Fall 2024 Symposium

Comparing Pilgrimage: Layers of Meaning and Motion

November 8-9, 2024

Friday, November 8

Session 1, 10-11:45, Dogwood Room
“The Artist and The Way: Meaning, Creativity, and the Camino de Santiago”
Moderator: Nicol Nixon Augusté

• Jared Matthew Seff, “Buen Camino: How Sketching Can Create a Lifelong Pilgrimage”
• Braelyn Snow, “Personalism on Paper: The Travel Sketchbook as an Act of Human
  Responsibility and Love”
• Nicol Nixon Augusté, “Ephphatha: The Art of Writing through the Lens of Pilgrimage”

Session 2, 10-11:45, Holly Room
“Restoration & Renewal: Pilgrimage in the United States”
Moderator: Susan Michele Dunn-Hensley

• Susan Michele Dunn-Hensley, “Pilgrimage as Reconciliation: El Camino de San Antonio Missions”
• James Hensley, “Rising from the Rust: Pilgrimage in Pittsburgh”
• Sharenda Barlar, “Marian Routes in the United States”

Session 3, 1-2:45, Dogwood Room
“Language/Narrative Rhetorical Focus”
Moderator: Joanna Homrighausen

• Éric Laliberté et Brigitte Harouni, “A Multiaxial Approach to Pilgrimage”
• Jonathan Pitts, “The Silk Road to America: John Dewey's Theory of Art and the Experience of Pilgrimage”
• Debra Parker, “Pilgrimage as a ‘Sweaty Concept’”

Session 4, 1-2:45, Holly Room
“Saints and Sainthood: Multiple Layers of Marian Devotion”
Moderator: Sarah Owens

• Sarah Owens, “The Far Journeys and Impact of the Virgen Peregrina”
• Lisa F. Signori, “Pilgrimage to Lourdes: Balancing the Sacred and Profane”
• Carlos Mentley, “Social, Political, and Touristic (Mis?)Appropriations of the Pilgrimage to
  Nuestra Señora del Pilar”

Session 5, 1-2:45, Rm: TBD
“Tourism and Pilgrimage”
Moderator: Álvaro Garrote Pascual

• Aníbal A. Biglieri, Viaje de la Tierra Santa: peregrinación, viaje ¿y turismo? en Tierra Santa
  (1483-84).”
• Tahar Abbou, “The Pilgrimage to the Hermitage of Charles de Foucauld”
• Kerry Adams, “Reflections on the Creation and Evolution of Memorial Shrines into More Major Pilgrimage Sites: El Tiradito and The Bike Church”

Session 6, 3-4:45, Dogwood Room
“Fluid Space and Narrative”
Moderator: Kip Redick

• William Edwards, “The Rebirth of Pilgrimage Narratives in the Digital Age”
• Éric Laliberté, “The Pilgrim Enunciation of the Subject of Compostela: From the Object Path to the Path of Word”
• Mark Minster, “Making Something New: The Rhetoric of the Sacred in Contemporary
  Pilgrimage Websites”

Session 7, 3-4:45, Holly Room
“Art Centered”
Moderator: Kathryn Barush

• Kathryn R. Barush, “Contemporary Art as Pilgrimage Journey and Sacred Site”
• Rachel Smith, “Contemporary Art as Pilgrimage Journey and Sacred Site”
• Justin Grosnick, “The Holy Sojourns of Jagannath: Reconsidering Pilgrimage through the Eyes of the Deities"

5:30 p.m.: “Religious Tourism Thrives Because Pilgrimages Exist: Voices from South Asia”
Featured Speaker, Matoaka Woods Hall, First Floor
Dr. Kiran Shinde, La Trobe University in Australia

Sacred tourism related to Hinduism and Buddhism thrives thanks to traditional infrastructure created by religious institutions.

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Saturday, November 9

Session 8, 8:30 – 10:15, Dogwood Room
“Layering of Old Sites”
Moderator: Lynn Talbot

• Kip Redick, “Poetic versus Prosaic Revealing, Layers of Meaning in Pilgrimage Practices”
• Maryjane Dunn, “When did the Cruz de ferro become a sacred site?”
• Daniel Olsen, “What is a Holy City? The Case of Salt Lake City, Utah”

Session 9, 8:30 – 10:15, Holly Room
“At the Edges of History and Culture”
Moderator: George Greenia

• Nougoutna Norbert Litoing, « Pilgrimage and the Inculturation of Islam and Catholicism in Senegal: A Comparative Assessment”
• Joanna Homrighausen, “Why Pilgrimage Scholars and Hebrew Bible Scholars Don’t Talk—And How They Could”
• Tyler J. Goldberger, “Memories surrounding a Mausoleum: Pilgrimage to Spain’s (Former) Homage to Fascism”

Session 10, 10:30 – 12:15, Dogwood Room
“Pilgrimage in South Asia”
Moderator: Michael Cronin

