2024 Midwest Regional Meeting for Biblical Studies

We are pleased to invite you to the 2024 Midwest Regional Meeting for Biblical Studies. This conference is an exciting cooperative initiative of the Chicago Society of Biblical Research (CSBR), the Catholic Biblical Association (CBA), and the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies (MCECS). The meeting is scheduled for Friday–Sunday, March 15–17, 2024, at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame (South Bend), Indiana. The Student Religious Studies Conference (SRSC) will occur in conjunction with the Midwest Regional Meeting on Friday, March 15. No society memberships are required to participate in this meeting.

The meeting has arranged for blocks of hotel rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn South Bend and the Inn at Saint Mary’s, both of which are adjacent to the Saint Mary’s College campus. The conference rate is available until February 15, 2024, and reservations must be placed by phone (Hilton Garden Inn: 574-232-7700; Inn at Saint Mary’s: 574-232-4000). Please mention the “SMC Midwest Regional Meeting.” There are many additional hotel options available within a fifteen minute drive of St. Mary’s. For maps and transportation information, click
https://www.saintmarys.edu/admission-aid/visit-campus/maps-directions.

We invite you to submit paper proposals for the regional meeting by Monday, January 8, 2024. (The SRSC has a different schedule for proposals than the regional meeting; see below.) Program decisions will be communicated on or about February 1, 2024. Please see the section descriptions document for additional information on proposals and the various program units. Also, please note that paper proposals are submitted through the online Proposal Submission Form. Please do not send paper proposals to section chairs. Usually, papers are scheduled in thirty-minute time slots, ideally with twenty minutes of presentation and ten minutes of discussion.

Registration for the meeting is available online through Zeffy at https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/fda84491-5454-4bcd-bc2f-fed48f920c71. Please note that any donation added during the registration process goes to Zeffy, not to the Midwest Regional Meeting, and is completely optional. Zeffy does not charge the Midwest Regional Meeting any fees of any sort for the registration module, and their own funding comes through donations. Regular registration is available through February 17, 2024, and all presenters are required to be registered by this date. The region offers regular registration for $60, retiree registration for $30, student registration for $25, and SRSC-only registration for $15. Rates for spouse/partner attendees are also available in the registration process. We strongly encourage everyone to utilize the online registration option; a $25 fee will be added for late/on-site registrations.

Schedule Highlights for the 2024 Meeting
The meeting will include the kinds of sessions familiar from previous years, but the scheduling of featured events will differ in some cases.

• Friday Evening Midwest Regional Spotlight
  This session, now in its eleventh year, features a presentation and question-and-answer period with a prominent scholar from our region. Our speaker this year is Stacy Davis, Professor of Religious Studies and Theology and of Gender and Women’s Studies, St. Mary’s College.
• Sunday Morning Plenary Book Panel Session
  The book panel will focus on the new volume, The Closed Book: How the Rabbis Taught the Jews (Not) to Read the Bible by Rebecca Scharbach Wollenberg, Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies, University of Michigan.
• Graduate Student Paper Awards
  Graduate students who submit a paper for presentation at the Midwest Regional Meeting are invited also to submit their paper for consideration for the Graduate Student Paper Award, which is sponsored by the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies. Two prizes will be awarded—one for Hebrew Bible/Early Judaism and one for New Testament/Early Christianity. Winners will be recognized at the Friday evening regional spotlight session. Papers in the form they are to be presented should be submitted by email to Jeffrey Stackert (stackert@uchicago.edu) no later than February 17, 2024.

Other Programs

Student Religious Studies Conference:
The SRSC, now in its fifteenth year, meets during the day on Friday, March 15, 2024, and concludes before the opening session of the regional meeting that evening. The conference provides an excellent opportunity for students to present their work and network with people from other institutions and program levels. Please encourage your students (undergraduate through pre-dissertation doctoral) to present papers at this conference on topics spanning Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, New Testament, Second Temple and rabbinic Judaism, patristics and early Christianity, theology, historical studies, and comparative religions. Proposals are due by February 5, 2024, and must include the full paper. Please use the SRSC Paper Proposal link. SRSC questions may be directed to Lauren O’Connell, the SRSC coordinator, at loconnell1@luc.edu.

These meetings offer a wonderful opportunity to meet new colleagues, see old friends, try out research ideas, and enjoy a lively exchange in a friendly environment. All students, professors, and others interested in biblical studies and the study of the ancient world are welcome. Please feel free to contact us at the e-mail address below with any questions.

Sincerely,
Mark Lester & Jeffrey Stackert
Program Co-coordinators, Midwest Regional Meeting for Biblical Studies
mlester2011@gmail.com
stackert@uchicago.edu

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