Fandom and Religion: An International, Inter-disciplinary Conference

Here are details of a conference due to take place next year that appeals to my innate geekery:

Fandom and Religion: An international, inter-disciplinary conference

28th-30th July 2015

This conference will take place at the University of Leicester’s award-winning new Conference Centre, College Court.

The Conference will explore interactions between religion and popular culture. How does fandom work? What is happening to fans as they express their enthusiasms and allegiances? Has fandom replaced or become a form of religion? What can the study of religion learn from explorations of fandom? This event will provide opportunity for participants to explore these and other questions about popular culture and religion in plenary, panel and short paper sessions. Speakers will include:

• Matt Hills (Aberystwyth, author of Fan Cultures)
• Kathryn Lofton (Yale, author of Oprah)
• John Maltby (Leicester, co-author of Personality, Individual Differences and Intelligence)
• Chris Partridge (Lancaster, author of The Lyre of Orpheus)
• with John Lyden and Eric Mazur (co-editors of The Routledge Companion to Religion and Popular Culture)

A main plenary strand will focus on fandom and religion. In addition, there will be opportunities for researchers, and scholars/practitioners interested in the religion/popular culture interchange to offer short papers and presentations.

We expect to offer conference participants opportunity to offer papers on such topics as: 

• Celebrity worship
• The impact of celebrity culture on religious practice
• Media practices and religion
• Uses of popular culture by religious groups
• Case-studies of fan culture (TV, sport, film, music)
• Theoretical debates about ‘fan culture and/as religious practice’

The Call for Papers will be issued in September 2014.

Researchers in all academic disciplines are welcome. The conference is designed to enable tricky, challenging, invigorating, stimulating intellectual encounter to occur, and fresh insights to be formed, in a way which benefits both theorists and practitioners.

For any questions, or to register your interest in the conference please send an email here.

H/T: TheoFantastique

Looks like I wrote ‘Collecting Memories: Identity, Nostalgia and the Objects of Childhood’ a few years too early! Also, notice that a used copy of the book it’s in is selling for almost £4,000. A bargain, methinks.