Research Group

Organizers:

Dr. Luigi De Angelis Soriano (Huron University)

Dr. Shlomo Gleibman (Hobart and William Smith Colleges)

Mission and Scope:

Critical inquiry into the intersections of diverse literatures, cultures, religions, and spiritualities, such as the presence of religious and spiritual themes and motifs in literary fiction, memoirs, film, visual arts, performance, and music. This approach is important because of the cultural, social, and political effects that religious traditions still have in contemporary world. The comparative approach that characterizes the CCLA provides us with an excellent platform to discuss these ideas and foster connections between scholars representing a rich variety of theoretical approaches and personal backgrounds. Possible topics for exploration and further discussion include (but not limited to):

• intersections of religions and texts (broadly defined)
• interfaith perspectives of religion and culture
• religions and literatures in the 21st century: social, cultural, and political implications
• intertextuality and intermediality in religions and literatures
• feminist, postcolonial, and queer approaches to religious and literary traditions

History:

The group was conceived as a continuation of the discussion on sacred texts and their impact on literature and culture in the panel “Connecting les êtres” at the CCLA conference at Université de Montréal in June 2024. The research group was intended to provide a space to continue similar academic discussions and to build collaborations among scholars with shared interests.

The launch of this initiative in November 2024 proved successful in bringing together a diverse group of scholars from around the world. Currently, the group includes participants from North America, South America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and South Asia who work on the intersections of various religious traditions, mythologies, and literatures in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Ukrainian, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Yiddish, Farsi, and Hindi, among others.

Projects

• Monthly online meetings to discuss topics related to the scope of interests of our group.
• Conference panels within the annual CCLA meetings.
• Collective publications to be proposed in the future.

SEMINARS

The group meetings occur monthly via Zoom. At each meeting, we have an informal discussion of a group participant’s current research, such as the presenter’s ideas for their upcoming conference papers or publications (or a dissertation chapter for graduate students). It’s an opportunity to test your ideas, get feedback, ask questions, and think together.

We hosted the first online meeting of the group in November 2024 and continue these seminars monthly since then (except June for the CCLA annual meeting and a summer break in August).

Past Seminars:

• December 2024: Shlomo Gleibman (Humanities, York University), “A Queer Genealogy of Havruta: Study Partnership as Intimate Relationship Between Men in Jewish Literature.”
• January 2025: Luigi De Angelis (Comparative Literature, Western University), “Hesed and Passion: Gabriela Mistral’s Poetic Retelling of the Book of Ruth.”
• February 2025: Lisa Viviani (Comparative Literature, Western University), “Beauty and the Bad Boy: ‘James Dean Daydream’ Lovers in American and Italian Adolescent Fiction.”
• March 2025: Maria Ruggero (Comparative Literature, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy), “Melusina: The Myth of Femininity and Religion.”
• April 2025: Olga Stein (English, York University), “Religious Conversion and Creative (Self-) Reinterpretation in Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s Daniel Stein, Translator.”
• May 2025: Khedidja Chergui (Department of English, L’Ecole Normale Supérieure de Bouzaréah, Algiers), “On Love Jihad in Contemporary Indian Literature.”
• July 2025: Ivan Pavlii (Dallas International University), “Interfaith-Based Study of Contemporary Arab Literature.”
• September 2025: Laurence Sylvain (President of ACLC/CCLA), “De profundis clamavi,” a chapter from the project on Simone Weil.
• October 2025: Luigi De Angelis Soriano (Huron University at Western University), “Women’s Bonds and Chance Encounters: An Analogical Reading of the Book of Ruth and Joshua Marston’s Film Maria Full of Grace” (published in Journal of Religion & Film).
• November 2025: Ivan Pavlii (Dallas International University), “Chicago by Alaa Al-Aswany,” second part of the interfaith-based study of contemporary Arabic literature.
• December 2025: Shlomo Gleibman, “Queer Narratives of Canadian Jewish Writers from the Former Soviet Union: Immigrant Intimacies in ‘Minyan’ by David Bezmozgis.”
• February 2026: Lisa Viviani, “Romance as the Contemporary Sacred: Recognition or Secularized Salvation?”
• March 2026: Ivan Pavlii, “In Search of Paradise on Planet Kobzar.”
• May 2026: Khedidja Chergui, “Religion and African Literature: A Historical Overview.”

Upcoming talks:

July 2026: Andrea Valente, “Talking to AI Jesus in the Confession: A Matter of Blasphemy or Epistemic Technocracy?”

August 2026: Ivan Pavlii, “The Theme of Paradise in Taras Shevchenko’s Poetry: A Search for Paradise in Motherhood”

PANELS AT THE ANNUAL CCLA CONFERENCES

Past panels:

June 2025, Trent University in Peterborough

• Panel “Reimagining the Sacred: Reception of Religious Themes in Poetry, Life Narratives, and Films”
• Panel “Crossing Boundaries: Intersections Between Religion, Fiction, and Literary Theory”

June 2026, McGill University in Montréal

Panel “The Human Connection: Dialogues on Religion, Narrative, and Technology Through the Lens of Comparative Literature”

If you are interested in participating in this research group, please contact admin@complit.ca (to the attention of Dr. Luigi De Angelis Soriano and Dr. Shlomo Gleibman)