IN/AND/OUT/OF TIME
UNDERGRADUATE
October 24 - 25, 2025 | Knox College
FRIDAY, OCT. 24
3:00 PM
Conference
Check-in Opens
6:00 PM
Center for Fine Arts, Lobby
6:00 PM
Conference Welcome and Introduction
Robert Geraci, Ph.D.
Center for Fine Arts, Round Room
Knight Distinguished Chair in Religion and Culture, Knox College
Scott Harris, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Knox College
Keynote Lecture
Center for Fine Arts, Round Room
“The Problems and Perils of Research in a Politically Tense Moment”
Leslie Dorrough Smith, PhD
Dean of Arts and Sciences and Professor, Religious Studies/Women’s and Gender Studies, Avila University
SATURDAY, OCT. 25
8:00 AM
Continental Breakfast
9:00 AM Session 1A
Chair: Robert Geraci, PhD
George Davis Hall, 1st Floor
George Davis Hall, Room 103
Knight Distinguished Chair in Religion and Culture, Knox College
“Buddhism in Contemporary Vietnam: Scandals, the State and Social Media”
Võ Cao Kỳ Nguyên, RMIT University Vietnam
Võ Quỳnh Anh, RMIT University Vietnam
Trịnh Minh Ngọc, RMIT University Vietnam
Trần Hà Bảo Hân, RMIT University Vietnam
Jonathan J. Felix, Media, Communication and Cultural Studies, RMIT University Vietnam
9:00 AM Session 1B
George Davis Hall, Room 104
Chair: Danielle Fatkin, PhD Associate Professor of History, Knox College
“Augustine’s Paradox in Describing Joy”
Munya Noman, Loyola University Chicago
“Angry Enough to Die: The Profound Despair of a Successful Prophet”
Maddyson Halpin, Rockford University
AM Session 1B, Continued
9:00
“The Antevocity of Divine Inbeing”
George Davis Hall, Room 104
Carter Morris, Lindenwood University
AM Session 2A
10:15
Chair: Robert Geraci, PhD
George Davis Hall, Room 103
Knight Distinguished Chair in Religion and Culture, Knox College
“Religious Scandals in Vietnamese Media: A Discourse on Popular Morality through the Sacred and Secular”
Nguyễn Thu Trà, RMIT University Vietnam
Nguyễn Khánh Minh, RMIT University Vietnam
Võ Cao Kỳ Nguyên, RMIT University Vietnam
Hoàng Đình Nghĩa, RMIT University Vietnam
Jonathan J. Felix, Media, Communication and Cultural Studies, RMIT University Vietnam
AM Session 2B
10:15
Chair: Sami Seybold, PhD
George Davis Hall, Room 104
Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Knox College
“Choices to Be Made: Free Will in Adolescent Speculative Fiction”
Lexi Sendall, Knox College
“Religion and K-pop: Resistance to Industrial Society in ‘Howling’ by XG”
Mao Shirai, Knox College
“Religion and AI in Bangladesh”
MD Fahad Ahmed Joy, Knox College
11:30 AM
Lunch at the Hard Knox Cafe
PM Session 3A
1:15
Seymour Union, Hard Knox Cafe
George Davis Hall, Room 103
Chair: Anne Thomason, MLIS, MA Director of the Library, Knox College
“The Fall of Jericho and Archaeological History” Payton Winters, Knox College
“Remembering the Egyptian Levant Military Campaigns Through the Bible”
Wyatt Janiga, Knox College
“Ecology of Ancient Egyptian Religion” Liv Dunn, Knox College
PM Session 3B
1:15
George Davis Hall, Room 104
Chair: Olivia Stewart Lester, PhD Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, Loyola University Chicago
“A Pope vs. the Priests of the Poor” Andrew M. Johnson, Rockford University
“Ma’at and Order: Divine Kingship and Mystified Law in Ancient Egypt”
Bryce Woodard, Knox College
“Ancient Egyptian Religion: Religion and Power”
My Duyen Pavey, Knox College
PM Session 4A
2:30
Chair: Anne Thomason, MLIS, MA
George Davis Hall, Room 104
Director of the Library, Knox College
“Individualism and Community: Community Building in Reconstructionist Judaism”
Jacob Schneider, Knox College
“Baptized but Still Bewitched”
Masha Holubeva, Rockford University
“Appraising the Scholar-Athlete: An Analysis of the Reformed Tradition and the ‘Ethos of Reductive Consumer Capitalism’ at Davidson College”
MaryKate Berg, Davidson College
PM Session 4B
2:30
George Davis Hall, Room 103
Chair: Scott Harris, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Knox College
“‘He who saw the Deep’: Self-Reference in Gilgamesh as Contention with History”
Audrey Hogan, Loyola University Chicago
“God Revealed: Comparing the 7th Homeric Hymn and Mark 15-16”
Jarilo Petrovic, Loyola University Chicago
“Invention of Time in Religious Myth”
Langsea Dibley, Auburn High School (Rockford, IL)
PM Session 5A
3:45
George Davis Hall, Room 104
Chair: Scott Harris, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Knox College
“Embodying Medieval Christianity: The Sanctification of Female Mystics Through Bodily Suffering”
Ana Rosaslanda, Loyola University Chicago
“Demonic Discourse: Interdependency Between the Demonic and The Sacred”
Faith Mercer, Loyola University Chicago
“Why Do Angels Have Penises: An Inquiry”
Annelise Loser, Rockford University
PM Session 5B
3:45
Chair: Deana Nichols, PhD
George Davis Hall, Room 103
Assistant Professor of Theatre, Knox College
“God and Humans: Politics and Social Challenges in Two Cuban Plays”
Andrew Johnson, Rockford University
Yoandy Cabrera, PhD, Associate Professor of Spanish and Classics, Rockford University
Conference Closing and Paper Awards
Alumni Hall, Trustees Room 5:00 PM
Sponsored by the Knox College Religious Studies Program, Knight Fund for Religion and Culture, and the Office of the Provost and Dean of the College.