American Academy of Religion: Recent Episodes
American Academy of Religion
The audio feed of American Academy of Religion (AAR), the world's largest scholarly and professional association of academics, teachers, and research scholars dedicated to furthering knowledge of religions and religious institutions in all their forms and manifestations. Featuring interviews with award-winning scholars and sessions recorded during the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
The Role of Western Universities in Modern Islamic Thought with Megan Brankley Abbas by American Academy of Religion
A Comparative Study of the Cántico Espiritual and the Rāsa Līlā with Gloria Maité Hernández by American Academy of Religion
Religious Cultures of Enslaved Women in the Lower South with Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh by American Academy of Religion
Metamodernism and the Future of Theory with Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm by American Academy of Religion
Adam Lyons joins Kristian Petersen to discuss his award-winning book "Karma and Punishment: Prison Chaplaincy in Japan" (Harvard University Press).
Rhiannon Graybill joins Kristian Petersen to discuss her award-winning book, Texts after Terror: Rape, Sexual Violence, and the Hebrew Bible (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Sam Gill joins Kristian Petersen to discuss his award-winning 2021 book, The Proper Study of Religion: Building on Jonathan Z. Smith (OUP, 2020).
Yuhang Li joins Kristian Petersen to discuss her award-winning book, Becoming Guanyin: Artistic Devotion of Buddhist Women in Late Imperial China (Columbia University Press, 2021).
Maria E. Doerfler joins Kristian Petersen to discuss her award-winning book, "Jephthah’s Daughter, Sarah’s Son: The Death of Children in Late Antiquity"(University of California Press, 2020). Through the book, Doerfler plumbs the fragmentary historical record for evidence of how members of Christian communities in Late Antiquity responded to the deaths of children.
Kathryn Tanner joins Kristian Petersen to discuss her award-winning 2020 book, "Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism." Through the book, Tanner suggests Christianity can challenge the culture of finance capitalism that permeates our lives by guiding us to reflect on social inequalities and identity-building—concepts which she argues are at the core of Christian faith and practice. In the interview, she discusses how "Christianity and specific forms of it could gum up the works of capitalism."
Tanner's book won AAR's 2020 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the constructive-reflective studies category. She is Frederick Marquand Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School.
2021 AAR President Marla Frederick delivers her presidential address to a crowd at the 2021 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX.
Despite the Japanese constitution guaranteeing religious freedom since 1889, after World War II, the United States-occupiers deemed that guarantee flawed. In this conversation with, Jolyon Thomas, author of "Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan" shares how the US imposed a new framework of religious freedom onto the Japanese, one that favored some traditions more than others.
Thomas's "Faking Liberties" was co-winner of the AAR's 2020 Analytical-Descriptive Studies Award for the Excellence in the Study of Religion. He is associate professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
The fall of the Soviet Union provides the cultural space for a revival of the religious practices of the Buryat, an indigenous people of southern Siberia who live on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal, just north of the Mongolian border. Justine Buck Quijada, author of "Buddhists, Shamans, and Soviets: Rituals of History in Post-Soviet Buryatia" (Oxford University Press, 2019) joins Kristian Petersen to discuss her research into how the Buryat people recontextualize the rise and fall of the Soviet period into Buddhist and shamanic histories. Quijada's book won AAR's 2020 Best First Book in the History of Religions.
Sugata Ray's 2019 book "Climate Change and the Art of Devotion: Geoaesthetics in the Land of Krishna, 1550-1850" won AAR's Religion and the Arts Book Award in 2020, the award's inaugural year. In this interview with Kristian Petersen, Ray talks about his book and explains how a landscape transformed by the Little Ice Age became part of evolving conceptualizations, rituals, and aesthetics involved in devotional practices of Northern Indian worshippers of Krishna.
Sugata Ray is associate professor of South and Southeast Asian art at the University of California, Berkeley.
Through a case study of Zava Damdin, a monk living on the frontier of Mongolia at the end of the Qing empire (early 20th century), Matthew King invites scholars to consider non-Eurocentric ways of studying religion in modern history.
King is associate professor in transnational Buddhism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside, and he is the author of "Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood: A Mongolian Monk in the Ruins of the Qing Empire" (Columbia University Press), which won the American Academy of Religion's 2020 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the textual studies category. He is interviewed by Kristian Petersen.
Mara Benjamin, Irene Kaplan Leiwant Professor of Jewish Studies at Mount Holyoke College, experimented with genre in her 2018 book "The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought," blending an academic approach to analyzing the concept of childrearing in Jewish intellectual history and offering her own intervention, informed by personal experience, to this undertheorized area in Jewish intellectual history. In this interview, she talks about realizing her role in expanding this conversation across disciplines and her hope that other scholars feel liberated to construct new ideas in the fields they study.
Benjamin's "The Obligated Self" won the AAR's 2019 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the Constructive-Reflective Studies category.
Karin Vélez explains how the 12th century myth of the flying house of Loreto, which tells the story of the home of the Virgin Mary flew away from the Holy Land and settled on the coastal town of Loreto, Italy, served as narrative grounding for the expansion of Catholicism through varied, voluntary, independent devotional movements across the world.
Vélez is assistant professor of pre-1800 global history at Macalester College and the author of "The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto: Spreading Catholicism in the Early Modern World" (Princeton University Press, for which she won AAR's 2019 Award for the Best First Book in the History of Religions.
Geraldine Heng discusses the obstacles in conceptualizing race in premodernity and the evidence for racialized thinking in the European medieval period. Heng is professor of English and comparative literature, with a joint appointment in Middle Eastern studies and women’s studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is also the founder and director of the Global Middle Ages Projects.
In this interview, she talks with Kristian Petersen about the research in her book The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 2018), which won AAR's 2019 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the category of Historical Studies.
For a transcript of this interview, visit https://rsn.aarweb.org/race-middle-ages-geraldine-heng
The construction and use of the fetish framework in European social theory is the focus of J. Lorand Matory's book, "The Fetish Revisited: Marx, Freud, and the Gods Black People Make." In this conversation, Matory explains how social theorists based in Enlightenment principles deployed simplistic interpretations of Afro-Atlantic religious traditions as a way to prove to their European audiences the similar "foolishness" of European political, economic, and religious policies.
Matory is Lawrence Richardson Professor of Cultural Anthropology and the director of the Sacred Arts of the Black Atlantic Project at Duke University. His book, "The Fetish Revisited," (Duke University Press, 2019), won AAR's 2019 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the category of Analytical-Descriptive Studies.
Access a transcript of this interview at https://rsn.aarweb.org/fetish-revisited-j-lorand-matory
Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz talks about the textual and limited iconographic history of the mysterious Nepalese Hindu goddess Svasthani. Birkenholtz's book documenting her research into the goddess and the puranic texts that develop around her, "Reciting the Goddess: Narratives of Place and the Making of Hinduism in Nepal" (Oxford University Press, 2018) won the AAR's 2019 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the category of Textual Studies. For a full transcript of this interview, visit https://www.aarweb.org/AARMBR/Resources-/Webinars-and-Podcasts-/Jessica-Vantine-Birkenholtz-on-the-Nepalese-Hindu-Goddess-Svasthani.aspx
Webinar recording from June 9, 2020.
The discussion focused on how scholars of religion can share work related to the study of religion and this election season. Co-presenters were David Campbell, professor at the University of Notre Dame; Iva E. Carruthers, general secretary of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference; Robert P. Jones, CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute; Terrence Johnson, associate professor of religion and politics at Georgetown University; Vincent Lloyd, associate professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University; and Melissa Rogers, visiting professor at Wake Forest University Divinity School. The webinar included a presentation and extended Q&A.
This webinar was hosted by the Public Scholars Project, a joint initiative of the Public Understanding of Religion Committee of the American Academy of Religion and the Religious Freedom Center of the Freedom Forum. Webinars feature scholars and practitioners who can provide tools, resources and recommendations for presenting in a variety of settings (e.g., social media, news, public events and community gatherings) about a range of topics. The Public Scholars Project created this webinar series to help scholars hone their skills at communicating with a variety of publics.
To view the complete webinar schedule for the 2019-20 academic year, including recordings of previous webinars, please visit our webpage: https://www.religiousfreedomcenter.org/resources/psp/
This session brings together editors from scholarly and trade presses, both large and small, to share their perspectives on the acquisition and editorial processes that bring a book from its research stage to market. Editors will share how scholarly authors can find their best publishing fit, what acquisition editors are looking for, strategies for pitching a book, and how to identify audience(s). They also discuss how they build strong relationships with authors in order for their books to make the most impact.
