Graduate Student Conference 2026 - Day 1 of 2

The 2026 DSR Graduate Student Conference Committee is delighted to bring this event back after a hiatus of several years and to join in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Department for the Study of Religion. This conference brings together an interdisciplinary group of students from many different departments and institutions. Our hope is that this gathering brings together those who share a commitment to exchanging ideas, exploring new perspectives, and an enthusiasm for the study of religion in all its forms.—Cliel Shdaimah, Grace Feeney, Shannon Drew, Vivek Shah

REGISTER TO ATTEND

Day 1 of 2: Monday, April 20 (see also Day 2, Tuesday, April 21)

• 8:30-9:30
  • Welcome
• 9:30-11:00 
  • RELIGION AND THE BODY PANEL
    • Bronwen Cox, "Occult Women Modernists and the Floral Imaginary"
    • Cliel Shdaimah, "A Bitter P(otion) to Swallow: The Inky Horror of Numbers 5:11-31"
    • Ferdie Lopez, "A Choreography of Faith: The Bakla and the Queering of the Tondo Catholic Fiesta Procession"
    • Maor Oz, "Eating the Other: a Jewish Political Theology of Bread"
• 11:30-1:00
  • BUDDHIST STUDIES PANEL
    • Arist Alfred Bravo, "Translation’s Bisected Puppies: Reading an Alternative Theory of Translation in The Precedents of Princess Sudhammacari"
    • Albert Y. Yang, "From Avalokiteśvara to Guanyin: Indigenization, Visual Translation, and Christian Marian Influence on Chinese Buddhist Iconography in Late Imperial China (the 16th-17th Century)"
    • Wayne Chandira, "Overcoming the Particular: Exploring Tanabe Hajime’s Philosophy as Metanoetics"
  • ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION PANEL (JHB 616)
    • Alessandra Divina Imbrogno-Seif, "Between Kleinburg and San Giovanni Rotondo: Mediating Padre Pio in Diasporic Pilgrimage"
    • Gaurav Shrestha, "Carrying the Rath forward: Youth and Jātrās in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal"
    • Joy Saade, "Nehmet Allah and the Holy Soil of Annaya – Predispositions of Maronite cultural hegemony during the COVID19 pandemic"
    • Oluwatobiloba Michael Ajayi, "Sacred Care in Precarious Times: Single Motherhood and Religious Life in Southwest Nigeria"
       
• 1:00-2:00 LUNCH
   
• 2:00-3:30
  • RELIGION AND MEDIA PANEL
    • Alison Lennie, "#saveoakflat: Hypermediation and Networked Resistance in Apache Stronghold"
    • Madalyn Shaw, "CONTACT: The Primacy of Mediumship in George Adamski’s UFO Photography"
    • Shannon Drew, "Finishing the Task: Evangelical Data, Missionary Governance, and Enchanted Numbers"
    • Sophie Rose, "Judaism For You: Orthodox Jewish Content Creators and the Digital Construction of the "Good" Religious Subject"
  • TEXTUALIST INTERPRETATIONS PANEL (JHB 616)
    • River Hobel, "Christian Activity in Medieval Šäwa"
    • Ian Greer, "Predestination, Eternal Damnation and Endless Creation in the Exegesis of Abū al-Thanāʾ al-Ālūsī"
    • Shashank Rao, "A Śaivism that Never Was?: the Past and Theology at the Edges of Kannada Modernity"
• 4:00-5:30
  • ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION: WHAT COULD A UNIVERSITY BE? WITH PROFESSOR ROBERT GIBBS, AUTHOR. 
    • Presenters: Ariel Lafayette, Nicolas Sarian, Vivek Shah

The conference committee thanks all its sponsors for their generosity in supporting the 2026 DSR Graduate Student Conference.

• Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies • Centre for Comparative Literature • Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies • Cinema Studies Institute • Department of East Asian Studies • Department of English • Department of Historical Studies (UTM) • Department of Historical and Cultural Studies (UTSC) • Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations Department of Philosophy • Department of Political Science • Department for the Study of Religion • Emmanuel College • Ho Centre for Buddhist Studies • Mark Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies • St. Augustine’s Seminary • St. Michael’s College • University of Toronto Graduate Students' Union (UTGSU) • University of Trinity College • Victoria College • Wycliffe College •