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2012 Call for Papers
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Call Text
Arts, Literature, and Religion Section
The Arts, Literature, and Religion (ALR) Section invites proposals for individual papers and pre-organized panels on the following topics: theory and method in religion and literature; religious influences on the arts of activism and social change; visual and performing arts and black theologies (co-sponsored with Black Theology Group); the continuing influences of Paul Ricoeur’s Time and Narrative (co-sponsored with Ricoeur Group); religious themes and imagery of presidential campaigns; censorship in religion and the arts; multiculturalism and/or globalization in the arts, literature, and religion; religious implications for the arts in response to terrorism, e.g., 9/11, Mumbai, Oslo; and Chicago-based themes such as Saul Bellow’s religiosity, James Elkins’ religious aesthetics, the Chicago Renaissance, and the religiosity of exhibits/exhibitionism at the 1893 Columbian Exposition and/or the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions. ALR welcomes individual papers and/or panel proposals on any topic in the arts, literature, and religion.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Buddhism Section
The Buddhism Section welcomes proposals for panels, individual papers, and roundtables in all areas of Buddhist Studies. To facilitate greater exchange among the various subfields within Buddhist Studies, we are particularly interested in sessions that engage enduring themes in Buddhist Studies, examine methodological issues of broad concern, or introduce new materials. Applicants are also encouraged to propose innovative formats that might enable group study or extensive discussion and to take advantage of options such as ninety-minute sessions. The Section is happy to announce that we will participate in the AAR’s Full Paper Submission Pilot Program this year. Participants in sessions of this format will be required to submit the full text of their papers by October 1, 2012 to be made available to AAR members (on a password-protected site) in advance of the Meeting. The papers will not be read at the sessions. Instead, presenters will be given a short time to present their major ideas, and the bulk of time will be given over to discussion. We hope that one or two of our 2012 sessions will follow this format. If your group would be willing to participate, please let us know in the body of your proposal. We have compiled below a list of session topics proposed by our membership. Some members volunteered to organize panel proposals based on the themes they suggested; in those cases, we have provided names and email addresses. Suggested topics include: Buddhism and Self-writing; Buddhaghosa; Shingon Buddhism; Images of Light in Buddhism; Children and Buddhism (suggested joint session with Childhood Group, Vanessa Sasson, vanessa.sasson@mcgill.ca); Buddhism in Contemporary China (Brian J. Nichols, nicho2bj@cmich.edu); Buddhism and Religious Tourism; Buddhist Canons (Jiang Wu, jiangwu@email.arizona.edu); Buddhism and New Media; Buddhist Education; New Research on the Perfections (pāramitās, pāramī, etc., Bradley Clough, bradley.clough@mso.umt.edu); Buddhism and Religious Tourism (Ivette Vargas, ivargas@austincollege.edu); Buddhist Representations of the Other (Daniel Kent, kentdw@whitman.edu); Responses to Owen Flanagan’s _The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized_ (Christian Haskett, Christian Haskett, chris.haskett@usu.edu); and Buddhism and Pan-Asianism (Victoria Pinto, vpinto@usc.edu). Proposals exploring other themes are also welcome. Submissions are due March 5, 2012.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Christian Systematic Theology Section
General theme: Community and Authority, Power and Resistance. We invite constructive (not merely descriptive or historical) proposals exploring the sources of authority and critique within and between the Christian churches and in wider society. We seek proposals for individual papers or panels that relate to the general theme, and to one or more of the following topics: (1) church unity and the relationship of “the church” to the churches; (2) ecumenical relationships between the churches and/or between the church/es and other religious traditions; (3) the relationship between the church/es and the state, and between the church/es and global capitalism; (4) the continuing challenge of liberation theology—to the churches and to the world—with particular reference to its founding figures; (5) theological implications of new forms of church life, such as emerging churches and fresh expressions; (6) hierarchy, polity and power. We also seek papers on feminist and womanist readings of Schleiermacher’s ecclesiology, including its implications for other dogmatic themes, for a possible joint session with the Schleiermacher Group. For planning purposes, our theme for 2013 will be: Practices of the Christian Life.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Comparative Studies in Religion Section
We seek proposals that provide occasion for comparative inquiry, engaging two or more religious traditions around a common topic and reflecting critically on the conceptual tools employed in the inquiry. We request *ONLY group proposals* in the form of thematic paper sessions (four presenters, presider, and respondent) or panel sessions (maximum six presenters). *No individual papers as final submissions, please.* We reserve the right to add individuals to any group proposal. Each paper in a proposed session or panel need not be comparative, although this is welcomed and encouraged, but overall coherence is crucial. Themes proposed for the 2012 meeting, with contact members of the steering committee identified in parentheses are below. Please contact these individuals if you have a paper in mind and wish to take part in any proposed session. Proposals for comparative panels and sessions other than those listed are welcome. 1. Numbers/numerology(Chris Parr; parrch@webster.edu) 2. Mountains(Eric Mortensen; ericdmort@yahoo.com) 3. Religion and political conflict (Chris Parr; parrch@webster.edu) 4. Lament and gender (Steven Hopkins; shopkin1@swarthmore.edu) 5. Ghosts (Kathryn McKlymond; kmcclymond@gsu.edu) 6. Possession and trance (Corinne Dempsey; cdempse6@naz.edu) 7. Theorizing purity and pollution (Kimberley Patton;kimberley_patton@harvard.edu)
Methods of Submission Accepted
Ethics Section
The Ethics Section invites proposals providing theoretical analysis and diverse ethical methodologies in response to the following themes: (1) Progressive Elements in the Church and Society: Politics, Public Policy, and Poverty; (2) 2012 US Presidential Election; (3) Mass Incarceration and Capital Punishment; (4) Interreligious Ethics; (5) Work and Immigration; (6) Virtue Ethics in the Public Sphere and Human Value Studies; (7)Bioethics and Healthcare; (8) The Chicago School of Pragmatic Ethics, and (9) Papers of particular excellence on other topics and panel proposals are also invited. All proposals should identify the methodology used and contribution of the argument to current academic conversations. Online submissions only.
Methods of Submission Accepted
History of Christianity Section
We seek proposals for papers or entire panels on: (1) the mainstreaming of Mormon history; (2) historical memory, reading, and teaching in the digital age; (3) historicizing pneumatic Christianities; (4) the introductory course in the history of Christianity: diverse challenges, new opportunities; 5) mainline Protestantism: definitions, narratives, and trajectories; (6) histories of prayer: public practices and private selves. We will consider proposals on other topics as well. Papers should be conceived for effective 15-minute presentations.
Methods of Submission Accepted
North American Religions Section
This section advances the study of religions in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. We are especially interested in sponsoring panels that explore the fundamental questions that have shaped the field of North American Religion in the past and those that should shape it in the future. Sessions for 2012 could analyze topics such as aesthetics, class, diaspora, materiality, transnationalism, violence, nonviolence, 'new' immigrant religions, and race and ethnicity (including whiteness). They could also focus on how, when, where, and why 'North American religion' is conjured into existence. The section sponsors a variety of sessions including roundtables, debates, workshops, and visual and musical performances. We encourage the submission of proposals for complete panels. From time to time, though, we do need to reconfigure proposed panels in order to place them on the conference program. All of the sessions sponsored by our section will include a good deal of time for questions and comments from the audience.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Philosophy of Religion Section
This Section invites proposals on the following topics and/or authors: 1) Leibniz; 2) atonement, forgiveness, and reconciliation; 3) race and the philosophical imagination of religion; 4) the power of desires, seduction, appetite, or persuasion: responses to Karmen MacKendrick, Mark Jordan, and Virginia Burrus’s _Seducing Augustine: Bodies, Desires, Confessions_; 5) the place of wisdom in philosophy and theology; 6) responses to Barbara Herrnstein Smith’s _Natural Reflections: Human Cognition at the Nexus of Science and Religion_; 7) disagreement in Rancier & Laclau; 8) the historical and conceptual formation of the category of religion (co-sponsored with the North American Association for the Study of Religion); 9) Why/how does Buddhism matter for Philosophy of Religion? (co-sponsored with Buddhist Philosophy group); 10) the place of metaphysics in theology: critical responses to Kevin W. Hector’s _Theology Without Metaphysics_. We encourage proposals for pre-arranged panels on these, or other topics that will be of interest to philosophers of religion.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion and Politics Section
In addition to receiving proposals on topics generally in the purview of the Section (which encompasses both domestic and global interconnections of religion and politics, in practice and theory), this year we especially welcome proposals that address the following: (1) The politics of defining 'religion' (papers might engage the issue in the context of emerging democracies, minority religions, or theological/philosophical questions); (2) Religious perspectives on civic engagement and activism; (3) Mormonism in American politics (i.e., the nature and significance of the construction of Mormonism in the political arena, particularly during the current presidential campaign) [co-sponsorship with the Mormon Studies Group]; (4) Religious freedom and U.S. foreign policy; (5) Conscience clauses in American law and policy; (6) Ecology and the environment (especially interfaith, transnational movements and organizations).
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion and the Social Sciences Section
The Religion and the Social Sciences Section invites proposals on these topics: 1. Durkheim, Dubois, and the Study of Religion. 2. Neoliberalism and Pentacostalized Christianity in the Global South. 3. Religious Responses to Rising Inequality: New Developments in Community Organizing in America. 4. Practices of Dreaming and Dream Interpretation in Contexts of Religious Change. 5. The Significance for Religious and Theological Studies of the work of Frantz Fanon, author of “Black Skin, White Masks” and “The Wretched of the Earth.” Proposals on other issues and questions in the study of religion and the social sciences are also welcome. All proposals should clearly state their methodologies, data, and disciplinary perspective(s).
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion in South Asia Section
RISA gives strong preference to PAPER SESSIONS (NOT panel sessions). Proposals for paper sessions should include specific titles and proposals for each paper included in the session. RISA gives preference to proposals for entire sessions over individual papers, and accepts few individual paper proposals. The following topics for sessions have been suggested by RISA members. If interested in presenting a paper on one of these topics, e-mail the contact person directly. Borderlands Religion (Laurie Patton, lpatton@emory.edu); Reflections on RISA's Early Years (John Cort, cort@denison.edu); The Limits of Royal Religious Patronage (Jon Keune, jonkeune@gmail.com); Contemporary Iterations of the Kali Yuga (Amy L. Allocco, aallocco@elon.edu); Considering and Invoking the Powers of Ascetics (Ian Wilson, iawilson@maxwell.syr.edu); Aesthetics and South Asian religion (Amy Langenberg, apl0006@auburn.edu); Bollywood and Religion (Ellen Goldberg, eg7@queensu.ca); Syncretisms in South and Southeast Asia (Tazim R. Kassam, tkassam@syr.edu); New Methodologies in the Ethnography of South Asian Religions, (Nicole Karapanagiotis, nkarapanagiotis@georgiasouthern.edu); Medieval Bhakti traditions in Kannada and Telugu literatures (Gil Ben-Herut, gbenher@emory.edu); Cognitive Research and the Study of Religions in South Asia (Travis Chilcott, Chilcott.travis@gmail.com); The Symbolic and the Real in Hindu Religions; Divine and Human Consecration Ceremonies; Politics in South Asian Religions (nawaraj chaulagain, nchaulag@fas.harvard.edu)
Methods of Submission Accepted
Study of Islam Section
We encourage paper and panel proposals in all areas of Islamic studies. Successful proposals will reflect theoretical and methodological sophistication and engagement with existing scholarship along with innovative examination of Muslim practices and texts. As always, we welcome submissions dealing with the Qur'an and the Sunna, Islamic law, philosophy, theology, mysticism, ritual, gender and sexuality, modernity and globalization, teaching Islam, religious pluralism, and other areas of general interest. Furthermore, we encourage proposals dealing with Shi'ism within and across these areas. This year we especially invite papers or prearranged panel or paper sessions on the following topics: Muslim experiences and institutions in Chicago; the ahl al-bayt; best practices and strategies for non-specialists who teach Islam; material culture, both historical and contemporary; the 'new revivalism'; North American forms of Islamic authority; globalized Islamic Studies scholarship; the ethics of selling scholarly expertise outside the academy; and (for a potential co-sponsored panel) religion, medicine, and healing.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Study of Judaism Section
The Study of Judaism welcomes paper and panel proposals from the wide scope of Judaism, Jews, and Judaic Studies from late antiquity to the present. We are particularly interested in the following topics: Jewishness and Jewish Identity, Medieval and post-medieval Jewish textuality, Sephardic/Mizrahi studies, New Religious Movements and/in Judaism, Judaism and Islam, Jewish mysticism and spiritualism, Law and Jewish practice, Judaism and far eastern religions, and the Jew as Other and or the Other as Jew.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Teaching Religion Section
The Teaching Religion Section examines pedagogical theory and practice. We invite proposals that join innovative teaching practice with the scholarship of teaching and learning. Preference will be given to proposal presentation formats that model engaged, interactive, and experiential pedagogy. For 2012, we invite papers on the following: 1. A Lightening Round on The First Day of an Upper Level Course. This session will include 8-10 Teaching Tactics. Tactics should be submitted in the format found in Teaching Theology and Religion, available at: http://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/journal/article2.aspx?id=14417. 2. Assessing the Major through the Capstone Course: Goals, Models, and Assignments: We, particularly, seek capstone course syllabi and reflection on how the course acts as a cumulative experience and how its assignments assess student learning. 3. Joint session with the Religion and Migration Group: Teaching strategies for engaging students in issues surrounding immigration. 4. current CT textbooks and/or pedagogical practices (co-sponsored with Teaching Religion?; 5. Open call: We invite both individual papers and panels on issues in teaching and learning. For further information contact: Eugene V. Gallagher (evgal@conncoll.edu) or Carolyn Medine (medine@uga.edu).
