Foundations & Fluidity — 20th Anniversary Conference of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (ISSRNC)

20th Anniver­sary Con­fer­ence of the
Inter­na­tion­al Soci­ety for the Study of Reli­gion, Nature, and Cul­ture (ISSRNC)

Octo­ber 10–14, 2026 | Casa Artom, Venice, Italy

Dead­line for Pro­pos­als | March 15, 2026

Foun­da­tions and Flu­id­i­ty will mark the 20th anniver­sary of the Inter­na­tion­al Soci­ety for the Study of Reli­gion, Nature, and Cul­ture (ISSRNC)—a mile­stone not only for the Soci­ety but also for the emerg­ing field of Reli­gion and Nature/Ecology. Over the past two decades, this field has matured into a vibrant area of inter­dis­ci­pli­nary schol­ar­ship, with sev­er­al grad­u­ate pro­grams now train­ing researchers and schol­ars. Our con­fer­ences pro­vide essen­tial spaces for these schol­ars to col­lab­o­rate, build net­works, and work­shop their research.

Through­out the mod­ern era, many of the social, polit­i­cal, and epis­te­mo­log­i­cal struc­tures that humans have regard­ed as sta­ble “foun­da­tions” have begun to liq­ue­fy under the pres­sures of the con­tem­po­rary polycrisis—climate dis­rup­tion, colo­nial lega­cies, impe­ri­al­ism, and the glob­al­iza­tion of neolib­er­al cap­i­tal­ism. As Zyg­munt Bau­man argues in his con­cept of “liq­uid moder­ni­ty,” modernity’s sup­pos­ed­ly sol­id insti­tu­tions and sys­tems are giv­ing way to a con­di­tion in which foun­da­tions are no longer fixed but shift­ing, erod­ing, or reform­ing in unpre­dictable ways. This is as true of reli­gious insti­tu­tions and epis­te­molo­gies as it is of eco­log­i­cal, eco­nom­ic, and polit­i­cal sys­tems.

The con­fer­ence theme takes inspi­ra­tion from these dynam­ics. We invite reflec­tion on how eco­log­i­cal, cul­tur­al, polit­i­cal, reli­gious, and epis­te­mo­log­i­cal struc­tures are being test­ed, erod­ed, and recon­fig­ured in an increas­ing­ly flu­id world. Here flu­id­i­ty is not just about water, it is also about iden­ti­ties, dis­place­ments, polit­i­cal con­tes­ta­tions, and eco­nom­ic restruc­tur­ing.

The 20th anniver­sary con­fer­ence of the ISSRNC pro­vides an ide­al oppor­tu­ni­ty to revis­it and reassess the foun­da­tions of the field of Reli­gion and Nature/Ecology. We gath­er at a moment when both lit­er­al and metaphor­i­cal foun­da­tions are shift­ing: glac­i­ers are melt­ing, polit­i­cal sys­tems are buck­ling, and the epis­te­mo­log­i­cal struc­tures that have under­gird­ed mod­ern knowl­edge pro­duc­tion are under strain. Venice offers a pow­er­ful space to con­sid­er these transformations—a city defined by both its endur­ing foun­da­tions and its per­pet­u­al nego­ti­a­tion with flu­id­i­ty.

As schol­ars work­ing at the inter­sec­tions of reli­gion, nature, and cul­ture, this con­fer­ence invites us to think with and through these dynam­ics: to explore the chal­lenges and pos­si­bil­i­ties that emerge as foun­da­tions liq­ue­fy, and as new forms of resilience and mean­ing-mak­ing arise in their wake.

In the spir­it of address­ing such issues from a vari­ety of per­spec­tives, the ISSRNC invites pro­pos­als that illu­mi­nate themes relat­ed to foun­da­tions (broad­ly con­ceived), human rela­tion­ships with flu­id­i­ty (includ­ing water, epis­temic shifts, and social trans­for­ma­tions), and resilience-based solu­tions.

We wel­come schol­ar­ly work on reli­gion, nature, and cul­ture from any dis­ci­pli­nary per­spec­tive across the social sci­ences and human­i­ties.

In addi­tion, we specif­i­cal­ly invite paper or pan­el pro­pos­als relat­ed to the theme Foun­da­tions and Flu­id­i­ty which address the fol­low­ing:

Cos­molo­gies, Ontolo­gies, and Ecolo­gies of Flu­id­i­ty

• Crit­i­cal reflec­tions on the study of reli­gion and nature;
• The­o­ret­i­cal and method­olog­i­cal assump­tions that have shaped the field, and/or impor­tant inter­ven­tions that have shift­ed its foci;
• Atten­tion to phys­i­cal and/or cul­tur­al foun­da­tions of adap­ta­tion and resis­tance;

Ecolo­gies of Flu­id­i­ty

• Case stud­ies that illu­mi­nate spir­i­tu­al dimen­sions of respons­es to cli­­mate-induced water dis­as­ters;
• Dif­fer­en­tial access to water and oth­er resources based on eth­nic­i­ty, race, or class;
• Nar­ra­tives and/or direct actions that sub­vert dom­i­nant water man­age­ment prac­tices;
• Dis­cours­es of plen­ty or abun­dance in reli­gious texts, inter­pre­ta­tions, or prac­tices;
• Rit­u­al and sym­bol­ic dimen­sions of water in var­i­ous con­texts, includ­ing adap­tive prac­tices in chang­ing con­di­tions;
• Com­­mu­ni­­ty-scale resources and response pro­to­cols for unan­tic­i­pat­ed weath­er events;
• The role of water in tra­di­tion­al eco­log­i­cal knowl­edge sys­tems;
• Eco­mod­ernist respons­es to water crises, real and imag­ined;
• Extrac­tion of water resources, and the use of water in oth­er extrac­tive tech­nolo­gies and prac­tices;
• Water as a tool of war.

Cul­tur­al and Reli­gious Respons­es

• Inquiries into inter­sec­tions of reli­gion, gen­der, sex­u­al­i­ty, abil­i­ty, and embod­i­ment with the con­fer­ence themes, espe­cial­ly in rela­tion to era­sure, silenc­ing, and absence;
• Reflec­tions on the scholar’s role in pre­serv­ing foun­da­tions, fos­ter­ing inno­va­tion, and enhanc­ing resilience.

Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Reflec­tions

• Reflec­tion on bar­ri­ers to inter­dis­ci­pli­nary inquiry;
• Dis­cus­sion of meth­ods and prac­tices for engag­ing across dis­ci­plines;
• Explo­rations of dif­fer­ences between trans- and inter­dis­ci­pli­nary approach­es;
• Case stud­ies exam­in­ing cli­mate change impacts and con­flicts over resources.

Venice is an appro­pri­ate place for a dis­cus­sion of these themes. The con­fer­ence will be held at Casa Artom in the heart of Venice, Italy. Par­tic­i­pants are encour­aged to secure their own lodg­ing as ear­ly as pos­si­ble, as space in the city cen­ter is lim­it­ed. The Inter­na­tion­al Pro­pos­al Review Com­mit­tee (IPRC) encour­ages and will also con­sid­er pro­pos­als on oth­er top­ics relat­ed to the con­fer­ence themes. We wel­come pro­pos­als from schol­ars across the arts and human­i­ties, nat­ur­al and social sci­ences, invit­ing all researchers broad­ly engaged with the nexus of reli­gion, nature, and cul­ture.