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Greetings from the Region President:Welcome to the Midwest Region of the American Academy of Religion! The national AAR is the premiere professional organization for the study of religion and is dedicated to fostering excellence in scholarship and teaching. Each year in November thousands gather for the AAR’s annual conference. One of ten regional groups within the AAR, the Midwest Region holds its annual meeting in late March or early April. Attracting scholars from across the Midwest and other regions, our meeting provides an opportunity to gather in a smaller and less formal setting than that of the national conference. Members come to the regional meeting to present their research, to enter into formal and informal exchanges with other scholars in the field, to learn more about teaching, and to keep current about other concerns in the field of religious studies. We encourage the support and participation of junior and senior scholars as well as students. Undergraduate students may present papers at the meeting through our Undergraduate Students Section. Graduate students can hone their professional skills through participating with scholars on panels in our twelve other sections (see Section Chairs). Each year, the Midwest region issues special conference prizes to the best undergraduate paper, the best graduate paper, and the best paper attending to issues of religion and sustainability. The Midwest Region’s next annual meeting will be Friday and Saturday, April 3-4, 2009, at Dominican University’s Priory Conference Center, in River Forest, Illinois (a near west suburb of Chicago). Our theme this year is "RELIGION AND PLAY." Our plenary address will be delivered by William Sims Bainbridge. Dr. Bainbridge is an American sociologist who is co-director of Human-Centered Computing at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and also teaches sociology at George Mason University. He is the first Senior Fellow to be appointed by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Bainbridge is most well known for his work on the sociology of religion; recently, however, he has published work studying the sociology of video gaming. He will be speaking to the Midwest annual meeting on the topic of religion, gaming, and play. We are very excited to have Dr. Bainbridge with us this year. Please see the Call for Papers or contact our Vice President and Program Chair, Thomas Pearson of the Wabash Center pearsont@wabash.edu, for further information. I hope you will consider joining us at the 2009 meeting. The deadline for paper or panel submission is December 15th, 2009 and all submissions are to be entered on-line through our web site link. Creative, unconventional, interactive session formats on the subject of "Religion and Play" or other topics are highly encouraged. Please visit this site frequently for updates and for open Board of Directors or Section Chair positions. Martha L. Finch |