Methods of Submission Accepted
Theology and Religious Reflection Section
We invite proposals that address following topics and issues 1)on the theological implications of universalism, 2)theoretical and religious explorations of maternality, 3)theoretical and theological reflections on historical trauma and suffering, memory and remembering, 4)money and theology, 5)phenomenon of post-Christianity, critical reflections on Agamben’s The Kingdom and the Glory, 6)the continuing presence and consequences of modernity/coloniality in religious and theological discourse, 7)grievability and mourning, and theories of affect in theological and religious reflections. We also welcome proposals for roundtable discussions on topics dealing with pedagogy and difference in the classroom.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Women and Religion Section
This Section invites individual papers and panel proposals from a variety of religious and cultural traditions exploring women’s experiences in local and transnational contexts. This year we especially welcome proposals that address the following themes: 1) Women’s leadership roles in religious organizations in Chicago and their impact on religious communities; 2) Women and ecology, especially marine ecology and ecological issues affecting various communities in the Chicago area; 3) Women’s roles in transnational democracy movements, especially women’s collaborative work in various movements that led to the Arab Spring; 4) Whiteness and/or white privilege as integral part of analyses concerning women and religion; 5) Religion, activism, and the next generation, especially how young women participate in activism; 6) Women’s support of and transmission of spirituality in the (post)modern age; 7) Women and the politics of religion in the Tea Party movement; 8) Interdisciplinary analyses of women, religion, and the 2012 election; 9) The role of religion in the trafficking of women; 10) Cross-cultural and/or cross-racial collaborations among women with regard to violence against women. We encourage non-traditional ways of sharing scholarly work on women and religion and welcome a variety of formats to promote interactive sessions.
Methods of Submission Accepted
African Diaspora Religions Group
The title of the Consultation main session for 2012 is 'Islam in the African Diaspora. This is a pre-arranged round table. We are also planing a pre-arranged joint session with the African Religions Group, and the title is 'Teaching African and African Diaspora Religions.'
Methods of Submission Accepted
African Religions Group
African Religions Group This Group encourages critical inquiry about religions originating in Africa as well as all those practiced there. Proposals should go beyond description, analyzing conceptual tools and methods employed. This year we invite individual papers or panel proposals on the following themes: 1). Religion, Witchcraft and Magic: contemporary forms including the persecution of albinos in Africa. 2). How religion interrogates empires through art, music and other forms.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Afro-American Religious History Group
We invite proposals that explore the relationship between religious identity and racial identity in the Americas, but especially those that address the following topics: apocalypticism, the arts (literature, music, etc), Black Jews/Black Judaisms, classic works in the study of African American religion, religion and genocide, metaphysical and New Thought in African American religious history, new religious movements, religion and politics, the religion(s) of Barack Obama, and studies in religion and sexuality. Given the locale of AAR’s 2012 meeting, the group is also interested in proposals that address topics specifically in relationship to the city of Chicago, including those that might consider African American Islam.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Animals and Religion Group
This group addresses issues in the study of animals and religion and seeks to engage religion scholars with the emergent field of animal studies. We welcome theoretically informed paper and panel proposals on all topics related to these themes. We especially seek proposals for three possible cosponsored panels: 1) on the role of space and place in mediating relationships between animals and religion with the Space, Place, and Religious Meaning Group; 2) on critical Buddhist perspectives on animals with the Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflection Group; and 3) on contemplative studies and animals with the Contemplative Studies Group. We also encourage submissions on race and/or class and animals; Marti Kheel's legacy for animals, religion, and ethics; animals and nationalism; animals as religious subjects; and ethical and/or religious investigations of slaughterhouses.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Anthropology of Religion Group
We invite proposals from across the full range of anthropological theories and methods, exploring diverse traditions, regions, periods, and addressing various facets of religion, including practices, embodiment, beliefs, social mobilization, etc. We welcome submissions on (1) religion in the public sphere, (2) religion and politics (especially issues of class, capitalism, resistance, and protest), (3) situated ethics (see Lambek, ed., Ordinary Ethics: Anthropology, Language, and Action), (4) ethnography and theology (see Scharen and Vigen, eds., Ethnography as Christian Theology and Ethics). We also seek proposals for 10-minute presentations that will demonstrate and discuss the use of alternative media in research and dissemination. Panel sessions on these or other issues related to the Group’s area of focus are very welcome.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society Group
The Asian North American Religion Culture and Society Group invites and welcomes individual papers, panel proposals and non-traditional ways of sharing scholarly work that address: 1) Multiracial Theologies; 2) The categories of “North” or “American” in ANARCS; 3) Intersections with Native American, indigenous religion and religious communities; 4) Issues of religion and empire including Asian settler colonialism; 5) The body and the disembodied; 6) Conservative Evangelicals; 7) Training, mentoring and knowledge production for the next generation of ANARCS scholars; 8) issues that address the concerns of Asian American religion and religious communities in Chicago and 9) Any other critical aspect of Asian North American religion/s, culture and society. In addition to paper and panel submissions, we encourage the submission of non-traditional ways of sharing scholarly work and welcome a variety of formats to promote interactive sessions. All proposals are anonymously reviewed.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Augustine and Augustinianisms Group
1. Augustine and Augustinianisms regular session: Although frequently referred to as the first autobiography, Augustine's Confessions is hard to categorize. Over the centuries he Confessions has inspired many imitators who have invoked its style and language for their own purposes. Some allude to the Confessions to retrieve for their time Augustine’s rhetoric of the reading and writing of the ‘self,’ but others have done so ultimately to say something quite different from the ancient bishop. Papers are invited that either address the Confessions directly or examine its echoes in any of the later centuries (including the present). Contributions from a variety of disciplines and perspectives are most welcome. 2. Co-sponsored session with Martin Luther and Global Lutheran Traditions: The connections between Martin Luther and Augustine of Hippo are many and worth re-exploring. To begin with, Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk who recast Augustine's theology when addressing the needs of his own time. Both thinkers faced the need to re-interpret the relevance and meaning of the Old Testament for Christian theology and life. This in mind, for a co-hosted session in 2012 between 'Augustine and Augustinianisms' and 'Martin Luther and the Global Lutheran Traditions', we invite papers that address different aspects and ramifications of Augustine's and/or Luther's interpretation of the Old Testament texts. Papers that bring either Augustine and/or Luther into conversation with various methodological and global perspectives are most welcome.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Bible in Racial, Ethnic, and Indigenous Communities Group
The unit will continue its projects of Latino/a Theology and the Bible as well as The Bible and Colonization, while beginning a new project on Indigenous Peoples and the Bible. In all cases invitations will be issued.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Bible, Theology, and Postmodernity Group
The “Bible, Theology, and Postmodernity” group invites proposals that creatively explore biblical and theological texts in respect to postmodern situations and theory. This year, we welcome, in particular, proposals that focus on biblical/theological engagements with Deleuze/Guattari and Giorgio Agamben. [We also plan to: 1) co-sponsor a session with 'Bible in Racial, Ethnic, and Indigenous Communities' on race and political theology; 2) host an invited panel on the work of Karmen MacKendrick.]
Methods of Submission Accepted
Bioethics and Religion Group
The Religion and Bioethics Group welcomes submissions for the 2012 Annual Meeting. We will consider papers on all topics, however our focus in 2012 will be on “Authority and Morality in Bioethics”. Examples include the interplay between morality and religious, legal, or scientific authority, or the notion of ethical authority as it relates to personal conscience and professional expertise. We especially welcome proposals that focus on disciplines and traditions not commonly represented in the bioethics literature, such as “non-western” religions.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Black Theology Group
The Black Theology Group invites proposals on the following topics: (1) black theology with non-Christian religions: methods and proposals (2) black theology as/ with post-colonial theology; black theology engaging empire and global democracy and global capitalism (3) theological anthropology in black theologies: issues of embodiment, post-racial conceptions, mixed-race identities, virtual/ online identities, etc. (4) visual and performing arts and black theologies; topics grounded in Chicago context are especially encouraged (co-sponsored with Art, Literature and Religion)
Methods of Submission Accepted
Body and Religion Group
This group aims to provide a forum for multi-, inter-, and trans-disciplinary conversations on issues of body and religion. We are especially interested in the overall question of “what is body?” We invite proposals presenting diverse methodologies and understandings of body, as well as traditional and alternative presentation styles. This year we are focusing especially on: 1) Body as locus/agency of good & evil; 2) Contextual bodies (historically/culturally constructed concepts/experience of body); 3) What is religious about body?; 4) for a possible co-sponsored session with “Religion, Medicine & Healing”: “The Ideal/ized Body” (not limited to material bodies) as goal or problem, and practices for achieving wholeness, healing, or control in non-ideal bodies; 5) for a possible co-sponsored session with Ritual Studies: Emotional/Experiential dimensions of ritual. We also encourage submissions on other aspects of body and religion from scholars in any area of religious studies or theology.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis Group
In order to encourage further engagement with Bonhoeffer's lesser known writings, we invite papers exploring themes found in the circular letters, notes, sermons and other documents of volume 16, Conspiracy and Imprisonment, 1940-1945. We hope to examine ways in which these writings introduce us to facets of Bonhoeffer's thought previously unknown but now available through the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English translation project. Also, Bonhoeffer’s better known writings often appear on the syllabi of a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses. We invite presentations that explore and/or demonstrate pedagogical issues in, and approaches for, teaching Bonhoeffer’s thought and life. In conjunction with the Colloquium on Violence and Religion, we invite proposals for a joint session on Bonhoeffer and Rene Girard. Topics may include models of community; violence and peace; theology in times of crisis; theological anthropology; discipleship and imitation; and the hermeneutic of the victim or 'view from below'.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Buddhism in the West Group
The Buddhism in the West unit calls for papers to contribute to a session co-sponsored with the Death, Dying, and Beyond unit: possible topics include, but are not restricted to, the Tibetan Book of the Dead in the West, hospice and preparation for death, and Buddhist memorial rites. We also call for proposals for an open session that deal with Buddhism and healing (especially in psychotherapeutic contexts); marginalized Buddhist groups or Buddhism’s relation to other marginalized religious groups in the West; sexuality; Buddhist Geeks; Buddhism and educational institutions; Buddhists and inter/intra-religious dialogue; institutionalization of Buddhism in the West; Nichiren Buddhisms in the West; and an open call.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Buddhist Critical–Constructive Reflection Group
This Group explores (1) how modern academic studies (in philosophy, ethics, religious studies, theology, sociology, etc.) may inform or be informed by Buddhist modes of understanding and (2) how Buddhist thought or practice may help address problems, needs, or issues faced by societies today. We invite paper or panel proposals on the following topics (or another topic relevant to our mission): (A) Buddhist resources for a new eonomics; (B) A consideration of the work of Joanna Macy; (C) Buddhism and atheism; (D) Buddhism and pacifism; (E) For possible co-sponsorship with the Animals and Religion Group: critical Buddhist perspectives on animals ; (F) For possible co-sponsorship with Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group: contemporary perspectives on Buddhism and feminism (G) For possible co-sponsorship with Mysticism Group: mysticism and silence.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Buddhist Philosophy Group
The Buddhist Philosophy Group solicits individual paper and (especially)thematically integrated panel proposals on themes relating to the field of Buddhist philosophy broadly construed. Our aim is to consider the philosophical dimensions of the full range of Buddhist traditions from earliest times through modernity in a manner that brings this consideration into dialogue with the larger academy. Paper and panel proposals may focus on particular philosophical themes or problems, questions about the role of philosophy within Buddhist practice, methodological issues in the study of Buddhist philosophy, recent publications, points of intersection with non-Buddhist philosophical thought, or Buddhist texts of special significance. Panels representing a diversity of methods and/or geographical and linguistic diversity are encouraged, as are creative formats. Possible topics suggested by group members for 2012 include: Buddhism and Post-Modern Ethics Buddhist Theories of Self and/or Subjectivity Teaching Buddhist Philosophy: Debating Pedagogy and Syllabi Why and How Buddhism Matters to the Philosophy of Religion Buddhist Philosophy of Religion: Methods, Models, and Motives Aesthetics of Buddhist Practice and Thought Buddhist Environmental Philosophy: Inside and Outside the Academy Buddhist Narratives and Buddhist Philosophy Those interested in these topics may contact the chairs or members of the steering committee for information on colleagues planning to develop proposals on similar themes.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Childhood Studies and Religion Group
This Group encourages proposals from scholars of diverse religious traditions and locations who engage in historical, social scientific, humanistic, conceptual, and other methods of research related to children and childhood. We invite proposals for papers and panels in all areas. In addition, we especially welcome proposals on the following topics: 1) children, religion, and politics, including children’s political participation, activism, and civic engagement; 2) methods in the study of children and childhoods, contact Susan Ridgely for details at ridgelys@uwosh.edu; 3) children, religion, and cyberspace; 4) a roundtable on children and Buddhism, contact Vanessa Sasson for details at vanessa.sasson@mcgill.ca (cosponsored with the Buddhism Section); 5) the queerness of children and childhood as subjects and objects in religion (cosponsored with the Queer Studies in Religion Group).