Vincent Lloyd, Villanova University, Presiding
Panelists: - Elisabeth Maselli, Rutgers University Press - Elaine Maisner, University of North Carolina Press - Philip Getz, Palgrave Macmillan - Rebecca Shillabeer, Routledge
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 25.
Have you been struggling to get proposals accepted to the AAR Annual Meeting? Come to this session to get some tips and ideas about how to better frame your research to increase your chances of acceptance. The presenter, Elissa Cutter, has been reviewing proposals as part of the Religion in Europe Unit since 2012. As a current chair of that unit, she now has several years of experience in reviewing proposals and forming sessions. In this session, she will let you know some of the main pitfalls that people fall into in writing their conference proposals and how best to avoid them.
Panelist: Elissa Cutter, Georgian Court University
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 24.
Wade Clark Roof is the 2019 winner of the Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion. Having passed away suddenly on August 24, 2019, he will receive the award posthumously at this year's Marty Award Forum.
Roof was Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he founded and directed the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion and Public Life. Trained as a sociologist of religion, and the author of fourteen books, he was widely known for his scholarship on the cultural, civic, and political effects of religious pluralism in the United States, and in particular on the spiritual lives of the baby boomer generation. Under his leadership, the Capps Center consistently brought together multiple publics—scholars, students, Santa Barbara residents, journalists, scientists, elected officials, and more—for extended conversations about key matters of common concern. The Marty Award recognizes Professor Roof’s many contributions as a public scholar, institution builder, and advocate for religious studies and the humanities.
In this year’s Marty Award Forum, E.J. Dionne (University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at Georgetown University, W. Averell Harriman Chair and Senior Fellow of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, and syndicated columnist for the Washington Post) will join Roof's former colleague Kathleen Moore (chair of the Religious Studies department at UCSB and interim director of the Capps Center) and two former students, Julie Ingersoll (University of North Florida) and J. Shawn Landres (Jumpstart Labs) for an extended public discussion of Roof’s life and work. Contributions from the audience will be welcomed as well.
Erik Owens, Boston College, Presiding
Panelists: - E.J. Dionne, Brookings Institute, Washington Post - Julie J. Ingersoll , University of North Florida - J. Shawn Landres , University of California, Los Angeles - Kathleen Moore, University of California, Santa Barbara
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 24.
This session celebrates the 50th Anniversary of James Cone’s Black Theology and Black Power, published March 1, 1969. This panel features prominent thinkers who address the significance of Cone’s first book, the relevance of black theology and the legacy of the James Cone.
Adam Clark , Xavier University, Presiding
Panelists: - Eddie S. Glaude, Princeton University - Gary Dorrien, Columbia University, Union Theological Seminary - Eboni Marshall Turman, Yale University
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 24.
After Kate Bowler’s 2013 book, Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, became an unexpected public hit, she was diagnosed with stage IV cancer at the age of 35.
Kate was faced with the ironic situation of “being an expert on “health wealth and happiness while being ill.” Her 2018 memoir, Everything Happens for a Reason, is a memoir exploring that existential irony, and the ways in the American belief that tragedy is a test of character shaped her own response to illness. Now a speaker in high demand, Kate will engage with AAR President Laurie Patton on her transformation. Their conversation will focus on what it has meant for Kate to become a public intellectual in the midst of being a scholar, teacher, mother, wife, and cancer survivor. In her own “expansion of the public sphere,” Kate has explored questions of divine will and justice in contexts far outside of academe. What has shifted in her understandings of the role of the scholar in the world? How has her own thinking about public life in America changed since she has started writing for and speaking to larger audiences? Do the questions Kate raises about the American prosperity gospel changed public discourse about illness, divine will, and tragedy?
Laurie Louise Patton, Middlebury College, Presiding
Panelists: Kate Bowler, Duke University
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 24.
A Blueprint for the Public Study of Religion. In addition to its traditional goal of fostering excellence in the academic study of religion, the AAR’s recently revised mission statement includes a new goal of enhancing the public study of religion. But what is the public study of religion? How might we collectively (and inevitably imperfectly) define it? This AAR address will offer a blueprint. I suggest that such a public study of religion involves a renewed curiosity about, and disciplined and ethical reflection on, four things: 1) the nature of our scholarly contexts; 2) the nature of our scholarly publics; 3) the nature of power and privilege in the study of religion; 4) the nature of labor in the study of religion. I will use theory in the study of religion, philosophy of the public sphere, and poetry to draw the blueprint. As a way of gesturing to another kind of collective that moves beyond the “magisterial voice of the single leader,” our time together will involve AAR voices other than my own. I end with an exhortation to a newly energetic and different kind of curiosity as fundamental to our work as public scholars. In her poem, “Ars Poetica #100: I Believe,” Elizabeth Alexander ends with a query: “. . . and are we not of interest to each other?”
José I. Cabezón , University of California, Santa Barbara, Presiding
Panelists: Laurie Louise Patton, Middlebury College
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 23.
Submissions by women to journals and books series, including JAAR, are lower by percentage than the percentage of women in the field of religious studies. This panel brings together women successful as editors and authors to discuss the reasons for this and offer advice and support to women in the field for their publishing agendas.
Andrea Jain, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, Presiding
Panelists: - Zayn Kassam, Pomona College - Elaine Maisner, University of North Carolina Press - Lisa Sideris, Indiana University - Catherine Wessinger, Loyola University, New Orleans
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 23.
Laurie L. Patton is 2019 President of the American Academy of Religion, President of Middlebury College, and a scholar of South Asian history and culture. Her forthcoming book, "Who Owns Religion? Scholars and Their Publics in the Late Twentieth Century" (University of Chicago, December 2019), examines the cultural work of the study of religion through a discussion of extreme cases—the controversies of the late 80s and 90s—where the work of scholars was passionately refuted and refused by the publics they describe. The emergence of the multicultural politics of recognition during this decade created the possibility of “eruptive” public spaces, which were magnified by the emergence of the Internet, a development that changed the nature of readership for all involved in producing scholarship. Patton’s incisive analysis of the six cases leads to a series of reflections on the status of public scholarship today, and the self-critical work that scholars should pursue as they engage in their work. The book will be essential reading for religious studies scholars.
Mara Willard, Boston College, Presiding
Panelists: - Leela Prasad, Duke University - Erik Owens, Boston College - Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara
Responding: - Laurie Louise Patton, Middlebury College
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 23.
The Teaching and Learning Committee facilitates an engaging, hands on workshop, helping participants build assignments that are creative, more plagiarism resistant, and, importantly, that also assess course outcomes. In this recorded workshop, participants identify the key components of a successful assignment; explore strategies for designing creative scaffolded and staged assignments; describe the purpose and features of a capstone project; discover how to effectively consider outcomes in assignment strategies; and demonstrate ways to buffer against plagiarism.
Panelist: Amy Hale, Atlanta, GA
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 23.
The American Academy of Religion presents its annual Journalism Award to recognize outstanding contributions to religion reporting in the previous year. This session celebrates journalistic excellence as it relates to the public understanding of religion, drawing insights from previous awardees, members of the award jury, and partners from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. Panelists will discuss partnerships and opportunities to advance the public understanding of religion amidst the changing media landscape and the different challenges faced by broadcast and print journalism. The discussion will engage the biggest religion news stories and religion topics of 2018. The 2019 recipients—Ian Johnson and Dawn Araujo-Hawkins—will be honored in absentia.
Joshua McElwee, third place winner, is the Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Reporter who often travels as part of the papal press pool. His articles covered some of the hottest topics of 2018 including Bishops' prosecutions may point to new phase in church's sex abuse crisis, Irish sex abuse survivors say Francis should admit to Vatican's cover-up, and Wuerl resigns, ending influential tenure in wake of abuse report.
Evan Berry, Arizona State University, Presiding
Panelists: - Joshua McElwee, National Catholic Reporter - Liz Kineke, Broadcast Journalist - Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times - Shirley Abraham, Documentary Filmmaker - Jon Sawyer, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting - Asma Afsaruddin, Indiana University
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 23.
