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The Second Interdisciplinary Symposium on Iconic Books will take place at Hamilton College on Friday-Sunday, Sept. 4-6. The event is hosted by Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate in cooperation with James W. Watts of Syracuse University. Funding is from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Hamilton College and Syracuse University. The symposium is free and members of the public may attend but are asked to register.

Fifteen panelists will explore iconic books and art, culture and ritual in modern media, popular culture and Christianity, among other topics. An “iconic book,” is a text revered primarily as an object of power rather than just as words of instruction, information, or insight. In religious and secular rituals around the globe, people carry, show, wave and kiss books and other texts, as well as read them. Works of art, commercial logos, and university public relations departments utilize images of books to evoke connotations of learning, knowledge and wisdom.

For example, politicians and judges around the world take their oaths of office while placing their hands on Bibles, Qur’ans, or national constitutions. The U.S. government displays a hand-written copy of its constitution in a national shrine, the rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and protects it in a bomb-proof vault.

The first task of the Iconic Books Project has been to assemble a database of images and texts. The database currently contains nearly 2000 images and accompanying documentation.

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