Methods of Submission Accepted
Chinese Religions Group
The Chinese Religions Group calls for papers regarding a) body Practices and Religions in contemporary China; b) inner lives of religious professionals; c) the formation, function, and use of canons and canonical literature in Chinese religions; d) relics in Modern China; e) the use of manuscripts and archaeological finds by historians of Chinese religion. We also welcome panel and paper suggestions on other issues and topics.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Christian Spirituality Group
The Christian spirituality group welcomes proposals that explore the relationship between the academic study of Christian spirituality and its practice as well as proposals that employ multidisciplinary perspectives. We especially invite proposals on the following themes: 1) Trauma, Oppression, and Spiritual Formation (for a co-sponsored session with the Practical Theology Group): How does the experience of trauma—from war, relational violence, refugee experience, poverty, discrimination, etc.—affect human subjectivity and the experience of God? How might healing be conceived and fostered in such contexts? (further, is PTSD a western construction of trauma “exported” to other contexts?) 2) Spirituality, Hope, and Global Climate Change: How does the phenomenon of climate change affect communities around the world? (we especially welcome proposals engaging contexts in the Global South). What shapes a Christian spirituality of hope in these contexts? 3) The Spiritual “Self” in a Religiously Plural World: How are constructions of the self and of meaning and identity shifting in contexts where religions overlap, embrace, or collide in personal or communal praxis? 4) Music, the Arts, and Experience of God: How does the practice of creating or listening to music, or participating and engagement in other art forms, mediate experience of God? 5) Spiritual Bodies and Political Bodies: How does embodied spiritual practice take form in public spaces, among public bodies, political bodies, and structures and spaces? We welcome proposals engaging the spirituality of activism in a variety of forms, including (but not limited to) the legacy of Chicago’s Saul Alinsky.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Christianity and Academia Group
This consultation explores issues at the intersection of Christian theology and higher education. Papers are invited on such topics as: the (declining?) role of denominations in church-related institutions; the challenges for non-Christian faculty at church-related institutions, and the converse; fundamentalism(s) on campus; the postmodern student (visual culture, personal spiritualities, 'incredulity toward metanarratives'); the perception of theology among other academic disciplines; the formative role of external funding sources; notions of scarcity and abundance in the 'market' of higher education; and the idea of a 'theology of administration.' We also invite proposals for a joint session on a significant book related to these issues. We prefer papers that move beyond mere description and that endeavor to analyze issues from a theological perspective.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Cognitive Science of Religion Group
We welcome proposals for individual papers or sessions on any aspect of the cognitive science of religion, and are particularly interested in sessions that report on research that tests extant theories in CSR (scheduled either as a regular session or in our Research Forums, publicized to our e-mail list, and possibly co-sponsored with IACSR). Other topics of particular interest include the role of etic vs. emic explanation in religious studies; the theoretical and practical difficulties encountered in CSR interdisciplinary work; scientific versus religious cognition; CSR and Daoist practice (possibly co-sponsored with Daoist Studies); religious visualization (possibly co-sponsored with Tantric Studies); and CSR and charismatic Christian movements (possibly co-sponsored with Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements). The CSR blog (http://csr-aar.blogspot.com/) describes how proposals are evaluated, and can be used as a forum for coordinating organized sessions or Research Forums.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Comparative Religious Ethics Group
We encourage the submission of any individual paper or panel that makes cultural and moral diversity central to ethical analysis. Themes especially welcomed this year include: 1) environmental crises, whether the result of natural or human causes; 2) contemporary religious protest movements; 3) economic justice.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Comparative Studies in Hinduisms and Judaisms Group
The Comparative Studies in Hinduisms and Judaisms Group seeks to bring together specialists in South Asia and Judaica to discuss topics within Hindu and Jewish traditions, with the intention of re-visioning categories and developing alternative models to the Protestant-based paradigms that have tended to dominate the academic study of religion. Presenters need not have expertise in both Hindu and Jewish traditions. For the 2012 sessions we invite papers on the following themes in Jewish and Hindu traditions: (1) models and technologies for imagining and refashioning human and divine bodies; (2) food practices and new food movements; (3) Jews, Hindus, and the question of race; (4) Hindu and Jewish models for theorizing ritual; (5) ritual bathing and other purity practices. Proposals on other topics are also welcome. We strongly encourage pre-arranged session proposals in the form of thematic paper sessions or panels.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Comparative Theology Group
The Comparative Theology (CT) Group invites comparative, constructive proposals related to the following themes: 1) religious diversity and “world religions” in 19th century religious thought (potentially co-sponsored with the Nineteenth Century Theology Group); 2) the practice of “translation” of terms, concepts and other compared elements across different religious traditions; 3) comparative exclusivisms; 4) current CT textbooks and/or pedagogical practices (potentially co-sponsored with the Teaching Religion Section); 5) comparative eschatologies or religious ends; 6) CT in pastoral practice, particularly in relation to suffering; 7) panel proposals on significant recent books or articles in the field. We will also consider proposals on other topics. The CT Group strongly encourages panel or pre-arranged paper proposals. The Group hosts a listserv to facilitate such collaboration; to subscribe, please contact David Clairmont (David.A.Clairmont.1@nd.edu).
Methods of Submission Accepted
Confucian Traditions Group
We invite proposals concerning any aspect of Confucianism from any geographical area. Topics of particular interest this coming year are: (1) Confucianism and Tradition: Confucianism as a conservative force or a source of change; (2) Confucian ritual interaction with other traditions; (3) Confucian self-cultivation; (4)Confucianism and the Confucius Institutes; (5) “Confucian Fever”: Grass-roots Confucianism; (6) Unintended consequences of Confucian discourse and institutions. Panels that are in the traditional two-and-a-half-hour format are welcome, but we also encourage applicants to propose panels in one-hundred- and ninety-minute formats. This can take the form of a mini-panel or a symposium on a particular text, author, or pedagogy. Prearranged panel and papers sessions proposals have a much better chance of getting accepted than individual paper proposals. Underscoring that Confucianism is not just a Chinese phenomenon, we would also like to encourage people working on Confucian topics outside of China to send in proposals.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Contemplative Studies Group
The Contemplative Studies Group welcomes panel and paper proposals on the following topics: (1) Contemplative pedagogy; (2) Conceptual issues in Contemplative Studies; (3) Contemplative practice in indigenous cultures; (4) Somatic disciplines, including the body and posture in contemplative practice and experience; (5) Hesychasm and prayer in Eastern Orthodoxy (potentially co-sponsored with the Eastern Orthodox Studies Group); and (6) Contemplative Studies and animals (potentially co-sponsored with the Animals and Religion Group). We also welcome panel and paper proposals on any other topic related to Contemplative Studies. Please submit proposals via the AAR OP3 system. Please contact Louis Komjathy (University of San Diego) with additional questions or for clarification.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Contemporary Islam Group
The Contemporary Islam Group invites submissions on all subjects relating to Islam in the contemporary world. We are particularly interested in papers relevant to the following topics: Islam and Colonial/Post-Colonial Studies (possible co-sponsorship with Colonialism and Religion Group); Islam in Chicago (2012 AAR venue); Islam in the visual and performing arts; Islam and economy (moral and/or fiscal); Islam in practice (e.g., pilgrimage, tourism, education, devotion); ethnography and anthropology of Islam; Islam and media, social media, and/or virtual networks; Muslim youth cultures; Islam and material culture; institutionalizing Islamic Studies at universities and research centers; negotiating religious diversity and pluralism. Audience engaging panel formats are encouraged.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Contemporary Pagan Studies Group
1. For a possible joint session with Indigenous Religious Traditions we invite papers on the intersection of contemporary indigenous traditions and paganism related to indigeneity, authenticity, and legitimacy. These may, for example, analyze how claims of indigenous status are used in relationship with political and theological issues or how groups deploy strategies around the issue of 'authenticity.' 2. The major metaphors of any religious tradition speak to ways humans connect with the Divine. Ancient and some contemporary forms of Paganism frequently employed notions of sacrifice and reciprocity. Modern Wicca, to name one tradition, consciously rejected the notion of sacrifice and replaced it with sexual intercourse as a metaphor both of internal psychological integration and as cosmic creation and fertility, from Great Rite to the Dance of the Maypole. We invite papers on how these metaphors persist, interact, and manifest within historical and contemporary Paganism and on how they frame interactions among participants. 3. Is there really such a thing as Pagan 'theology,' or is the term itself too embedded within an Abrahamic religious context? Should Pagan theology more accurately be described as praxology, or Theories of Pagan Praxis? What would Pagan Praxology look like and how would it advance our understanding of religion?
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Critical Approaches to Hip-Hop and Religion Group
Continuing in its exploration of critical trends and approaches to the study of Religion and Hip Hop Culture, this Group welcomes paper and panel proposals in the following areas: *Hip Hop and the Remaking of Urban Religion (for a possible co-sponsored session with Religion and Cities Group) that address the practice and performance of Hip Hop in urban centers and the Remaking of Religion with attention to how social geography of city spaces (such as faith institutions, club culture, tattoo shops, etc.) are reshaped and remade into cultural milieus of religious activity becoming not only 'context' for reshaping traditionally defined religion but also religious 'product'; How critiques of institutional forms of religious expression (e.g. Christianity) are offered by Hip Hop, and from where do such critiques emerge? We welcome papers that engage a wide variety of topics such as faith based Hip Hop, street corner culture, the performance of Hip Hop in club culture, and the relationship between Hip Hop and the remaking of urban religion. *Faith and the Flesh: Religion, Hip Hop and the Body From the existential wrestlings with a noose seen in Odd Future’s “Yonkers” video to Janelle Monae’s onstage tuxedo and pompadour uniform, and all the way back to the earliest breaking that took place on flattened cardboard in the Bronx, hip hop is a horizon where bodies matter. At times, bodies are problems to be discarded through destructive violence, while at different moments, othered/othering bodies produce forms of creative response and resistance to the pressures exerted on them. What does it mean about religion, hip hop and its scholarship to say that bodies matter? What might wrestling with bodies (at experiential and analytic levels) signal about repetitive, ritualistic modes of performativity that construct historical, embodied religious “subjects?” In what ways might hip hop socially personify the corporeal tension experienced by adherents of faith communities in light of their limited, creative bodies? How might the bodily stylistic choices offered in hip hop reflect or be transformed by complementary and competing faith claims in urban centers?
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Group
This Group offers an interdisciplinary and international forum for analytical scholars of religion to engage the intersection of critical theory and methodology with concrete ethnographic and historical case studies on religious life and institutions. Critical theory draws on various methods employed from the fields of sociology, anthropology, history, literary criticism, and political theory in order to bring into scrutiny all kinds of discourses on religion, which span from academic to nonacademic as well as from religious to nonreligious. We invite paper proposals on the following topics: Secularism(s) in Europe — new atheism, multiculturalism, interreligiosity, diversity of State-Church relations in European countries, and professionalization of religion in higher education; e.g., Islam (for a cosponsored session with the Sociology of Religion Group) Periodization of epochs and the temporalization of history — methodological and theoretical issues in the use of historical epochs (e.g., evolution, the Enlightenment, etc.), bias, and problems of lineal concepts of time in modern historiography (for a cosponsored session with the Cultural History of the Study of Religion Group) Theorizing war and violence in religion — religious fundamentalism(s), the role of religion in social, political, and military conflicts, and the violent aspects of religious practices (for a cosponsored session with the Sociology of Religion Group) History and the impact of the University of Chicago Divinity School on the study of religion (for a cosponsored session with the Sociology of Religion Group and the Cultural History of the Study of Religion Group) Political uses and abuses of canonical scriptures — evangelicalism and the role of the Bible in the United States election (for a cosponsored session with the SBL Ideological Criticism Section)
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Cultural History of the Study of Religion Group
We seek papers that historically examine the formation and transformation of 'religion' (together with other related categories) as a discursive apparatus operative in social, cultural, and political practice and in relation to the study of religion. We aim to represent diverse geographical areas and historical moments. This year, we particularly welcome proposals addressing these themes: (1) the interplay and tensions between empiricism and theory (or between data and genealogy) in the study of religion, particularly as that interplay becomes manifest in specific social and scholarly contexts; (2) the consequences of the ways 'religion' takes shape in relation to conceptions of multiculturalism, pluralism, neoliberalism, and 'the global'; and (3) John Lardas Modern's new book, Secularism in Antebellum America. We hope to use our sessions to develop a new model for conference conversation. Toward that end, we ask that participants write shorter papers, which we will circulate mid-October in order to focus our discussion of the topic in Chicago in a more collaborative and interactive way. We welcome further suggestions for new conversational models (please email the co-chairs with your ideas).
Methods of Submission Accepted
Daoist Studies Group
The Daoist Studies Group invites panel and/or paper proposals on the following topics: (1) Daoist Ritual (contact David Mozina) (2) Teaching Daoism in Introductory 'World Religions' Courses (contact Louis Komjathy); (3)Daoism and science/medicine ; (4) State of the Field of Daoist Studies(Robert Campany); (5)Comparative/Theoretical Studies of Daoism. We also invite panel and paper proposals on other topics. Potential panel organizers are encouraged to contact our co-chairs, Xun Liu and David Mozina, prior to organizing a complete panel. Please submit panel and paper proposals via the online system at the AAR website no later than March 5, 2012.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Death, Dying, and Beyond Group
We plan to co-sponsor a session with Buddhism in the West Group, and solicit proposals on topics including: The Tibetan Book of the Dead in the West; hospice and preparation for death; and the American appropriation of Buddhist memorial rites for ancestors or for the unborn child. For our own session, we have selected to focus on 'Digital Death,' the ways death and afterlife appear in a variety of digital media. This includes: death and mourning in Facebook and social media, video games and You-Tube. We are open to proposals on any additional topics relevant to death and afterlife.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Eastern Orthodox Studies Group
The Eastern Orthodox Studies Group invites papers on two topics: (1) The positive role of reason in Eastern Christian thought, including but not limited to: the formation of Christian doctrines, the role of reason in the mystical ascent, the relation between reason and mystical theology, the use of different modalities of reasoning (intellectual intuition, discernment, discursive reasoning, etc.) in Orthodox theology, and the relation between reason and deification, especially in Maximos the Confessor. Papers could focus on either patristic texts or contemporary Orthodox theology; (2) all aspects of the thought and work of Gregory Palamas. The Eastern Orthodox Studies Group also invites proposals for a jointly-sponsored panel with the Contemplative Studies Group on Hesychasm and Prayer in Eastern Orthodoxy.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Ecclesiological Investigations Group
This year, the EI Group invite a range of proposals on four possible areas of focus: From Fresh Expressions to Focolare: Theology and Mission of Para-Ecclesial Experiments As church attendance in many ‘mainstream’ denominations experiences a marked downward turn in many countries, what are the ecclesiological, missionary and ecumenical implications of the various para-ecclesial and trans-denominational practices, experiments and models today? We invite a variety of methodological approaches to reflections upon such ecclesial phenomena in general as well as studies of particular examples such as Hull House, Catholic Worker Movement, Focolare, Koinonia Farm in the US and analogous experiments elsewhere, both historical and contemporary (e.g. Taize, Christian Ashram Movement, Iona Community, New Monasticism). The Social Gospel in a Time of Economic Crisis: The Churches and Capitalism Today How are churches called to respond to the present economic signs of the times? Some twenty-six years after the US Catholic Bishops released Economic Justice for All, a year after the Church of England’s Faith in the City appeared, 2012 also marks the centenary of Walter Rauschenbusch’s Christianizing the Social Order. In that work he sets down “The Case of Christianity against Capitalism”. What would it mean to work towards what he called a “Social Awakening of the Churches” in the present economic crisis? We also invite proposals on the History, Hermeneutics and Legacy of the Second Vatican Council for a possible joint session with the new Vatican II Studies Group Finally, we also invite proposals on a possible joint session with the Religion and Migration Group: From Monochrome to Multi-cultural: Diversity of Ecclesial Communities in an Age of Migration Human migration has been part of the story of this planet from the earliest times and historically, in the modern era, especially, migration has had a significant impact upon local church communities. Today, new economic, political and environmental challenges, as well as aspirations are mobilizing a new generation of migrant peoples. We invite reflections on the rich diversity this is bringing to church communities in countries of destination, as well as theological analysis of the social and ethical challenges the new age of migration brings with it. We welcome approaches from many methods and perspectives, including historical, theological and social scientific. We especially welcome studies attentive to Chicago’s own multi-cultural church communities.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Evangelical Studies Group
The Evangelical Studies Group and Wesleyan Studies Group invite paper proposals for a joint session on 'Anthropology, Affections, and Awakenings in Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) and John Wesley (1703-91).' Papers proposed for this joint session should be comparative in character and should give significant attention to both figures. We especially encourage papers that focus on one of the following three questions: (1) How is the human self pictured or conceptualized (anthropology)? (2) How is human life driven or directed (affections)? (3) How is human community established, renewed, and refashioned (awakenings)? In addition to the proposals for the Edwards-Wesley session, contributors are encouraged to submit paper proposals on the following themes: (a) Evangelicals and the Early Christian Creeds and Councils (the hermeneutics, problematics, and systematics of interpreting, disputing, confessing, teaching, and applying the creeds and councils today); (b)Contemporary Evangelical Interpretations of and Encounters With Islam; (c) Allah and the Triune God. AAR members are also encouraged to submit complete panel proposals of their own design for consideration by the Evangelical Studies Group.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group
For the 2012 meeting, the Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group invites papers on: Gender Theory in Buddhism (for a joint session with Buddhist Critical-Constructionist Group); Applied Feminist Theory; Sexual Education in Faiths and Society; Teaching Feminism Across the Curriculum; Disability and Feminist Theory; Feminist Perspectives on Conflict and Resolution; and What Do We Mean by Feminism?
