Confluences: Religion and Health in the Heartland

Online Conference

October 15-16, 2021

The Departments of Classics, Archaeology, and Religion and Black Studies at the University of Missouri and NextGen Precision Health are sponsoring this work in partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the University of Missouri System’s Tier 3 Strategic Investment Program,  and the University of Missouri’s Research Council.

We acknowledge that the organizers of the conference live and work on the ancestral lands of the Chickasaw, Illini, Ioway, Missouria, Osage, Otoe and Quapaw peoples. These lands are still home to many indigenous people and we as scholars must resist silencing their voices, erasing their names, devaluing their histories, or denying that they are alive in the present. Furthermore, the University of Missouri, where this conference is hosted, was established through the sale of 269,692 acres of Great and Little Osage lands and built by enslaved Africans.

All sessions will be held on zoom

Zoom:

https://umsystem.zoom.us/j/98433212894?pwd=R0JoT0RTNnp5MmxRVEViL3ZoaHJNQT09

Program:

Friday, October 15th

11:45 a.m.:  Welcome

Dr. Kim Kimminau, Chief of Staff and Chief of Strategy, Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Professor, Family and Community Medicine; Dr. April Langley, Chair, Black Studies; and Dr. Dennis Trout, Chair, Classics, Archaeology, and Religion

12:00-1:30 pm

Panel: Evaluation of a Health Communication Pilot Project to Promote (Genetic) Risk Assessment Software Usage within a Missouri African American Church 

Chair: April Langley

Panelists

Dr. Crystal Y. Lumpkins, University of Kansas Medical Center, Department of Family Medicine & Community Health Research Division, KU Cancer Center; Faith Works Connecting for a Healthy Community Consortium

Mrs. Evelyn Cooper – University of Kansas Medical Center, Department of Family Medicine & Community Health Research Division; KU Cancer Center; Palestine Missionary Baptist Church of Jesus Christ; Faith Works Connecting for a Healthy Community; Faith Works Connecting for a Healthy Community Consortium

Ms. Rafaela Barbosa Fernandes – University of Kansas Medical Center, Department of Family Medicine & Community Health Research Division; Faith Works Connecting for a Healthy Community Consortium

Mrs. Lynn Miller - Faith Works Connecting for a Healthy Community

Ms. Zawadi Twizele – University of Kansas Medical Center; Faith Works Connecting for a Healthy Community Consortium

Ms. Katie Nelson – University of Kansas Medical Center; Faith Works Connecting for a Healthy Community Consortium

Bishop Adam Blackstock & Prophetess Adrinne Blackstock – Glory Bible Fellowship Church International; Faith Works Connecting for a Healthy Community Consortium

Dr. Rod Philp – University of Kansas Medical Center, Department of Medical Oncology; KU Cancer Center; Faith Works Connecting for a Healthy Community Consortium

3:15- 4:45 pm:  Undergraduate Research Session: Religious Diversity in Missouri

Chair: Nicole Monnier, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, College of Arts & Science, University of Missouri

“What Father Tolton’s Life Tells Us About Religious Diversity Today” Caleb Sewell, Educational Studies and Black Studies,  University of Missouri

“Seeking the Sacred: A Basket Made by Small Hands” Tessi Muskrat Rickabaugh, Religious Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Missouri:

Saturday, October 16th

Panel: 10:00-11:30 Religion and health in Missouri: historical perspectives

Chair: Rabia Gregory

“Religious Responses to the Cholera Epidemics in Missouri" Signe Cohen, Classics, Archaeology, and Religion, University of Missouri

"Religious Responses to the Flu Epidemic of 1918.” John Schmalzbauer, Religious Studies, Missouri State University

“Social and demographic influences on the 1918 flu and 2020 COVID pandemics in rural vs. urban Missouri counties”? Lisa Sattenspiel, Anthropology, University of Missouri

Break

Panel: 12:30-2pm: Religion in the context of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Chair: Rachel Brekhus

“Religion, Gender and Vaccines: Reading the Covid-19 Pandemic through Different Worldviews” Faiza Rais, Sociology, University of Missouri

 “Missouri Residents’ Perceptions on Religious Exemptions for COVID-19 Public Health Guidelines” Emily Murray, Sociology, University of Missouri

“God’s Wrath and Healing Grace: Religious Responses to Covid-19 in comparison with previous global pandemics” Rabia Gregory, Classics, Archaeology, and Religion, University of Missouri

End