Louisville Conference on Media, Religion, and Culture: 2004

Conference

Join the media researchers and practitioners who will gather in Louisville from September 1 to September 4, 2004 to explore the complex relationships among media, religion, and culture. At the conference - the fourth in a series begun in Uppsala, Sweden, and followed by meetings in Boulder, Colorado, and Edinburgh, Scotland - representatives from diverse religious traditions will examine innovative as well as customary means of communicating and miscommunicating faith. The assemblage promises to be lively, illuminating, and in light of world events and concerns, critically important.

Themes

The conference will focus on five topics:

Production: how and why media - including newspapers, radio, television, film,CD-ROM, and the Internet - act as bearers of social, cultural, and religious meaning

Community: new ways that media are used in temples, synagogues, mosques, and churches to enrich worship and enhance dialogue and a sense of belonging

Audience: the ways that audiences interpret or use particular media for both implicit and explicit religious ends

Ethics: religious responses to issues of media literacy or media justice

Globalization: worldwide issues, including virtual religion in which a sense of place doesn't seem to matter

Accommodations

The Seelbach Hilton is located downtown in the heart of Louisville's entertainment and business district. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, featured in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and renovated in 2000, the hotel provides guests with state-of-the-art amenities along with four-poster beds. Besides its coffee shop and café, the hotel's bar has been rated one of the fifty best in the world and its restaurant, The Oakroom, has received AAA's coveted five diamonds.

The Seelbach Hilton
500 Fourth Avenue
Reservations (Int+1) 800-333-3399
Local (Int+1) 502-585-3200
$109 single or double

Contact the Seelbach Hilton directly for reservations. To receive the special conference rate, you must make your reservation by July 31, 2004.

Louisville

While you are in Louisville, sample what the city has to offer. Go next door to the Cathedral Heritage Foundation's Museum of Faiths. Walk to the newly redeveloped Waterfront Park. Take in a performance at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. See the Kentucky Derby Museum at world-famous Churchill Downs, the site of the Kentucky Derby. Tour the Louisville Slugger Museum & Bat Factory.Ride on the Belle of Louisville, the oldest Mississippi-style sternwheeler in the country. Visit the American Printing House for the Blind, the oldest and largest publisher for the blind and visually impaired in the United States. And be sure to sample the diverse restaurants to find out for yourself why more people per capita dine out in Louisville than in any other U.S. city.

Registration

Early registration (postmarked by July 15, 2004): $80 Registration (postmarked after July 15, 2004): $125

Conference Registration Form in PDF format

Conference Registration Form in HTML format

Conference Organizer

John P. Ferré
Department of Communication
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292 USA
ferre@louisville.edu
phone: (Int+1) 502-852-6976

Supported by the Louisville Institute, the International Study Commission on Media, Religion, and Culture, the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences, and the University of Louisville Department of Communication.