Hope you all had a restful and rejuvenating thanksgiving holiday. Now that November is over, we have three more weeks before the end of the semester and I want to encourage you to continue the important work you have started. With a ton of papers to write and deadlines to meet, having been in your shoes until a few years ago, I can totally imagine how busy you'd be and how easy it is to miss the big picture during this part of the semester. The papers and assignments you need to write may seem like unnecessary hurdles that you need to cross before you can do what you love to do - work on your dissertation or delve on the ideas/thinkers/theologians that you care about. But the fact of the matter is that, these assignments are the building blocks for your future work. The ideas that you work on in these papers are the life force that will guide your work as you progress into the next stages of your program. So, take deep breaths, get some exercise, drink lots of coffee/tea, and keep chipping away at whatever you are working on, and I wish you the very best as you sprint/skip/crawl to the finish line.
PDP Workshops
We had two PDP workshops this past month and, in different ways, both of them were aimed at preparing students for the annual AAR/SBL. The first workshop, led by Dr. Rita Sherma, was aimed at equipping students with tools necessary to do effective presentations. You can find a link to the recording of the workshop below:
The second PDP workshop was on the importance of networking and it was led by Dr. Elizabeth Peña. You can find the recording of the session below:
I am sorry to inform you that the PDP workshop for the month of December has been cancelled. Instead of this workshop, we will be offering a special workshop on how to teach a course online in January. I will send more details later this month.
AAR & SBL 2020 Presentations
GTU faculty, students, and alumni are presenting papers at the current AAR and SBL and you can find the list of presenters at the following link:
Call for Papers
Open CFP International Journal for the Study of New Religions - Proposals Due December 31, 2020
This is an open call for submissions to The International Journal for the Study of New Religions. IJSNR publishes innovative studies with diverse approaches to the study of contemporary religion. The journal is seeking submissions for an expedited review, revision, and editing process. This call for papers may be particularly relevant for scholars who have conference papers or other articles at a near-publishable state and would like a speedy publication opportunity. Articles are to be submitted through our new IJSNR webpage, https://journal.equinoxpub.com/IJSNR, where the style and submission guidelines for authors can also be found. Contact email: ijsnreditor@equinoxpub.com
Irigaray Conference 2020 - Proposals due 2/1/20
Scholarships and Grants
Sheryl Johnson, who is also our Scholarship Research Assistant, compiles a list of scholarships and organizes them on our scholarship webpage: http://scholarships.gtu.edu. You can search the webpage based on your area of study, the stage in the program you are in, the deadline, or any other tags as listed in the sidebar.
Doctoral Fellowships for Students of Color: FTE offers fellowships to sustain current Ph.D. and Th.D. students of color through graduate school and into a vocation of teaching and scholarship. In doing so, FTE is working toward improving the quality of theological education and scholarship by diversifying the faculties of theological schools.
Finally, if you come across any calls for papers, job openings, or scholarships that might be relevant to your peers at the GTU, please share them with me. Also, if you have any questions with regard to the workshops or anything else mentioned in this newsletter, please email me at: cmotupalli@gtu.edu. Thank you! - Chai