Scholars and students from many disciplines are getting ready to celebrate the creation, interpretation, and appreciation of literature from across historical periods and genres.
Trinity Western University is honoured to host the 2024 Western Regional Conference on Christianity and Literature on May 9-11 at the Langley campus. Organized by the TWU Department of English and Creative Writing, this year’s conference theme is “ConVersing/ConServing: Care, Creation, Communion.”
The event welcomes professors, graduate students, and undergraduate students from literary studies and other disciplines to engage with the conference theme through presentations and discussions. Presentations will include both scholarly research and creative exploration of convergences between literature and contemplative and active practices of creation care, the cultivation and stewardship of language, the work of the Christian imagination and cultural criticism, the work of liturgy, and more.
Exploring the relationships between Christianity and literature
The Conference on Christianity and Literature is “an interdisciplinary society dedicated to exploring the relationships between Christianity and literature.” Annual events and ongoing activities promote academic excellence and scholarly exchange among participants from the United States, Canada, and over a dozen other countries. In 2007, the TWU Department of English hosted the Western regional conference on Christianity and Literature for the first time.
Faculty members from the English department Dr. Katharine Bubel and Dr. Sara Pearson express their delight in hosting the conference once again:
“We hope that attendees will find the theme, ‘ConVersing/ConServing: Care, Creation, Communion,’ to be a timely one, offering the opportunity to reflect and relate in meaningful ways.”
“We look forward to hearing the unique contributions of participants in this scholarly forum with its focus on the care for ‘the commons’ of language and land. We’re anticipating some lively and meaningful conversations among participants from within the disciplines of English literature and creative writing, as well as environmental studies, education, Indigenous studies, biblical and theological studies, and more.”
Welcoming the community
Several parts of the conference are open and free to the Trinity Western community and the public, including all the concurrent panels of paper presentations and two of the plenary sessions, Thursday evening and Friday morning.
The opening plenary session on Thursday evening (7-8:30 p.m.) features a keynote address on the conference theme by author Marilyn McEntyre, who teaches and writes about literature in relation to faith, health, and the natural world.
On Friday morning (9-10 a.m.), the plenary session is a panel conversation hosted by Dr. David Anonby with Marilyn McEntyre, Loren Wilkinson (professor emeritus, Regent College and expert in Christian environmental ethics and earthkeeping), Bob Ekblad, (Co-Founder and Co-Director of Tierra Nueva and New Earth Refuge in Burlington, Washington.), and TWU Siya:m Patricia Victor Switametelót.
Event details (open to the public)
- “ConVersing/ConServing: Care, Creation, Communion” with Marilyn McEntyre
Thursday, May 9, 7‑8:30 p.m.
Kuhn Centre, Room 115-116
In Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, our conference keynote speaker Marilyn McEntyre presents literary art and the study of literature as a form of stewardship. Caring for words is akin, she says, to environmental concern and action, for we hold both language and the land in common.
- “Keeping Common Ground: Land, Language, and Love of our Neighbour”with Marilyn McEntyre, Bob Ekblad, Loren Wilkinson, Patricia Victor Switametelót
Friday, May 10, 9-10:15 a.m.
Kuhn Centre, Room 115-116
- Birding walk on the Salmon River Trail with Dr. David Clements
Saturday, May 11 7:15-8 a.m. Meet at Kuhn Centre entrance.
- Concurrent paper presentation panels (schedule here)
TWU community, friends, and family are warmly invited to come and participate in the conversations that open up from the papers and plenary presenters. To see the full conference schedule on the website, click here.
Acknowledgements
The 2024 Western Conference on Christianity and Literature is co-sponsored by Trinity Western University and the TWU Department of English and Creative Writing, with funding provided by the Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford Supporting Structures grant (awarded to the TWU Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences) and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
About Research at TWU
TWU researchers are award-winning professors, nationally recognized educators, and intellectually engaged students. Together, they are enriching our programming, contributing to society, and revealing the necessity of faith integration in research. Learn more at TWU Research.
About Trinity Western University
Founded in 1962, Trinity Western University is a global Christian liberal arts university. We are dedicated to equipping students to discover meaningful connections between career, life, and the needs of the world. Drawing upon the riches of the Christian tradition, seeking to unite faith and reason through teaching and scholarship, Trinity Western University is a degree-granting research institution offering liberal arts and sciences as well as professional schools in business, nursing, education, human kinetics, graduate studies, and arts, media, and culture. It has campuses in Canada in Langley, Richmond, and Ottawa. Learn more at www.twu.ca or follow us on Instagram @trinitywestern, Twitter @TrinityWestern, on Facebook and LinkedIn. For media inquiries, please contact: media@twu.ca.