• Mona Zaki, “Reading the Graves: Notes on the Pilgrimage of al-Nabulsi (17th c) to Mecca and Medina”
• Nicky Gutierrez, “Ginko Pilgrimages: Following Momoko Kuroda’s Literary Journeys”
• Yi-Hui Lin, “Mazu on the move: Dynamic Routes, Serendipitous Encounters, and Transformative Narratives in Pilgrimage Practice”

Session 11, 10:30 – 12:15, Holly Room
“Embodied Pilgrimage”
Moderator: M. Brennan Harris

• Karine Boivin, “The walker's foot before and after a walking pilgrimage”
• M. Brennan Harris, “Research on the State of the Question in Exercise Physiology and Pilgrimage trekking”
• Steven G Rindahl, “Combatants’ Camino – Pilgrimage’s PTSD and Moral Injury Healing Potential”

Session 12, 10:30 – 12:15, Rm: TBD
“Student Integration and Connection”
Moderator: John Riofrio

• Joe Pritchett, “The Mindful Pilgrim: Mindfulness as a Framework for Engaging in Pilgrimage”
• Lynn Talbot, “Short-Term Camino Programs: A Longitudinal Study”
• John Riofrio, “Mentoring under Duress: Lessons from the Camino de Santiago and Beyond.”

Session 13, 1:30 – 3:15, Dogwood Room
“Pilgrimage and Embodiment: Journeys of Recovery, Reconnecting, and Transformation”
Moderator: Roy Tamashiro

• Roy Tamashiro, “A Pilgrimage To ‘The Collective We’: Holding Sacred Space for Irreconcilable Identities and Ideologies”
• Colleen Conroy, “Pilgrimage Embodied in Performance: Voices from the Camino in Immersive Theatre”
• Amanda M. Kingston, “Forest Therapy and Meditation as Pilgrimage”
• Corinne E. Meijer, “Applying Trauma-Informed Principles to Pilgrimage Research & Scholarship”

Session 14, 1:30 – 3:15, Holly Room
“Therapeutic Meaning”
Moderator: Kathleen Jenkins

• Christianna Soumakis, “Accumulating Toward Glory: Layers of Pilgrimage”
• Alison T. Smith, “Walk, Fish, Breath, Write: Living the Camino Upon Return”
• Lisa M. Calvin, “Quarantine Camino: A Visual Analysis Comparing the Camino Francés and Hoosier Neighborhoods during Quarantine”

Session 15, 3:30 – 5:15, Dogwood Room
“Student Integration and Connection”
Moderator: Jim Barber

• Jennifer Elsdon, “Beyond Bunyan and Chaucer: The pedagogical imperative for pilgrimage in today’s secondary English Language Arts classroom”
• Jim Barber, “College Student Learning at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham”
• Madera Gabriela Allan, “Practicing Pilgrimage in Northeast Wisconsin”

Session 16, 3:30 – 5:15, Holly Room
“Uncovering America’s “Hidden” Black History: Walking Washington D.C.’s Banneker Stones”
Moderator: Brian Bouldrey

• Brian Bouldrey, “Walking the Boundary Stones with Benjamin Banneker: A Secular Pilgrimage”
• Jody Lynn Allen, “Rediscovering History Locally and Nationally: William & Mary’s The Lemon Project”
• Rachel Jamison Webster, « Ancestral Pilgrimage and the Journey to Benjamin Banneker”

5:30 – 6:00 Refreshments & Student Presentations, Matoaka Hall, First Floor
Student Poster session with presenters from:
The Gregory School, Wake Forest University, and Christopher Newport University

Closing Banquet 6:00 – 8:00, Matoaka Hall

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Sunday, November 10

9 to 11 a.m.

Focus of Workshop: Walking Practices That Limit Physical Strain over Long Distances

Workshop Leader: Karine Boivin, Ph. D., Département des sciences de l’activité physique, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada

This workshop has been developed to promote better body ergonomics among pilgrims with the aim of limiting the physical strain and musculoskeletal disorders associated with prolonged walking, as experienced in the context of walking pilgrimages. This initiative was launched as part of a knowledge development and transfer program focused on the physical health of the pilgrim-walker and beneOiting communities of practice. To date, more than 35 walking workshops have been held in Quebec and France by Professor K. Boivin, a biomechanist and gait analyst.

You are invited to try a sample of this type of workshop with this 2-hour event on Sunday a.m. from 9-11. Make sure to wear shoes that enable you to walk with ease 3.5 to 4 km (1.9 to 2.5 miles) around the symposium site. The walk will be on Olat ground and gentle slopes (uphill and downhill). During the workshop, you'll be invited to discover techniques for better overall body alignment when walking, ways to transfer weight gently for the body, more optimal foot roll, and how to negotiate inclines with less effort. This workshop is for anyone who wants to perfect ttheir understanding of walking in an atmosphere of discovery and sharing. You will be able to register for the walk at the symposium.