The Gumbe – Signifying Scriptures

March 17, 2017

Some Reflections – Daniel Patte

As could be expected, during the meeting my reflections were framed by our Director’s Address. Building upon the preceding Annual Meeting, he reminded us of the ISS agenda – addressing: what it [ISS] can mean to us as we strive to be free agents, what […]

March 18, 2017

Reflections on the Second Annual Meeting of the ISS – Alonzo Huntsman

The second annual conference of the ISS convened in Charlotte to focus on the notion of the state/nation, its construction and how ideas of citizenship and belonging are understood and enforced. The topic could not have been more prescient given our own nation’s recent election […]

March 18, 2017

Reflection on ISS 2017 Annual Meeting – P. Kimberleigh Jordan

A note of self-contextualization: my entrance into the Wimbush world of transdisciplinarity occurred in the progenitor research project called “African Americans and the Bible.” In that project, I found the beginnings of my own scholarly identity in trans- or interdisciplinary locations. I am now an […]

March 18, 2017

Reflections from ISS@Charlotte – Lalruatkima

Last year on November 8, while Americans queued at the polling booths to elect a new president, the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi interrupted the citizens of his country just getting around to call it a night with a nationally televised announcement that the 500 and […]

September 22, 2017

ISS in South Africa

ISS in South Africa The Institute for Signifying Scriptures was represented at the annual meeting of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI), which convened in August 2017 at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town, South Africa. About 300 folks from […]

September 26, 2017

ISS and Navigating a World in Transition

Vincent L. Wimbush spoke about the ISS and related issues at the 2017 Digital Conference organized by the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Foreign Affairs at Claremont Lincoln University. Participating in the Distinguished Scholars Roundtable, Wimbush articulated how the ISS research agenda dovetailed with […]

March 21, 2018

Third ISS Annual Meeting (2018)-summary

Friends and members of ISS gathered in Fort Worth (TX) over the weekend of February 22-24, 2018, for ISS’s Third Annual Meeting. Organized around the theme “Interpreters: Who They Are; How They are Formed; The Work They Do; and the Consequences”, attendees built upon previous […]

April 27, 2018

Finding our Voices – by Quynh-Hoa Nguyen

As a woman working in a predominantly patriarchal culture and under communism in Vietnam, I see fear dominate both those with power and those without it. People who wield power fear losing it and those who are subject to power fear for their safety and […]

August 26, 2018

In Memoriam – Sterling Stuckey

Sterling Stuckey, an eminent black historian who challenged his white colleagues by documenting how uprooted Africans not only retained their culture while they survived slavery but eventually suffused the rest of American society with their transplanted folkways, died on Aug. 15 in Riverside, Calif. He […]

January 17, 2019

Why attend the ISS Annual Meetings

If you are still undecided about attending the ISS Annual Meeting to be held, Feb. 21-23, consider the opportunity to meet and network with a group of cutting-edge and transgressive scholars, thinkers, and artistes. Up close and personal interactions along with collaborative work have become […]

April 10, 2019

ISS Annual Meeting (Memphis 2019) – a summary

With its rich history in the rhythms, sounds, and seasonings of the U.S. experience, Memphis TN provided a great setting for Fourth Annual Meeting of the Institute for Signifying Scriptures. ISS members and friends gathered over the February 21–23 weekend in Memphis to deliberate and […]

February 13, 2020

In Memoriam – Charles H. Long

We have lost a dear friend and wonderful supporter of ISS. Charles H. Long was a distinguished scholar of religions reassessing the intellectual terrain for many others to probe and articulate the field. He took keen interest in the work of the ISS and participated […]