Participating scholar:
Dr. Donna L. Seamone
Donna L. Seamone is Assistant Professor of Comparative Religion at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her research focuses on the ethnographic study of religion, especially ritual and narrative. She teaches courses on Ritual Studies, Religious Ethnography, Religion and Ecology, Health, Illness and Religion and Women and Religion. She is co-chair of the Ritual Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion and Secretary of the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion.
Major publications include:
"This is My Story, This is my Song": A Pentecostal Woman's Life Story and Ritual Performance. University of California Press (Forthcoming); "Re-membering the Body in Liturgical Action: Entry-points for Inquiry into Living Liturgical Practice," Consensus: A Canadian Lutheran Journal of Theology 24/2 (Fall1998) 17-26.; "Body as Ritual Actor and Instrument of Praise: Verna Maynard's Experience as Praise Leader in the Kitchener Church of God." Journal of Ritual Studies 12/1 (Summer 1998), 31-59.
>> next Participating scholar:
Among the scholars who have
agreed to participate are:
>> Prof. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger
Welcome
Welcome to the homepage of the conference "Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual". The conference will take place from 29 September -
2 October in Heidelberg, one of the oldest University towns in Germany.
Aim of the conference
The Collaborative Research Centre "Ritual Dynamics" (SFB 619 "Ritualdynamik") was set up in 2002 as an interdisciplinary centre to research the dynamics of ritual. It is the world's largest research centre dedicated solely to investigating these issues, with over 90 scientists and researchers working in seventeen sub-projects. Our focus is on the (re)invention of rituals, transfer and change - which we see as the rule not the exception. Through questions such as: "Who invents rituals and why?" "When and why do rituals die?" "How variable are rituals and how do new media affect old rituals?" new avenues have been opened up, such as research into inter-cultural ritual transfer, ritual agency, and the connections between rituals and new media.
It is now time to develop collaborative models to research rituals at an international level. We thus invite scholars worldwide to come, discuss, and expand our results, and to explore new approaches such as ritual economics, ritual design, and scientific rituals.
Conference structure
To give focus to the enormous potential of this field, the conference will be structured around themed panels. At present twenty two panels are being organised. The diversity of topics will reflect the diversity of backgrounds of the participants - from Anthropology to Musicology, Assyriology to Mediaeval Studies, Medical Psychology to Indology - to name a few.
