Center for Communal Studies

Don't miss the film! Hop on the webinar today at 2!

ABC 25 Local Lifestyles – Hippie Family Values (03/02/2022) Visit the post for more.

Join us on Zoom with author Dr. William Hemminger as he discusses his book, Growing Good: A Beginner's Guide to Cultivating Caring Communities. This collection of essays brings together the stories of normal people who have rolled up their sleeves to make their community a better place.

At a time when people are desperate for more social connection and answers to complex problems, intentional communities offer hope in an increasingly broken world. Learn more about communal living and sign up at communalstudies.org/annual-conference and communa.org.il/icsa today!

2020 UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE PAPER PRIZES

The undergraduate prize of $250 is awarded to Alex Dandy of the University of Southern Indiana for "The MAGIC of Senior Choosing and the Theory of Developmental Communalism."

The graduate prize of $500 is awarded to Thomas A. Guiler of Winterthur Museum and the University of Delaware for "'The Soul of the Workman is His Work': Sacred Craftsmanship in Hallowed Space."

2020 RESEARCH TRAVEL GRANT WINNER

The winner of the $2,000 Research Travel Grant is Rafal Soborski of Richmond--The American International University in London for his project on “Patterns of Prefiguration and Consensus Decision Making in Communal Politics.”

During the Covid-19 pandemic, tihe Center for Communal Studies, located in Rice Library at the University of Southern Indiana, is closed until the campus reopens. A decision to reopen USI is scheduled for Monday, 6 April. In the meantime, the Center's website contains useful information and links and can be accessed here:

Center for Communal Studies at the University of Southern Indiana The Center for Communal Studies is located on the campus of the University of Southern Indiana at University Archives and Special Collections, room 3022 on the third floor of Rice Library. Our Reading Room is accessible during regular hours of University Archives (Monday through Friday, 8 am - 6 pm;...

Congratulations to David Swartz for his new book -- just out from Oxford University Press!

Facing West In 1974 nearly 3,000 evangelicals from 150 nations met at the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. Amidst this cosmopolitan setting — and in front of the most important white evangelical leaders of the United States — members of the Latin American Theological Fraternity spoke out against t...

Bev Seckinger’s presentation of her film “Hippy Family Values,” originally set for 27 March, has been postponed because of the Covid-19 crisis. We hope to reschedule Bev and her film sometime in the future.
Casey Harison
Director, Center for Communal Studies.

WINNERS OF THE 2019 UNDERGRADUATE & GRADUATE PRIZES & RESEARCH TRAVEL GRANT

Undergraduate Prize of $250 to Ashley Lawhorn of the University of Southern Indiana for: “New Harmony, Indiana – Including Women in the Nineteenth Century"

Graduate Prize of $500 to Oded Marom of the University of Southern California for: "Trying Not to Think About It: The Limits of Inter-ideological Collaboration in Prefigurative Communities"

Research Travel Grants to:
Joshua Lockyer of Arkansas Tech University for his project on “Celo Community North Carolina” and John Page of Southern Cross University (Australia) for his project on “The Lawful Forest”

Center Board member Greg Brown will do a book signing for his Unified Field Theology: A Journey from Evangelical Fundamentalism to Faith in What Is (Wipf and Stock, 2018), Saturday, 23 February, beginning at 1:30 pm. The book signing will be at the Evansville Barnes & Noble store located at 624 S. Green River. Don Pitzer, who wrote the Introduction, will be there, too.

Annual Prizes

The Center for Communal Studies at the University of Southern Indiana annually invites submissions for its prize competition for the best undergraduate and graduate student papers on historic or contemporary communal groups, intentional communities and utopias. Submissions may come from any academic discipline and should be focused on a topic clearly related to contemporary or historic communal groups or utopias.

Undergraduate Paper or Thesis
Author of the best undergraduate paper or thesis will receive $250. The annual deadline for submission is 1 March. The prize winner will be announced in April 2019.

Graduate Paper or Thesis or Dissertation Chapter
Author of the best graduate paper or thesis or dissertation chapter will receive $500. The annual deadline for submission is 1 March. The prize winner will be announced in April 2019.

Research Travel Grant
The Center for Communal Studies at the University of Southern Indiana annually invites applications for a Research Travel Grant to fund research at the Communal Studies Collection at USI's David L. Rice Library. Applicants may be graduate students or established scholars in the United States or abroad from any discipline that involves the study of communalism. The grant will fund research up to $2,000 to be used by June 30 of the subsequent year. All applications must include a letter detailing the project and its significance to communal studies, a proposed budget and a vita. Applications are due annually by 1 May. The winner of this Research Travel Grant is announced annually in June 2019.

Please send materials as email attachments to Casey Harison at [email protected].

Call for Papers
for the Triennial Conference of the
International Communal Studies Association
Conference Dates: July 18-21, 2019
Conference Location: Camphill Communities near Hudson, NY, USA
Conference Theme: “Diversity and Inclusion in Intentional Communities”

Deadline for Submission of Proposals: November 1, 2018
To submit a proposal, please email your proposal to conference chair Dan McKanan at [email protected] or upload a single proposal document to the ICSA website at http://www.communa.org.il/icsa/index.php/conferences/camphill-2019/call-for-papers . Please include 1) the title of your presentation, 2) an indication of whether it is a paper, panel, workshop, or cultural event, 3) the names and contact information of all presenters, 4) an abstract of up to 300 words, suitable for inclusion in the program book, 6) a 50-word biography of each presenter. Individuals who submit proposals by November 1, 2018 will receive a notification of acceptance or rejection by January 15, 2019.

Call For Papers - ICSA (International Communal Studies Association) The International Communal Studies Association provides a common framework for a scholarly exchange of information regarding communal life; communes, intentional communities , kibbutzim and other collective communities throughout the world.