#92: Conference on Yoruba religion

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: P D Bellegarde-Smith <pbs@csd.uwm.edu>

Please advertize. The Yoruba religion is a part of Haitian Vodun. 

From: Terry Rey <reyt@fiu.edu>


UPCOMING CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

The Globalization of Yoruba Religious Culture

A major international conference on Yoruba religious traditions will be held
at Florida International University in Miami from December 9 to 12, 1999:
“From Local to Global: Rethinking Yoruba Religious Traditions for the Next
Millenium.” The event will be sponsored by the Florida International
University Department of Religious Studies and African-New World Studies
Program.  Conference discourse will be guided by three main questions: 1) What
are the dominant, normative, and essential components of Yoruba religious
culture where meaning takes place?  2) What kinds of texts continue to
legitimize Yoruba religion in its local and diasporic contexts?  3) How are
these texts validated or contested by practitioners?  A primary objective of
this event is to bring together a critical corps of scholars to examine
relevant paradigms and discourses, in order to chart new directions for future
scholarly work. The following specific themes have been outlined: Culture,
Power, and Hierarchy in Yoruba Traditionalism; The Political Economy of the
Yoruba Diaspora: Trans-Atlantic Slavery and the Commodification of Culture;
Historicizing Yoruba Religion; Popular Culture and the Representation of
Yoruba Religion; Theorizing Gender in Yoruba Religion and Culture;
Epistemological Challenges in Interpreting Myths, Rituals, and the Arts;
Rethinking Yoruba Religious Historiography Past and Present; Tradition and
Transformation: Domestication of Islam and Christianity as Narratives of
Encounter; and Global Yoruba Religion.
Confirmed participants include Wande Abimbola (Boston U), Roland Abiodun
(Amherst College), Diedre Badejo (Kent State), Isabel Castellanos (Florida
Int’l U) Kamari M. Clarke (UC Berkeley) Henry John Drewal (U of Wisconsin), J.
Lorand Matory (Harvard U) Joseph M. Murphy (Georgetown U), Jacob K. Olupona
(UC Davis), and J.D.Y. Peel (University of London), Mercedes Sandoval (Miami
Dade CC), Wole Soyinka (Nobel Laureate, Emory U), Olabiyi Yai (UNESCO, Paris).

For more information please contact Terry Rey, Dept. of Religious Studies,
Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199; TEL: (305) 348-6263, FAX:
(305) 348-1789, E-Mail; reyt@fiu.edu