In the wake of a renewed interest in the theoretical framework developed by Arnold Van Gennep and Victor Turner, the workshop will focus on liminality as an aspect of falling. Further to Gennep’s theory on liminality as an intermediate, ambivalent social zone, Turner regarded liminality as being characteristic of inter-structural, “betwixt and between” situations, of ambiguity and transition.

The workshop intends to look at the ambivalent potential of the liminal condition.

It will engage scholars from a variety of disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and explore the manifold ways in which liminality — the gap between the worlds —articulates, shapes, defines or serves the development of individuals, societies and cultures.

Mind the Gap — Workshop Programme 12-14 June 2019, Trinity College, Dublin

12 June (Day 1)

12.30–1.00 pm Meet and Greet

1.00–1.15 pm Welcome

Panel 1: Marginalized Communities

1.15–3.00 pm

Chair: Sandra Cardarelli

Eric Ziolkowski (Lafayette College, Pennsylvania): “Liminal dialogues: a Jewish interviewee in King Pedro of Aragon's court”

Michael T. Miller (Liverpool Hope University): “The African Hebrew Israelite Community and the Theology of Marginalisation”

Patrick J.S. Brittenden (Regent’s Park College, Oxford): “Christian identity in the Muslim-background Church of Algeria”

Panel 2: Religious Spaces: The Church

3.30–4.40 pm

Chair: Michael MacKay

Topher Endress (University of Aberdeen): “Church hubs and LAE as liminal expressions”

Jamie Ingram (University of Southampton): “Liminal space and liminal place: the medieval church porch”

Special Event:

5.00–6.00 pm Graeme Nixon (University of Aberdeen): “A mindful gap: Mindfulness and liminality” (for participants only)

6.30 pm Dinner for participants

13 June (Day 2) Keynote lecture

9.00–10.30 am Prof. Alison Scott Baumann, Centre of Islamic Studies in the Near and Middle East Department at SOAS, “Bridging the gap to recognize others: Why the liberal project is still alive”

Panel 3:

11.00 am–12.10 pm Performing Arts I

Chair: Eric Ziolkowski

Lise Olsen (University of Aberdeen): “In-between the Soundwalk [The in-between walking and listening experience]”

Pauline Brooks (Liverpool John Moores University): “Creating in the liminal performance space between live and digital dance worlds – with specific reference to the Dance work ‘Falling’”

12.10–1.45 pm Lunch for participants

2.00–3.00 pm Book of Kells tour (for participants only)

3.00–3.30pm Coffee

Panel 4: Performing Arts II

3.30–4.40 pm

Chair: Alexandra Grieser

Yu-Chun Chen (University of Roehampton): “A creative gap: become and becoming a dancer in the Taipei Dance Circle”

Michele Avis Feder-Nadoff (Independent Anthropologist and Artist – Mexico): “The Liminal and Contingent in Artisan Agency and Performance: The Coppersmiths of Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán, Mexico”

Panel 5: On the Verge of Society

5.10–5.45 pm

Chair: Graeme Nixon

Maria Antonietta Struzziero (Independent Scholar): “Liminal states in Rose Tremain’s The Road home”

6.30 pm Dinner for participants

14 June (Day 3)

Panel 6: Liminal Women

9.00–10.45 am

Chair: Alison Scott Baumann

Sandra Cardarelli (University of Aberdeen): “On the Threshold of the Divine: Painting the Virgin Mary”

Michael MacKay (Brigham-Young University): “Mormon Polygamy: Women Betwixt and Between Godhood”

Zohar Hadromi-Allouche (Trinity College, Dublin): “Wife and leader: Khadījah as a first follower”

Panel 7: Liminality: An alternative to one’s actual place

11.15 am–1.00 pm

Chair: Pauline Brooks

Robert Segal (University of Aberdeen): “Liminality for Turner”

Jose R. Irizarry (Villanova University, Theology and Religious Studies, Pennsylvania): “Ivan Illich’s Pedagogics of Liminality”

Alexandra Grieser (Trinity College, Dublin): “Rising, falling, or staying where we are? – Conceptual metaphors and the techno- visioneering of a life without limits”

Summary and Farewell