{"id":2,"date":"2013-05-13T12:12:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T16:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/conversion\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2013-09-02T17:26:55","modified_gmt":"2013-09-02T21:26:55","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/conversion\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Mellon-ISLA Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Workshop<\/a>
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\nFrom the foundational Christian story of Saul of Tarsus struck down from his horse on the road to Damascus to Nixon adviser Chuck Colson\u2019s memoir Born Again<\/i>, narratives of conversion mark decisive moments in the lives of those who write about them. These stories take many forms: the forced conversions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and converso Jews in medieval Spain; the voluntary conversions of Ruth, Augustine, and Constantine; the spurious conversion tale of Darwin\u2019s deathbed conversion and renunciation of the theory of evolution.\u00a0 Though there are of course many other kinds of religious narrative, the conversion story is powerfully evocative.\u00a0 Some are stories of personal transformation and interior spiritual renewal, while others show the effects of political oppression and religious conflict.<\/p>\n

With the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, we plan to bring together a group of interested graduate students to form a workshop under the rubric of \u201cLiterature and Conversion.\u201d\u00a0 The reasons for such a workshop are compelling and include the following:<\/p>\n