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Translations, Transgressions, and Transformations: The Global Movement of Objects in Catholic Cultures

The Center for 浪花直播 on Global Catholicism (CRGC) at Saint 浪花直播 University will host its biennial conference 鈥 Translations, Transgressions, and Transformations: The Global Movement of Objects in Catholic Cultures 鈥 Oct. 20-21, 2023, in St. 浪花直播. 

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SLU's Center for 浪花直播 on Global Catholicism welcomes you to an international interdisciplinary conference that examines the cultural mobility of Catholicism through the physical movement of objects.

One of the hallmarks of Catholicism throughout its long history has been its inherent portability and its protean assimilation across the visual cultures of societies, peoples, and landscapes worldwide. Catholicism has entangled with cultures over time in such diverse ways that distinct innovations and transformations are readily on display through the arts and material culture at Carnevale in Italy, D铆a de los Muertos in Mexico, Celtic pilgrimage sites in Ireland, Candombl茅 healing rituals in Afro-Caribbean communities, the feast of the Black Nazarene in the Philippines, as well as countless other popular expressions.

Material objects, including refined artworks, textiles, books, and mundane, everyday objects, have long been central to encounters between Catholicism and local cultures. Diverse media of exchange can work to transfigure both Catholicism and local cultures in surprising and unpredictable ways. This conference brings leading scholars from various disciplines into conversation to break new ground and open new lines of inquiry into the translation, transgression and transformation of Catholicism as it has circulated globally across cultural spaces through the traffic and transfer of material cultures. 

 

Schedule and Information

All sessions and plenary addresses will be held in the Pere Marquette Gallery, DuBourg Hall, 221 N. Grand Blvd., St. 浪花直播, MO, 63103 (north campus). SLU's Campus Maps will help guide you through our easily walkable campus.

Visitors may park in the Laclede Parking Garage, a short walk from DuBourg Hall, located at 3602 Laclede Ave., or use on-street parking. 

Please find the schedule outlined below. Details will be added leading up to the event.

Friday, October 20, 2023

9-9:15 a.m. - Coffee
Coffee will be available for all attendees as they prepare for the first day of the conference.
9:15 a.m.-Opening Remarks from CRGC Director
Mary Dunn, Ph.D., director of the Center for 浪花直播 on Global Catholicism, will provide opening remarks.
9:30-11 a.m. - Session 1: Biographies of Catholic Objects

Chair: Charles Parker (Saint 浪花直播 University)

Steve Schoenig (Saint 浪花直播 University), 鈥淔rom Peter's Tomb to the Scattered Sees: How Procuring the Pallium Knit Together the Medieval Church鈥

Rachel Miller (Cal State), 鈥溾榃ith his Holy Arm He Will Defend Them鈥: Visual Representations of Francis Xavier鈥檚 Relics throughout the Global Jesuit Missionary Network鈥

Anne Mariss (University of Regensburg), 鈥淔rom Asia to Brazil and the Netherlands: the Global Life of Francis Xavier鈥檚 Rosary鈥

Robert Alvis (Saint Meinrad Seminary), 鈥淭he Divine Mercy Image in Translation鈥

Respondent: Eugenio Menegon (Boston University)

11-11:15 a.m. - Break

There will be a short break before the second session.

11:30-1 p.m. - Session 2: Global Economies of Exchange

Chair: Tim Dulle (Saint 浪花直播 University)

 Marie Balsley Taylor (University of North Alabama), 鈥淥f Brass Men and Angels: Finding and Destroying French Catholic Pennacook Objects in 17th c. New England鈥

Jennifer Popiel (Saint 浪花直播 University), "Roman' Catholicism, French Missionary Communication, and the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith"

Anne O鈥機onnor (University of Galway), 鈥淭he Translation Trade: Global Catholic Exchange across Language and Geography鈥

Wim Fran莽ois (University of Leuven) and Kunhang Li (Donghua University), 鈥淧hoenixes, Textiles, and Religious Paintings: Migration of an Eastern Motif into the Late Medieval Catholic Culture"

Respondent: Valentina Napolitano (University of Toronto)

1-2:30 p.m. - Lunch

Lunch will be provided for all attendees.

2:30-4 p.m. - Session 3: Catholic Objects and Their Memories, Hauntings, and Afterlives

Chair: Anna Katherina Rudolph (Saint 浪花直播 University)

Nora Guggenbuhler (University of Zurich), 鈥淭he Travels of Madonna di Trapani: Records of a Miraculous Image鈥檚 Journey from Cyprus to Mexico鈥

Grace Harpster (Georgia State University), 鈥淐opying, Cutting, and Pasting Early Modern Jesuit Portraits鈥

Mideum Hong (Georgetown University), 鈥淎ncestral Tablet: Filial Piety or Meaningless Wood?鈥

Andrew Walker-Cornetta (Georgia State University), 鈥淓xceptional Material: Disability and Devotion鈥 

Respondent: Megan Holmes (University of Michigan)

4-4:30 p.m. - Break

There will be a short break before the plenary talk.