This panel brings together five editors of religious studies journals to discuss the nuts and bolts of journal editing, with the aim of making the process more transparent. The panel will be of particular interest to graduate students and junior faculty who are new to the activities of scholarly publishing.
Andrea Jain, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, and S. Brent Plate, Hamilton College, Presiding
Panelists: - Elizabeth Ann Pritchard, Bowdoin College - Johan Strijdom, University of South Africa - Jimmy Yu, Florida State University - Marie W. Dallam, University of Oklahoma
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 23.
AAR 2019 - Aurora, a New E-Learning Platform: An Information Session with Co-Creator, Maren Wood by American Academy of Religion
When humanities scholars talk about exploring and pursuing “alt-ac” and “post-ac” careers, two concerns often dominate the conversation: 1) Graduate studies in the humanities don’t prepare us for or aren’t relevant to non-academic career paths, and 2) We don’t know where to look for or how to apply for non-academic jobs. Whether you are a scholar thinking about non-academic careers or a faculty member interested in supporting students engaged in such searches, join our panel of career services experts to discuss the many careers that are open to — and even looking for! — people with advanced training in the humanities. Panelists will discuss existing resources and where to find them, as well as ways that departments, universities, and professional organizations like the AAR can better support scholars in non-academic careers. Amy Defibaugh, Temple University, Presiding
Panelists: - Giulia Hoffman, University of California, San Diego - Maren Wood, Beyond the Professoriate
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 25.
Not every PhD becomes a professor. Some never want to, but a growing number discover too late that there's little room in the academy for them or it's not a good fit for what they want their careers to be. They also might find that they are not prepared for a job hunt outside of the ivory tower. But religious studies scholars can shift into work outside the academy. Join Kelly J. Baker, co-editor of the 2018 book Succeeding Outside the Academy: Career Paths beyond the Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM (University Press of Kansas, 2018) for a discussion of the book, including the diverse career options for religious studies scholars. Panelists will also reflect on why scholars leave the academy, share their experiences on their own professional paths, and consider how we should be preparing grad students for diverse careers. Shreena Gandhi, Michigan State University, Presiding
Panelists: - Kelly J. Baker, Women in Higher Education - Heidi Ippolito, University of Denver - Sarah "Moxy" Moczygemba, University of Florida - Hussein Rashid, Islamicate, LLC - Mary Beth Yount, Neumann University
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 23.
Dr. Mary E. Hunt has authored guidelines entitled Be Brief, Be Witty, Be Seated for presenting a conference paper that are posted on the AAR website. Come hear Dr. Hunt review and update the guidelines in a digital age. Join in a brown bag discussion on best practices an engaging conference presentation that will showcase you and your work to best advantage. Panelists: - Elizabeth Ursic, Mesa Community College - Mary E. Hunt, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 23.
In the face of increasing policy paralysis in Washington, regional and local governments have emerged as critical engines for progress on thorny issues from climate change and economic inequality to housing, homelessness, and racial equity. And despite the overall decline of religious affiliation in the United States, local policymakers increasingly are working closely with faith-based community partners and negotiating with multireligious and multiracial organizing coalitions. This panel, featuring distinguished political leaders who have placed justice at the core of their leadership, explores the relevance and influence of their training and expertise in religion, ethics, and religious history on policymaking and governing. J. Shawn Landres, University of California, Los Angeles, and Sara Kamali, University of Oxford, Presiding
Panelists: - Mark Ridley-Thomas, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors - Lois Capps, U.S. Congress (retired) - Sadaf Jaffer, Princeton University
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 23.
In recent years as the job market for tenure-track academic positions has tightened and the use of contingent faculty has exploded, increasing numbers of graduate degree seekers are intending to pursue nonacademic careers. While some areas of study present obvious nonacademic options, for scholars in the humanities, nonacademic career opportunities and the best preparation for them may not be obvious and religious studies faculty are exploring how graduate programs can — and should — prepare all alumni for multiple employment outcomes. This panel brings together faculty members from a variety of institutions to discuss some of the problems confronting their students and their programs as more people turn — by necessity and by choice — to nonacademic career paths. Annette Stott, University of Denver, Presiding
Panelists: - Sylvia Chan-Malik, Rutgers University - Gabriel Estrada, California State University, Long Beach - Caroline T. Schroeder, University of Oklahoma - Najeeba Syeed-Miller, Claremont School of Theology
This session was recorded at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California, on November 23.
Bissera V. Pentcheva, winner of AAR's 2018 Award for Excellence in Historical Studies for her book "Hagia Sophia: Sound, Space, and Spirit in Byzantium" talks about how digital technology, as applied to the ancient and medieval aural experience of the Hagia Sophia, makes it possible for historians to see, feel, and hear primary textual and liturgical sources in new ways.
Countering the narrative that Langston Hughes was uninterested in religion, scholar and author Wallace Best describes the poet as an "avid and eclectic churchgoer" who returned time and again to the question, construction, and meaning of salvation in American religious history.
Wallace Best's book "Langston's Salvation: American Religion and the Bard of Harlem" won the 2018 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the Textual Studies category, presented by the American Academy of Religion. He is professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton University.
Nancy Levene, professor of religious studies at Yale University, joins Kristian Petersen in a conversation about her book, Powers of Distinction: On Religion and Modernity, which won AAR's 2018 Award for Excellence in Constructive-Reflective Studies.
Lincoln Mullen, author of "The Chance of Salvation: A History of Conversion in America," joins Kristian Petersen in a conversation about the spectrum of religious identity in American history and how the phenomena of conversion is an opening which allows scholars to study a variety of religious groups—and their relationships to each other.
Mullen is the winner of the 2018 Best First Book in the History of Religions.
When humanities scholars talk about exploring and pursuing “alt-ac” and “post-ac” careers, two concerns often dominate the conversation: 1) Graduate studies in the humanities don’t prepare us for or aren’t relevant to non-academic career paths, and 2) We don’t know where to look for or how to apply for non-academic jobs. Whether you are a scholar thinking about non-academic careers or a faculty member interested in supporting students engaged in such searches, join our panel of career services experts to discuss the many careers that are open to — and even looking for! — people with advanced training in the humanities. Panelists will discuss existing resources and where to find them, as well as ways that departments, universities, and professional organizations like the AAR can better support scholars in non-academic careers.
Amy Defibaugh, Temple University, Presiding
Panelists: - Sarah Peterson, ImaginePhD - Emily Swafford, American Historical Association - Karen Kelsky, The Professor Is In - Jenny Whitcher, Juniper Formation
This session was recorded on November 18, 2018 in Denver, Colorado, during the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
This joint panel explores ways in which contingency may be constructive (and the ways contingent faculty work can be made more humane and viable) as part of a larger discussion about non-tenure-track and “alt-ac” paths.
Lynne Gerber, Harvard University, Presding
Panelists: - Simran Jeet Singh, New York University - Megan Goodwin, Northeastern University - Hussein Rashid, Barnard College - Matthew Bingley, Georgia State University
The session was recorded on November 19, 2018 in Denver, Colorado, during the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
The panelists in this session showcase the work of current AAR-Luce Religion and International Affairs Fellows. Reflecting on their experiences in a variety of policy-shaping institutions, these four fellows will consider how their scholarly expertise has been applied outside the academy. How does knowledge about religion function outside traditional academic settings? What are the opportunities for religion researchers to engage policymakers and other public institutions? What are the obstacles facing scholars interested in this kind of work? The religion-related issues these fellows cover in public sector or civil society contexts include contemporary tribal and religious politics in Yemen; U.S. international religious freedom policy; peacebuilding in Iraq; socio-cultural aspects of treatment of advanced HIV and neglected tropical diseases; and advocacy in philanthropic settings.
Evan Berry, American University, Presiding
Panelists: - Asher Orkaby, Harvard University - Sousan Abadian, US Department of State - Ann Wainscott, Miami University - Margaret/Maren Milligan, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Sara Kamali, University of Oxford, Responding
This session was recorded on November 18, 2018 in Denver, Colorado, during the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion
In recent years as the job market for tenure-track academic positions has tightened and the use of contingent faculty has exploded, increasing numbers of graduate degree seekers are intending to pursue nonacademic careers. While some areas of study present obvious nonacademic options, for scholars in the humanities, nonacademic career opportunities and the best preparation for them may not be obvious and religious studies faculty are exploring how graduate programs can — and should — prepare all alumni for multiple employment outcomes. This panel brings together faculty members from a variety of institutions to discuss some of the problems confronting their students and their programs as more people turn — by necessity and by choice — to nonacademic career paths.
