REGIONAL/AFFILIATE CONFERENCES

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PROPOSAL DEADLINES

• MAY 20, 2025 International Thomas Merton Society  Confernence "Thomas Merton and the Sprit of Place"

CONFERENCE DATES

•  OCTOBER 18 Indiana CEA "Radical Truth" University of St. Francis, Fort Wayne, IN 
• JUNE 19-20 International Thomas Merton Society  "Thoas Merton and the Spirit of Place" Denver, CO

University of St. Francis

Fort Wayne, Indiana  

In 1859, the philosopher John Stuart Mill explained the consequences of stifling dissent in his essay, "On Liberty." Mill wrote: 

[T]he peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

Fast forward 165 years, and we are witnessing the encroachment of cancel culture into higher education, embodying the very silencing effect Mill warned against. Despite the commitment of American colleges to truth and inquiry, in their mission statements and mottos, an important question emerges: How can we navigate the pursuit of truth in an educational environment where political polarization promotes self-censorship among students?

Within English studies, this call for papers invites a thoughtful exploration of the challenges inherent in encouraging open and free inquiry.  

 
Proposals  Please email your 200-word abstract, along with your name, position, and academic affiliation by September 20, 2024 to IndianaCEA@gmail.com. 

Thomas Merton and the Spirit of Place 

June 19-22, 2025 Regis University, Denver, Colorado 

In his journeys in California, New Mexico, and Alaska, and in Asia, gazing on Kanchenjunga, Thomas Merton found himself increasingly “on the edge of great realization.” What is the essence of that realization, and what messages might be divined in the spiritual landscapes of Merton’s final year of life? Who are the “ancestors” – human, animal, mineral, cosmic – whose stories provide a word of hope in this moment of reckoning for the human community and the suffering planet? Such questions are especially fitting as we gather at Regis University at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. 

 
Proposals of no more than 250 words and a short biographical statement (one to two sentences) should be submitted by May 20, 2024, by e-mail attachment to itms2025@merton.org or by mail to: ITMS 2025, Thomas Merton Center, Bellarmine University, 2001 Newburg Road, Louisville, Kentucky 40205 USA.