Moving fast and steadily towards the end of the year reminds me of all the various projects I have going on. I wanted to depart from my normal topical blogs and share a little about what I am currently working through.
In late August, I attended a conference at the University of Helsinki, Finland, where I presented a paper on analyses of pluralism, exclusivism, and synthesis in virtual world environments (which by that I mean, video games). My hope is to turn this paper into a journal article, and the conference organizers have informed us that Cambridge University Press has expressed interest by inviting those participants at this conference to submit their work for consideration.
At the mid-point of October, I enrolled in one continuing education course on the study of Hinduism through the Oxford Centre of Hindu Studies. The third part of my educational odyssey is to enter a program in Buddhist Studies (I was already accepted into the program through South Wales), but this is at least two years away, depending upon whether I do my PhD work first.
I am still working to get through the final edits on my Bonhoeffer manuscript for publication with Wipf & Stock. Finishing this work has been complicated by work schedules and, quite frankly, a number of irons in the fire, including course work at Towson University, a full-time job, and family obligations. I am hoping to fast-track this, if I haven't already seen some daylight on this, by January 2015, when I should have some more free time.
Another proposal of mine, this time on the problematic criteria of inclusion at Yad Vashem's Righteous Among the Nations memorial, was accepted for a conference on Transnational Holocaust Memory. The conference is at the University of Leeds in January 2015. The paper has already been written, but would require some additional editorial work.
I recently submitted a proposal for an academic anthology on a topic from the realm of science fiction. The organizer responded that the proposal was "very interesting." And yes, I am being deliberately vague until I feel I can say more.
There are two other conferences for which I have submitted proposals and hope to hear something soon. Both would leverage my interests in Jewish theology and ethics.
At the end of December, I official close the course work portion of the degree work I am doing in Jewish Studies at Towson University. The final option will be thesis work. I am looking forward to this.
Finally, I would also like to present at AAR's annual regional meeting in March since it is at a college campus in my area. Last March, I presented a paper on Bonhoeffer and his ideas on responsible marriage with regard to homosexual ideology. I was hoping to do a follow up to this paper, as the first paper only touched upon responses to the social institution of marriage from his writing. A second paper would look deeper at the issue by suggesting consistent theological themes that support the idea that homosexual marriage is responsible marriage according to Bonhoeffer's corpus of theological writing.
I would admit that I am a very non-traditional student and academic. Without a PhD degree at this point, I am still doing much of what would be expected of a doctoral candidate or post-doctoral student with regard to publishing. I'm sure there are some out there that would find this approach unorthodox, but provided my work speaks for me, I really have no problem fending off this kind of tactical, traditionally ingrained criticism. If at any point, I found myself completely inept or insufficient to do this kind of work in concert with my course work, I think I would pull back. But the level of competition among graduate students and doctoral students requires that individuals publish and immerse themselves in these kinds of opportunities when and where they are available. I have faced rejection, and I'm certain there is more to come, but I strive constantly to put my best effort into everything I do. And as an interfaith theologian, my non-traditional interests in immersive study of traditions other than my own I hope makes me more marketable than a candidate who takes a more traditional path, who may be called to teach a world religions course but cannot honestly say he or she has the acumen to go to a peer conference and speak into one of those traditions on anything other than a basic level. In the end, it is all about credibility.
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