University Communications
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322

Release date: Oct. 21, 1999
Contact: Elaine Justice, Assistant Vice President, 404-727-0644, or ejustic@emory.edu

EMORY WEBCAST, CONFERENCE TO EXPLORE 'RELIGION IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH'

Former President Jimmy Carter and former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young will join scholars, religious leaders and the public for face-to-face and on-line discussions Oct. 21-23 at Emory University on "Religion in the American South: Toward a Renewed Scholarship."

Designed to be an unconventional and eclectic meeting, the conference will address three major themes: new research on religion and the South, use of electronic media in the study of religion, and new teaching strategies. Meeting rooms will be set up seminar-style to allow for maximum discussion among panelists and participants. Complete information about the conference is posted on-line by the electronic Journal of Southern Religion, at http://jsr.as.wvu.edu. Participants may register on-line, or call 404-727-4641.

The event will open Thursday, Oct. 21 with a public address by Carter titled "Reflections of a Southern Christian Layman" at 3:30 p.m. in Glenn Memorial Auditorium. Young's talk on civil rights in the South, open only to registered conference attendees, is scheduled Oct. 23. Both Carter's and Young's talks will be broadcast live via the Internet on the Journal of Southern Religion's website listed above.

A new exhibit titled "Religion in the American South" will open concurrent with the conference in the Special Collections of Emory's Woodruff Library. Exhibit hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Other sessions include:

o "Religion and Politics in the American South" will feature Southern Jewish historian Eli N. Evans; black church/politics historian Barbara Savage of the University of Pennsylvania; Emory University Southern historian Dan Carter; and moderator Beth Schweiger of the Journal of Southern Religion.

o "Christian Theology in the South" will examine whether there is a distinct "Southern theology"; what distinguishes it from theology of other regions; and how gender, race and class affect theology of the region. Panelists include historians Elizabeth Fox-Genovese of Emory; Eugene Genovese; Jacqueline Grant of Interdenominational Theological Institute; and Brooks Holifield of Emory's Candler School of Theology.

o "Religion in the South and American Popular Culture" will explore popular representations of religion in film, photography and other media, along with religious expressions in Southern culture outside the church. Panelists include Judith Weisenfeld Columbia University, author of a forthcoming book on religion, race and film; Gregory Salyer of Huntington College; Lisa Olenik of Huntington College; Colleen McDannell of the University of Utah, whose research includes images of religion in Depression-era photography; and moderator Joel Martin of Franklin & Marshall College.

o "Religion in the South and Electronic Media," led by Briane Turley of the Journal of Southern Religion, West Virginia University, will address the future of electronic media and electronic academic publishing in this growing field, along with new electronic research efforts such as the Valley of the Shadow Project directed by Edward Ayers at the University of Virginia. Janet Edwards with the National Endowment for the Humanities will discuss funding opportunities for research.

o "Beyond the Bible Belt" will look at the changing face of religion in the South and how Southern culture affects the religious life of non-Protestant communities in the region. Panelists include Michael Gomez of New York University who studies Islam in the South; Hindu temple expert Vasudha Narayanan of the University of Florida; Latino and borderlands researcher Luis Leon of Arizona State University; Mark K. Bauman, editor of Southern Jewish History; and moderator Gary Laderman of Emory, editor of the 1996 book, "Religions of Atlanta."

o "Religion in the South and Electronic Media in a Global Perspective" will cover religious publication on the web, including forming a consortium of peer-reviewed electronic journals, adopting standards of indexing, abstracting and permanently archiving these materials. Panelists include Lew Lancaster, director of the Electronic Cultural Atlas at the University of California, Berkeley; James Adair of the American Theological Library Association's Center for Electronic Texts in Religion; and moderator Rodger Payne of Louisiana State University, manuscript editor for the Journal of Southern Religion; and anthropologist James Peacock of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

o "Racial Violence, Capital Punishment and Religion in the South" will focus on what kinds of methods should be used to study these troubling topics. Panelists include sociologist Karen Fields; Emory's Theophus Smith, a specialist in violence reduction; James Megivern of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, author of a new book on capital punishment in America; and moderator Donald Mathews of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whose research involves religion and ynching in the Old South.

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