Cristine Hutchison-Jones, Harvard University, Presiding
Panelists: - Paul W. Harvey, University of Colorado - Colorado Springs - Patrick Mason, Claremont Graduate University - Nathan Schneider, University of Colorado - Annette Stott, University of Denver
This session was recorded at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 19 in Denver, Colorado.
Jenna Reinbold, winner of the 2018 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the category of Analytical-Descriptive Studies, discusses her book "Seeing the Myth in Human Rights" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016).
Noah Salomon, author of "For Love of the Prophet: An Ethnography of Sudan's Islamic State" (Princeton University Press, 2016) and winner of AAR's 2017 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the category of analytical-descriptive studies, talks to Kristian Petersen about his fieldwork in Sudan, the attempts at a unified Sudan prior to the 2011 partition, and tradition of the Islamic nation-state.
In recent years as the job market for tenure-track academic positions has tightened and the use of contingent faculty has exploded, increasing numbers of graduate degree seekers are intending to pursue nonacademic careers. While some areas of study present obvious nonacademic options, for scholars in the humanities, nonacademic career opportunities and the best preparation for them may not be obvious and religious studies faculty are exploring how graduate programs can - and should - prepare all alumni for multiple employment outcomes. This panel brings together faculty members from a variety of institutions to discuss some of the problems confronting their students and their programs as more people turn - by necessity and by choice - to nonacademic career paths.
Cristine Hutchison-Jones, Harvard Law School, Presiding
Panelists: - Molly Bassett, Georgia State University - Jason C. Bivins, North Carolina State University - Kathleen Moore, University of California, Santa Barbara
This session was recorded at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 19.
This discussion explores the impact of religion and race on American populism across the ideological spectrum. Papers explore the interplay of religious and secular forces on the #BlackLivesMatter movement, including a theological exploration of the death of Michael Brown and an examination of how Millennial activists are blurring secular/religious boundaries. The session juxtaposes these topics with examinations of white conservative populist expressions. Papers explore populist elements within the Southern Baptist Convention that laid the foundation for white evangelicals to throw their support behind Donald Trump and among Tea Party women whose rhetoric centered around a vision of white Christianity fighting the legality of abortion.
Robert P. Jones, Public Religion Research Institute, presiding
Papers: - "The Reproductive Politics of Evangelical Tea Party Women and the Afterbirth of Trump’s America" Larycia Hawkins, University of Virginia
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"Populism in the Southern Baptist Convention" Adam Hankins, DePaul University
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"Critical Complexities: Religious-Secularity or Secular-Religiosity, and #BlackLivesMatter" Seth Gaiters, Ohio State University
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"Seeing Jesus in Michael Brown: Theological Protest as the Performance of Purity in the Black Lives Matter Movement" Rima Vesely-Flad, Warren Wilson College
This session was recorded at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 18, in Boston, Massachusetts.
For many of us who study or work in colleges and seminary campuses today it may be easy to ignore the vulnerable at our institutions. Yet the most vulnerable are often at risk or subject to discrimination and exploitation based on inequities of power, money, lack of social net, or means to voice their concerns about campus life and work. This panel examines what needs attention and the strategies that vulnerable people and their allies can use to decrease vulnerability and increase solidarity. Special attention is paid to the status of, and strategies being deployed by, the LGBT+ community, graduate students, people of color, low paid workers, and non-tenured faculty.
Eddie S. Glaude, Princeton University, presiding
Panelists and Papers - " 'Although the Doors Were Shut': Cultivating Courageous Community at the Borders of the Academy" Cameron Partridge, Saint Aidan's Episcopal Church, San Francisco
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"It Doesn't Always Feel Good: Redefining Notions of Inclusion and Moving beyond 'Diversity' " Prea Persaud, University of Florida
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"Solidarity within the Faculty" James Keenan, Boston College
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"Ad Junk: Accounting for Different Vulnerabilities in Vulnerable Professional Positions" Hussein Rashid, Islamicate LLC
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"Just Employment: Solidarity among Campus Workers" Kerry Danner, Georgetown University
This session was recorded at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 18 in Boston, Massachusetts. It was organized by AAR Committees on Academic Labor and Contingent Faculty; Graduate Students; and LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession.
Deval Patrick is a politician, civil rights lawyer and businessman who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He is the only African-American to have served as governor of Massachusetts.
Born to and raised by a single mother on the South Side of Chicago, Patrick attended Harvard University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. After graduating, he practiced law with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and later joined a Boston law firm, where he was named a partner, at age 34. In 1994, Bill Clinton appointed him as the United States assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the United States Department of Justice, where he worked on issues including racial profiling and police misconduct.
During his governorship, Patrick oversaw the implementation of the state's 2006 health care reform program; increased funding to education and life sciences; won a federal Race to the Top education grant; and raised the state's minimum wage from $8 per hour to $11 per hour by 2017. Under Patrick, Massachusetts joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Patrick is now a managing director at Bain Capital and currently serves as the chairman of the board for Our Generation Speaks, a fellowship program and startup іnсubаtor whose mіѕѕіоn іѕ to bring together young Israeli and Palestinian leaders through entrepreneurship. Deval Patrick is a politician, civil rights lawyer and businessman who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He is the only African-American to have served as governor of Massachusetts. Co-sponsored by the AAR and the Memorial Church of Harvard University.
Eddie Glaude, Princeton University, presiding Jonathan L. Walton, Harvard Divinity School, presiding
This audio was recorded at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 18 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Winnifred Fallers Sullivan is the recipient of the 2017 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion. Sullivan is professor and chair of religious studies, and affiliate professor of law, at Indiana University at Bloomington. Sullivan’s work focuses on the phenomenology of religion under the modern rule of law, and she is widely known for her critical studies of American law and jurisprudence about religion. She is the author of four books: Paying the Words Extra: Religious Discourse in the Supreme Court of the United States (1994), The Impossibility of Religious Freedom (2005), Prison Religion: Faith-based Reform and the Constitution (2009), and A Ministry of Presence: Chaplaincy, Spiritual Care, and the Law (2014); and the co-editor of three volumes: After Secular Law (2011), Varieties of Religious Establishment (2013), and The Politics of Religious Freedom (2015). Beyond the religious studies guild, Sullivan’s public scholarship on religion and her work as an expert witness have had an important impact in courtrooms, prisons, military units, and government offices from city halls to the State Department. In this year’s Marty Award Forum, Laurie Patton, president of Middlebury College, will join Sullivan for an extended public dialogue about Sullivan’s life and work.
Erik Owens, Boston College, presiding
Panelists: - Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Indiana University - Laurie Louise Patton, Middlebury College
The forum was recorded at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 19 in Boston, Massachusetts.
This panel analyzes the intensified colonization of academic spaces—both intellectual and physical—under the current presidency. How do we accurately map these changes and negotiate these spaces in an era of national “whitelash” from peripheral ideological and embodied spaces? How do we contend with the increasing marginalization and targeting of vulnerable populations? What strategies might scholars use to contribute to the ongoing process of decolonizing the academy? What are the potential ramifications of our non-action or complicity in this academic landscape?
Munir Jiwa, Graduate Theological Union, presiding
Panelists: - Hatem Bazian, Zaytuna College and University of California, Berkeley - Jasmin Zine, Wilfrid Laurier University - Mel Chen, University of California, Berkeley - Shanell T. Smith, Hartford Seminary
This session was recorded at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 19 in Boston, MA.
Worried about the job market? Thinking that a career in higher ed no longer matches your interests and goals? Or just wondering about options? The American Academy of Religion's Applied Religious Studies Committee hosts a discussion on career paths outside the academy.
Panelists discuss fields including: publishing and editing, freelance writing, nonprofits and foundations, government, religious communities, academic administration, and more; and current PhD candidates talk about their own experiences of exploring nonacademic career options in the context of their graduate studies.
Panelists also explore the ways faculty, departments, and the AAR might better support scholars as they consider careers beyond the academy.
