This conference will chart, navigate and celebrate the painful pleasures that we experience in the journey of faith, in the life of the body, and in crossing the thresholds of life. It will be an opportunity for members of the church, the public and the academy to acknowledge the painful pleasures of life and cooperate in securing places for those who are vulnerable and not yet at home in their current places. There will be presentations over a spectrum of painful pleasure subjects ranging from faith to bible to body to church to life to conversion to marriage to divorce to stress to mental illness to O.C. to home to fluid to moana to politics and so forth …
And the best thing, will be me of course. Presenting work from the PhD and the ol’ masters. Click here to find out more and register.
Remember my grumpiness at Dubai airport way back when.? Apparently The Gulf News remembers.
Views of Water St – had a great dinner with some guys at an Italian place with fantastic cocktails (is that gay?).
And views from the tower. What a beautiful city.
Simone Heidbrink and Nadja Miczek provided some great insights into the use of ritual, the use of space in the practice of religion in the Second Life platform, but moreover instigated great discussions about ritual theory. Pauline Cheong presented her stuff on the geography of online sacred spaces, which fuelled the discussions on the purposes and practices of online ritual.
I presented my second paper in a panel that turned into a roundtable discussion on new methodologies, promises and problems in research blogs. It was a great chance to talk with many who are in my boat, and made some cool contacts to help me along the way.
The best bit about the conference however, was when Heidi Campbell took me aside for lunch and we talked about my PhD journey. It was fantastic to have someone who’s considered such an original, prolific and spirited expert in this emerging field give me some time just to help out. A rare opportunity for which I’m really grateful.
Next year’s AoIR is in Copenhagen, so I’m already saving up to go.
Aleks and TL showed me a fantastic time on the last night where we took over Vancouver. Found my new favourite cocktail and met dozens of peope on the streets and in the pubs. Thanks guys – you’re tops.
