This conference seeks applications for papers of 15-20 minutes concerning the interactions between religious disbeliefs and the emotions in any location or time period up to 1800 C.E.

The conference is hosted by Macquarie University and the Macquarie Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. The conference will be online-only, via Zoom. It is scheduled for 23 and 24 January 2023 at times of day that, it is hoped, will be amenable as much as possible to participants from various locations. Sessions will be recorded and published online for any conference participants to attend concurrently.

Throughout history, religious disbelievers have expressed themselves, sometimes in stark terms with strong emotions. Their beliefs may interact with or stem from emotions responding to hegemonic religious narratives and thought worlds. This conference seeks to bring together experts from a large variety of fields of historical and literary inquiry to help us better understand the extent to which interplays between religious disbeliefs and the emotions vary or remain similar in different time periods, locations, individuals, religious and cultural milieux, textual (or material) genres, and so on.

The time frame for the conference is as follows:
-July 2022: publication of CfP
-31 October 2022: deadline for proposals
-15 November 2022: notification of outcomes to proposals
-23-24 January 2023: online conference
-30 April 2023: deadline for submission of written papers

Please email proposals to kegan.brewer@mq.edu.au. Proposals should be 200-300 words, and include a brief bio of 100-200 words. Any questions about the conference can also be directed to the same email address. Thank you!