The Center for Barth Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary is pleased to announce the fifth Karl Barth Graduate Student Colloquium to be held on August 19-21, 2020. This year’s theme is Barth and politics—broadly conceived as a constructive and critical engagement with Barth’s own politics, political theory, and political theology in conversation with contemporary conversations on the same. Over the course of three days, participants will have the opportunity to engage in an intensive student-led seminar and to get to know other up-and-coming Barth scholars. During the day, participants will take turns presenting papers and leading group discussion on an assigned portion of the text. Two senior scholars will supplement the student-led day sessions by providing evening lectures and opportunities to further the conversation.
We especially encourage women, people of color, international students, new voices, and other under-represented voices in the Barth discussion to submit proposals for this year’s colloquium.
Call for Papers
The text for the 2020 colloquium will be the essays found in Community, State, and Church. We are inviting doctoral students and recent graduates in the disciplines of theology, ethics, religion, and political philosophy. While we expect that all applicants will closely read Community, State, and Church in advance of the colloquium, papers may take up the political themes from anywhere in Barth’s corpus. Papers, therefore, are encouraged to be primarily constructive and thesis-driven, not exegetical. We hope that this set-up will foster fruitful and constructive conversations about the merits, utility, and limits of Barth’s own political thought in conversation with similar contemporary conversations.
Application Information: This colloquium is open to any doctoral student whose interests intersect with some aspect of Karl Barth’s theology. A focus on Barth’s theology in your dissertation is not required. ABD is preferred. Recent graduates may apply. Applicants are required to submit a CV and a statement of interest no longer than 750 words proposing a constructive paper on the colloquium’s theme. Applications should be sent to barth.center@ptsem.edu no later than Monday, March 2, 2020. Notification of acceptance will be made by Monday, March 30, 2020. Successful applicants will present a 20-25 minute paper and lead the discussion that follows. We especially encourage women, people of color, international students, new voices, and other under-represented voices in the Barth discussion to submit proposals for this year’s colloquium.
Cost: The colloquium begins Wednesday morning and concludes on Friday afternoon. All food and lodging during the colloquium will be provided. Lodging will begin on Tuesday evening, August 18. Modest travel stipends are also included.
Questions?: For more information see the Barth Center website or email barth.center@ptsem.edu.
Plenary Speaker – Hana Reichel
Dr. Reichel earned her ThD and MDiv from Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, holds a B.Sc. in economics from Fernuniversität Hagen and a BA (Vordiplom) in theology from Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. Reichel’s published work includes articles on Karl Barth and the mission of the church, and a monograph titled, Theologie als Bekenntnis. Karl Barths kontextuelle Lektüre des Heidelberger Catechisms (FSÖTh, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015), eng. Theology as Confession: Karl Barth’s Contextual Readings of the Heidelberg Catechism. Her theological interests include Christology, scriptural hermeneutics, political theology, constructive theology, poststructuralist theory, and the theology of Karl Barth.
For more information see here: http://barth.ptsem.edu/event/2020-barth-graduate-student-colloquium