Methods of Submission Accepted
Gay Men and Religion Group
The Gay Men and Religion Group (GMARG) welcomes proposals for individual papers and for full panels on all topics related to the religious/spiritual lives of gay, bi, trans and queer-identified men. We are especially interested in proposals that explore: 1) how scholarly approaches to religion impact LGBTQ religious and/or political advocacy and activism, especially in communities of color and/or in Chicago; 2) the spiritual practices of men who have sex with men but who don't identify as gay; 3) religious responses to HIV/AIDS and its impact on gay male lives and communities; 4) Kent Brintnall's book, Ecce Homo: The Male-Body-in-Pain as Redemptive Figure (Chicago, 2011); and 5) for a co-sponsored session with the Lesbian-Feminist Issues in Religion Group, submissions that explore the new visibility of teen suicides, particularly of LGBTQ and sexual minority youth.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Hinduism Group
The Hinduism group solicits proposals from scholars on any aspect of Hindu thought and practices through the presentation of new data, critical analysis, and interpretative strategies, based on textual, socio-historical, ethnographic, philosophical, theological and theoretical studies. Themes proposed at the 2011 business meeting include: * Liberalism and Modern Hinduism -- for possible cosponsorship with Liberal Theologies, we seek individual proposals considering how modern Hindus have translated, articulated, and in other ways seriously engaged with foundational categories of “liberalism,” including rationalism, freedom, religious toleration, and racial, social and gender equality (Rupa Viswanath, rupa.viswanath@gmail.com) * Continuity and Change in Hinduism (John Nemec, jwn3y@cms.mail.virginia.edu, and Tim Dobe, dobetimo@grinnell.edu) * Contemporary Iterations of Kali Yuga: Ethnographic Observations (Amy Alloco, aallocco@elon.edu) * Adornment and Sartorial Politics (Vijaya Nagarajan, nagarajan@usfca.edu) * Hinduism Against Itself (Parimal Patil, ppatil@fas.harvard.edu) * Comparative Theology and Hinduism (Jonathan Edelmann, jonathan.edelmann@gmail.com) * Technologies and the Sacred (Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, c.ram-prasad@lancaster.ac.uk) Proposals on other topics are also welcome. Preference is given to proposals for thematically organized papers sessions, though proposals of individual papers will also be considered.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Indigenous Religious Traditions Group
We invite submissions addressing: 1) links between indigenous religious traditions and 'place', including tensions over access and management of places (e.g. tourism, ceremony, pilgrimage); 2) ecological perspectives, including views on climate change; 3) animals and other beings in indigenous religious traditions, including their categorisation; 4) for a possible joint session with the Latina/o Religion, Culture and Society group, we invite papers on the role of religion in indigenous movements for social change and justice, both historic and contemporary; 5) for a possible joint session with the Contemporary Pagan Studies group, we invite papers on the intersection of contemporary indigenous traditions and paganism related to indigeneity, authenticity, and legitimacy. Direct inquiries to either co-chair.
Methods of Submission Accepted
International Development and Religion Group
For 2012, the Steering Committee invites proposals in the following areas: (1) Public health initiatives and activities that are religiously based and/or exhibit religious practices; (2) The work of and challenges faced or created by religiously affiliated actors with immigrants, refugees and/or displaced peoples ; (3) research on the relationships between religious scriptures or texts with development-related issues. Research treating aspects of our group's area not included in these suggestions will be considered. The steering committee is particularly interested in proposals that involve field research and current projects.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Islamic Mysticism Group
The Islamic Mysticism Group solicits paper and panel proposals for the 2012 AAR Annual Meeting with special attention paid to the following topics: Depiction of Sufis as “good Muslims” in popular media; Sufism in North America; women, gender, and the body in Islamic Mysticism; and the pedagogy of incorporating Islamic mystical material into courses. Other topics will also receive full consideration. 90 minute sessions or panels should be no more than 3 papers with a respondent. All proposals should engage existing scholarly research rather than simply presenting the views of a text, figure, or order. Methodological approaches should be explicit in the proposal. We also encourage pre-arranged sessions or panel proposals co-sponsored outside the broader Islam Group for both session lengths. Pre-arranged session or panel proposals reflecting diversity in gender, ethnicity, theoretical method, and rank are highly encouraged.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Jain Studies Group
The Jain Studies Group invites both thematic panel and individual paper proposals on any aspect of Jainism, whether in South Asia or the global diaspora. Topics might include, but are certainly not limited to: (1) Jainism and yoga (contact Christopher Chapple at cchapple@lmu.edu); (2) Jainism in contact with Islam and Christianity (contact John Cort at cort@denison.edu); (3) Jain texts and traditions in contemporary application (contact Jeffrey Long at longjd@etown.edu); (4) gender in Jain thought and/or practice; (5) Jain monasticism/asceticism; (6) varieties of Jain tantra; and (7) discussion of a recent monograph relevant to Jain Studies.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Japanese Religions Group
We invite panel and individual proposals related to all aspects of Japanese religious practice and thought, both historical and contemporary. For 2012, we welcome proposals relating to, but not confined by, the following topics: * Material/Visual Culture * Orality * Music and Performance * 3/11 and Its Aftermath * Religion and Empire * Tracing a particular character/genre/trope/text/individual through multiple sources, time periods, and/or media * Concepts/Theories of Religion in Japan In submitting proposals, please follow the AAR guidelines carefully. Panel proposals should include a panel abstract and individual paper abstracts submitted as a complete package by the panel organizer. Proposals that include explicit reflection on the study of religion more broadly are preferred. Creative formats (film, organized discussion, pre-circulated papers/texts, workshop, etc.) are encouraged.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Kierkegaard, Religion, and Culture Group
We invite proposals for three sessions: 1) 'Memory and the Ethics of Forgiveness.' In Practice in Christianity Kierkegaard writes that when, in deep distress, one hopes to escape embittering memories, one must remember something different, namely Jesus Christ, to learn about forgiveness. Elsewhere Kierkegaard commends the 'forgetting' that forgiveness of sins makes possible. How can Kierkegaard's account of traumatic memories, forgiveness, and forgetting contribute to our understanding of how religious ideals can inform the reparation of memory? 2) 'Kierkegaard and Contemporary French Thought' (with Theology and Continental Philosophy Group). In view of the comment in Fear and Trembling that no generation goes further than another and every generation shares the same task of faith, how is Kierkegaard's thought related to that of contemporary French thinkers? 3) 'Soren Kierkegaard and Karl Barth' (with Karl Barth Society). Proposals may address any aspect of the relation of the thought of these two thinkers.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Korean Religions Group
The Korean Religions Group invites panel or paper proposals on the following topics: interreligious dialogue involving Korean religions in or outside Korea—especially those focusing on Buddhist-Christian dialogue; religion and the civil in the Korean context, including church and state issues in South Korea (e.g., Buddhists' protest of Lee Myung Bak's dedication of Seoul to God or Christians' protests of financial support Buddhist temples receive from government), civil society and religion (e.g., religious organizations' advocacy for foreign workers and North Korean refugees), or public theology; Korean Buddhism in the Silla period, Korean Buddhist philosophy of mind, or modern Korean Buddhism; Korean religions outside Korea; institutionalization and unintended consequences in Korean Confucianism.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Latina/o Critical and Comparative Studies Group
The Latina/o Critical and Comparative Studies consultation is an attempt to occupy the AAR with transgressive and decolonizing scholarship, ideas, and people This in mind, we invite submissions for a session entitled “Prophecy and the spiritual implications of 2012 (for possible co-sponsorship with the Native Traditions in the Americas Group). This panel will include scholarly contributions and contributions from Native teachers and elders. We also invite submissions for a session on spiritual and religious responses to the femicide in Cuidad Juarez, focusing especially on recent publications. Finally, we invite submissions for topics on Latina/o religious expressions in Chicago and the midwest.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Latina/o Religion, Culture, and Society Group
The Latina/o Religion, Culture and Society and the Religion in Latin America and the Caribbean groups of the American Academy of Religion seek submissions for papers that exhibit critical and/or comparative analysis of religion and revolutionary politics in Chiapas, México during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This panel honors the legacy of Samuel Ruiz García, the longtime archbishop of Chiapas, México, who was an internationally recognized champion of human rights and peace, and who died in January of 2011. We welcome submissions from any academic discipline dealing with aspects of religion, culture, and revolutionary politics in Chiapas. Potential topics include (but are not limited to): (1) the relationship between economics and church/state relations; (2) universal human rights and indigenous autonomy; (3) faith-inspired revolutionary violence and peacebuilding; and (4) Samuel Ruiz García’s pastoral agenda. The Latina/o Religion culture and Society group and the Indigenous Religious Traditions group invite submissions dealing with the Role of religion in indigenous movements of social change and justice both historical and contemporary. Other panel roposals dealing with future directions of Latin@ theology are also welcomed
Methods of Submission Accepted
Law, Religion, and Culture Group
The Law, Religion, and Culture Group invites paper and panel proposals, including author-meets-reader panels, on any aspect of the cultural, historical, critical, and comparative study of the intersections of law and religion, including legal categories in religious traditions, the treatment of religion within legal traditions, human rights and freedom of religion and belief. This year we especially welcome submissions on the following themes: tolerance and critiques thereof; the complex interplay between religion and European law, both historical and contemporary; religion, colonialism, and sovereignty; genealogies of key terms, e.g. 'conscience;' constructive directions (based on empirical and/or theoretical work) for religious pluralism in view of critiques of rights and secularism; methodology/evidence in the study of religion and law; religion, law and the rights of children.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Lesbian-Feminist Issues and Religion Group
The Lesbian-Feminist Issues and Religion Group invites papers and complete panels that treat theoretical, methodological, and/or practical dimensions of the following themes: 1) The history of the Lesbian-Feminist Issues in Religion group in the academy over the past 30 years; 2) The limits and contributions of feminist theory to lesbian-feminist contestations of patriarchy, heteronormativity and homophobia in religion/religious studies. Both critical and constructive pieces are welcome; 3) Ethics, grammar, discourses, models, and/or experiences of lesbian-feminist sexualities in non-Christian religion; 4) For a co-sponsored session with the Gay Men and Religion group, submissions that analyze issues connected to the new visibility of teen suicides, particularly of glbtq and sexual minority youth; 5) For a co-sponsored session with the Religion, Holocaust, Genocide group, Native Traditions in the Americas and/or Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society groups, submissions on the marginalization of traumatic and genocidal histories in the academy (for example, the marginalization of Holocaust histories within the larger rubric or European History or similar patterns that occur with the categories of US History and African-American History); 6) For a co-sponsored session with the Religion and Migration Group, submissions on sexuality and sexual violence that intersect with religion and forced and/or voluntary migration.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Liberal Theologies Group
We seek proposals exploring the articulation of new forms of “liberal” or “progressive” theology in specific social contexts. Possible contexts include ecological and social change movements, interfaith seminaries, global Pentecostal communities, the experience of multiple religious belonging, organizations for dissenting Roman Catholics, the emerging church movement, community organizing projects, European state churches, GLBTQ congregations and denominations, engaged Buddhism, and others. Presenters will be asked to provide a full manuscript for pre-circulation by October 15, 2012. We also welcome proposals related to the theological legacy of Gordon Kaufman. For a possible cosponsored session with the Hinduism Group, we seek proposals considering how modern Hindus have translated, articulated, and in other ways seriously engaged with foundational categories of “liberalism,” including rationalism, freedom, religious toleration, and racial, social and gender equality.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Liberation Theologies Group
This Consultation asks 'what does liberation theology mean in and for the twenty-first century?' We encourage cross-over dialogue - between contexts and between disciplines - and reflection on the implications of liberationist discourse for the transformation of theology as a whole - methodologically and theologically. This year we want to focus on liberation theologies as developed from within all the world's religion (that is, not just Christianity). In particular, papers focusing on liberation theology and the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street and other current movements are encouraged.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Martin Luther and Global Lutheran Traditions Group
Our program unit is especially interested in papers that fit under the heading “Anticipating 2017.” With global commemorations and celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the nailing of the 95 theses to the Wittenberg door just five years away, we seek proposals that address what should be addressed in 2017 and how those commemorations become a time of imagining the global relevance of 1517 for our present and future. For a co-hosted session in 2012 between 'Augustine and Augustinianisms' and 'Martin Luther and the Global Lutheran Traditions', we invite papers that address different aspects and ramifications of Augustine's and/or Luther's interpretation of the Old Testament texts. Papers that bring either Augustine and/or Luther into conversation with various methodological and global perspectives are most welcome.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Men, Masculinities, and Religions Group
Rethinking Rethinking Hegemonic Masculinities after 25 years We seek papers that reconsider and critically re-assess the concept of hegemonic masculinities particularly as they are described by R. W. Connell in Gender and Power (Sydney, Australia: Allen and Unwin, 1987) and as later refined by R. W. Connell and James Messerschmidt in their 2005 article: 'Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept' (Gender & Society, Vol. 19 No. 6, December 2005, pp. 829-859 and available on-line). We urge proposals that pay particular attention to Asian religions, namely, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Islam, Zoroastrianism. Are there ritual spaces or practices that sustain or interrupt the performance of hegemonic masculinity? Are there liberative lived communities or constructive thea/ologies that create or sustain a movement toward Connell and Messerschmidt's proposal for gender democracy? Can the performance of masculinity be 'de-linked' from hegemony? Are there lived communities, or artistic portrayals of community where this 'de-linking' thrives?
