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Meeting Program Units

2022 Annual Meeting

Denver, Colorado

Meeting Begins11/19/2022
Meeting Ends11/22/2022

Call for Papers Opens: 1/19/2022
Call for Papers Closes: 3/18/2022

Requirements for Participation

Utopian Studies


Program Unit Type: Consultation
Accepting Papers? Yes

Call For Papers: We welcome proposals for two sessions at the annual meeting. Our first session will focus on the theme “Chronicles and Utopia.” This session is co-sponsored by the Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah unit. We welcome proposals that address questions regarding the category of utopia as it has been utilized to interpret Chronicles: How might we theorize the category of utopia in conjunction with the category of historiography, with Chronicles as the case study? What do we understand differently about Chronicles when it is put in conversation with other ancient or modern utopian works, and vice versa? Our second session will focus on the theme "The Kingdom of God as Utopia." The category of utopia is frequently employed within biblical studies to characterize a wide range of literature that is examined within the field from legal codes to prophecy to apocalypses. However, little critical attention has been paid to understanding the meaning of this term in biblical studies or to theorizing the concept. We invite papers in this session to explore the ways in which utopia can be used to analyze productively the various descriptions of the idea of the kingdom of God in ancient (Israelite, Jewish, or Christian) literature. In turn, how has the notion of “God’s kingdom” impacted utopian conceptualizations? Submissions for these sessions should attend to theoretical work from within the field of Utopian Studies.

Program Unit Chairs

Debra S. Ballentine
Jonathan Kaplan

Propose a Paper for this Program Unit

If you are a SBL member, you must login before you can propose a paper for this or any other session. Please login by entering your SBL member number on the left in the Login box.

For all other persons wanting to propose a paper, you must communicate directly with the chair of the program unit to which you want to propose. Chairs have the responsibility to make waiver requests, and their email addresses are available above. SBL provides membership and meeting registration waivers only for scholars who are outside the disciplines covered by the SBL program, specifically most aspects of archaeological, biblical, religious, and theological studies.

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