Call for Participation in the Filipino Youth and Sacred Research Workshops 2012-13

The College of Liberal Arts of De La Salle University holds research workshops on The Youth and the Sacred: On Filipino Youth’s Sacred Experiences, Sacred Performances and Notions of the Sacred.

The workshops are divided into the following themes: “The Youth and Religious Discourses”, “The sacred as resource/s”, “Sacred in Spaces and Places: Visual and Material Culture As Media of the Sacred” and “Towards the Rubrics of the Sacred in Young Filipinos: Methodologies, Frameworks,and Avenues for Research.”

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE 1ST WORKSHOP JULY 27, 2012
“The Youth and Religious Discourses”
Main Speaker: Dr. Gerry Lanuza, University of the Philippines
July 27, 2012
Andrew Gonzalez Building RM 1506, De La Salle University Philippines

In the Philippines, a cursory research on Google yields results on sacred that are intimately connected to religion or religious identity. This first workshop gathers scholars who research on youth and religious discourses. Participants will explore the intersections of sacred and religion, of the varying manifestations of sacred in spiritualities, and how these intersect with gender, class and ethnicity in young Filipinos. Moreover, in Asian context, the affirmation of life is widely held and valued.
Nevertheless, an exhaustive research on youth cultures has to take into consideration the myriad of experiences of young people that seemingly undermine such value, like poverty, child labor, sexual trafficking and belonging in large families, to name a few.

Tentatively, the following questions will be considered:
1. In young Filipinos who find increasing dissonance between their new found beliefs and traditional beliefs, how is sacred conceptualized, interrogated or negotiated?
2. In young Filipino Muslims, how is sacred understood or conceptualized that takes into account the religious mandate of Islam that one’s life should be completely surrendered to Allah?
3. How have the “new religious movements,” “new-age movements,” “mega-church phenomenon,” and the like define or re-define the understanding of sacred in young Filipinos?
4. Is sacred to be identified solely as religious? How has spirituality revealed/manifested sacred? Is spirituality connected to sacred?
5. Is life in the Philippines sacred? What is the current evidence/s to show that it is so? What are the threats to the sacredness of life?

Expected output:

Critical inquiry into the classical division between sacred and profane, religious and secular, traditional and modern, sacralization and secularization, believers/nonbelievers, atheists, religious minority, indigenous peoples and its contemporary significance to young Filipinos in particular.

For more information on the workshop, please contact Dr. Jeane C. Peracullo, Philosophy Department, De La Salle University at jeane.peracullo@dlsu.edu.ph or mobile: +63-939-9208-132.  Workshop website is at
http://interfaithphilippines.wordpress.com/filipino-youth-and-sacred-research-workshops-2012/