Phoenix Rising: Death and Renaissance in Philosophy, Art, and Literature

Call for papers

Phoenix Rising: Death and Renaissance in Philosophy, Art, and Literature
A Dying Society, or a Renaissance for the 21st Century?

Athens, November 6-7, 2009

Hosted by the Dept. of Academic Affairs, University of Indianapolis, Athens Campus Venue: University of Indianapolis Cultural Centre, 5 Markou Avriliou St., Plaka

The question this conference seeks to explore is a rather timely and certainly crucial one. All too often, studies in the humanities and arts may seem a luxury in the face of day-to-day survival. In a secular Western world where individualism and eclecticism characterise social and personal interactions, rigid religious platitudes have ceased to hold water for many. In the face of the current economic and environmental crises, what does the wisdom of esoteric and metaphysical philosophies have to offer?

The challenge here is to examine these philosophies and perspectives in terms of the relevance their message carries for the modern world. While their history and phenomenology is of vital and ongoing interest to scholars and practitioners, this conference is an attempt to bridge the gap between scholarship of the past and modern reality. Having visibly enriched the lives of so many through the centuries, the challenge is to demonstrate how that bridge can be translated into modern terms as a counterweight to the cynicism, consumerist/materialist mentality and uncertainty currently pervading the Western world.

Please send a proposal (no more than 300 words) and brief biographical statement to Sasha Chaitow at: sashanonserviat@yahoo.com before the closing date of April 30th.

Further information: http://sashanonserviat.typepad.com/phoenixrising