9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Panel #1: Prayer, Poetry, and the Body

Simon Marsden (University of Liverpool), “Natural Theology and the Romantic Imagination in Patrick Brontë’s Poetry”

Elizabeth Ludlow (Anglia Ruskin University), “The Resurrection of the Body and the Renewal of Creation in Victorian Women’s Poetry”

Amanda Vernon (Lancaster University), “Prayer, Poetry and the Face of God in Nature”

11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Coffee Break

11:30 a.m. – 12:40 p.m.

Panel #2: Silas Marner

Jo Carruthers (Lancaster University), “Bearing Witness Against the
Innocent? Divine Intervention and
Organic Imagery in George
Eliot’s Silas Marner”

Kathryn Poole (Lancaster University), “Methodism, Nature and Collective Identity in Silas Marner”

12:40 p.m. – 2:10 p.m.

Lunch

8:30 a.m

Registration Opens

Seminar Room, Room 125 (bottom floor)

2:10 p.m. – 3:20 p.m.

Panel #3: Ecological Thought

Rebekah Lamb, “‘[Y]et one change cries out to another’: History as Spiritual Ecology in the Sermons of John-Henry Newman”

Harriet Newnes (Lancaster University), “’We are the Heirs of Time’: Towards an Ecology of Thought in Herbert Spencer and George Henry Lewes”

8:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Panel #3: American Wildernesses and Ecologies

Lecture Hall, Room 122 (bottom floor)

Moderator: Jeremy Elliott (Abilene Christian University)

Jeremy Elliott (Abilene Christian University), “Echoes of Gnosticism in John Muir’s Ecological Vision”

Sara Frear (Houston Baptist University), “‘Toward the Edge of Town’: Gifford Pinchot and the Domesticated Wilderness of Carol Ryrie Brink”

Jordan Sillars (Baylor University), “‘Voices to proclaim his praise’: Nature, Text, and Divine Revelation in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans”

3:20 p.m. – 3:50 p.m.

Coffee Break

10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Refreshments

Seminar Room, Room 125 (bottom floor)

An exhibition related to this conference is on display in the Hankamer Treasure Room, “‘Every common bush afire with God’: Divine Encounters in the Living World.” During this break, the curator, Molly Lewis (Baylor PhD student), will be on hand to address questions.

3:50 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Panel #4: Theological Perspectives and Fictional Practice

Rachel Bodnariuc (Simon Fraser University), “Ecocriticism, Christian Literary Scholarship & Postsecularism: Present Tensions and New Opportunities”

Julia Courtney (Independent Scholar, formerly of the Open University), “In ‘a spring-tide wood’: Tractarian Ecotheology in Fictional Practice”

5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Coffee Break

9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Keynote Panel: Ecology and Religion in 19C Literary Studies – Four Case Studies

Gary Handwerk (University of Washington), “Ecologies and Economies of Nature: Malthus and Beyond”

Joshua King (Baylor University), “Christ and Carbon: Earth as Human in Aurora Leigh”

Patrick R. O’Malley (Georgetown University), “New Woman, New Creed: Spiritual Evolution in Sarah Grand’s Heavenly Twins Trilogy”

Emma Mason (University of Warwick), “Divine Pastoral: Wordsworth and the Weak Things of the World”

11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Keynote Panel: Ecology and Religion in 19C Literary Studies – Four Case Studies

Lecture Hall, Room 122 (bottom floor)

Gary Handwerk (University of Washington), “Ecologies and Economies of Nature: Malthus and Beyond”

Joshua King (Baylor University), “Christ and Carbon: Earth as Human in Aurora Leigh”

Patrick R. O’Malley (Georgetown University), “New Woman, New Creed: Spiritual Evolution in Sarah Grand’s Heavenly Twins Trilogy”

Emma Mason (University of Warwick), “Divine Pastoral: Wordsworth and the Weak Things of the World”

12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Keynote Panel: Ecology and Religion in 19C Literary Studies – Four Case Studies

Gary Handwerk (University of Washington), “Ecologies and Economies of Nature: Malthus and Beyond”

Joshua King (Baylor University), “Christ and Carbon: Earth as Human in Aurora Leigh”

Patrick R. O’Malley (Georgetown University), “New Woman, New Creed: Spiritual Evolution in Sarah Grand’s Heavenly Twins Trilogy”

Emma Mason (University of Warwick), “Divine Pastoral: Wordsworth and the Weak Things of the World”

5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Keynote Panel: Ecology and Religion in 19C Literary Studies – Four Case Studies

Gary Handwerk (University of Washington), “Ecologies and Economies of Nature: Malthus and Beyond”

Joshua King (Baylor University), “Christ and Carbon: Earth as Human in Aurora Leigh”

Patrick R. O’Malley (Georgetown University), “New Woman, New Creed: Spiritual Evolution in Sarah Grand’s Heavenly Twins Trilogy”

Emma Mason (University of Warwick), “Divine Pastoral: Wordsworth and the Weak Things of the World”

1:45 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.

Late Lunch

Cox Reception Hall (bottom floor)

3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.

Panel #4: Religion and Agrarian Ecology in Liberty Hyde Bailey’s “Earth Philosophy”

Lecture Hall, Room 122 (bottom floor)

Moderator: Melinda Creech (Independent Scholar)

Gil Waldkoenig (United Lutheran Seminary), “Liberty Hyde Bailey’s Religion and Church Affiliation”

John Linstrom (NYU), “Outlook to the Backgrounds: The Idiosyncratic Rhetoric and Spirituality of Liberty Hyde Bailey’s Earth Philosophy”

Jeffrey Bilbro (Spring Arbor), “Earthly Religion and Church Religion: Bailey, Berry, and the Shifting Landscape of Belief”

3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Roundtable Seminar on Ecology, Religion, and Literature

Moderator: Rachel Arteaga (University of Washington)

Christine Chaney (Seattle Pacific University)
Sumayyah Daud (University of Washington)
Richa Dwor (Douglas College)
Laura Griffith (University of Washington)
Gary Handwerk (University of Washington)
Heidi Kaufman (University of Oregon)
Charles LaPorte (University of Washington)
Michael Ledger-Lomas (Kings College, London)
Hee Eun Lee (University of Washington)
Joseph McQueen (Northwest University)
Matt Poland, (University of Washington)
Juliet Shields (UW)
Katherine Voyles, (University of Washington, Bothell)
Sarah Weiger (University of Portland)
Mischa Willett (Seattle Pacific University)

4:45 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.

Field Trip: Urban REAP

Located in urban north Waco, this complex provides sustainable food and energy and trains others to do the same. Registration is required (limit 30 participants).

6:00 p.m.

Dinner: World Cup Cafe

Associated with and in part supplied by Urban REAP. Registration is required (limit 40 participants).