I added my own first thoughts on how the conference addressed the effort by scholars to cross between academic disciplines. What are the possibilities for a productive interchange between disciplines that study American religion? The question turns out to be more significant than I anticipated.
There's much more, along with several comments. Read the full post at the Religion and American History blog.
One challenge for any conference on interdisciplinarity involves highlighting scholars who have made outstanding advancements in their own discipline --
To be an outstanding scholar very often means confounding the prevailing wisdom of a particular field. When professional boundaries are breached, scholars are forced to address issues and concerns often taken for granted by their own colleagues. Further, when these scholars achieve notoriety, they are caught up in debates (often defending their work) arguing and addressing issues within their own discipline. So when these scholars give 15 minute presentations catching people up to “the state of the discipline,” they end of talking about issues that lie at the very center of their own fields.
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