ISSRNC Welcome
It is a pleasure to welcome you to the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture’s conference on “Religion and Environment: Relations and Relationality” hosted virtually by our partners at Arizona State University’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Lab and cosponsored by ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Environmental Humanities Initiative, Institute for Humanities Research, and the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies.
A year of planning by the ISSRNC and ASU members on program committee have brought us together, here in the aethyr of the internet, to continue cultivating and nourishing the connections that make our field exciting, effervescent, and energizing. More than ever we owe a debt of gratitude to the members of the program committee who, as covid-19 spread across the planet, had to switch from organizing a face-to-face conference to this virtual modality. In addition to working out the best scaffolding to accommodate the panel sessions this year, the committee has also recreated online versions of the coffee breaks and receptions, those times normally set aside for the networking and cross-pollinization and so essential to the effervescence (and fun!) of our usual conferences. These ideas, required by the pandemic this year, also recommend opportunities for new ways to lower our Society’s environmental footprint. We hope you’ll take advantage of the potential for conversation provided by these new and, for now, experimental features.
I go back, again and again, to Plato’s description of philosophy as “conversation with your friends” and how much our ongoing conversations into the relationships between religion, nature, and culture have produced friendships as well as scholarly insight. That conversation continues beyond our conferences through the Society Journal, listserv, and website working groups.
Many thousand thanks to all of you for sharing your work and for your contributions to the continued growth of our Society. Enjoy the conference!
Mark Peterson
ISSRNC President
Professor of Philosophy & Religious Studies
University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
ASU Welcome
Dear Delegates,
On behalf of Arizona State University, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture’s 2021 ‘Religion and Environment: Relations and Relationality Conference.’ The pandemic has forced us to think more intently about biodiversity loss and increasing threats to social and environmental health while events in the same year have radically reinforced the continuing urgency of achieving racial and economic justice. As Director of the Environmental Humanities Initiative at ASU, it has been an honor to collaborate on conference planning, and I thank the ISSRNC organizing and program committees for making these urgent topics central to the program. My thanks, too, to the ISSRNC Board of Directors for giving ASU the distinct honor of hosting this inspiring conference.
At ASU, we are proud of the breadth, depth and excellence of our scholarship and research in the environmental humanities and of collaborations with our colleagues across the disciplines. Many of these collaborations are facilitated by the College of Global Futures and we are very grateful that Peter Schlosser, Vice Provost of Global Futures and Director of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, so generously stepped up to sponsor this conference. With this support, and in collaboration with the ISSRNC, we have sought to create what University of California, Santa Barbara, Professor Ken Hiltner calls a “nearly carbon neutral (NCN) conference” that will allow each attendee to cultivate the same kinds of discussions and networking opportunities afforded by face-to-face conferences. We could not have done any of this without Global Futures and we sincerely thank them for their support.
I also thank my academic and administrative colleagues at ASU. The Institute for Humanities Research (IHR), the Black Ecologies Initiative, and the College of Global Futures are generously co-sponsoring the first keynote speaker, Tiffany King, who will open the conference with the 2021 ASU Distinguished Environmental Humanities Initiative Lecture. We are very grateful for the IHR’s incredibly professional administrative assistance. Joe Carter, at Live Stream Success, has made the mysteries of Zoom and YouTube navigable and working with my colleague Evan Berry has been the greatest of pleasures.
I hope you enjoy the ISRNC’s first NCN Conference and welcome to ASU!
Joni Adamson
President’s Professor of Environmental Humanities, Department of English
Director, Environmental Humanities Initiative & Distinguished Sustainability Scholar, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory
Arizona State University