Evolving Perspectives
Featured Witnessing Other Worlds and Tending to Homeplace: Apprehending the Otherwise
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anthony Cruz Pantojas
This paper looks to the perspectives of Black feminisms, decolonial thought, and esoterism to develop practices of relational witnessing that upend our liberal humanist framings of religion and spirituality. Relational witnessing evinces ethical, and perhaps, strategically risky opportunities to listen to and affirm the resistant liveliness of those rendered subaltern. This concept of witnessing also contributes to an ontology of interconnectivity and the common towards collective liberation and flourishing. The main question that grounds this paper is: how do we develop witnessing practices that heed the otherwise and metaphysical to instantiate a pluriversal imaginary outside the persistent Regime of Man? Throughout this autoethnographic and reflective treatise, I describe the worldmaking practices of activist-scholars, including my own, within the archive of the otherwise, to better apprehend our social condition and to transform it. This paper also foregrounds the “homeplaces” of activist-scholars from the margins, or sites of creative vitalism.
Millennial Rap: Hip-Hop Cultures Response to Spiritual Pluralism View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Dr. Walter Hidalgo
In 2012, mainline Churches in the United States, and to a larger extent other faith-based communities, experienced a significant decline in attendance and participation. This mass exodus was dominated by the millennial population, one of the most diverse groups in the history of our world. Born somewhere between 1982 and 2005, this social-spiritual phenomenon has both theologians and sociologist asking themselves: Where do millennials go to fill their "spiritual cup?" If the Greek word for ecclesia, or Church, is a community gathering and assembly of the people, where do Hip-Hoppers convene? How do we differentiate between the sacred and profane when utilizing Hip-Hop aesthetics? According to my ethnographic and mixed methodological research millions of millennials are turning toward Hip-hop culture as a medium to find spiritual enlightment and community. This paper looks at Hip-Hop culture from a holistic lens by examining its socio-historical impact using interpretive sociology as a guide. We also examine the role(s) that millennials play in amplifying Hip-hop culture in the age of social media by exploring its contributions to liberation theology.
Photography, Religion and Social Change
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Roddy MacInnes
Photography and social change have a long history. In the late 19th century, social reformer Jacob Riis highlighted the dismal conditions of new immigrants arriving in the US in the groundbreaking documentary project, “How the Other Half Lives.” Lewis Hine covertly documented the conditions of children working in factories and mines. His photographs were instrumental in bringing about the passage of the first child labor laws in the United States. The persistent influence of feminist photographers from the 19th century until today continues to affect positive social change. Contemporary social documentary photography illuminates the struggle for racial equality, gender equity, anti-ageism, and disenfranchised communities in general. My study compares photography and religion as agents of social reform.