Cristine Hutchison-Jones, Administrative Director, Petrie-Flom Center of Harvard Law School, presiding
Panelists: - Jason Blakeburn, PhD candidate, McGill University - Regina Walton, Pastor and Rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Newton (MA)and Counselor to Episcopal/Anglican Students Harvard University - Emily Mace, Chicago Digital Humanities Coordinator, Lake Forest College - Robert P. Jones, CEO, Public Religion Research Institute
This roundtable and Q&A was held at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 18.
Lena Salaymeh joins Religious Studies News to talk about her 2017 AAR award-winning book, "The Beginnings of Islamic Law: Late Antique Islamicate Legal Traditions."
Salaymeh is interviewed by Kristian Petersen. Her book won the 2017 Award for the Excellence in the Study of Religion in the textual studies category.
What's it like to work in the US Department of State? How is academic knowledge about religion practical to public policymakers? What are the ethical implications of engaging?and of declining to engage?in such work? What seems to be the future of such work in this area. Three of the panelists recently completed a year or more as an AAR-Luce Fellow in the US Department of State: in the Office of Religion and Global Affairs, Evan Berry focused on the environment, and Jerome Copulsky on anti-Semitism, refugees, and training; and in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Todd Green focused on Islamophobia.Rounding out the panel are Elizabeth Prodromou, former Vice-Chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, who brings expertise on international policy and conflict resolution; and Robert Albro, a sociocultural anthropologist, who chaired the American Anthropological Association's Ad Hoc Commission on the Engagement of Anthropology with the U. S. Security and Intelligence Communities.AAR-Luce Fellowships are made possible through a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Panelists: - Evan Berry, American University - Jerome E. Copulsky, American University - Todd Green, Luther College - Elizabeth Prodromou, Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy - Robert Albro, American University
Mara Willard, University of Oklahoma, presiding
This session was recorded at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Boston, Massachusetts on November 19.
Linda Sarsour is a working woman, racial justice and civil rights activist, and mother of three. Ambitious, outspoken and independent, Linda shatters stereotypes of Muslim women while also treasuring her religious and ethnic heritage. She is a Palestinian Muslim American and a self-proclaimed “pure New Yorker, born and raised in Brooklyn!” She is the Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York and co-founder of the first Muslim online organizing platform, MPOWER Change. Linda has been at the forefront of major civil rights campaigns including calling for an end to unwarranted surveillance of New York’s Muslim communities and ending police policies like stop and frisk. In wake of the police murder of Mike Brown, she co-founded Muslims for Ferguson to build solidarity amongst American Muslim communities and encourage work against police brutality. She is a member of the Justice League NYC, a leading NYC force of activists, formerly incarcerated individuals, and artists working to reform the New York Police Department and the criminal justice system.
Linda co-chaired the March2Justice, a 250-mile journey on foot to deliver a justice package to end racial profiling, demilitarize police and demand the government invest in young people and communities. Linda Sarsour was instrumental in the Coalition for Muslim School Holidays to push New York City to incorporate 2 Muslim high holy holidays in to the NYC Public school calendar. This year, New York City will be the largest school system in the country to officially recognize these holidays. This year, Linda joined leading social justice faith leaders as a Senior Fellow at Auburn Seminary.
She has received numerous awards and honors including “Champion of Change” by the White House, YWCA USA’s Women of Distinction Award for Advocacy and Civic Engagement and the Hala Maksoud Leadership Award from the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Sarsour was named among 500 of the most influential Muslims in the world. Most recently, Linda was profiled on the front page of the New York Times Metro Section and dubbed “Brooklyn Homegirl in a Hijab” and introduced Linda to their readership as “Mixing street smarts, activism and her Muslim identity, Linda Sarsour has become a political force”. She has written for and has been featured in local, national, and international media discussing impact of domestic policies that target Arab and Muslim American communities, criminal justice issues and Middle East affairs. Linda is well respected amongst diverse communities in both in New York City and nationally. She is most known for her intersectional coalition work and building bridges across issues, racial, ethnic and faith communities.
Eddie Glaude, Princeton University, presiding
This plenary session was recorded at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 20 in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Reformed Theology and History Group and the Martin Luther and the Global Lutheran Traditions Group host a joint panel on the meaning of 'Reformation' and what implications the notion of 'Reformation' or 'reformations' has for us today—theologically or ecclesially. Panelists explore the relevance of 'reformation/s' for the contemporary context, including ways in which aspects of the Protestant Reformation deserve retrieval, reframing, or retraction today.
Panelists: - Amy Plantinga Pauw, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary - Kristen E. Kvam, Saint Paul School of Theology - Cornelis van der Kooi, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam - Evangeline Anderson Rajkumar, Lenoir-Rhyne University
Kirsi Stjerna, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, presiding
The panel was recorded at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 20 in Boston, Massachusetts.
This panel is on the different approaches scholars of religion are taking in presenting religion and the study of religion to a wider audience on television. Reza Aslan (Prayer in America, The Secret Life of Muslims, and Believer), Amir Hussain (The Story of God with Morgan Freeman), Candida Moss (Bible Secrets Revealed, Greatest Mysteries, and Finding Jesus: Faith. Fact. Forgery), Vanessa Ochs (Religion and Ethics Newsweekly), and Stephen Prothero (God in America) are all experts in this area, and will answer questions about their experiences on being a part of these programs, as well as being invited guests on various news and talk shows. The goal of this panel is to generate a robust discussion, during which the panelists will respond to some preliminary questions, but will also take questions from each other and the audience. The moderator will ask them to consider: what were your hopes and expectations, what challenges did you face, and what lessons did you learn, in the process of producing these programs for a general, often non-academic, audience? Further, what was the reception, both popular and scholarly, of your program, and what changes would you make if you had the chance/moving forward? Do the theoretical discussions and expectations of the academic study of religion translate to popular representations of religion, or is that perhaps, a false binary? What other concerns regarding religious representation, scholarly responsibility or popular prejudices did you find you had to address when in the midst of program production? Through this discussion, we hope to give some insight into the complicated processes of presenting religion for a wider audience, but also think through the role of religious studies scholars during these times when religions are often demonized, exoticized, misappropriated, misrepresented and misunderstood in the media and popular culture.
Shreena Gandhi, Michigan State University, Presiding
Panelists: - Reza Aslan, University of California, Riverside - Amir Hussain, Loyola Marymount University - Candida Moss, University of Birmingham, UK - Stephen Prothero, Boston University
This panel was recorded during the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 20 in Boston, Massachusetts
When humanities scholars talk about exploring and pursuing "alt-ac" and "post-ac" careers, two concerns often dominate the conversation: 1) Graduate studies in the humanities don't prepare us for or aren't relevant to non-academic career paths, and 2) We don't know where to look for or how to apply for non-academic jobs. Whether you are a scholar thinking about non-academic careers or a faculty member interested in supporting students engaged in such searches, join our panel of career services experts to discuss the many careers that are open to - and even looking for! - people with advanced training in the humanities. Panelists will discuss existing resources and where to find them, as well as ways that departments, universities, and professional organizations like the AAR can better support scholars in non-academic careers.
Panelists: Amy Defibaugh, Assistant Director, Academic Affairs, Temple University - Susan Lawler, Director of Career Services, Harvard Divinity School - Brooke Noonan, Executive Director, UChicagoGRAD Experience, University of Chicago - Susannah Laramee Kidd, Mellon-ACLS Public Fellow, Los Angeles County Arts Commission
Presiding: Cristine Hutchinson-Jones, Administrative Director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics Harvard Law School
This session was recorded on November 19, 2017 at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Boston, Massachusetts.
Noreen Khawaja talks to Religious Studies News about her book "The Religion of Existence: Asceticism in Philosophy from Kierkegaard to Sartre" (University of Chicago Press), which won the American Academy of Religion’s 2017 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Constructive-Reflective Studies.
Music is Dexter Britain, “Fresh Monday” (www.dexterbritain.co.uk)
Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University. He is chair of the Department of African American Studies, a program he first became involved with shaping as a doctoral candidate in Religion at Princeton. His books on religion and philosophy include African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction, Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, and Exodus! Religion, Race and Nation in Early 19th Century Black America, which was awarded the Modern Language Association’s William Sanders Scarborough Book Prize. Currently Glaude is at work on a book about James Baldwin, tentatively titled James Baldwin’s America, 1963–1972.
Glaude left his home in Moss Point, Mississippi at age 16 to begin studies at the Morehouse College. He holds a master’s degree in African American Studies from Temple University, and a Ph.D in Religion from Princeton University. He began his teaching career at Bowdoin College. He has been a visiting scholar at Amherst College and Harvard. In 2011 he delivered Harvard’s Du Bois lectures.
