B.C. History of Religion Conference, 30-31 March

At the end of this month, Boston College hosts its biennial conference on the history of religion. Here are the sessions that appear to pertain to the study of eighteenth-century America.

Friday, 30 March

Keynote Address, 2:00–3:30 P.M., Francis Thompson Room, John J. Burns Library

Jon Butler, Howard R. Lamar Professor of American Studies, History & Religious Studies, Yale University: “When Religion Counts and When it Doesn’t: How do Historians Know?”

Panel Session One, 4:00–5:30 P.M.

Panel A: “African Americans and Religion in Massachusetts,” Room 202, Gasson Hall

• Richard J. Boles, George Washington University: “‘A Free Negro Who Also Owned the Covenant With Us’: African Americans in Massachusetts Religious History”
• Gloria McCahon Whiting, Harvard University: “That You May Become Good Christians: Religion and Slave Family Life in Early Massachusetts”
• Jared Hardesty, Boston College: “Taught my Benighted Soul to Understand: African Slaves, Protestant Christianity, and Resistance in Eighteenth Century Boston”

Moderator/Commentator: Joanne Pope Melish, University of Kentucky

Panel D: “Teaching the Subjects: Religion and Education in the Early British Empire,” Room 210, Gasson Hall

• Karen Sonnelitter, Purdue University: “The Politics of Religious Charity in Eighteenth Century Ireland: The Incorporated Society for Promoting English Protestant Schools”
• Craig Gallagher, Boston College: “Prelacy or Presbytery? Religion and Education in the Early Modern British Kingdoms”
• Scott McDermott, Saint Louis University: “The New England Praying Indians as Participants in Transatlantic Religious and Scientific Dialogue”

Moderator/Commentator: Malcolm Smuts, University of Massachusetts-Boston

Saturday, 31 March

Panel Session Two, 8:45–10:15 A.M.

Panel D: “Gender, Politics, and Female Leadership among Early Quakers and Methodists,” Room 210, Gasson Hall

• Sarah Crabtree, Fairleigh Dickinson University: “From New York: Hannah Barnard and the Irish Rebellion of 1798”
• Anne M. Lawrence, Fairfield University: “Jarena Lee’s Calling: Female Preaching in the Early African Methodist Episcopal Church”
• Janet Moore Lindman, Rowan University: “Testimony in Action: Anne Emlen’s Political Challenge to the American Revolutionary War”

Moderator/Commentator: Lynn Lyerly, Boston College

Registration costs $25, which covers some meals.