All sessions are listed according to US Eastern Time (UTC -4).
Day 1 (June 9, 2022) | Rose Hill Campus & Lincoln Center Campus
The day will begin at the Rose Hill Campus. Breakfast and lunch will be at the Theology Department on the first floor of Duane Library. All panels and snacks will be in the Campbell Multipurpose Room. Following the last panel, we will travel to Lincoln Center for the keynote address, which will be in Fordham’s Law School Room 7-119.
Breakfast 8:30-9:30am
Welcome and Opening Remarks 9:30am
Natalie Maria Reynoso, Fordham University, local co-chair
Panel 1: Early Syriac Theology and Interpretation 9:45-11:45am
Moderator: Theresa Barkasy, Fordham University
Building Salvation: Reconstructing Aphrahat’s Soteriology
Eric DeVilliers, University of Notre Dame
Ephrem’s Use of Military Metaphors: Creating New War Heroes and Battlefields from Scripture
Vincenz Heereman, University of Notre Dame
Christ’s Transfiguration in the Syriac Theological Tradition
Jan Dominik Bogataj, Universitas Lateranensis (Rome, Italy)
Lunch 11:45am-1:15pm
Panel 2: Syriac Christians and the Other 1:15-2:15pm
Moderator: Hannah Stork, Yale University
Divine Wrath or Divine Mercy? The Confessionalization of Plague Deaths in Syriac Christianity and Early Islam
David Gyllenhaal, Princeton University
From Persian Jingjiao 波斯經教 to Daqin Jingjiao 大秦景教: How did Jingjiao Christians define their Christian Origin on the Cultural Soil of Tang China?
Tianyi Yuan, Harvard Divinity School
Keynote Address (to be delivered virtually) 4:30-5:45pm
Caught Between Inclination and Instigation: Human Depravity in the Writings of Narsai
Erin Galgay Walsh, University of Chicago
Reception with Refreshments and Hors D'oeuvres 5:45-6:45pm
Day 2 (June 10, 2022) | Lincoln Center Campus
All meals will be in Fordham’s Law School Room 7-119, and all student panels will be at Law School Lecture Classroom 4-07. The faculty panel and closing remarks will be in Law School Room 7-119.
Breakfast 8:30-9:30am
Panel 2: Syriac and Other Lanaguages 9:30-10:30am
Moderator: Galina Krasskova, Fordham University
Experencing Language: Elias of Nisibis and Arabic
Maroun El Houkayem, Duke University
Syriac Orthodox Saints as Mediators between the Homeland and the Diaspora: Translations of Syriac Hagiography in the German Diaspora for the Syriac Orthodox Youth (to be delivered virtually)
Jan Gehm, Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands)
Light Snack/Break 10:30-10:45am
Panel 4: Bodies: Human and Otherwise 10:45am-12:15pm
Moderator: Dorothy Chang, Fordham University
Blurring the Categories of Being for the Sake of Salvation: The Case of the Bnāt Qyāmā, Daughter of the Covenant, as Martyr
Natalie Maria Reynoso, Fordham University
“Gaining Mastery Forever”: Female Seed and Reproductive Redemption in the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius
Mara Foley, Fordham University
Angels in Heavenly Churches: Ranking of the Angels in Bar Hebraeus’s Candelabra V
Briana Grenert, Princeton Theological Seminary
Lunch 12:15-1:30pm
Faculty Panel: The Politics of Syriac Studies 1:30-3:00pm
Moderator: Emanuel Fiano, Fordham University
Dina Boero, The College of New Jersey
Reyhan Durmaz, University of Pennsylvania
George Kiraz, Founder and Director of Beth Mardutho
Closing Remarks 3:00pm
Emanuel Fiano, Fordham University, faculty advisor
Natalie Maria Reynoso, Fordham University, local co-chair
Closing Reception with Desserts 3:15-4:00pm