4:30-6 p.m. - Plenary Talk by Hillary Kaell

Title: Catholic Banking and Building in Quebec: An Entangled History and its Afterlives 

Abstract: Montreal is a city of churches. As Mark Twain quipped during an 1881 visit, 鈥測ou couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window.鈥 More than a century later, many of those Catholic churches are closing, one part of a growing crisis playing out across North America and Western Europe. This keynote presentation connects current attempts to address this material reality in Quebec with another Catholic legacy: the law on Social Economy. This law arises from Quebecois experiments with rethinking financial systems as a response to Rerum Novarum (1891), most famously in Alphonse Desjardins鈥 eponymous model of popular banking. Using Desjardins as a case study, I explore how Quebecois balanced a trans-Atlantic exchange of ideas, often through Catholic networks, with their attempts to shape a financial system that resisted global 'flows.' These tensions have analogs in current attempts to secure the future of heritage churches through social impact investing. Today, the twin Catholic legacies of building and banking prompt urgent questions as Quebecois must ask themselves, what is valuable and to whom? What is worth preserving and why? 

6-7 p.m. - Reception

Attendees are invited to a networking reception at the end of the first day. Refreshments will be available. 

Saturday, October 21, 2023

9-9:30 a.m. - Coffee
Coffee will be available for all attendees as they prepare for the conference's second day.
9:30-11 a.m. - Session 4: Catholic Material Culture and the Archives

Chair: Cathleen Fleck (Saint 浪花直播 University)

Rachel Lindsey (Saint 浪花直播 University), 鈥淭he Hermit鈥檚 Camera: Global Catholicism through the Lens of Thomas Merton鈥

Trevor Linn (Nebraska Wesleyan), 鈥淐urating the Good: Museums, Artifacts, and Catholicism on Display鈥

Annalisa Butticci (Georgetown), 鈥淪ilences, Secrets, and the Archive. The (un)making of Catholic Memory and Identity in Senegambia鈥

Respondent: Markus Friedrich (University of Hamburg)

11-11:15 a.m.  - Break
There will be a short break before the second session of the day.
11:30-1 p.m. - Session 5: Catholic Objects and the Sacred

Chair: Mary Dunn (Saint 浪花直播 University)

Kirstin Noreen (Loyola Marymount), 鈥淩eplication, Restoration, and Renewal: The Santa Maria Maggiore Icon in Rome and Beyond鈥

Josefina Schenke (Adolfo Ibanez), 鈥溾榁ienen desde all铆 benditos y tocados en el Santo Sepulcro鈥: Reliques and Sacred Objects in Circulation from the Sacred Places of Jerusalem to Per煤 (18th century)鈥

Caren Reimann (Herzog August Bibliothek), 鈥淐atholic Bibles in Protestant Bible Collections in the 18th Century鈥

Respondent: Kristin Norget (McGill University)

1-2:30 p.m. - Lunch

Lunch will be provided for all attendees.

2:30-4 p.m. - Session 6: Global Catholicism and Material Culture

Chair:  Anne Carpenter (Saint 浪花直播 University)

Panelists: Markus Friedrich, Megan Holmes, Eugenio Menegon, Valentina Napolitano, Kristin Norget


This final session concludes the conference and synthesizes major themes and lines of inquiry for revision and future research. Invited respondents will offer their reflections on the intersection of material culture studies and research on global Catholicism and their thoughts on what attending to material culture might add to our understanding of the dynamics of Catholicism鈥檚 worldwide diffusion.

4:30-6 p.m. - Plenary Talk by Bryan Keene

Title: Reckoning with Colonial Histories of Catholic Collecting: A Vision for Centering Indigenous Presence in Museums and the Classroom

Abstract: Objects looted from Indigenous communities are part of the colonial legacy of global Catholicism and other imperial regimes or missionary enterprises. Displayed in museums or housed in archives or libraries, this material and visual culture are part of a worldwide dialogue or debate about ethical ownership and repatriation. This plenary talk considers three case studies for re-centering Indigenous presence in North America through works of art acquired by Catholic, Protestant, and Russian Orthodox collectors and those made by native contemporary artists. First, we will examine Amerindian trade routes at the nexus of Spanish missions of Alta California (from San Diego, founded in 1769, to Sonoma, established in 1824) and in Baja California Sur in today's Mexico (founded between 1683-1834) in relation to the California Collages by Katie Dorame (Tongva). Next, we turn to ancestral Hawai'i in the maritime blue continent of the Pacific Ocean to address competing strategies by Protestants and Catholics to leverage print technologies for conversion set against the work of Lehuauakea (mahu, third gender, Native Hawaiian). Finally, we look to Alaska and Russian Orthodox mapping in contrast to cartographic prints by Tania Willard (Secwepemc Nation and settler Canadian heritage). My hope is that we, as scholars, can commit to deepening our knowledge of Indigenous history in collaboration with colleagues and communities. We are storytellers and we have the opportunity to create safe spaces for new voices to be heard and to rebuild structures that support individuals who have been historically marginalized by religion.

6 p.m. - Dinner Reception

Attendees will be invited to attend a dinner reception to celebrate the close of the conference.

About CRGC

Three members of the CRGC leadership team discuss the Center, its mission, and why SLU is an ideal place to do this research.

The Center for 浪花直播 on Global Catholicism (CRGC) supports scholarship at the nexus of Catholicism and culture, providing robust programming that promotes interdisciplinary research, collaboration, and methodological innovation.

Please contact crgc@slu.edu with questions regarding this event.