Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature

The Department of Languages and Literature and the College of Liberal Arts at Northeastern State
University will be hosting the Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature annual regional
meeting on October 15-16, 2021 at Northeastern State University’s campus in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
In light of the disruptions in our world created by COVID-19, the working theme for this year’s
conference will be “Christian Community” as we begin to rebuild and reestablish communal bonds and
seek to understand how our sense of community and the communal have changed in response to the world
around us.
Possible paper topics include, but are not limited to:
• The construction of Christian community and fellowship in or through literature
• Recovering a sense of the communal through literature
• The impact of the world on both faith and literary interpretation
• Constructions of communal worldviews through shared experience
• Faith as a tool for rebuilding after disaster
• Ways of engaging with community through narrative
• Community and the construction of the text
• Narrative community as model
• Liturgy and the lived community
• Community and spirituality in popular media
As always, SWCCL is open to other proposals concerning the relationship of Christianity and literature,
including panel proposals and creative works. Readings of original poetry and fiction will also be
considered (please email conference coordinators for details).
Undergraduate and graduate students are also encouraged to submit proposals. Undergraduate students
must submit their entire paper for consideration; eligible undergraduate papers will be entered into the
national CCL Undergraduate Writing Contest for a cash prize and publication on the CCL website.
Graduate students accepted to the conference are encouraged to apply for the CCL Travel Grant. For
more details on these undergraduate and graduate opportunities, please visit the conference website for
full details (https://www.christianityandliterature.com/Awards-and-Grants).
The keynote speaker for the conference will be Dr. Rachel Fulton Brown, associate professor of History
at the University of Chicago and author of Mary and the Art of Prayer: The Hours of the Virgin in
Medieval Life and Thought (2018), who will be discussing Christian poetry and its role in community and
culture. Additional details and events are forthcoming.
Send abstracts (200-400 words) via email to flavin@nsuok.edu on or before June 1, 2021. Notifications
will be sent to all submitters in early July, 2021, with the final program being published in August or
early September to allow for ample time for presenters to make arrangements for their sessions. Please
note—while the organizers are planning on hosting the event on-site, circumstances may require moving
the conference to a virtual environment. In the event of a change in mode, all presenters will be notified
as far in advance as possible.
All presenters must be members of the Conference on Christianity and Literature prior to delivering their
paper; membership includes a subscription to the conference’s journal and information can be found on
the organization’s website: https://www.christianityandliterature.com/Membership.