Known to be a convener of conversations and debates, Glaude takes care to engage fellow citizens of all ages and backgrounds — from young activists, to fellow academics, journalists and commentators, and followers on Twitter in dialogue about the course of the nation. His scholarship and his sense of himself as a public intellectual are driven by a commitment to think carefully with others in public. Accordingly, his writing and ideas are cited and shared widely. Glaude has written for The New York Times and The Huffington Post. He is a columnist for Time Magazine and regularly provides commentary on radio and television news programs like Democracy Now!, Morning Joe, and The 11th Hour.
Prior to Dr. Glaude’s address, former AAR President Emilie M. Townes presented a tribute to Executive Director Jack Fitzmier, who will be retiring in 2018.
This session was recorded during the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 18, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Taking off from their new book, Goddess and God in the World: Conversations in Embodied Theology (Fortress, 2016), Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow introduce their embodied theological method and explore their theological differences: Is Goddess a personal presence who cares about the world? Or is God an impersonal creative energy equally supportive of good and evil? Mary E. Hunt will moderate a conversation that includes Monica Coleman, Aysha Hidayatullah, Miranda Shaw, and Julia Watts-Belser, who will speak from Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, and Goddess perspectives. The panelists respond to the book, especially to its method, but also discuss their own theological positions, reflecting on what theological perspectives best make sense of and promote the flourishing of our common world.
Building upon a 2015 conference on Black Liberation Theologies of Disability at Union Theological Seminary, organized by Kendrick Kemp, this session attempts to construct liberation theologies that take seriously the experiences of blackness and disability. Panelists explore the ways that racialized and disabled embodiment offers innovative readings of text, tradition, and theological frameworks. What resources for a black liberation theology of disability can be sourced from black religious traditions? From disability activism? From black protest movements? Can theology be more responsive to the presence of elders in black religious communities? How can theologies grapple with the disabling traumas, state and social violence, and the toll of activism in black experiences? How can black theologies support those living with mental health challenges, learning differences, and brain injuries? How do our theologies honor and celebrate black disabled bodies?
Panelists: - Nyasha Junior, Temple University, presiding - Monica A. Coleman, Claremont School of Theology - Garth Kasimu Baker-Fletcher, Texas College - Kendrick Kemp, Union Theological Seminary - Pamela Lightsey, Boston University
This session was recorded during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 21, in San Antonio, Texas.
Over the past decade there has been an explosion of online religion writing. New publications continue to emerge and, with them, new kinds of writing and writers. There are more and more ways for scholars to share their expertise and knowledge with academic and popular audiences alike. At the same time, there are a growing number of journalists interested in covering religion well. Not only are these two fields growing, but they are starting to intersect and even blur. This conversation brings together scholars, journalists, and editors to talk about the present and future of online public writing about religion and to answer questions such as: “What does this work mean for the future of religious studies and for the thinking about religion beyond the academy?” and “How do we train scholars and journalists to get jobs and do them well?”
Panelists: - Kali Handelman, Center for Religion and Media at New York University, presiding - Brook Wilensky-Lanford, Killing the Buddha, Chapel Hill, NC - Simran Jeet Singh, Trinity University - Patrick Blanchfield, New York University
This discussion was recorded at the 2016 AAR Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX, on November 20.
An Author-Meets-Critics Roundtable Session discussing Saba Mahmood’s recently published book, "Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report" (Princeton University Press, 2016). Bringing together both senior and junior scholars invested in questions of secularism and secularity from varied disciplinary and thematic perspectives including American religious history, the study of Sikhism, Middle East politics, and modern Arabic literature, this panel will wrestle with the key themes, arguments, and conceptual interventions of this important book. It will also provide an opportunity to explore and engage new questions connected to modern secular governance, state sovereignty, minority rights, religious liberty, and the intersection of secularism, sexuality, and the family.
Panelists: - SherAli Tareen, Franklin and Marshall College, presiding - Nermeen Mouftah, Northwestern University - Arvind Mandair, University of Michigan - Mona Oraby, Indiana University - John Modern, Franklin and Marshall College Responding: Saba Mahmood, University of California, Berkeley
Michelle Alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar. Alexander is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Stanford Law School. Following law school, she clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the U.S. Supreme Court and for Chief Judge Abner Mikva on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Prior to entering academia, Alexander served as the director of the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU of Northern California, where she coordinated the Project’s media advocacy, grassroots organizing, coalition building, and litigation. The Project’s priority areas were educational equity and criminal justice reform, and it was during those years at the ACLU that she began to awaken to the reality that our nation’s criminal justice system functions more like a caste system than a system of crime prevention or control. She became passionate about exposing and challenging racial bias in the criminal justice system, ultimately launching and leading a major campaign against racial profiling by law enforcement known as the “DWB Campaign” or “Driving While Black or Brown Campaign.” In addition to her nonprofit advocacy experience, Alexander has worked as a litigator at private law firms including Saperstein, Goldstein, Demchak & Baller, in Oakland, California, where she specialized in plaintiff-side class-action lawsuits alleging race and gender discrimination. In 2005, she won a Soros Justice Fellowship, which supported the writing of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" (The New Press, 2012), and that same year she accepted a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University. She currently devotes much of her time to freelance writing; public speaking; consulting with advocacy organizations committed to ending mass incarceration; and, most important, raising her three young children—the most challenging and rewarding job of all.
In this plenary address from the 2016 AAR Annual Meeting, Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas (Goucher College) interviews Alexander, and the women converse in turn about racial (in)justice, the election, and religion's role in U.S. politics.
The session is introduced by 2016 AAR president, Serene Jones.
This plenary was recorded during the 2016 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, on November 20.
AM 2016: This panel provides some comparative insights on the current situation in Europe alongside experiences in the USA, exploring how religion is located within these debates, for instance as a foundation for appeals to national or civilizational identities that exclude certain groups, as well as a means for overcoming conflict and providing support and advocacy for vulnerable immigrant communities. What are the implications of defining refugees/immigrants in terms of their faith and ethnicity, including the ways in which this can fuel negative stereotypes? And how do we make sense of the ambiguous response of Christian churches/Christianity in both the USA and Europe in addressing issues around immigration? The panelists address these questions and others through comparative insights drawing upon the social and political sciences, as well as theological approaches.
Panelists: - Emma Tomalin, University of Leeds - Atalia Omer, University of Notre Dame - Daniel Groody, University of Notre Dame - Jocelyne Cesari, Harvard University - Erin Wilson, University of Groningen - Victor Carmon, Oblate School of Theology
This panel session was recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 21, in San Antonio, Texas.
AAR's 2016 American Lectureship in the History of Religions was held by Iranian academic and poet Fatemeh Keshavarz, who at this session at the 2016 AAR Annual Meeting, delivers her capstone lecture.
Born and raised in the city of Shiraz, completed her studies in Shiraz University, and University of London. She taught at Washington University in St. Louis for over twenty years where she chaired the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from 2004 to 2011. In 2012, Keshavarz joined the University of Maryland as Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Studies, and director of Roshan Institute for Persian Studies. Keshavarz is the author of award-winning books including "Reading Mystical Lyric: the Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi" (USC Press, 1998), "Recite in the Name of the Red Rose" (USC Press, 2006), and "Jasmine and Stars: Reading more than 'Lolita' in Tehran"(UNC Press, 2007). She has also published other books and numerous journal articles. Keshavarz is a published poet in Persian and English and an activist for peace and justice. She was invited to speak at the UN General Assembly on the significance of cultural education. Her NPR show “The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi” brought her the Peabody Award in 2008. In the same year, she received the Herschel Walker Peace and Justice Award.
Keshavarz is introduced by Louis A. Ruprecht (Georgia State University) followed by Ebrahim E. I. Moosa (University of Notre Dame).
This session was recorded during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 20 in San Antonio, Texas.
Learn more about the American Lectures in the History of Religions at https://www.aarweb.org/programs-services/history-of-religions-lectures.
To commemorate and celebrate the ten year anniversary of Obery Hendricks' "The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’ Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted" (Doubleday, 2006), Hendricks is joined by a panelist of activists, academics, scholars, and pastors convene a roundtable to discuss the influential nature of this work.