Methods of Submission Accepted
Middle Eastern Christianity Group
The Middle Eastern Christianity Group welcomes proposals concerning Christian involvement in the Arab Spring. Possible topics can include engagement, participation, and reactions from leaders, activist groups, and politicians. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged and can include political, social, legal, as well as theological developments. We are especially interested in the intersection of these various developments and how they influence new civic, religious, and political discourses. Furthermore, with the Group on Christian Zionism in Comparative Perspective we invite proposals that discuss the theo-political phenomenon of Christian Zionism open to a variety of methodological approaches. We are particularly interested in approaches that seek to elucidate the doctrinal elements present in many Christian Zionist writings (including various forms of dispensationalism) and the biblical hermeneutics utilized by both Western and Middle Eastern Christian communities, as well as the effects of Christian Zionism on the Christian communities in the Middle East, and how those perspectives inform global, ecumenical, and inter-faith relationships. Finally we welcome proposals from a variety of disciplinary perspectives on Middle Eastern Christians in Diaspora.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Mormon Studies Group
Proposals for individuals papers or full sessions are solicited on the following topics: 1) Mormonism in American politics (i.e., the nature and significance of the construction of Mormonism in the political arena, particularly during the current presidential campaign) -- [co-sponsored session with Religion and Politics Section]; 2) Mormonism in Latin America; 3) Comparative Sacred Texts ; 4) Anti-Mormonism and other narratives of religious prejudice; 5) diversity of Mormonisms; 6) Representations and performances of Mormonisms in popular culture; 7) peace, violence, and Mormonism
Methods of Submission Accepted
Music and Religion Group
The Music and Religion Group invites papers on the relationship between music and religion in the context of contemporary or historical cultures. In particular, we seek proposals that bring innovative methodological considerations to the study of musical phenomena in relation to these themes: 1) the role of 'the religious' in popular music (for possible joint session with the Popular Culture Group); and 2) the implications for thinking about music using the aesthetic and theological resources of Paul Tillich (for a possible joint session with the Tillich: Issues in Theology, Religion and Culture Group).
Methods of Submission Accepted
Mysticism Group
The Mysticism group takes a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approach to the study of religious experience. We welcome paper and panel proposals on any topic in the study of mysticism, including papers on methodological approaches to the study of mysticism. For the 2012 meeting in Chicago, we are especially interested in the following topics (panel proposals are especially encouraged): The Validation and/or Condemnation of Mystical Experience (drawing the differences among mystical experience, self delusion and psychosis) Mysticism and Silence across religious traditions (possibly co-sponsored with the Constructive Buddhist Thought Group) Mysticism and Death (Physical Death or Extinction of the Ego) Mysticism and Cosmogony (Mystical Reflection on the Origins of the Cosmos) Mysticism in Africa and the African Diaspora Mystical Joy and Sorrow
Methods of Submission Accepted
Native Traditions in the Americas Group
We invite individual paper and group proposals on any aspect of Native traditions in the Americas (North, Central and South). We especially encourage proposals in the following areas (topics not listed in order of importance): 1) Native ethical categories (i.e. reciprocity, hospitality, interrelatedness); 2) Native traditions in urban centers (Chicago or elsewhere); 3) Negotiating boarding school grief and/or historical trauma; 4) Religious traditions in the midwestern United States, including the 250th anniversary of Pontiac’s War); 5) Contemporary Native leadership and religious revitalization; 6) Prophecy and the spiritual implications of 2012 (for possible co-sponsorship with Latina/o Critical and Comparative Studies); 7) Representation and/or appropriation of Native traditions in media, popular culture, and society; 8) Role of museums, exhibitions, and expositions in the study, teaching, and representation of Native religious traditions; and 9) The marginalization of traumatic and genocidal histories in the academy (for possible co-sponsorship with Religion, Holocaust, and Genocide group).
Methods of Submission Accepted
New Religious Movements Group
The New Religious Movements Group is interested in proposals for papers or panels that correspond with any of the following topics: religious communal groups of the American Midwest; contemporary apocalypticism (including 2012); NRMs in international perspective; and scandals in NRMs. As always, we also invite proposals for any aspect of the study of New Religions.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Nineteenth Century Theology Group
Papers are invited on (but not limited to) the following: (1) Love in Nineteenth-Century Religious Thought: analyses of the normative appraisal and justification of love in the work of major figures such as Schleiermacher, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche; (2) The Status of “World Religions” in Nineteenth-Century Religious Thought (with Comparative Theologies Group): papers may focus on the category of “world religions” in the work of a major thinker, or on constructions of a particular religion in theological analyses of religious diversity; (3) Defining the Field: how should the history of nineteenth-century theology be studied today? Papers may explore new challenges facing the field, or propose new methods and paradigms for reconceiving the history of nineteenth-century Christian thought (or a major school or thinker during this period). This session is in memory of James C. Livingston, author of Modern Christian Thought and Anatomy of the Sacred.
Methods of Submission Accepted
North American Hinduism Group
The North American Hinduism Group invites proposals for panels and individual papers on the following topics: Issues and Formations within Hinduism in particular regions of North America (e.g. Chicago, the Bible Belt, etc.) [Contact Steven Ramey: sramey@as.ua.edu] Theorizing the Poetics & Politics of the Construction of Hinduism in North America [Contact Shana Sippy shana@sippys.net] The Question of Conversion: Practices, Problems and Discourses in NA Hinduism [Contact Corinne Dempsey: cdempse6@zimbra.naz.edu] Problematizing Theories of Transmission and Tradition in North American (and Diasporic) Hinduism [Contact Shana Sippy: ssippy@carleton.edu] Considering Caste and Race among North American Hindus [Contact Shana Sippy: ssippy@carleton.edu] What Happens to Rituals of Possession in North American Hinduism? [Contact Shreena N. Gandhi: Shreena.Gandhi@kzoo.edu] Gender and Power in North American Hinduism [Contact Shreena N. Gandhi: Shreena.Gandhi@kzoo.edu] The Spatial Frames of North American Hindus: Theological and Material [Contact George Pati: George.Pati@valpo.edu] Theorizing Transnational Hinduism (for possible co-sponsorship with the Religion and Migration Group and the North American Religions Group) [Contact Jennifer B. Saunders: jbsaund1@yahoo.com] Complete panel proposals are preferred over individual papers. Other panel proposals and topics are always welcome. Those interested in proposing additional topics, or with any general questions about the North American Hinduism Group, please contact Jeffery D. Long (LongJD@etown.edu).
Methods of Submission Accepted
Open and Relational Theologies Group
We invite proposals exploring immortality, the afterlife, heaven, hell, or similar topics. We are especially interested in constructive proposals exploring how these topics might best be understood in light of open and relational theological perspectives. We also invite proposals for a joint session with the Science, Technology, and Religion group on how best to talk (or not) about miracles in light of theology and 21st century science. Organizers of this joint session plan to accept multiple proposals but allow only brief presentations during the session itself.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Pentecostal–Charismatic Movements Group
The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movement Group invites paper proposals on the following themes: (1) Chicago as an understudied hub for the expression, development, and extension of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity (including Black Pentecostalism, Italian Pentecostalism, Eastern European Pentecostalism, etc.), and/or racial and ethnic identity in Chicago Pentecostalism; (2) theory and method in the study of Pentecostalism, including papers that address the similarities, differences, tensions, and/or mutualities of historical, theological, sociological, and anthropological approaches to Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity; (3) global Pentecostal politics and/or global Pentecostal political parties or platforms in their disparate national, regional, local, or “glocal” contexts, not excluding the USA and Canada; and (4) “Tongues, Dreams, and Visions: Charismatic Phenomena in Cognitive Studies Perspective,” for a possible joint session with the Cognitive Studies in Religion Group. For this last theme, we especially encourage paper proposals that connect first-person participant accounts of Pentecostal experience with third-person, cognitive analyses. AAR members are also encouraged to submit complete panel proposals of their own design for consideration by the Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements Group.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Platonism and Neoplatonism Group
Papers are invited on the following: 1.Teachers/Disciples in ancient Platonism, 2.Devotion as a Religious Path among Platonists, 3.Renunciation and Apatheia, 4.Evagrius, 5.Origen and anti-Platonism, 6.Hypatia. Comparative studies across the spectrum of Jewish, Christian and Islamic Platonism are also welcome.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Practical Theology Group
The Practical Theology group invites papers in three areas: First, papers that make explicit how Christian location and faith have shaped practical theology. How is one's academic approach to practical theology (research and teaching) shaped by a personal commitment to Christianity? In what ways do distinctive Christian values and approaches to practice underlie current practical theological formations? How has practical theology been affected by Christianity's social location in particular global situations? 2nd, papers or panels on practical theology and popular culture. We are particularly interested in diverse forms of interaction between the two, how and/or what practical theology contributes to the theological study of popular culture and, conversely, what popular culture offers to the forms and contents of practical theology. 3rd, papers for a co-sponsored session with the Christian Spirituality Group on 'Trauma, Oppression, and Spiritual Formation.' How does the experience of trauma—-from war, relational violence, refugee experience, poverty, discrimination, etc.—-affect human subjectivity and the experience of God? How might healing be conceived and fostered in such contexts? (further, is PTSD a western construction of trauma “exported” to other contexts?)
