Centers for Religion in Public Life: Networking and Dialogue Opportunities
2 PM – 5 PM | $35
This workshop provides important networking and dialogue opportunities for anyone involved in leading or supporting an institute, center, or program that engages with religion in public life. This is an ongoing venue to share best practices, pool ideas, and develop collaborations. In this session, we will discuss current challenges and opportunities surrounding religion in public life and advancing public understanding of religion and practical and structural issues tied to centers such as funding.
Organizers:
Rachel C. Schneider, Director, Religion and Public Life Center, Boniuk Institute, Rice University
Elaine Howard Ecklund, Director, Boniuk Institute, Rice University
Philip Goff, Executive Director, Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, IUPUI
Joseph L. Tucker Edmonds, Associate Director, Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, IUPUI
Public Scholarship and Practical Impacts Workshop: Media Training and Work Outside the Academy
1 PM – 4:30 PM | $25
Join the Applied Religious Studies Committee for this two-part workshop that will empower scholars of religion to communicate about their work in the public sphere. During the first session, a panel of experts will discuss how they engage with the general public, emphasizing social impact. During the second session, panelists will join registrants in small groups to discuss registrants’ current projects. This workshop is designed for those seeking an opportunity to talk to experienced public scholars about reaching general audiences through various media. We will pay attention to challenges faced by scholars who have followed diverse career pathways outside academia and are committed to communicating about the relevance of religious studies scholarship to interdisciplinary and general audiences.
Organizers:
Molly Harbour Bassett, Georgia State University
Hannah Hofheinz, Phillips Exeter Academy
Risk, Consent, Collaboration, and Accountability in Ethnographic Theologies and Qualitative Research
$40
Inspired by the conference theme of Violence, Nonviolence, and the Margin, this workshop will support theological researchers to assess risk in their research methods and to engage in constructive practices of nonviolence, consent, collaboration, and accountability as researchers, writers, and teachers. Even as scholars follow necessary institutional processes designed to protect human subjects, these protocols often do not sufficiently address potential harms of ethnographic and qualitative research, nor do they require expansive forms of accountability both within and beyond the research context. Moreover, protocols required by an institutional review process can be experienced as barriers to consent in some cultural contexts. Workshop leaders will share brief presentations on one or more practices in research methods and lead table groups in further engagement with this topic in an interactive session. Participants will have the chance to select a workshop focus most relevant for their current research, writing, and/or teaching.
Coffee and light snacks will be provided.
Organizer: Ecclesial Practices Program Unit
Religion and Media Workshop: Theorizing the Glitch
11 AM – 5 PM| $90
Media and technology can enhance our lives, but are just as often subject to fracture, breakdown, and glitches. Yet, these disruptions are not simply indications of failure; rather, they offer opportunities to reframe our understanding of media, technology and religion. Indeed, glitches are often theorized through queer and feminist studies lenses that represent forms of alternative knowing and living. As digital religion and religious practices continue to grow and conversations about large language models continue to proliferate, we need to think about the ways in which religions converge with glitches. In this year’s workshop, we will theorize “the glitch” in studies of religion and media through a combination of roundtable discussions, shared readings, and presentations.
The cost of attending this workshop includes lunch and a coffee break.
Organizers:
Kaitlyn Lindgren-Hansen, The University of Iowa
Kristin Peterson, Boston College
THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp)
9 AM – 4 PM| $55
Digital technology and social media have not only transformed how religious communities function, but it has also changed how scholars teach about and conduct research on religion more broadly. If you are interested in how technology is changing -- or can change -- our work, then we invite you to attend THATCamp.
The cost of attending this workshop includes an entire day of sessions and two coffee breaks.
Organizer: Adam Porter, Illinois College
Teaching Comparison in the Undergraduate Curriculum
1 PM – 4:30 PM |$20
In this collaborative workshop, we will examine and engage in strategies and approaches for teaching comparison in undergraduate courses. All are welcome, regardless of the discipline or course within which they ask students to compare, whether Religious Studies, Theology, History, or any other. Our two driving questions for the workshop will be:
- How do we apply critical approaches to comparison mindfully when teaching students in majors and in general education curricula?
- How do we equip students with sufficient sensitivity and critical self-awareness to engage constructively in comparison (cognitively and affectively)?
Registered participants will be invited to prepare a brief case study (prompt and instructions are emailed in October). At the end of the workshop, all participants will have a set of adaptable, practical strategies that they can apply in their own teaching, and a support network of fellow scholar-educators with teaching and research expertise in comparison.
Organizer: Massimo Rondolino, Carroll University
Wiki Women in Religion: Editathon Publicly Engaged Scholarship Addressing Systemic Bias in Online Resources
10 AM - 12 PM | $8
This Editathon explores the role of Wikipedia in publicly engaged scholarship and education. During this session we will discuss the opportunities for publications in a scholarly, peer reviewed book series for biographies of women in religion, tackle the difficulties of fostering cross-cultural partnerships with participants from around the world, and explore the role of new technologies, including AI, in knowledge production. The Editathon will have hands on experience using Wikipedia in both hour sessions plus time for Q&A. No experience necessary to attend. All are welcome.
This Editathon is sponsored by the Women in Religion Wiki User Group. We seek to create, update, and improve Wikipedia articles pertaining to the lives of cis and transgender women scholars, activists, and practitioners in the world's religious, spiritual, and wisdom traditions and write women back into history, especially those who have made an impact in their faith and religious communities.