The Graduate Theological Conference was founded in 2007 and is managed by students at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. It aims to foster a collegial atmosphere in which seminarians and graduate students of religion can gain experience sharing their scholarship, collaborating, offering feedback, and networking with one another.
This year’s conference welcomes keynote speaker Dr. Kwok Pui-lan, and focuses on Syndemic, and welcomes the layering of biological and social endemics, is a generative framework that addresses the overlaying of COVID-19 with the violent social realities of systemic inequality and injustice. Together, these have brought about significant shifts in social and religious life. In view of the disparate experiences of the syndemic, which overlay intense disruption and shifts on the individual and social level, there is a need for theological and practical responses that promote justice and assist persons and communities in navigating change.