Alway/Emmanuel Symposium – Bridges and Boundaries: Religious Diversities in the 21st Century Classroom

When: January 12-14 2025
Where: Emmanuel College and the University of St. Michaels College – various locations

About the Symposium
Interreligious teaching and learning is happening both in classrooms (including in professional schools with a secular mission and in theological schools founded in a sectarian traditions), as well as outside of classroom contexts in social movements and activism circles. This conference investigates important questions that are related to interreligious teaching and learning both in and outside of classrooms. For example, what wise practices for bridging different identities and contexts have emerged in interreligious contexts? What boundaries remain important to observe, and what boundaries can be redefined? How do we practice interreligious teaching and learning in ways that promote social justice?

Keynote Speaker Marianne Moyaert
Nostra Aetate: What Has It Taught and Mistaught Us about Interreligious Dialogue?
Marianne Moyaert specializes in the (comparative) theology of religions, interreligious hermeneutics, research into the religio-racial constellation and Jewish-Christian relations. She has a particular interest in the ritual and material dimensions of interreligious encounters.

Call for Papers
We invite proposals that discuss teaching amid religious diversities on topics including:
1. defining interreligious, multireligious, or interfaith pedagogy
2. trauma-informed approaches
3. race and racialization
4. decolonizing interfaith pedagogies
5. secular-religious dynamics
6. categories such as “religion,” “theology,” “culture,” and “vocation”
7. intersectional identities and encounters
8. power and privilege
9. tradition-specific perspectives on interfaith teaching
We welcome papers that present case studies, qualitative research, and/or literature-based research. We also welcome collaborative work, particularly between professors/staff and students, in a variety of formats. We also welcome presentations by educators in other settings.

In your proposal, please identify the format you are proposing: 

  • a traditional (20 minute) paper by either a single scholar or a pair of scholars,
  • a collaborative session (90 minute) proposed by a group of three or four scholars, such as a workshop, artistic presentation, or other praxis-based engagement with the theme; collaborative sessions should model collaborative inquiries and pedagogies.
  • a poster presenting emerging research, research in progress, or current practices and programs. 

Please also indicate whether you would be willing to be considered for another format if space does not permit your preferred format.  Your proposal should include a 250-word abstract and a 100-word bio for each presenter. 

This symposium is jointly sponsored by Emmanuel College in celebration of its multireligious programs and by the Alway Symposium at the University of St. Michael’s College. This sponsorship includes a limited number of stipends to be awarded to teams that include students. These will be awarded when proposals are accepted.

Please submit proposals through the online submission form no later than October 7. Questions? Contact Wendy Cranston at w.cranston@mail.utoronto.ca.