E-Bulletin
April 2010


American Academy of Religion
In This Issue

Friends:

Greetings from the Luce Center in Atlanta! This month’s E-bulletin contains a number of important items: news about the Annual Meeting in Atlanta; announcements of two of our annual award winners; the link to our online edition of the March Religious Studies News website; research grants; and nominations for committee positions.

With every good wish in this early spring season, I offer you my thanks for your participation in the work of our Academy.

Sincerely yours


Jack Fitzmier
Executive Director

ANNUAL MEETING NEWS

Registration and Housing: Super Saver Rates Expire on April 15!

Registration and Housing for the 2010 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA, are now open. You must be registered to secure housing. “Super Saver” registration rates are in effect until April 15, 2010. Check your mailbox for the Registration and Housing brochure containing all the details, and click here to register and book housing online.

Annual Meeting Proposals

If you submitted a proposal for the Annual Meeting, you should have already received notification of whether your proposal was accepted or not. If you did not receive notification and submitted your proposal using the online proposal system, you can check your status by logging in to the OP3 system. If the status is not listed, please contact the chairs of the Program Unit(s) to which you submitted.

Annual Meeting Program Planner

Update your mailing address now to receive a copy of the new Annual Meeting Program Planner, to be mailed in early June to all current members of the AAR. The Program Planner will contain full information for all AAR Annual Meeting sessions and a listing of the day, time, and theme for all Additional Meetings sessions. The Annual Meeting Program Planner is a great way to begin your Annual Meeting planning.

Make sure your membership address is listed correctly in the AAR member directory by logging in to your account. Please allow 3–4 weeks for delivery. For more information on Annual Meeting publications, check out the upcoming May issue of Religious Studies News.

Help to Green our Annual Meeting Travel

The AAR is making it easy for members to purchase Renewable Energy Credits when traveling to the Annual Meeting. By simply clicking a box on the online registration page, members can choose to give $15 to NativeEnergy. The AAR’s Sustainability Task Force selected NativeEnergy because of its commitment to reducing greenhouse gases while supporting its sustainability projects. NativeEnergy helps you to assist Native American, farmer-owned, community-based renewable energy projects that create social, economic, and environmental benefits. These projects will displace electricity from fossil fuels and reduce other greenhouse gas emissions on your behalf, making up for the CO2 emissions you cannot avoid. We encourage you to make this inexpensive commitment to helping make our meetings more environmentally friendly. The AAR will collect the funds and purchase the offsets immediately before the Annual Meeting.

Annual Meeting Job Center

Annual Meeting Job Center preregistration is currently open for candidates. Employer preregistration will open April 19. Preregistration will close for both candidates and employers October 11. Register early to receive full benefits. For more information, see www.aarweb.org/jump/jobcenter.

Additional Meetings

The priority deadline for Additional Meetings is May 1! Submit your Additional Meeting request by May 1 to have the theme, date, and time included in the Annual Meeting Program Planner. Additional Meeting reservations can be made after May 1, but will only be published in the online and onsite Program Book. A complete listing of Additional Meetings, including additional advertising details, will be published online by July.

Religion Beyond the Boundaries: Call for Student Submissions

The Graduate Student Committee invites submissions for the third annual Religion Beyond the Boundaries series. This forum allows students to step outside the more formal academic setting of the national meeting and present their work as part of a series of evening coffee shop talks. Three 45-minute presentations will be selected for this year’s event at the national meeting October 30–November 1, in Atlanta, GA. Although proposals may be submitted on any topic, the committee especially welcomes presentations that touch on one of the following themes:
 
  • Religion and Science
  • Religion in Atlanta
  • Public Understanding of Religion
  • Religion and Pluralism  

    This is a chance to put your research into a new framework, practice your job talk, be a public intellectual, and explain the relevance of your work to your peers. If you are interested, please send a 150-word abstract to Graduate Student Committee member Almeda Wright at almeda.wright@fsmail.pfeiffer.edu. The deadline for submissions is June 15, 2010.

    • 2010 MARTIN E. MARTY AWARD WINNER ANNOUNCED

    The Public Understanding of Religion Committee is pleased to announce Elaine Pagels is the recipient of the 2010 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion. Pagels, the Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion at Princeton University, will be interviewed by Karen King at the Marty Forum held Sunday, October 31, at this year’s Annual Meeting in Atlanta. The Public Understanding of Religion Committee encourages and solicits nominations for future Marty Award recipients. Nominations may be made online. Nominees need not be AAR members or academics.

    2010 RELIGION AND THE ARTS AWARD RECIPIENT ANNOUNCED

    The Religion and the Arts Award Jury is pleased to announce Ena Heller is the recipient of the 2010 Religion and the Arts Award. The award is presented annually to an artist, performer, critic, curator, or scholar who has made a recent significant contribution to the understanding of the relations among the arts and religions, both for the academy and for a broader public. Heller is the Executive Director of the Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA) in New York City. Her work will be the focus of a Special Topics Forum at this year’s Annual Meeting in Atlanta on Sunday, October 31, 2010. The Religion and the Arts Award Jury encourages nominations for future award recipients. Please click here for more information.

    MARCH RELIGIOUS STUDIES NEWS NOW ONLINE!

    We are very pleased to announce the release of the March issue of Religious Studies News. The issue can be accessed by going online to www.rsnonline.org.

    In this issue, you will find lots of information on our upcoming Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA, as well as a recap of what occurred at our 2009 meeting in Montréal, Canada. You can also read about pertinent matters in the field of religion in our Features and News sections. Our Spotlight on Theological Education issue explores the widespread cultural turn to spirituality and meditation practices.

    RESEARCH GRANTS

    Each year the AAR awards grants of up to $5,000 for individual and collaborative research projects. The research grants online submission system will open on the AAR website on May 1. All applicants must apply online; paper applications will not be accepted. The deadline to apply for a 2010 grant is August 1. For additional information, see http://www.aarweb.org/Program/Grants.

    COMMITTEE NOMINATIONS

    The following committees and task forces will have openings this year:

  • Academic Relations Committee
  • Book Award Juries
  • Career Services Advisory Committee
  • Graduate Student Committee
  • History of Religions Jury
  • International Connections Committee
  • Nominations Committee
  • Program Committee
  • Public Understanding of Religion Committee
  • Research Grant Jury
  • Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession Committee
  • Status of Women in the Profession Committee
  • Teaching and Learning Committee
  • Theological Education Steering Committee

    Nominations for positions on these groups must be made in writing, and must include: 1) A description of the nominee’s academic and professional interests; 2) A summary of the nominee’s activity in the AAR; 3) A statement describing the nominee’s interest or promise for a particular assignment; and 4) A current copy of the nominee’s curriculum vita. Members may nominate themselves. All nominees must be members in good standing of the AAR. Nominations may be sent to nominations@aarweb.org; or by fax: 404-727-7959; or mail to:

    Jack Fitzmier, Executive Director
    American Academy of Religion
    825 Houston Mill RD NE STE 300
    Atlanta, GA 30329-4205
    USA

    Deadline for submittal is May 1, 2010.

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