Friday Night Event Speaker: Professor Edward Wright-Ríos from Vanderbilt University presents Devotion in Motion: Dynamic Tradition and Lived Religion. How does pilgrimage endure, and why is its popularity surging? We often imagine it as an experience of contemplative self-discovery anchored in tradition. But in Mexico pilgrimage thrives amid journeys that are raucous, gritty affairs characterized by unflagging sensory assault, unrelenting commercial activity, and social media’s ubiquity. Why and how does a subset of Catholics there sustain this mode of devotion? Professor Wright-Ríos is also the author of Devotion in Motion: Pilgrimage in Modern Mexico (2025).
PAST EVENTS
November 8-9, 2024 -- Annual Symposium for Pilgrimage Studies
Friday night opening reception and talk: Dr. Kiran Shinde from La Trobe University in Australia: Religious Tourism Thrives Because Pilgrimages Exist: Voices from South Asia. Dr. Shinde will speak about the contemporary phenomena of religious tourism in the developing world through his analysis of several pilgrim-towns and pilgrimage landscapes related to Hinduism and Buddhism. His wide-ranging examples reinforce that religious tourism thrives on religious infrastructure created by religious institutions – and all of this is rooted in the traditions of pilgrimage.
November 3-4, 2023 -- Annual Symposium for Pilgrimage Studies
Featured Panel: "THE ACCIDENTAL HIGHWAY US HIGHWAY 20 AND THE PILGRIMAGE TO MAIN STREET, USA" withBrian Bouldrey, Northwestern University, Dept of English,Jennifer Keller, Environmental Protection Aagency Specialist, and Karen Titus, Documentary Photographer
November 4-5, 2022 -- Annual Symposium for Pilgrimage Studies
Keynote Speaker: Simon Coleman, Chancellor Jackman Professor, University of Toronto, Department for the Study of Religion. Professor Coleman is an anthropologist whose most recent book, Powers of Pilgrimage: Religion in a World of Movement, was published in 2021 by New York University Press
November 12-13, 2021 -- Annual Symposium for Pilgrimage Studies, on-line sessions only
"The Changing Nature of Pilgrimage in a Globalizing World"
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