Research Committee on Religion, Ethics and Literature

Established in 2014, the Research Committee on Religion, Ethics and Literature examines global literary phenomena as instances of subject formation in order to think new relationships between religion, ethics, and literature. It investigates the philosophical and theoretical roles of religion and ethics in literature, as well as explores the fraught relationship between secularism and post-secularism as these ideas emerge aesthetically. While the examination of religious imagery, symbolism, and the role of myth is not our purview, the signifiers of religion as they motivate “an ethical turn” remains a key concern.

The Executive Council of the ICLA approved in 2024 the conversion of the Research Committee to a Standing research committee.

An Introduction to the Committee in Hebrew

An Introduction to the Committee in Spanish

Officers:

Professor Kitty Millet, San Francisco State University, President (kmillet1@sfsu.edu)
Professor John Hawley, Santa Clara University, Vice-President
Dr. Zainab Mahmood, New School, NYC
Katie Lally, UC Santa Cruz, doctoral student

Committee’s Website:

For a full list of members, activities, publications and for information on how to join the Committee, please visit the Committee’s own webpage.

Professional Development

The Committee is committed to nurturing members’ professional development through conference presentations, and publication. We regularly sponsor panels at the ICLA congresses as well as at the annual meetings of the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA). Additionally, at the request of committee members, the committee has sponsored panels at the national conference for Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allgemeine u. Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft in 2017 (DGAVL), and the national conference of the Comparative Literature Association of India in 2015 (CLAI). 

To download the yearly reports of the Committee to the ICLA, click below:

Research Committee on Religion Ethics and Literature Annual Report 2021-22
Research Committee on Religion, Ethics and Literature Annual Report 2020-21
Research Committee on Religion, Ethics and Literature Annual Report 2019-20
Research Committee on Religion, Ethics and Literature Annual Report 2018-19
Research Committee on Religion, Ethics and Literature Annual Report 2017-18
Research Committee on Religion, Ethics and Literature Annual Report 2016-17
Research Committee on Religion, Ethics and Literature Annual Report 2015-16
Research Committee on Religion, Ethics and Literature Annual Report 2014-15