is better understood as
a process rather than a product and that Canadian scholars need a better
understanding of religion in the homelands of Canadian immigrants.
Religious innovations are taking place in multiple sites and identifying
the power relations in localized contexts that influence these changes
is important. The keynote was followed by a question period and the
discussion continued informally during a reception. Thursday 24 May began with two presentations by committee members, the first being an overview and history of the scholarly study of religion in Atlantic Canada. Dr. Paul Bowlby noted that many of the Religious Studies departments in universities throughout the region arose out of theology programs established in faith-based institutions. Christianity was the primary focus of scholarship for many years due to existing staff in these departments. This slowly changed with new hires. With substantial immigration to the region in the last decade, there has been an increase in religious diversity and faculty are often called upon to comment on debates concerning religion and public policy. Using her own experiences as a starting point, Dr. Ruby Ramji then spoke about the variety of opportunities for networking in Canada, the US and internationally for scholars of religion. This was followed by three paper sessions with lunch and/or coffee breaks between each session.
Sessions were chaired by faculty participants. Each student had fifteen minutes to present her/his research followed by questions. The range of papers presented provided a glimpse into some of the research being done on religion in Atlantic Canada and elsewhere. Three papers were historical in nature, providing essential background on Protestant and English and French/Acadian Catholic relations which have characterized religion in the region until very recently. Another paper explored the relationship between the changes to the provincial education system and religion in Newfoundland and Labrador. One paper compared research results from Atlantic studies on domestic violence and churches with emerging data from Protestant and Catholic women who have recently immigrated to New Brunswick, most of whom come from Asia. Two papers focused on Muslim women, one an empirical study of university students in Halifax and the other a presentation of a bilingual data base on media articles concerning the ban on the burqa in France. Research on Hinduism included a textual analysis of social outsiders in the Mahābhārata and a study of Hindu widows in St. John’s. The area of new religious movements was covered by a paper on hip hop and the Five Percenters. Two theoretically-oriented papers rounded out the program with one student attempting to compare secularism in Egypt and Quebec and another exploring the potential of Bernard Lonergan’s theological insights for national and global conflict resolution.
The long day of scholarly interaction came to a close with a discussion led by Cathy Holtmann on plans for the future. There was tremendous enthusiasm for making the workshop an annual event and four graduate students from three universities volunteered to be part of the organizing committee for 2013. A suggested focus for next year was religious identities, spaces and places. We spoke about including more faculty participants through the organization of a session with a focus on teaching methods. With the experience of planning the inaugural workshop behind us, we intend to seek funding and begin advertising the workshop earlier so that we can broaden the base of participation in order to make it even more multidisciplinary. Students indicated their preference for the creation of a Facebook Group for continuing communication.
Sixteen evaluation forms were completed all of which were largely positive (values of 4 or 5 out of 5). Three forms provided neutral values (3 out of 5) in regards to the helpfulness of the keynote address for their own research. Two forms had neutral values rating the facilities, meals and accommodations. One form indicated a neutral value for the opportunity to fully present a paper and receive constructive feedback. The written comments were all positive with the opportunity for networking and learning about the research being done in the region being praised. Several students wrote that they valued the opportunity to publically present their research and receive encouragement from the workshop participants.
All funds raised for the workshop were used to cover the costs of food and beverages served at Saint Mary’s University. Additionally, the keynote speaker was given an honorarium and those who presented papers had the costs for residence accommodations and travel covered.