Have you been thinking about how U2 has impacted your life, the music industry, third world counties or is a bit more personal for you.

To begin to understand the mystique of the Irish rock band U2, one needs only to experience the presence of Bono: the leather-clad, Scripture-quoting, wraparound-sunglasses-wearing lobbyist for third world debt relief whose larger than life personality effortlessly lights up a room.

Or a stadium. A tireless performer on the concert stage, Bono pursues an assortment of social causes around the world as well. A rock star who hangs out with Senator Jesse Helms and Pope John Paul II, Bono also gave the commencement speech at Harvard University’s graduation in 2000.

I believe that contemporary cultural attitudes are influenced more by the people who write popular songs, movies and television programs than all the classrooms and pulpits in this country put together.

But even this most thoughtful band has a fair amount of contradictions. In a global environment, where most people live day to day, this group enjoys the high life in penthouse suites at the finest hotels around the country while it is on tour.

Maybe there is still room for God in the decadent world of rock-and-roll, as U2’s song lyrics are among the most socially aware, compassionate and hope-filled on the radio today. The realms of the sacred and the profane have never been so blurred.

Follow me because I follow him

Accepted Papers and Presenters

01. “Whither the Spiritual? A Content Analysis of Reviews of No Line on the Horizon in U.S. and European Magazines and Newspapers.”
John A. Ballard, College of Mount St. Joseph, and Anjelika Gasilina, Wittenberg University

02. “’The Ground Beneath Her Feet’: U2, Salman Rushdie, and the Political Frontiers of Artistic Collaboration.”
Jordan A. Berard, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Ottawa

03. “’O may the moon and the sunlight seem / One inextricable beam:’ The Imaginative Experience in Yeats’ ‘The Tower’ and U2’s ‘Lemon.’”
Joe Bisz, CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College

04. “All That You Can’t Leave Behind: The Conservative Voice in the Songs of U2.”
Stephen Catanzarite, Managing Director, Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center

05. “Grace Makes Beauty…: The Rhetorical Strategies of Powerful Emotions in U2.”
Prof. Christine Chaney, Chair of English, Seattle Pacific University

06. “Bono Versus Nick Cave on Jesus.”
Dr. Greg Clarke, The Centre for Public Christianity, Sydney

07. “Sometimes Melodies Are Not Songs, They’re Ideas: The Creative Life of Bono and Implications for Talent Development.”
Jeff Danielian, The National Association for Gifted Children

08. “The Quest for the Musical Jesus: Finding Jesus in the Music of U2.”
The Rev. Robert Derrenbacker, Jr., Ph.D., Thorneloe University, Sudbury, Ontario

09. “Nothing Succeeds Like Failure: U2 and the Politics of Irony.”
Kevin Dettmar, W. M. Keck Professor and Chair, Pomona College

10. “Pro Bono: Translating and Transforming Africa for the Consumerist West.”
Bruce Edwards, Professor of English and Africana Studies, Bowling Green State University, Ohio

11. “Deconstruction by Stratification: Vocal Layering as Commentary, Criticism, and Reinvention in the Music of U2.”
Christopher Endrinal, Assistant Professor of Music Theory, University of Massachusetts Lowell

12. “U2: Fallen Angels.”
Deane Galbraith, University of Otago, New Zealand

13. “Vertigo-Event-Context: The Interpretive Lyric/Music Binary in the U2 Corpus.”
Grant Horner and Richard Pressley, The Master’s College

14. “Boy, (Achtung) Baby, and Bomb: Anti-Language in the Songs of U2.”
John Hurtgen, Dean, School of Theology, Campbellsville University

15. “Singing Truth to Power: Bono Meets Bonhoeffer.”
Dr. Mark Husbands, Leonard and Marjorie Maas Associate Professor of Reformed Theology, Hope College

16. "Uncertainty Can Be a Guiding Light: Why and How U2 Made Zooropa."
Kevin Jackson, M.A.T. student in English Education, SUNY Cortland

17. “U2’s ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday’ as Public Song-Memorial.”
Brian Johnston, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Communication, University of South Florida

