Conversion: Sacred and Profane (1999-2001)

Matthathias and the Apostate. Doré's English Bible, 1866.

During the academic years 1999/2000 and 2000/2001, the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies focused on the issue of conversion.

Topics Included:

  • Converts and missionaries in the Old and New Worlds
  • Encountering difference
  • Ancient and modern cults
  • Conversion and apostasy
  • Conversion, slavery, and abolition
  • Martyrdom
  • Conversion and identity
  • Political and economic power and conversion
  • Heresy, backsliding, and conformity
  • Spiritual and physical healing
  • Assimilation and the influence of one culture upon another
  • Methods of conversion and persuasion
  • Political and intellectual conversion
  • Hierarchy, race, and religion

Davis Center Fellows

1999-2000

  • Rachel Ankeny, Connecticut College
  • Richard Bushman, Columbia University
  • Susan Einbinder, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati
  • Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, University of Bielfield
  • Ronnie Po-chia Hsia, New York University
  • Dorothee Schneider, Eastern Illinois University
  • L. Carol Summers, University of Richmond
  • John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame

2000-2001

  • Aditya Behl, University of California, Berkeley
  • Susanna Elm, University of California, Berkeley
  • Valerie Flint, University of Hull
  • Peter Gose, University of Regina
  • Heather Hendershot, Queens College
  • David Murray, University of Nottingham
  • Julia Smith, University of St. Andrews

Shelby Cullom Davis Center Volumes

Conversion in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Seeing and Believing Edited by Kenneth Mills and Anthony Grafton

Conversion in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Seeing and Believing

Edited by Kenneth Mills and Anthony Grafton
Copyright 2003 University of Rochester Press

Conversion: Old Worlds and New Edited by Kenneth Mills and Anthony Grafton

Conversion: Old Worlds and New

Edited by Kenneth Mills and Anthony Grafton
Copyright 2003 University of Rochester Press