Great Plains Undergraduate Theology Conference (GPUTC) 2009

I’ve noticed in the recent weeks a good number of searches for the Great Plains Undergraduate Theology Conference landing here. Last year I helped with the marketing and arrangements for Sioux Falls Seminary's part of the conference. I have posted the basic necessary info for this years conference.

GPUTC is a great venue for young scholars to present their work, network, and receive some valuable feedback on their work. Students will have time to interact with other students from regional institutions as well. Over the first 2 years a variety of schools have participated including Augustana College, Briar Cliff Univeristy, College of St. Benedict, Concordia College, Dordt College, Grinnell College, Northwestern College (MN), Mount Marty College, St. John's University, Simpson College, and University of Mary.

If you have any questions, I would be happy to try to answer them or point you on towards Dr. Harrington at Briar Cliff.

Call For Papers
The Great Plains Undergraduate Theology Conference is an annual opportunity for undergraduate scholars to gather and present their innovative and creative work in the fields of Theology and Religious Studies. Students and faculty from the five-state region (Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota) are invited to participate in the lively, collegial and hospitable 2009 conference hosted this year by Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and sponsored by Sioux Falls Seminary and Briar Cliff University.

Student presentation proposals are invited from papers in any of the following areas:
Moral Theology and Ethics
Historical Studies in Religion
Comparative Studies
Systematic Theology
Practical and Pastoral Theology
Scripture

Students from all majors are encouraged to submit their theological and religious studies work. The deadline for presentation proposals is January 30, 2009.

Proposal Guidelines
The proposal itself must include a descriptive title and be no more than one hundred and fifty words long. A good proposal will summarize the argument to be clear and focused language. Presentations must not exceed twenty minutes (i.e. approximately nine pages of double spaced text), and presenters should be prepared to answer questions. Additionally, proposals must indicate what technological support is required for your presentations (such as an Internet connection or audio visual projection equipment). Concordia College may not be able to accommodate all technology requests.

PROCEDURE FOR SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL
Students must have a faculty sponsor for their proposal. Student should first consult a faculty member at their home institution. Once the proposal is in its final form, the faculty member will forward the proposal (in MS Word as a file attachment) to Dr. Linda S. Harrington (linda.harrington@briarcliff.edu, phone 712.279.5475). Proposals should include the names of the presenter and the sponsor, institution affiliation, and a telephone number and reliable email addresses for both the presenter and the sponsor. The faculty member who sponsors a proposal does not need to attend the conference, but their sponsorship testifies to the merit of the proposal and the seriousness of the presenter. Faculty members are, of course, free to sponsor multiple proposals. The deadline for submitting proposals is January 30, 2009.

Adjunct Faculty

I was just browsing through Sioux Falls Seminary's new website, looking at the faculty info and the adjunct faculty info and found myself listed there...kinda fun. Hopefully they will ask me back again soon.

Sioux Falls Seminary as Sacred Space

Perhaps the cold weather which keeps us inside, except for necessity of travel, gives rise to this series of photos at the seminary. Built in the late 1940’s when the school moved from Rochester NY the school still has many of the original elements while many have been updated.

Students bring an incredible life to this place. A sign hanging in one hallway reads, “Knowledge available here, bring your own container.” Yet when there are no classes and containers to be filled during the summers, reading weeks, and holidays this place takes on a significantly different feel.

It is quiet.
It is calm.
Empty.

Like the church stripped of its textures and candles before Easter,
this place too has been stripped of its life. The building, halls and classrooms, awaits in a silent vigil for its animating life to return.

I am drawn to these images but still lack a quality description of what I am attempting to capture. With some, space and angles. With others the common place and even the absence of explicit subject matter. Perhaps in the ordinary and overlooked spaces…those we rush by…or those we deem to have little interest or worth have captured my attention. The modern utilitarian nature
of furniture with no users, rain stained ceiling tiles, the interplay between disparate shapes, flash and shadow, gradations of color all are present. Perhaps it is only me who senses an impersonal indifference within these shots…perhaps a loneliness witnessed in the offset empty chairs seemingly anticipating or reflecting the last human conversation.

This place, designed for an educational community, facilitation of transfer of knowledge and wisdom, seems drab without that which
it was created…humanity. Only through flesh and blood do these convenient mechanical utilities find their true usefulness.