18. “’O Can’t You See What Love Has Done?’ – U2, Paul Ricoeur, and the Hermeneutics of Personhood.”
Dr. Jeffrey Keuss, Associate Professor of Christian Ministry and Theology, Seattle Pacific University, and Dr. Sara Koenig, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Seattle Pacific University

19. "Is this rock and roll?: Sources, Contexts, and Intertexts of U2's ‘Until the End of the World’."
Daniel Kline, University of Alaska Anchorage

20. “U2 in the Church - How it is Done in Denmark.”
Rev. Jens Moesgaard Nielsen, M.Th. and Rev. Joergen Lasgaard, M.Th., The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark

21. “I’m Still Waiting: The General Admission Queue and Fan Self-Organizing Culture at U2 Concerts.”
Dr. Barbara LoMonaco, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky

22. “From ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ to ‘Angel of Harlem’: Irishness, American Blackness, and U2's Authentic Performativity.”
Kimberly Mack, UCLA, Ph.D student in English

23. “U2: Identities Covered and Revealed.”
Mark Mandarano, Artistic Director, Sinfonietta of Riverdale; Principal Guest Conductor, Moscow Chamber Orchestra; Adjunct Lecturer, Lehman College-CUNY

24. “U2 Live: Where Leitourgia Has No Name.”
The Rev. Beth Maynard, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

25. “Teaching U2: The Classroom as Gathering Place.”
Tim Neufeld, faculty in Biblical and Religious Studies, Fresno Pacific University, California, and Jessica Mast, senior student, Fresno Pacific University, California

26. “U2: An Elevated Brand.”
Michele O'Brien, Cawley Nea\TBWA, Dublin

27. “Common Aspirations: Media Theory and U2’s Zoo TV Tour.”
Corey Palmer, Huntington University

28. “Music for Marching: Forming an Army Through the Politics of Love.”
Dr. Darel Paul, Associate Professor of Political Science, Williams College

29. “U2 and Igor Stravinsky: Textures, Timbres, and the Devil.”
Dr. Dan Pinkston, Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition, Simpson University

30. "U2 as a Pedagogical Resource: Faith Integration and Social Justice"
Brian Porter, Professor of Management, Hope College

31. “U2 and the Poetics of Absence.”
Dr. Rene Rodriguez-Ramirez, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedra

32. “A Preacher Stealing Hearts at a Traveling Show: Bono and North American Evangelicals.”
Dr. Paul Rowe, Associate Professor, Political and International Studies, Trinity Western University and Matthew A. Kerr, Associate Pastor, Worship and Small Groups, Faith Baptist Church Huntsville, Ontario

33. "When I Look At the World: Viewing the Impact of U2’s Music on Listeners’ Consciousness and Activism Through the Lens of Narrative Inquiry."
Rachel Seiler, LMSW, Ph.D. Candidate, California Institute of Integral Studies

34. “Desire: U2 and the American Dream: The United States as Imagined in Music and Activism.”
Kristina Shull, Ph.D. Candidate in History, University of California, Irvine

35. “The Meme of Surrender: Bono's Lyrics of Recovery and Revelation.”
Andrew William Smith, Tennessee Tech University, Editor, Interference.com

36. “Irish Identity and Utopianism in the Music of U2.”
Ann Morrison Spinney, Assistant Professor, Music Department, Boston College

37. “Sampling and Reframing: The evolving live concert performances of ‘Bullet the Blue Sky.’”
The Rev. Dr. Steve Taylor, Laidlaw College, New Zealand

38. “Not Afraid to Die: The Grave as a Groove.”
Henry VanderSpek, Youth and Campus Coordinator, World Vision Canada's Advocacy & Education Department

39. “Botanizing on Asphalt: Representations of Laissez Faire Inherent in U2's Music.”
Paul Viotti, Professor of Political Science, California State University, Chico

40. “With a Red Guitar ... on Fire: The Convergence of Spiritual Longing and Sexual Desire in the Music of U2.”
Christopher West, Fellow, Theology of the Body Institute

41. “Water: Hope in the Name of H20”
The African Well Fund, Diane Yoder and Rob Triaglet (organization presentation)

42. Organization Presentation
World Story Organization, Justin Copyrights