Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures

Call For Papers: We are holding two sessions this year. The first—co-sponsored with Latino/a and Latin American Biblical Interpretation—will be a combination of invited papers and open call on movement and dispersion. We are interested in the following questions: What does it mean for islands and island identities when islanders find themselves displaced, either by choice or by exigence? How do such movements influence our interpretation of scriptural texts? How do memories of home help to shape the construction of diasporic identity? How might islanders who are descendants of navigators respond to the anxieties with movement in the biblical (e.g., into the wilderness and exile) and contemporary (e.g., due to climate displacement) worlds? Do islanders whose forebears were enslaved and forced to move respond similarly, and/or differently? The second session is co-sponsored with Animal Studies. Scientific studies are showing that marine mammals have capacities for language, intelligence, and sentience that Europeans once considered the sole preserve of humans, and activists are working to end the captivity of cetaceans like Orcas. What unique perspectives do Island people have on marine mammals that might blur the human animal binary? Or what unique perspectives do Islanders have on other than human animals and birds that might inform the reading of the Bible?

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