Panelists: - Andre E. Johnson, University of Memphis, Presiding - Eboni Marshall Turman, Yale University - Reverend Jesse Jackson, Operation Push, Chicago, IL - Nyasha Junior, Temple University - Gary Dorrien, Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary - Keri Day, Brite Divinity School - Michael Eric Dyson, Georgetown University - Obery M. Hendricks, Columbia University
Serene Jones was the 2016 president of the American Academy of Religion and the sixteenth President of the historic Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. The first woman to head the 179-year-old interdenominational seminary, Jones occupies the Johnston Family Chair for Religion and Democracy and has formed Union’s Institute for Women, Religion, and Globalization as well as the Institute for Art, Religion, and Social Justice. Jones came to Union after seventeen years at Yale University, where she was the Titus Street Professor of Theology at the Divinity School, and chair of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She holds degrees from the University of Oklahoma, Yale Divinity School, and Yale University. Jones is ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. The author of several books including Calvin and the Rhetoric of Piety and Trauma and Grace, Jones is a leading theologian who regularly contributes to scholarly and public discussions on matters of faith, social justice, and public life.
2017 president of the AAR, Eddie Glaude, provides opening remarks.
J. Bryan Hehir was the 2016 recipient of the Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion. Hehir is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is also the Secretary for Health Care and Social Services in the Archdiocese of Boston. His research and writing focus on ethics and foreign policy and the role of religion in world politics and in American society. The Marty Award recognizes extraordinary contributions to the public understanding of religion. Dr. Shaun Casey, former U.S. Special Representative for Religion and Global Affairs at the United States State Department and current professor of the practice in Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, dialogues with Professor Hehir at the Forum. Michael Kessler, of Georgetown University, presides.
This forum was recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of religion on Sunday, November 20, in San Antonio, Texas. The 2017 AAR Martin E. Marty Award Winner will be announced by the end of summer 2017.
A companion to our last episode, which focused on what students can do to prepare for nonacademic careers, this podcast highlights how religious studies faculty and graduate programs can create a variety of career paths for their students. In recent years as the job market for tenure-track academic positions has tightened and the use of contingent faculty has exploded, increasing numbers of graduate degree seekers are intending to pursue nonacademic careers. While some areas of study present obvious nonacademic options, for scholars in the humanities, nonacademic career opportunities and the best preparation for them may not be obvious and religious studies faculty are exploring how graduate programs can—and should—prepare all alumni for multiple employment outcomes. This panel brings together faculty members from a variety of institutions to discuss some of the problems confronting their students and their programs as more people turn—by necessity and by choice—to nonacademic career paths.
Panelists: - Cristine Hutchison-Jones, Administrative Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School - Martin Kavka, Professor of Religion, Florida State University - Stephen Prothero, Professor of Religion, Boston University - Kathryn McClymond, Professor of Religious Studies, Georgia State University - Sarah E. Fredericks, Assistant Professor of Environmental Ethics, University of Chicago Divinity School
This panel discussion was recorded during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 20, in San Antonio, Texas.
Worried about the job market? Thinking that a career in higher ed no longer matches your interests and goals? Or just wondering about options? The panelists in this discussion hold or are working on masters and doctoral degrees in a variety of religious studies and theology programs and talk about fields including: publishing and editing; freelance writing; nonprofits and foundations; government; religious communities; academic administration; and more. They discuss their own experiences of exploring nonacademic career options in the context of their graduate studies, and they suggest the ways faculty, departments, and the AAR might better support scholars as they consider careers beyond the academy. An insightful Q&A with the audience follows.
Panelists: – Cristine Hutchison-Jones, Administrative Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School – Jana Riess, writer and editor – J. Shawn Landres, Los Angeles County Quality and Productivity Commission and City of Santa Monica Social Services Commission – Natasha Mikles, PhD candidate, University of Virginia – Andrew Henry, PhD candidate, Boston University – Peter Manseau, Lilly Endowment Curator of American Religious History at the National Museum of American History – Robert N. Puckett, Director of Meetings at the American Academy of Religion
This panel discussion was recorded during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 20, in San Antonio, Texas.
The presidential theme of the 2016 AAR Annual Meeting was "Revolutionary Love." The concept draws from various themes, traditions, and ideas. In this wildcard session, leading thinkers reflect on revolutionary love from nonviolence, queer, interreligious, and constructive theology perspectives.
Karen Baker-Fletcher, Southern Methodist University, presiding Serene Jones, Union Theological Seminary, panelist Elaine Padilla, New York Theological Seminary, panelist John Thatamanil, Union Theological Seminary, panelist Thomas Oord, Northwest Nazarene University, panelist Catherine Keller, Drew University, respondent
This audio was recorded during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 20, in San Antonio, Texas.
Bhrigupati Singh, assistant professor of anthropology at Brown University, speaks about how his examination of the Sahariyas, a tribe living in extreme poverty in Northwest India, stretches and blurs the boundaries of religion and secularity in studying how the tribespeople reflect on questions of ethics, happiness, and quality of life. His work encourages scholars of religion—particularly those engaging with nonwestern traditions—to develop a comparative vocabulary that goes beyond Eurocentrism and Postcolonialism alike.
Singh is the author of "Poverty and the Quest for Life: Spiritual and Material Striving in Rural India" (University of Chicago Press, 2015), which won the AAR's 2016 Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the category of analytical-descriptive studies.
Cornel West argues that pragmatism is the ideal philosophical view to address the ways in which ideas like race, gender and class are produced and redescribed in history. Pragmatism is ideal because it highlights history, context and problem solving. As a quintessentially American tradition, pragmatism’s canonical figures had not sufficiently wrestled with these quandaries in a way that would make sense to anyone who understood slavery, discrimination and segregation as problems worth solving. West’s "The American Evasion of Philosophy" (1989) focused on that insufficiency. For reasons that we explore in a panel devoted to his innovative text, West’s engagement with and expansion of the canon is worthy of the collective intellectual attention of those concerned with the persistence of problems that are best addressed when one evades quests for epistemic certainty.
Panelists: Kevin Wolfe Clifton Granby Julius Crump Xavier Pickett
Victor Anderson, Presiding
This discussion was recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Antonio, Texas, on November 23.
Julián Castro, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama, speaks on housing, his childhood, and political action. Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado presides.
This plenary session was recorded on November 21, 2016, in San Antonio, Texas, at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
This panel, comprised of leading theological voices working across traditions and communities, will explore manifestations of "the hatreds of our day," their origins, their relation to religious thought and practice, and varied strategies available to disrupt their power. Drawing out the connections between hatred directed towards Latinos, African Americans, and Muslims will be central.
Panelists: Eddie S. Glaude Mayra Rivera Amir Hussain
Cornel West, Presiding
Taking up the AAR's 2016 plenary theme of "Revolutionary Love," participants in this session join a conversation addressing concerns with Christian privilege in a scholarly organization dedicated to “critical approaches to the study of religion.” This panel brings together a diverse group of scholars to consider the concept of love as a public or political force. Whose conception of love prevails (or is allowed to prevail) in public discourse? Is there something exclusively Christian about the discourse of love? Are there analogues in other traditions? Is love a universal human value? What’s at stake among scholars of religion?
Panelists: Amy M. Hollywood Russell T. McCutcheon Sarah Eltantawi David P. Gushee Arvind Sharma
Mara Willard, Presiding
This audio was recorded during the on November 21, 2016 during the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Antonio, Texas.
This session was organized for the 2016 AAR Annual Meeting as a roundtable discussion between authors of recent major books that address issues of religion, race, and politics. Additionally, these authors have served as frequent public commentators on the 2016 election. Drawing upon on their research and experiences during the election cycle, the panelists discuss our understanding of the role that religion and race played in the election (e.g., the surprising white evangelical Protestant support for Donald Trump over Ted Cruz, the role of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric, the Black Lives Matter movement, etc.), the impact of changing demographics of the electorate, and prospects and resources for coming together after a political season that promises to be one of the most polarizing and divisive in the modern era.
Serene Jones, Union Theological Seminary, presiding
Panelists: Kelly Brown Douglas, Goucher College Robert P. Jones, Public Religion Research Institute Stephen Prothero, Boston University Jim Wallis, Sojourners Responding: Andrea C. White, Union Theological Seminary
This session (A19-100) was recorded during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, November 19–22, in San Antonio, Texas.