Methods of Submission Accepted
Pragmatism and Empiricism in American Religious Thought Group
In our call for papers for the Chicago 2012 meeting our group particularly solicits: 1) papers addressing the intersections, conflicts, and affinities between pragmatism, nationalism and American exceptionalism 2) papers focused on pragmatism and gender, ie What are the implications of discourses of gender in the tradition and for the tradition? 3) discussions of pragmatism, politics, and grassroots democratic movements 4) papers which explore the relationship between pragmatism and the work of Reinhold and/or H. Richard Niebuhr 4) papers which explore the roots of pragmatism in late 19th century Chicago progressivism. Such papers might include but need not be limited to Jane Addams's work at Hull House, Dewey, Tufts, and Mead at Univ. of Chicago, etc. 5) papers which explore pragmatist and feminist discourses as paradigms for doing ethnography We also welcome proposals on topics relevant to pragmatism, empiricism, and religious naturalism as well as panel proposals.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Psychology, Culture, and Religion Group
The Psychology, Culture, and Religion (PCR) group welcomes proposals on the following themes: (1) Exploring 'spirituality' and 'existential issues' in a (post)secular age: international and cross-cultural perspectives; (2) In collaboration with the Religion, Memory, and History Group: the psychology of religious responses to the decline of empires: remembering golden ages, end of world, apocalyptic, ecological, making use of cultural/collective memory, etc.; and (3) Kohutian and contemporary self-psychological approaches in the psychology of religion. PCR also welcomes proposals on other themes dealing with psychology, culture, and religion. NOTE: Joint Session (#2 above) Psychology, Culture and Religion Group Religion, Memory, and History Group
Methods of Submission Accepted
Queer Studies in Religion Group
The Queer Studies in Religion Group welcomes proposals for individual papers or panels on all topics related to queer theory and LGBT studies in religion, in particular those focused on bisexual and/or transgender studies and on religions other than Christianity. We are especially interested in proposals exploring queer theoretical approaches to: 1) queer endings/queer futures; 2) protest/dissent in/and strategies of queering the public/state religiously; 3) negotiations of sex/gender distinctions in queer work in religion; 4) critical approaches to exportation/imposition of (queer) desire, sexuality and gender across national/temporal borders; 5) “post-identity” spaces, practices, and orientations; including considerations of the relevance of Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others for religious studies; 6) Sexual/religious practices on the margins, including papers on leather practices/communities and BDSM; and 7) for a co-sponsored session with the Childhood Studies and Religion Group, papers on the queerness of children and childhood as subjects and objects of religion.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Qur'an Group
We invite proposals on the academic study of the Qur'an. Topics include: 1) Analysis of Qur'anic text; 2) History of interpretation of the Qur'an; 3) Recitation/performative aspects of the Qur'an; 4) Artistic and aesthetic aspects of the Qur'an; 5) Relationship of the Qur'an to other scriptures/traditions; 6) Textual criticism and the historical/textual milieu of the Qur’an. We especially welcome proposals that have a pedagogical focus, designed to educate members of the AAR on incorporating material about the Qur'an into their existing courses. For 2012, we invite topics related to the theme of social justice, gender, non-Arabic tafsîr, and tafsir found in atypical genres. Successful proposals will reflect theoretical and methodological sophistication as well as innovative examinations of Islamic societies and texts. All prearranged sessions should consider the gender and diversity of participants. Respondents are essential. Innovative, interactive formats and multimedia presentations are welcome.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Reformed Theology and History Group
Despite having been at the forefront of many ecumenical efforts, Reformed Christians have a long internal history of disaffiliation as well as of affiliation. For example, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is currently in the midst of a significant breakaway of congregations. What are the criteria by which the Reformed have divided or united, and how can that history help us understand emerging divisions and affiliations among the Reformed? Proposals are especially encouraged that address the history of schism and affiliation among Reformed churches; the achievements and failures of worldwide Reformed partnerships such as WARC and WCRC; patterns of affiliating and dividing among the Reformed in former western “mission fields”; the relationships of Reformed voluntary associations to institutionalized denominations; and the effects of uniting and dividing on the missional fruitfulness of Reformed churches.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion and Cities Group
Religion Politicizes the City: Policy, Agency, and Insurgency in Urban Contexts National politics and public policies become uniquely legible in the economic, physical, and social dynamics of cities. Cities, from Cairo to Chicago, are also places where political agency emerges in the form of community organizing, policy advocacy campaigns, electoral battles, and mass uprisings. Religious ideas, identities, and institutions play pivotal roles in the translation of politics and policy into lived urban experience; likewise, religious formations deeply influence all kinds of urban political agency. Yet, scholarship has only begun to track the ways that religious agency shapes, and is shaped by, the broader patterns of civic and political activity in cities. This session invites papers on role of religion in the making of urban political and policy processes. General topics include, but are by no means limited to: the demarcation of urban political spaces; the intersection of religious identities with racial/ethnic, class, and other urbanized political identities; the place of religion in the politics of migration to and from cities; and the influence of urban religion on national political transformations. We also welcome papers for our shared session with Critical Approaches to Hip Hop and Religion that consider the ways in which the practice and performance of Hip Hop in urban centers provides opportunities to remake (or rethink) religion and/in cities in terms of space, social geography and offers critical engagement with both religion and urban realities.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion and Disability Studies Group
The Religion and Disability Studies group invites proposals in all areas related to disability and religion. We are particularly interested in: 1) engaging disability studies theorists and activists in religious studies and religious communities 2) exploring intersections between religion, disability, literature, and art 3) expanding disability theology beyond theologies of metaphorical bodies, toward theologies of embodiment 4) engaging with Darla Schumm and Michael Stoltzfus, eds. Disability and Religious Diversity and Disability in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) 5) exploring, in a joint session with Religion and Ecology, intersections of environmental crisis and disability: social/religious refiguring of disability in light of the Anthropocene; relationship between environmental health, toxics, and disability; critical race/class implications of how bodies are affected by environmental risk
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion and Ecology Group
The Religion and Ecology Group is seeking papers or panels on several themes: ecological evil; time: linear, cyclical, seasonal, mythic, no time; ecological restoration and service learning; Rio + 20; or queer ecologies. We are also seeking papers for a joint session with the Religion and Disability Studies Group on the intersections of environmental crises and disability; social/religious refiguring of disability in light of the Anthropocene; relationship between environmental health, toxics, and disability; and critical race/class implications of how bodies are affected by environmental risk.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion and Humanism Group
NO CALL;We're planning a prearranged session on the book SYMBOLIC FORMS FOR A NEW HUMANITY: CULTURAL AND RACIAL RECONFIGURATIONS OF CRITICAL THEORY, by Drucilla Cornell & Kenneth Michael Panfilio. New York, Fordham, 2010. We're currently working to invite a panel of speakers and the book authors.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion and Migration Group
The Religion and Migration Group is a forum in which scholars working on religion and migration from multiple perspectives can interact across methodologies, religious traditions, and regions. For 2012, we are particularly interested in: 1. Teaching strategies for engaging students in issues surrounding immigration (with the Teaching Religion Section). 2. Sexuality and sexual violence that intersect with religion and forced and/or voluntary migration (with the Lesbian-Feminist Issues in Religion Group and the Religion and Sexuality Group). 3. Migration and pilgrimage (with the Ritual Studies Group). 4. Transnational transmissions of Hinduism (with the North American Religions Section and North American Hinduism Group). 5. Migration's impact on local church communities (with the Ecclesiological Investigations Group). 6. Panel sessions on theoretical issues in religion and migration. For further information contact co-chairs: Jennifer B. Saunders (jbsaund1@yahoo.com) or Susanna Snyder (ssnyder@eds.edu).
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion and Popular Culture Group
The Religion and Popular Culture Group invites organized paper sessions, panels and individual paper proposals that explore the intersections of religion and popular culture. We strongly encourage presentation formats that foster interactive environments and provide creative alternatives to the conventional reading of papers. This year we encourage presentations that examine the following areas: 1)Race and ethnicity in the production and/or analysis of religion and popular culture; 2)The paranormal; 3)Religion and popular culture in ancient and medieval societies; 4)Spirituality and popular media; 5) Popular music (for possible joint session with Music and Religion). Finally we offer an open call for any other topics dealing with religion and popular culture, especially proposals that address the relevance of popular culture studies for larger theoretical and methodical issues in the field of Religious Studies.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion and Public Schools: International Perspectives Group
Themes: 1) International Perspectives on the AAR's Guidelines for Teaching about Religion in K-12 Public Schools in the United States. Invite papers responding to the Guidelines from diverse perspectives and comparisons with other initiatives such as the Toledo Guiding Principles and Québec's 'Ethics and Religious Culture' program. 2) Religious Texts and Symbols in Public Schools: Pedagogical and Legal Issues. 3) Open Call.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion and Science Fiction Group
This Group invites proposals that explore the intersections of religion and science fiction in ways that illuminate theoretical, methodological, and substantive issues in the study of religion. We are especially interested in proposals that invite audience conversation, make use of new media, and imagine presentations coincident with science fiction’s techniques for presenting alternative “sciences” and worlds. For 2012 we seek proposals on the following topics: The religious imagination of Philip K. Dick, especially his recently published The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011) Jesuits in outer space Alternative notions of human being/subjectivity, including gender, sexuality, race, species, mortality, embodiment, etc., and the implications for religious belief and practice Radical alterities Teaching science fiction in the religion classroom Conversations on how religion and science fiction mutate the study of religion
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Religion and Sexuality Group
The Religion and Sexuality Consultation invites papers and panel proposals that critically explore: 1) Virginity and celibacy across sexualities and cultures 2) Religion, sexuality, and technology 3) Submissions that intersect with religion and forced and/or voluntary migration of sexual boundaries 4) Sexual activism and the politics of sexual freedom 5) Sexuality, conflict, and violence
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion in Europe Group
The Religion in Europe Group analyzes religion in Europe or related to Europe in any historical period and encourages interdisciplinary, interreligious, and comparative approaches to the topic. For 2012, we especially seek proposals related to the following themes: (1) genealogies of secularism; (2) Muslim constructions and perceptions of Europe; (3) the religious ramifications of EU expansion; (4) how economic structures, policies, and/or interests have shaped and been shaped by religious values and institutions; (5) the complex interplay between religion and European law, both historical and contemporary; (6) religion and the instrumentalization of idealized pasts. We also welcome proposals that do not correspond to these themes, as well as proposals for complete sessions related to Europe in some fashion. Successful proposals will be considered for publication in the peer-reviewed Journal of Religion in Europe (Brill).
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion in Europe and the Mediterranean World, 500–1650 CE Group
This consultation brings together scholars working on pre-modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to examine questions of comparison and influence in a geographically and temporally defined context. We invite paper and panel proposals on all subjects related to religion in medieval and early modern Europe and the Mediterranean. This year we especially encourage papers that explore communities of prayer and that examine eschatological and apocalyptic traditions. In cooperation with the SBL Quran and Biblical Literature section, we also seek papers for a co-sponsored session exploring interpretations of scriptural passages that describe the possibility of seeing God.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion in Latin America and the Caribbean Group
This year the Religion in Latin America and the Caribbean Group invites paper and panel proposals on any theme related to religion, culture and society in Latin America, including among Latinos in the US: an open call for papers. In addition, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the Second Vatican Council, we invite paper submissions or panel proposals treating the impact and legacy of Vatican II in Latin America. We also seek paper proposals for a possible co-sponsored panel with the Latina/o Religion, Culture and Society group that exhibit critical and/or comparative analysis of religion and revolutionary politics in Chiapas, México during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This call to analyze faith-based politics in Chiapas was inspired by the passing of Samuel Ruiz García, the longtime archbishop of Chiapas, México, in January of 2011. We also invite proposal submissions related to the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Comisión Episcopal (now 'para el Estudio') de la Historia de la Iglesia en Latinoamérica (CEHILA) for a possible co-sponsored session with the History of Christianity Section.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Religion in Southeast Asia Group
We have two calls this year: 1. Change and Religious Culture in Southeast Asia We seek papers that examine how changes in social, economic, and political climate have elicited changes in the nature of religious culture in Southeast Asia. Please note that this topic in effect reverses a common way of talking about religious culture, i.e., we are not for this panel interested in how changes in religious culture prompt other changes in society. Instead, we are particularly interested to learn about shifts in religious belief and practice relative to the wider social, political, and economic dynamics that prompt them. Papers can address any society or socio-political grouping in Southeast Asia, and topics can relate to any element of Southeast Asian religious culture. Individual and panel submissions will be considered. --- 2.Media and Religious Culture in Southeast Asia and in Southeast Asian Diasporas (joint session with the Religion, Media, and Culture Group) We seek papers addressing relations between media and religious culture in Southeast Asia and in Southeast Asian diasporas. What roles do various types of media (e.g., comedic performances, film, television shows, digital medias, comic books) play in the constitution of local, national, and transnational religious cultures among Southeast Asian communities? Papers that address this question about media and religious culture in light of such topics as performative content, employment of tradition, use or development of new sources, the construction of authority, and institutional aspects of state and local control would be welcome. Individual papers and panel submissions will be considered.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion, Colonialism, and Postcolonialism Group
The Religion, Colonialism, and Post-colonialism group invites historically and/or theoretically informed submissions on all subjects relating to religion, empire, colonialism, and post-colonialism. This year we are particularly interested in papers on the following topics: Islam and colonial/post-colonial studies (possible co-sponsorship with Contemporary Islam Group); cultural translation in moments of encounter; global Christianity and colonial/post-colonial studies; redefinitions of 'human welfare' and “the good” in colonial and post-colonial contexts; empire, capitalism, and religion; and the utility of the category of religion for colonial/post-colonial studies. We welcome proposals for pre-arranged panels that employ innovative formats.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Group
We seek proposals (papers or panels) that reflect on the study of religion, film, and visual culture in regard to: 1) Urban Tales/The City, Race, and Religion in Film; 2) The Afterlives of Star Wars: Reception and Influences of the Star Wars films, 35 years later; 3) Tree of Life and Terrence Malick’s films; 4) Films on Death, Dying, and Afterlives; 5) Food and Religion in Global Cinema; 6) production, consumption, and reception of film; 7) methodology and definitions of ‘religion’ and ‘culture’; 8) The bodily/sensory experience of film created through the use of elements like sound, editing, and music; 9) We will also consider individual or panel proposals on other topics.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion, Holocaust, and Genocide Group
We are seeking individual paper or panel proposals on the following topics: 1) the marginalization of traumatic and genocidal histories in the academy (for example, the marginalization of Holocaust histories within the larger rubric of European History or similar patterns that occur with the categories of US History and African-American History) co-sponsored with the Lesbian/Feminist Issues and Religion group and/or Native Traditions in the Americas and/or Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society; 2) diverse subjectivities, social locations, and institutional contexts that impact Holocaust and genocide pedagogy; 3) Ricoeur and the Holocaust, co-sponsored with the Ricoeur group. Proposals on other topics are also welcome.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Religion, Media, and Culture Group
The Religion, Media, and Culture Group invites proposals exploring the intersections between media and religion in contemporary and historical contexts. We encourage thematically coherent panels as well as papers. We are particularly interested in receiving proposals related to: 1) Religion and Protest (OWS, the Arab Spring, the Tea Party and the G8 in Chicago in 2012) for a possible co-sponsored panel with Sociology of Religion, 2) historical approaches to religion and media; 3) online pedagogy and teaching about religion and media; 4) shifting epistemologies of new media; 5) critical approaches to audience reception methods; 6) sound; and 7) contributions to a hybrid performance and panel session featuring the theatrical performance artist/activist Peterson Toscano and scholarly analysis of Toscano’s work for a possible co-sponsored panel with Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible. We are also planning a co-sponsored session with the Religion in Southeast Asia Group. We seek papers addressing relations between media and religious culture in Southeast Asia and in Southeast Asian diasporas. What roles do various types of media (e.g., comedic performances, film, television shows, digital medias, comic books) play in the constitution of local, national, and transnational religious cultures among Southeast Asian communities? Papers that address this question about media and religious culture in light of such topics as performative content, employment of tradition, use or development of new sources, the construction of authority, and institutional aspects of state and local control would be welcome. Individual papers and panel submissions will be considered. We especially welcome papers and panels employing multi or cross-disciplinary approaches to these topics. Innovative, interactive formats and media rich presentations are welcome. Because we use anonymous review of proposals, please do not include your name in the text of paper or panel proposals.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion, Memory, History Group
Religion, Memory, History Group invites case studies or theoretical explorations on the relation between religious narrative and forgetting. We thus seek papers/panels that address the function of narrative theory manifested as forms of sacred texts, literature, film, memoir, hagiography, rituals, theatrical performance, oral history, or other various means of collective memory. Concomitantly, we are interested in papers/panels that explore the absence of memory—forgetting to overcome trauma as well as amnesia to conceal crimes, and the significance of the lack of memory in the formation of religious cultural production and religious subjects as historical agency. For the purpose of a co-sponsored session with the Psychology, Culture and Religion Group we invite papers on the psychology of religious responses to the decline of empires: remembering golden ages, the end of the world, apocalyptic, the ecological, making use of cultural/collective memory. Religion, Memory, History encourages proposals that employ interdisciplinary approaches and encourages proposals that reference diverse religious traditions, historical periods, and methodologies.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion, Sport, and Play Group
The Religion, Sport, and Play Group invites paper and panel proposals on any aspect of the intersection of religion, sport, and play across broad geographical areas, religious traditions, and historical eras. This year we are interested particularly in submissions on the following themes: 1) New Directions in Religion, Sport, and Play to further develop the conversation we began on this topic in 2011. In recognition of the 2012 Olympics we are looking for papers or panels that engage 2) Religion, Sport, and Nationalism.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religions in Chinese and Indian Cultures: A Comparative Perspective Group
For the first several years of our Group activities, we have decided to prioritize topics either separately or together on methodological issues and constructive readings across and between Chinese and Indian canonical texts. After a fruitful inaugural panel on the Gita and Chinese thought and the issues that were generated in the discussions, we are proposing the following two interdependent foci in the panel for the second year, the first regarding content and the second methodology: 1. The Xunzi and Indian Thought: As the grand synthesizer of classical Chinese thought and the forceful defender of the Confucian project, the Xunzi represents a high point in classica Chinese intellectual development, both in terms of its scope and its systematicity. Ideas of the natural and the traditional, order and chaos, disciplinary naming, transformation of desires and inclinations through ritual, discourse on the transcendence, cultivation of virtue, and many others, found in the Xunzi are ripe and appropriate for reading from classical Indian perspectives such as from the Dharma sastras or Mimamsa or even the Mahabharata. 2. Textual ambiguity and complexity in the comparative study of Chinese and Indian texts: a major challenge in comparative approaches to texts is that they tend to simplify or homogenize the message of the texts and perspectives under comparison. Our panels will seek to preserve the integrity, in terms of ambiguity and complexity, of texts and traditions, even while presenting nuanced and constructive re/readings. We will support papers that approach the Xunzi from classical Indian perspectives but are reflexively aware of, and demonstrate a suitably sophisticated response to, questions of ambiguity and complexity in both cultural traditions.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religions, Medicines, and Healing Group
The Religions, Medicines and Healing group invites papers on topics related to the intersection of religious traditions, rituals, philosophies, and healing. In particular, we invite paper proposals 1)for a possible co-sponsored session with the “Body and Religion” group: “The Ideal/ized Body” (not limited to material bodies) as goal or problem, and practices for achieving wholeness, healing, or control in non-ideal bodies; 2) on immigration, religion and the migration of healing practices: how do religiously-informed healing practices migrate across borders with or without the communities in which they develop and have meaning? 3) interrogating PTSD through religious studies lenses: how do cultural and religious constructions of suffering and healing challenge psychological and biomedical responses to a range of past and ongoing violent situations?
