FARMINGTON — The significance of a diverse and global society will be discussed at an upcoming conference at the University of Maine at Farmington.
Jennifer Reid, UMF professor and organizer, explained: "The conference will investigate how non-Western religions and cultures have contributed to what we have become today."
Titled "Religion, Global Culture and the University: An Institute on the Impact of Globalization and Religion," the conference will consist of five sessions over three days, Thursday through Saturday, April 5 to 7. All sessions are free to the public and will meet in Lincoln Auditorium in the Roberts Learning Center.
Keynote speaker is Charles H. Long, who will discuss "Indigenous People, Materialities and Religion: Outline for a New Orientation to Religious Meaning."
Long was part of a group at the University of Chicago which introduced the study of religion as an academic discipline in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.
"Until then the study of religion in this country was limited to the study of theology," Reid said.
Now retired, Long's most recent academic post was at University of California, Santa Barbara, where he established the Institute for African Studies. Long will speak on Thursday afternoon at 5 p.m.
On Friday a special session will convene at 2 p.m. to hear papers by UMF students and a Tufts graduate student.
The day's main session will be at 4:30 p.m., when Jacob Olupona, a professor at the University of California, Davis, will present a paper on how new African immigrants are changing California politics.
Reid will also present a paper at that session. She will discuss Louis Riel, a French Canadian from Manitoba who was inspired by visions to lead two rebellions against English domination and the Ottawa government. Riel was executed in 1885, the last person to be hanged for treason in Canada.
On Saturday a session at 2:30 p.m. will feature a paper by Kees Bolle, professor emeritus from University of California-Los Angeles, titled, "Civilization Crushing Religion? The Big Power Trip."
At 5 p.m. Philip Arnold of Syracuse University will present "Sacred Landscapes and Global Religion," followed by David Chidester of Cape Town (South Africa) University, who will present "Doing Cross-Cultural Religious Business."
A complete schedule, including the names of chairmen and responders, is available on the UMF Web site at www.umf.maine.edu.
The conference is made possible through grants from the Maine Humanities Council, the New Century Community Program, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others.
For more information, call Reid at 778-7409 or e-mail her at jreid@maine.edu.