2023 Las Casas Conference
2023 Las Casas Conference
Bartolomé de Las Casas, Transatlantic Reformer: June 2023
Come and join a rich and diverse community of scholars at the Third International Las Casas Conference, to be held at Providence College. The focus of the 2023 conference is “Las Casas: Transatlantic Reformer?”
In his provocative A Secular Age, Charles Taylor identifies Reform as a broad conviction “felt with increasing power during the Middle Ages and early modern period, that not just an élite, but as far as possible all the faithful live up to the demands of the Gospel” (104). This year’s conference seeks to put Las Casas in conversation with broader trends in sixteenth-century reformations, Christian humanism and secularization, as well as currents in theology, literature, philosophy, anthropology, and law. We will also explore Las Casas’ mark on social discipline and print culture.
This Lascasian conference coincides with the 500th anniversary of Las Casas’ 1522 entrance into a self-consciously reforming Dominican Order, itself an expression of trends in the renewal of religious life. Participants will benefit from and contribute to the rich combination of unique research interests afforded by this interdisciplinary invitation to consider Las Casas as a reformer in his own right.
Those who wish to present their work, please consult the official “Call for Papers” (English, Spanish, French) listed below for more details. Accepted papers will be eligible for inclusion in a projected double-blind peer-reviewed collection.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
12–6 p.m.
Registration/check-in
6–8 p.m.
Dinner available in Ray Dining Hall
Thursday, June 22, 2023
6:30–8 a.m.
Breakfast in Raymond
8:10-8:25 a.m.
Welcome and opening comment
8:25-9:40 a.m.
Panel One (Las Casas and the Late Medieval Context of Christian Reformation)
Andrew Wilson, Japan Lutheran College
Alexsandro Menez, Brown University
*Cristina Ríos Espinosa, Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana (Mexico)
Ian C. Levy, Providence College
3 papers 20 minutes (1 hour)
15 minutes Q&A
Break 10 minutes
9:50-11:05 a.m.
Panel Two (Was There a Lascasian School?)
Luis Andrés Bilbao Escotto, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Mario Ruiz Sotelo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
*Enrique Téllez Fabiani, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
3 papers 20 minutes (1 hour)
15 minutes Q&A
Break 10 minutes
11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Panel Three (Aristotelian Legacies in Las Casas’s Thought)
Thomas Eggensperger, O.P., University of Munich
Michael Schulz, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
John Pollock-Parker, Boston University
3 papers 20 minutes (1 hour)
15 minutes Q&A
12:40 p.m.
Lunch in Raymond
3:30 p.m.
Shuttle to John Carter Brown Library
5 p.m.
Plenary speaker, Paola Uparela, University of Florida: “Women’s Labor Rights in Las Casas’s Projects.
Reforming Working Conditions, Procuring Healthy Pregnancies and Deliveries, Denouncing Sexual Violence.”
6–9 p.m.
Dinner on your own in Providence
Shuttle back to campus from Federal Hill or Uber on your own
Friday, June 23, 2023
6:30 a.m. – 7:50 a.m.
Breakfast in Raymond
8 a.m.–12:50 p.m.
Conference sessions
8-9:15 a.m.
Panel Four (Las Casas and Global Missions)
Víctor Zorrilla, Universidad de Monterrey (Mexico)
Dwight E. R. TenHuisen, Calvin University
Nicole T. Hughes, Stanford University
*Natsuko Matsumori, University of Shizuoka (Japan)
3 papers 20 minutes (1 hour)
15 minutes Q&A
Break 10 minutes
9:25-10:40 a.m.
Panel Five (Legal Reasoning in Lascasian Thought)
Matthew Cavedon, Emory University
Rady Roldan-Figueroa, Boston University
Víctor Zorrilla, Universidad de Monterrey (Mexico)
3 papers 20 minutes (1 hour)
15 minutes Q&A
Break 10 minutes
10:50 a.m.-12:05 p.m.
Panel Six (Just Dominion)
*Ramón D. Valdivia, Centro de Estudios Teológicos de Sevilla
Mariano Delgado, University of Fribourg (Switzerland)
Daniel R. Brunstetter, University of California, Irvine
3 papers 20 minutes (1 hour)
15 minutes Q&A
12:15 p.m.
Lunch in Raymond
1:45-3:00 p.m.
Panel Seven (Looking Ahead in Lascasian Research)
Jorge Abril Sánchez, University of New Hampshire-Durham
Lincoln Son Currie, Boston University
Samuel Fynewever, Calvin College
3 papers 20 minutes (1 hour)
15 minutes Q&A
Break 10 minutes
3:10-4:25 p.m.
Panel Eight (Literary and Textual Criticism and the Lascasian Corpus)
*Vanina M. Teglia, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Alexsandro Menez, Brown University
3 papers 20 minutes (1 hour)
15 minutes Q&A
Break 10 minutes
4:10-5:45 p.m.
Panel Nine (Las Casas and Debates on Conquest, Sovereignty, and Consent)
José Villagrana, San José State University
Rubén Sánchez-Godoy, Southern Methodist University
*Gabriel Cardoso Bom, University of San Paulo (Brazil)
3 papers 20 minutes (1 hour)
15 minutes Q&A
6 pm
Plenary speaker, Mariano Delgado, University of Freiburg (Switzerland):
“The Form of Thinking of Bartolomé de Las Casas. Merits and Limitations”
7 p.m.
Reception and closing dinner Fiondella Great Room
Saturday, June 24, 2023
7–9 a.m.
Breakfast in Raymond
9:30-10:30 a.m.
Participant Roundtable: Directions for Lascasian Studies
10:30 a.m.
Announcing the Institute for Lascasian Studies
12 p.m.
Lunch
1 p.m.
Checkout