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religions, Social Conflict, and Peace Group
The Religions, Social Conflict, and Peace Group welcomes especially pre-crafted panel proposals (convenor, 3-4 papers, respondent) that address any topics touching upon violence or peace-building. The Steering Committee has also expressed special interest in the following topics for 2012: Chicago as site for religious mobilization, conflict, and peace-building (labor, social work, civil rights, etc); religion and/in the Occupy Movement; theorizing religion and/in conflict/peace studies programs/institutes; religion and the “responsibility to protect” (anti-genocide); non-violence and peacemaking as spiritual practice. Co-sponsored sessions with Religions in North America and/or Teaching Religions Sections may be developed.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religious Conversions Group
We invite paper proposals, or fully formed panels, on the full spectrum of issues related to religious conversions, in any historical or geographic context, encompassing different forms of religious belief and practice. This includes reasons for and consequences of religious conversions,both individually and socially, and their implications. The program unit encourages the methodologies of multiple disciplines, as well as interdisciplinary approaches. This year we also invite more specifically focused papers on: conversion and gender, conversion and immigration, conversion and conflict, deconversion, and/or theories of religion as they impact conversion studies.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Ricoeur Group
Call for Papers: Ricoeur and the ethical Paul Ricoeur spent a significant amount of time on the question of ethics and morality. Though the terms 'ethics' and 'morality' are often used interchangeably, Ricoeur stipulates a distinction between them. In his usage, ethics deals with the domain of that which is taken to belong to a good human life. It is concerned with the overall aim of a life of action. Morality refers to the expression of this aim in terms of norms that are regarded as somehow obligatory. Moral norms are taken to be universal and to exercise some constraint on conduct. In standard terminology, ethics is teleologically and morality is deontologically oriented. For Ricoeur, these orientations are complementary, not incompatible. We are seeking papers addressing how Ricoeur's notion of ethics and morality are framed with particular attention to (1) Ricoeur's understanding of what constitutes ethical institutions 'that meet our sense of justice in the obligations they impose and the privileges and opportunities they grant' (Oneself as Another, 180) and how this understanding can be applied to institutions in the twenty-first century; (2) Feminist readings of Ricoeur; Ricoeur and the Holocaust, co-sponsored with the Religion Holocaust Genocide Group; How Ricoeur's Time and Narrative (University of Chicago, 1983 - 85) continues to call for an interdisciplinarity of religious and aesthetic experiences of identity, co-sponsored with Arts, Literature and Religion section; and (3) the question of how Ricoeur's notion of personhood as 'the inter-esse [being-with]' is practically worked out in Oneself as Another, The Just and his later collected essays demonstrating how personhood lives from 'the wish for a good life to find its fulfillment '(The Just, xv-vi).
Methods of Submission Accepted
Ritual Studies Group
The Ritual Studies Group encourages submissions from scholars whose research employs ethnographic and field-based methods, and from scholars developing theoretical sophistication in the study of ritual. We encourage submitters to suggest innovative presentation formats and session structures. This year, we particularly invite papers on: (1) Ritual, public protest, and civil disobedience, including the Occupy Movement; (2) Describing, analyzing, and theorizing the emotional and experiential dimensions of ritual, for a co-sponsored session with the Religion and Body Group; (3) Relationships among ritual, play, and games; (4) Non-western concepts and theories of religion; (5) Pilgrimage and migration, for a possible co-sponsorship with the Religion and Migration Group.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Roman Catholic Studies Group
The Roman Catholic Studies Group seeks to engage in scholarly investigation of topics related to the Catholic tradition in its many forms using the tools of academic research. Papers which address how the field of Catholic Studies is defined, constituted, and contested or that explore methods for the study of Catholicism, engaging these topics from diverse perspectives and approaches, are especially solicited. Additionally, papers which represent the ethnic, cultural, geographic, philosophical and generational diversity of Catholicism are encouraged. The RCS Group invites submissions for sessions on (1) what is ‘Catholic’ and what are the borders of Catholicism? (geographical, imaginative, methodological, comparative, social, authority/dissent, etc); (2) Catholic social teaching at the crossroad of the current global economic crisis; (3) Catholic poetics and the Catholic imaginary ; (4) women and development in a global context ; (5) Catholic masculinities, especially of priests and religious ; (6) power, empowerment and resistance. We encourage the submission of proposals for complete panels. We especially encourage the submission of panels that place various methodologies of Catholic Studies (history, theology, sociology, cultural studies) in conversation by interrogating a specific text, issue, development, or phenomena in Roman Catholicism using diverse scholarly approaches. Please feel free to contact the chairs to discuss and develop possible panel ideas.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Sacred Space in Asia Group
The Sacred Space in Asia Group invites individual paper or full panel proposals from a wide variety of historical and methodological perspectives especially on the following topics: 1) Asian sacred space in visual culture; 2) removal and repatriation of material culture in sacred space; 3) space as practiced, performed and ritually maintained; 4) embodiment and sacred space; 5) layering and interpenetration of temporalities in sacred space. In anticipation of the special focus on Australia and Oceania at the 2012 Annual Meeting, we also invite proposals on contested boundaries and sacred space in Asia/Oceania or related geographical themes. These topics are recommended, but other proposals related to sacred space in Asia are also welcomed. We encourage submissions to have collaborations or opportunities for co-sponsorship with other AAR units.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Schleiermacher Group
Our theme for 2012 is 'Schleiermacher and his Readers'. In the nearly two hundred years since his death many different Schleiermachers have emerged in the literature. This is due partly to Schleiermacher's own promiscuity of style and genre, but also partly to the different scholarly projects for which he has been recruited, or which have positioned themselves as responses to his work. We invite reflections on the ways in which Schleiermacher has been understood and utilized by more recent writers, be they nineteenth century figures such as Hegel or Ritschl, turn-of-the-century readers such as Troeltsch and Otto, or contemporary scholars such as Jörg Rieger and Susannah Heschel. Of particular interest will be papers whose aim is to elucidate fundamental faithfulness to or transgression from Schleiermacher's own thought in critical uses and responses. Paper proposals will be blind reviewed by the Steering Committee of the Schleiermacher group. Accepted papers are to be submitted in advance of the Annual Meeting and will be made available to meeting participants.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Science, Technology, and Religion Group
We invite paper and panel proposals that engage the natural sciences from religious perspectives and consider the import of developments in science and technology for religion. This year, we encourage proposals on: 1.) How best to talk (or not) about miracles in light of theology and 21st century science. (This will be a joint session with the Open and Relational Theologies group; organizers plan to accept multiple proposals but allow only brief presentations during the session); 2.) Creative and effective pedagogies and strategies for teaching science and religion; 3.) Explorations of extinction and its theological implications; and 4.) Gordon Kaufman's work in science and religion.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Scriptural Reasoning Group
The Scriptural Reasoning Group gathers Jewish, Christian, and Muslim thinkers for the study of scriptural texts related to themes of contemporary importance. Papers should examine brief scriptural passages (drawing on both textual scholarship and reception history) and suggest how they address contemporary readers' concerns. Participants will be asked to circulate drafts in advance and revise their papers in conversation with each other. At least one session will include text study in small groups. We invite paper or panel proposals in the following areas: 1) Pedagogy and learning; 2) Politics and Global Economics and Development; 3) Islam in the world today; 4) SR Methodology; 5) Teaching and Learning SR. We welcome proposals on other topics as well and encourage complete panel proposals.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Scriptural/Contextual Ethics Group
The Scriptural/Contextual Ethics Group seeks paper proposals for the election year of 2012 focusing specifically on key sacred texts of various religious traditions related to the construction of a just political order. Effective proposals might discuss a single text and the history of its interpretation in various contexts, or a set of texts representing various, perhaps even conflicting, strands or patterns of thought related to politics, justice, and social order. As always, we seek a 2012 session with a diverse range of religious traditions represented as well as quite diverse approaches to the political order.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Sikh Studies Group
The Sikh Studies Group invites papers from a wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches. This year, the Group especially welcomes proposals dealing with: i) Sikhism as a Lived Religion, ii) an ethnographic or anthropological focus, or iii) diasporic Sikh communities and/or transnationalism. Papers that call into question these categories (e.g. 'diaspora', 'transnationalism', etc.) are also encouraged. Papers should reflect a balance of theoretical cogency and substantive content. Preference will be given to papers relating to the fields listed above, though papers addressing other areas of Sikh ways of being will also be considered.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Sociology of Religion Group
The Sociology of Religion Group invites proposals for papers and panels that apply sociological theories and methods to the study of religion. We seek proposals for: 1) Religion and Protest (OWS, the Arab Spring, the Tea Party and the G8 in Chicago) co-sponsored with the Religion, Media and Culture Group; 2) responses to Levitt, Bender, Cadge & Smilde's ‘Religion on the Edge: De-Centering and Re-Centering the Sociology of Religion (http://www.peggylevitt.org/pdfs~/CadgeLevittSmilde2011.pdf); 3) Sociology of Religion and the Environment 4) The Chicago School of Religious Studies, co-Sponsored with Ideological Criticisms -SBL, Critical Theories and Discourses on Religion; 5) Gordon Lynch's The Sacred in the Modern World: A Cultural Sociological Approach; 6) with the Centenary of The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Durkheim's legacy and the contemporary sociology of religion. We welcome proposals on other topics in the sociology of religion.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Space, Place, and Religious Meaning Group
This consultation seeks paper proposals from scholars of diverse traditions, religions, and time periods, who explore the function of religious space and/or place as a constitutive component of religious systems. We seek papers that employ theoretically or methodologically innovative approaches to understanding the relationships between space and religious meaning. We are particularly interested in papers that deal with the materiality of religious space and built environments or with the physical experience of such. We encourage submissions that take a comparative approach across traditions or time periods or that can be paired with other papers to suggest enlightening comparisons or disjunctures in content, method, or theory. Be advised that for our main session, we will pre-circulate papers, so papers will be due by October 1, 2012. This year joining with the Religion and Animals Group, we will co-sponsor a joint session with papers that address the constitutive role of space/place in the formation of relationships between religion and animals or in the formation of religious constructions of animals; thus, we encourage proposals in this area as well.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Tantric Studies Group
Tantric Studies Group at the AAR invites panel and individual paper proposals for the 2012 conference in Chicago in the following topics (not exclusive): 1. Tantra: Performance and Art: contact: Contact: Jeffrey Lidke: lidke@berry.edu 2. Tantra and Cognitive Science:Contact: Glen Heyes: sahajiya@gmail.com 3. Tantra and Literature: Contact: John Nemec: nemec@virginia.edu 4. Tantra outside of India: Contact: Richard Payne: rkpayne1@mac.com 5. Textual and Ethnographic Studies of Tantra: Contact: Loriliai Biernacki: loriliai.biernacki@colorado.edu 6. Tantra and Ritual Studies: Contact: Sthaneshwar Timalsina: timalsin@mail.sdsu.edu 7. Indian Hindu and Buddhist Tantric Identity: David Mellins: dmellins@gmail.com 8. Comparative Tantras: contact: Michael Slouber mjslouber@berkeley.edu
Methods of Submission Accepted
Theology and Continental Philosophy Group
'We invite proposals on Giorgio Agamben's The Kingdom and the Glory (for a session co-sponsored with the Theology and Religious Reflection Section) and, for a session co-sponsored with the Kierkegaard, Religion, and Culture Group, on the relationship between Kierkegaard and contemporary French thought. In view of the comment in Fear and Trembling that no generation goes further than another and every generation shares the same task of faith, how is Kierkegaard’s thought related to that of contemporary French thinkers? We also invite proposals on the following topics: 1) affect, (bodily) practice, being/becoming, and/or recognition; 2) the notion of archives; and 3) the notion of world. As always, we welcome proposals for other topics of interest to our members in continental philosophy and theology.'
