The US-China Catholic Association will host a conference on “China, Christianity, and the Dialogue of Civilizations” to take place March 13-15, 2020 on the campus of Santa Clara University. This conference will examine efforts to locate engagement between Christianity and Chinese civilization in the context of shared values and the common good. See conference homepage for more information: www.uscatholicchina.org/conference-2020.

Conference organizers seek proposals for panels from potential panel conveners. Panels will address a given topic from several mutually illuminating perspectives, taking into account Catholic and other Christian experience. Panels that have already been proposed include:

  • The Sino-Vatican accord in historical and comparative perspective
  • Sinisization: Meaning and application in China’s context of faith and culture
  • Environmental issues, faith communities and the common good

Panel conveners can simply invite contributors and moderate the resulting session, or they can also present, in which case the USCCA would work with the convener as needed to arrange for a session moderator.

A note about this particular conference model: Attendees will include both academics and people involved in various faith communities. The goal is to make the insights of the academic community and the perspectives of its various disciplines available to the larger, informed public.

Panels will also form the basis of “state of the question” chapters in an edited volume. These chapters need not recap the sessions in question, but rather, taking into account the proceedings of the conference, they will provide an intelligent commentary on the issues raised, again, for the larger, informed public.

Panel conveners will have right of first refusal for the chapter related to their panel. Publisher and parameters will be finalized in consultation with potential contributors.

To propose a panel session, send an email to USCCA.Conference@gmail.com with:

  • Working title
    ·Panel description (200 words or so)
    ·       Possible contributors (optional)