Midwest American Academy of Religion

American Academy of Religion
(National Organization)

Please submit your 250 word proposal for a conference paper to one of the "Sections" listed below. If you have any questions about whether your proposal is appropriate for a particular section, please contact that section’s chair. If you feel your proposal does not fit into any of our current sections, you may submit it to the Special Topics section

An online system for submitting proposals will be available soon (probably after the national meeting of the AAR in the beginning of November). Please check back then.

Please do NOT send proposals by email attachments to the section chairs. Instead, please wait for the online process to become available.

Thank you.

Section Chairs

Arts, Literature, and Religion

Solicits proposals for papers and panels that examine the intersection of religion and the arts, broadly defined to encompass the visual arts, architecture, literature, cinema, theatre, and dance in both their fine and vernacular manifestations.

Chair: Kristin Schwain
Department of Art History and Archaeology
109 Pickard Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211
(573) 882-3366
schwain@missouri.edu

Ethics and Philosophy of Religion

Solicits proposals for papers and panels dealing with ethical theory, applied ethics, moral theology, and other topics related to religion and morality, as well as papers dealing broadly with the philosophy of religion, such as questions of religious ontology, metaphysics, and epistemology.

Chair: Scott R. Paeth
DePaul University
2333 N. Racine Ave.
Chicago, IL 60641
(773) 325-4447
spaeth@depaul.edu

History of Christianity

Solicits proposals for papers and panels that analyze any variety of Christianity from academic, historical, and social scientific perspectives. Proposals for papers that adopt theological, constructive, confessional, or faith-based perspectives should be submitted to either the Theology or the Ethics and Philosophy of Religion Section.

Chair:
William E. Smith III
Department of Religious Studies
230 Sycamore Hall
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405
wsmithii@indiana.edu

History of Religions

Solicits proposals for papers and panels investigating any aspects of religions other than Christianity from an historical, anthropological, sociological, or other social scientific perspective.

Chair: Kevin Wanner
Western Michigan University
2625 Winchell Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
(269) 387-4348
kevin.wanner@wmich.edu

New Religious Movements

Solicits proposals for papers and panels examining historical or contemporary alternative religious movements that will contribute to scholarly understandings of these religions in relationship to their larger social contexts.

Chair: Nikki Bado-Fralick
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
Iowa State University
402 Catt Hall
Ames, IA 50011
(515) 294-0054
nikkibf@iastate.edu

Religion and American Culture

Solicits proposals for papers and panels exploring social, cultural, and historical aspects of religion in the Americas, and the United States in particular. Studies of religious traditions or ideas that are not specifically situated in, or related to, their manifestations in this geographical context are not accepted.

Chair: John Schmalzbauer
Dept. of Religious Studies
Missouri State University
901 S. National Avenue
Springfield, MO 65897
(417) 836-5918
jschmalzbauer@missouristate.edu

Religion and Sacred Texts

Solicits proposals for papers and panels on the nature of sacred texts from a wide variety of religious traditions, especially those that study what makes these texts “sacred,” what makes them “texts,” and how they originate and function in their religious and cultural settings.

Chair: David Blix
Department of Religion
Wabash College
Crawfordsville, IN 47933
(317) 361-6075
blixd@wabash.edu

Religion, Ecology, and Culture

Solicits proposals for papers and panels that explore the dynamic interrelationships of religion, ecology (environment, nature, animals), and culture, including those that seek to understand religious responses to, and analyses of, the ways in which human and nonhuman species relate to their natural environments.

Co-chairs:
Amanda Baugh
Department of Religion
1860 Campus Drive, Crowe Hall
Northwestern University
Chicago, IL 60208
(210) 683-5293
a-baugh@northwestern.edu

Hayley Glaholt
Department of Religion
1860 Campus Drive, Crowe Hall
Northwestern University
Chicago, IL 60208
(847) 869-5622
h-glaholt@northwestern.edu

Religions of Asia

Solicits proposals for papers covering textual, ethnographic, or other historical and cultural studies of the religious traditions of South, Southeast, and East Asia, consisting primarily of (but not necessarily limited to) Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.

Chair: Michael Nichols
Department of Religion
1860 Campus Drive, crowe Hall
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL. 60208
(847) 869-4671
m-nichols@northwestern.edu

Special Topics

Solicits proposals for papers and panels not appropriate for other sections; preference will be given to those that focus on the annual conference theme or on teaching in religious studies. This year's meeting theme is: “Religion, Sex, and the Body.” Proposals might include research engaging topics such as: ritual performance, gendered roles and identities, the embodiment of religion, theologies of the body, and sexuality among religious peoples and groups.

Chair: Jacqueline Bussie
Department of Religion
Capital University
850 College Avenue
Columbus, OH 43209
(614) 236-6455
jbussie@capital.edu

Study of Judaism

Solicits proposals broadly inclusive of Judaism and Jewish tradition. Panels and proposals may address textual studies, history concerning any time period from the ancient to the modern, theology, sociology, or anthropology of Jewish subjects.

Chair: Sarah Imhoff
University of Chicago Divinity School & Center for Gender Studies
5733 S University Ave
Chicago, IL 60637
(773) 551-4641
sarahi@uchicago.edu

Theology

Solicits proposals for papers and panels in all areas of theology—broadly defined as critical reflections on the transcendent, the human relationship with the divine, and all related questions and issues.

Chair: Amy Carr
Department of Philosophy and Relgious Studies
Western Illinois
456 Morgan Hall
1 University Circle
Macomb, IL 61455
(309) 298-2507
AR-Carr@wiu.edu

Undergraduate Students

Specifically designed for undergraduate students in the field of religious studies who wish to broaden their academic experience by presenting their research at a formal conference, this section solicits proposals for papers by undergraduates on any topic regarding religion.

Co-Chairs: Forrest Clingerman
Department of Philosophy and Religion
Ohio Northern University
525 S. Main Street.
Ada, OH 45810
(419)772-3090
f-clingerman@onu.edu
Ellen Posman
Religion Department
Baldwin-Wallace College
275 Eastland Road
Berea, OH 44017
(440) 826-2176
eposman@bw.edu

Women and Religion

Solicits proposals for papers and panels that explore the many ways that women imagine and construct religious identities, experience religion in their everyday lives, and interpret symbols, myths, and rituals; other topics, including questions of methodology, in the study of women and religion are also welcome.

Chair: Mary Ellen Konieczny
Department of Sociology
University of Notre Dame
815 Flanner Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
(574) 631-2781
konieczny.1@nd.edu