BGSA Conference

5th Annual Braniff Conference in the Liberal Arts: Scripture and the Disciplines | Feb. 15-16, 2019

Michael WaldsteinKeynote Speaker: Michael Waldstein, Ph.D. | St. Paul Center

Dr. Waldstein, Distinguished Fellow of The St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, is the Max Seckler professor of theology. He previously taught at the University of Notre Dame before serving as the founding president of the International Theological Institute in Gaming, Austria, where he also held the position of St. Francis of Assisi Professor of New Testament. He served as a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family (2003-2009) and is a member of the the Board of Trustees of the University of Eichstaett, Germany. He holds a B.A. from Thomas Aquinas College, a Ph.D. from the University of Dallas, an S.S.L. from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, and a Th.D. from Harvard University in New Testament and Christian Origins.

Richard DoughertyPlenary Speaker: Richard Dougherty, Ph.D. | University of Dallas

Dr. Dougherty is Chair of the Politics Department and Director of the Politics Graduate Program at the University of Dallas. He was awarded a teaching and research position from the State of Bavaria, Germany and served as Visiting Professor in the Department of Comparative Political Science at the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Inglostadt. His research interests include Medieval Political Philosophy, Constitutionalism and American Politics, the Presidency, and the American Founding. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Belmont Abbey College, a M.A. in Political Philosophy and Literature from the University of Dallas, and a Ph. D. in Political Philosophy from the University of Dallas.

About the Conference

Each year the Braniff Graduate Student Association organizes a conference that reflects the unique interdisciplinary nature of the Braniff Graduate School and its emphases on the Western tradition, classical education and contemporary scholarship.

This year's conference will explore the ways in which the Bible informs or has transformed the liberal arts disciplines and will take place at the University of Dallas, located in Irving, TX. 

Call for Papers

We welcome papers in disciplines including—but not limited to—philosophy, literature, politics, theology, history, and psychology, and drawing from the classical, medieval, modern, or contemporary period. We also welcome papers that take an interdisciplinary approach.

We invite scholars working in the liberal arts to submit abstracts of no more than 500 words that examine a specific passage or theme in the Bible alongside a specific author or text from one of the disciplines. For example, papers might explore Adam and Rousseau’s natural man, Ecclesiastes and Hamlet, Augustine on Cain as the founder of the first city, or the Sermon on the Mount as ethical revolution.

Preference will be given to papers conversant with the great texts of the Western tradition. The conference committee will invite select authors to publish their essays in a special edition of Ramify: The Journal of the Braniff Graduate School of Liberal Arts.

Submit abstracts to udbgsaconference@gmail.com. Abstracts should be prepared for blind review. Please include a separate cover letter with your name, paper title, email address, and institutional affiliation.

Abstracts are due no later than Friday, November 23, 2018. Presenters will be notified of their acceptance by Tuesday, December 11, 2018 and will be asked to submit their full papers, suitable for a 15 minute presentation (no more than 2500 words), by Monday, January 14, 2019.

Conference Program

Previous Conferences

  • 2018 BCLA: What is Imagination? | Keynote Speaker: Eva Brann, Ph.D., St. John's College.
  • 2017 BCLA: On Friendship | Keynote speaker: Ronna Burger, Philosophy, Tulane University 
  • 2016 BCLA: On Philosophy and Poetry | Keynote speaker: Ron Smith, Poet Laureate of Virginia.
  • Proceedings from the 2015 BCLA: On Reason and Revelation, were published by Ramify. The keynote speaker was Khalil Habib, Philosophy, Salve Regina University.

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