The ACU and Melbourne Nodes of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, in association with the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, invite you to an event focusing on affect theory and its application in religion, history, politics, and philosophy.

The Symposium opens with a panel on affect in history, literature, and religion (3pm–4:30pm), before the public lecture: ‘From Creationism to Climate Change Denial: An Affective Approach to Science Scepticism’ (6pm–7:30pm).

The guest speaker is Donovan Schaefer (University of Pennsylvania), author of Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, and Power (Duke 2015) and The Evolution of Affect Theory: The Humanities, the Sciences, and the Study of Power (Cambridge 2019). Prof. Schaefer will contribute to each of the sessions over the course of the Symposium as discussant, panellist, and through formal paper presentations.

On the 15th of August, there are panels on ‘Affect, Pain, and Medicine in Pre-modernity’ (9am–1pm) and ‘Affect, Politics, and Knowledge’ (2pm–5pm). Friday (10am–12pm) sees a discussion of affect and atheism.

Speakers are confirmed from the Australian Catholic University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Adelaide, Macquarie University, and the University of Pennsylvania from the fields of religion, new testament studies, early Christianity, medieval and early modern studies, politics, and philosophy.

Download flyer (PDF, 184KB)