Methods of Submission Accepted
Theology of Martin Luther King Jr. Group
The Theology of Martin Luther King, Jr. Group invites paper and panel proposals that explore King’s developing economic analysis and subsequent commitment to economic justice, including his critique of global capitalism and militarism. Proposals examining ways King’s experiences with poverty in Chicago, ghettoization, and Cicero appear related to his theological vision - particularly as these reflect on King’s recognition of systemic poverty - are welcome. The Group also invites proposals examining: the theological and historical significance of Operation Bread Basket; gender in the Civil Rights Movement, especially patriarchy and the marginalization of women in the Movement; and connections of civil and human rights. Interdisciplinary analyses of King’s thought and activism are encouraged.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Tibetan and Himalayan Religions Group
The THRG promotes discussion among scholars taking diverse approaches to the study of Tibetan and Himalayan religions. We solicit proposals for both panels and individual papers addressing all aspects of religion in Tibet and the wider Himalaya. For 2012, possible topics of interest for proposals (based on responses at the 2011 meeting) include: * Lineage, Reincarnation, and Transmission * Theory and Practice in Bon Traditions * Systems of Religious Education in Tibet (monastic and ngakpa) * Religious Propaganda in Contemporary Tibet * Ascetics and Asceticism * Transmission of Tantric Ritual * Games, Chance, and Fortune: Beyond a Religious/Secular Divide. * Agents and Automata: On the Life of Animate and Inanimate Objects We welcome proposals for unconventional panel formats (especially those that would work well in a 90-minute session), such as a book review panel or a focused discussion on a particular textual passage or ritual practice. We also encourage proposals that may be co-sponsored with other AAR sections, groups, or consultations.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Tillich: Issues in Theology, Religion, and Culture Group
We welcome proposals for individual papers and panels on the following issues: Tillich in Chicago Who were Tillich’s conversation partners in Chicago (1962-5) and how did they contribute to his legacy there? How was Tillich’s mature thought developed during his time in Chicago? Music and Ultimate Concern (co-sponsored with Music and Religion Group) How might music’s relation to ultimate concern be thought of outside of a religious setting? What does Tillich's approach offer to thinking about music and transcendence? Theologies of American Cultures In what ways do Tillich’s analyses of the religious meaning of culture intersect with current interpretations of American cultures? The Radical Tillich and Contemporary American Continental Thought What is the significance of Tillich for contemporary American continental thought? Religious Socialism: Then and Now How does Tillich’s account of religious socialism relate to other accounts, historical and contemporary? What are the prospects for a religious socialist political theology today? Other Tillich-related proposals will be seriously considered.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Transformative Scholarship and Pedagogy Group
This consultation offers a forum for developing transformative strategies for integrating activism and scholarship. This includes learning in conversation with activist communities, allowing our understanding of religious traditions, culture and knowledge itself to be shaped by such engagement. How are the study of religions, theology and ethics challenged by encounters between scholarship and activism? This year we want to focus on the following: a)hands-on workshops exploring best practices in transformative teaching and learning; b) teaching as subversive: what are examples of how teaching and learning can transform institutions and the academy?; c)teaching with the 99% protest movement(Occupy/Decolonize): what have been the highlights and the challenges of connecting the classroom with these protests? We welcome proposals for papers, panels, workshops, or round table discussions that explore engagements between scholars, teachers, and activists in the Chicago. Preference will be given to proposals for a whole session and to very interactive formats.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Transhumanism and Religion Group
We welcome papers on any aspect of transhumanism and religion and seek perspectives from a variety of religious traditions. Papers may identify and critically evaluate any implicit religious beliefs that might underlie key transhumanist claims and assumptions. For example, are there operative notions of anthropology, soteriology, and eschatology at play in transhumanist quests? Papers might consider how transhumanism challenges religious traditions to develop their own ideas of the human future, in particular the prospect of human transformation, whether by technological or other means. Papers may provide critical and constructive assessments of an envisioned future that place greater confidence in nanotechnology, robotics, and information technology to achieve virtual immortality and create a superior posthuman species. We welcome feminist analyses and more overtly philosophical critiques of posthuman discourse and encourage original research.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Vatican II Studies Group
‘How (Not) To Organise an Ecumenical Council: The Learning Process of Year One’. Possible topics: the state of Catholic theology at the start of the Council, the influence of renewal movements on conciliar theology, fresh looks at the aggiornamento program of Pope John XXIII with special attention to his Council speeches, the rejection of the draft documents, the courage of the bishops to take the floor, “Councils are medicine, not nourishment” (J. Ratzinger): ecumenical councils as a medication for the church then and now, …
- ‘History, Hermeneutics and Legacy of the Second Vatican Council’. With Ecclesiological Investigations group. Papers are invited on the debates related to the hermeneutics of the Council, on the ecclesiological paradigm shift of Vatican II and its ecumenical implications, on the growing amount of conciliar diaries and how they can contribute to our understanding and appreciation of the council’s teaching.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Wesleyan Studies Group
Session 1: Anthropology, Affections, and Awakenings in Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) and John Wesley (1703-91) The Evangelical Theology Group and Wesleyan Studies Group invite paper proposals for a joint session on 'Anthropology, Affections, and Awakenings in Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) and John Wesley (1703-91.' Papers proposed for this joint session should be comparative in character and should give significant attention to both figures. We especially encourage papers that focus on one of the following three questions: (1)How is the human self pictured or conceptualized (anthropology?(2)How is human life driven or directed (affections? (3)How is human community established, renewed, and refashioned (awakenings? Session II: Women in Wesleyan and Methodist Traditions Thirty years ago Abingdon Press published two volumes of essays under the common title 'Women in New Worlds' deriving from the conference of that name held in Cincinnati in 1980. Throughout the last three decades, many articles and monographs have illuminated the complex history and multifaceted roles of women in Wesleyan and Methodist traditions. Papers are invited that will continue this trajectory by providing an even more comprehensive understanding of the contributions made by women in the Wesleyan theological and spiritual heritage. While papers on individuals will be considered, particularly encouraged are papers attending to denominational and/or global dimensions or to the racial/ethnic diversity of Wesleyan and Methodist traditions.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Western Esotericism Group
The Western Esotericism Group invites submissions for papers on esotericism and media of transmission. Media is not understood here only in the sense of modern media or as related to popular culture (i.e., television or cinema), but in the broader sense of material or virtual carriers of information and ideas. This would include therefore transmission of esoteric ideas through manuscripts, printed documents, rituals, and would especially focus on how the use of a particular medium can affect (and be affected by) the evolution or transformation of these ideas in a given cultural context. Another topic of choice is the senses in esoteric ideas and practices. Possible themes may include, but are not limited to, esoteric rituals of purification of the senses, discourses about esoteric/mystical perception, esoteric/mystical physiologies of the senses. Papers for a possible co-sponsored panel on rituals, focusing in particular on rituals of initiation and/or technologies of the self are also welcome.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Group
The Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Group invites critically developed paper and panel proposals: 1) That engage Womanism and Islam 2) that address Womanist thought and political activism; 3) that explores Womanism, religion and music; 4) that examines Womanist conceptions of the sacred that include goddesses, sacred ancestors, and shaman/priestess roles; 5) that offer opportunities for a joint session with the Religion Holocaust Genocide Group on gendered approaches to holocaust and genocidal practices such as the Middle Passage, slavery, lynching, etc.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Women of Color Scholarship, Teaching, and Activism Group
Scholarship, Teaching, and Activism are the foci that tie together our 2012 call for papers. Understanding sex trafficking and its impact on the lives of women of color means investigating sexualized racism. Also, we invite narratives that analyze artistic and creative images that mine the various ways women of color break free from traditional cult-of-womanhood categories. Share the different kinds of knowledge and intellectual practices you are developing that challenge our current disciplinary formations and heteropatriarchal educational status quo. Based on direct experiences with immigration in the USA,advance the cause of transformative justice. Considering our early foresisters, whose wisdom should we acknowledge? Who provides a template for our anti-imperial internationalist work?
Methods of Submission Accepted
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World Christianity Group
For a session on 'Teaching World Christianity,' the World Christianity Group welcomes paper proposals and panel proposals. [This is a potential joint session with the History of Christianity Section.] The World Christianity Group also welcomes paper proposals on 1) Eschatology and Millennialism in World Christianity; 2) Homosexualities in World Christianity; 3) Diverse methodologies in the study of World Christianity; and 4) Analyses of and responses to the 2011 document on the ethics of Christian mission 'Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct' issued jointly by the World Council of Churches (WCC), the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), and the Vatican's Pontifical Council on Inter-religious Dialogue(PCID).
Methods of Submission Accepted
Yoga in Theory and Practice Group
This group seeks paper and session proposals on the topic of Yoga in Theory and Practice from a variety of perspectives, including sociology, anthropology, history of religions, philosophy and theology, and cultural studies. Suggested topics for 2012 include (with contact e-mails): 1) The Commodification of Yoga (andrjain@iupui.edu); 2) Gender, Race, and Yoga (sscholz@smu.edu); 3) The Material Culture of Yoga (eg7@queensu.ca); 4) Meditative Yoga (ss57@truman.edu); 5) Encounters with Yogis (jason.reddoch@gmail.com); 6) Jain Yoga (with the Jain Studies Group) (cchapple@lmu.edu); 7) Bauls and Yoga (frederick-smith@uiowa.edu). You are encouraged to contact the co-chairs for more information about the suggested topics and for the purpose of organizing complete sessions when possible.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Yogacara Studies Group
The Yogācāra Studies Group seeks to sponsor tightly integrated paper sessions and discussion panels. Suggested topics for 2012 include: (1) What is the meaning and purpose of Trikāya theory? (2) Discussion of a text, esp. a seminal passage in a text, such as the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra, Madhyântavibhāga, Ālambanaparīkṣā, etc. (3) Defining 'Yogācāra'. What is it, exactly? (4) Bhāviveka's take on Yogācāra. (5) Abhidharma and Yogācāra / Tathāgatagarbha and Yogācāra. (6) The current relevance of Yogācāra: how it (potentially) informs other disciplines. (7) The soteriological goals of Yogācāra.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Christian Zionism in Comparative Perspective Seminar
The Groups on Christian Zionism in Comparative Perspective and Middle Eastern Christianity invite proposals that discuss the theopolitical phenomenon of Christian Zionism through a variety of methodological approaches. We are particularly interested in approaches that seek to elucidate the doctrinal elements present in many Christian Zionist writings (including various forms of dispensationalism) and the biblical hermeneutics utilized by both Western and Middle Eastern Christian communities, as well as the effects of Christian Zionism on the Christian communities in the Middle East, and how those perspectives inform global, ecumenical, and inter-faith relationships.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Comparative Philosophy and Religion Seminar
This Seminar focuses ways in which, beginning from categories of other religions, Western/Christian concepts and categories can be rethought in terms of these categories. Such an approach acknowledges that within Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Confucianism, and Daoism there are well developed and highly sophisticated thinkers and schools. This year the Seminar will focus on a recent edited publication where there are chapters by all the members of the Seminar, 'After Appropriation: Explorations in Intercultural Philosophy and Religion.'
Methods of Submission Accepted
Global Perspectives on Religion and HIV/AIDS Seminar
This Seminar brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to develop an analysis of the various roles religion has played historically and continues to occupy in shaping the global AIDS pandemic. In addition to building theoretical and conceptual tools for understanding religion and AIDS, we aim to create an anthology appropriate for a wide academic audience interested in the religious and moral dimensions of the AIDS epidemic, including their effects on the lived experience of disease and the formation of religious and public health efforts to fight HIV/AIDS and prevent infection. Much of the work of our multiyear Seminar focuses on creating an internally cohesive project that incorporates our diverse methodological and regional perspectives, but shares a set of common themes and questions concerning the convergence of religion and HIV/AIDS over the past three decades. We seek to advance existing research and to foster new studies of this important, emerging field and welcome proposals from a range of disciplinary and/or regional perspectives.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion and the Literary in Tibet Seminar
As a seminar, this unit does not accept proposals.
Methods of Submission Accepted
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Religion in the American West Seminar
This Seminar invites proposals for article-length papers to be precirculated for discussion at the Annual Meeting. Papers may cover any subject within the American West and should make clear how the topic enhances our understanding of religion in the American West, our conceptions of American religious history, and/or of religion in general. We provide the following themes as suggestions to think with, but we also welcome papers that challenge existing frameworks and paradigms. • Territorialism(s) • Religion as/and Western art • Defining the West and defining religion • Mexico, Canada, and the American West • Other Wests • The diasporic West • The soul of the West • Facing east from the West • Religion and literature in the West • Imagined landscapes of the West
Methods of Submission Accepted
Religion, Food, and Eating in North America Seminar
Having spent the past four years developing themes and contributions to an anthology on religion, food, and eating in North America, the seminar will focus its final year on the pedagogy of religion & food. The seminar invites proposals on the most innovative, engaging, and effective approaches and practices to teaching about religion and food in the college classroom. Proposals for papers (to be pre-distributed, then discussed at the Annual Meeting) will be accepted, but the seminar also encourages proposals for hands-on presentations in lieu of formal papers.
Methods of Submission Accepted
Stand-alone MA Programs in Religion Seminar
This Seminar invites paper propsals that address the problems faced by stand-alone MA programs in public and private universities. The 2012 session (the second in three annual sessions) will focus on articulating the specific strengths of stand-alone MA programs in Religious Studies and determining specific ways in which the AAR can support stand-alone MA programs. The Seminar particularly encourages submission of papers that will ultimately produce materials of value to a wide variety of stand-alone MA programs.
Methods of Submission Accepted