In the Zoroastrian Empire of Iran during late antiquity, what were the limits of Christian identity? Richard E. Payne, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History at the University of Chicago, explains how Christians were able to navigate the Iranian political world and how their identity as Christians did not necessarily preclude political participation in a thoroughly Zoroastrian empire.
Payne is the author of "A State of Mixture: Christians, Zoroastrians, and Iranian Political Culture in Late Antiquity" (University of California Press, 2015), which won the AAR's 2016 Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the category of historical studies.
Francis J. Beckwith, professor of philosophy & church-state studies at Baylor University, discusses how we form complex beliefs and if the difference between the process of developing so-called religious beliefs and secular beliefs might be smaller than we think.
Beckwith is the author of "Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith" (Cambridge University Press, 2015). The book won the American Academy of Religion's 2016 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the category of constructive-reflective studies.
David A. Lambert talks to Religious Studies News about his book How Repentance Became Biblical: Judaism, Christianity, and the Interpretation of Scripture (Oxford University Press), which won the American Academy of Religion’s 2016 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Textual Studies. Lambert's book "considers the development of repentance as a concept around the turn of the Common Era and how it came to be naturalized as an essential component of religion through a series of reading practices that allowed nascent Jewish and Christian communities to locate repentance in Scripture."
Dr. Lambert is associate professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
In 1491, the king of the west central African kingdom of Kongo was baptized as a Christian by Portuguese missionaries, and in so doing, he ushered a unique and centuries-long relationship between the Kongo kingdom and European political and religious powers. Cécile Fromont, assistant professor of art history at the University of Chicago, describes the unique beliefs and material culture of Christianity that developed in the kingdom as a result of the transatlantic trade of goods and ideas.
Cécile Fromont is the author of The Art of Conversion: Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo (UNC Press, published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2014), which won the AAR's 2015 Award for the Best First Book in the History of Religions.
What can study of the beliefs and practices of one tradition bring to bear on another? Michelle Voss Roberts, associate professor of theology at Wake Forest University's divinity school, discusses how ethnographic study of Indian and South Asian Hindu rituals and aesthetics can bring new theological space to explore Christian practice. Using the Indian framework of "rasa," loosely defined as emotion or taste, Roberts suggests that Christian scholars, theologians, and practitioners can reexamine and experience the Divine through mood and affect.
Robert's 2014 book, "Tastes of the Divine: Hindu and Christian Theologies of Emotion" (Fordham University Press), won the American Academy of Religion's 2015 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion for constructive-reflective studies.
The 1991 publication of Karen McCarthy Brown’s “Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn,” now in its third edition, was a watershed contribution to the field of religious studies and became a perennial favorite among assigned textbooks. Brown’s exemplary ethnographic treatment of the religious practices of a Haitian immigrant humanized the adepts of this much-maligned African diaspora religion, and made social science methodology accessible to religious studies, a field theretofore dominated by (and still largely defined by) textual studies. Brown’s feminist scholarship valued women’s accounts of their religious practices and life experiences as data for research, and provided a self-reflexive interpretation of the relationships she established with field subjects who became her own religious family.
The panelists reflect upon the influence of Karen McCarthy Brown’s scholarship on their own research and teaching, and how her work marked, and helped to produce, the “ethnographic turn” in the study of religion. Following their discussion, Brown's students and colleagues in the audience share candid memories of their beloved teacher and friend.
Panelists: Jalane D. Schmidt, University of Virginia, Presiding Robert A. Orsi, Northwestern University Pamela Klassen, University of Toronto Aisha Beliso-De Jesus, Harvard University Claudine Michel, University of California, Santa Barbara
with remarks by Linda E. Thomas, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago Charles Selengut, County College of Morris Dorothy Austin, Harvard University Diana L. Eck, Harvard University Ennis Edmonds, Kenyon College Jack Hawley, Barnard College
The session was recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 22 in Atlanta, GA.
Scholar and filmmaker Ziba Mir-Hosseini, a specialist in Islamic law, gender and development and Professorial Research Associate at the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Law, University of London, is the recipient of the 2015 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion. At the Marty Forum, Professor Mir-Hosseini will be interviewed by Diana L. Eck, Harvard University. The Marty Award recognizes extraordinary contributions to the public understanding of religion.
Michael Kessler (Georgetown University) and Ayesha S. Chaudhry (University of British Columbia), Presiding
In this interview, Tariq Jaffer talks about the subject of his award-winning 2014 book, Razi: Master of Qur'anic Interpretation and Theological Reasoning. Razi (1148–1210), a post-classical scholar, solidified the rational method of interpretation and reasoning in the Islamic tradition.
Jaffer's book won the 2015 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the textual studies category.
A 2015 article in The Atlantic by Graeme Wood - "What ISIS Really Wants" – and the controversy it has given rise to, has brought once again to the fore questions about the kind of role scholars of religion can legitimately and usefully play in ‘defining’ religion in the public square. Wood, citing heavily the work of the Princeton Scholar of religion Bernard Haykel, is of the view that ISIS is Islamic, rooted in the textual tradition its supporters employ to authenticate their actions. In a response to this article, also in The Atlantic, Caner K. Dagli, associate professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross, is sharply critical of Wood, writing, "On what grounds do non-Muslim journalists and academics tell Muslims that their judgment that ISIS does not take a full and fair view of the Quran and Sunnah (the example and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad) amounts to a 'cotton-candy' view of Islam, while these non-Muslims retain the right to judge how 'serious' ISIS is in its understanding of core Islamic texts?"
However, it is not just non-Muslim academics and journalists and their critics who are engaging in the formation of representations of what is and is not Islamic through different media channels (responses and counter responses to What ISIS Really Wants are being played out across new social media, Twitter, blogs etc). ISIS/ISIL itself makes use of social networking to also engage in a process of making a claim on what counts as Islam and Islamic. This is a very public strategy that has involved the production and the global dissemination of videos of beheadings as well as the use of Twitter and Facebook to apparently lure young Muslim women, including those from North America and Europe, to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS and engage in ‘radical’ ‘jihadist’ activities. This in turn has received no small amount of media interest and some emergent academic commentary from those wishing to document and better understanding the way that young women might be ‘radicalized’ in this way via new media.
This panel brings together experts from both academia and journalism that have engaged with:
1) The recent controversies over the way in which ISIS/ISIL is represented in the public square by academics and journalists; and 2) How ISIS supporters represent ISIS via different forms of new social media, including the rising concern over the radicalization of young women.
The panel session was recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Atlanta, GA, November 21-24.
Panelists: Kecia Ali, Boston University Caner Dagli, College of the Holy Cross Sohaira Siddiqi, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service
Ayesha S. Chaudhry, University of British Columbia, presiding
Using the Hobby Lobby and Holt v. Hobbs Supreme Court decisions as a starting point, the panel will discuss the challenges of valuing religion in law, addressing such questions as: Do court decisions in cases such as Hobby Lobby and Holt v. Hobbs serve or undermine religious pluralism? When are religious exemptions to laws that apply generally to everyone warranted? How ought religious liberty be weighed against other rights (e.g., equal protection of the laws—LGBT rights)? How do the Supreme Court Justices' opinions reflect the broader societal arguments about what counts as “religious exercise” and whether or how religion is valued in public spaces?
Panelists: Matthew Scherer, George Mason University Winnifred Sullivan, Indiana University Mark Silk, Trinity College Barbara A. McGraw, Saint Mary’s
This audio was recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on Sunday, November 22.
In this conversation with Kristian Petersen, scholar Winnifred Fallers Sullivan discusses how the role of chaplains in the United States developed alongside understandings of the First Amendment. Chaplaincy, she argues, provides a legal solution to the fragile problem posed by the free exercise and establishment clauses in the Constitution.
Sullivan is the author of "A Ministry of Presence: Chaplaincy, Spiritual Care, and the Law" (University of Chicago Press, 2014, which won the American Academy of Religion's Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the analytical-descriptive studies category.
Just over fifty years ago, on October 22, 1965, Paul Tillich died, just days after having given his final public lecture. Consideration of the theological endeavor between then and now highlights how seminal his thought has been within the field of religion. In contemporary parlance, it could be said that in many ways today’s Academy is Tillich gone viral. On this panel, leading scholars address how Tillich’s ideas have contributed to their work in religion and science, theology and culture, theology and psychology, black liberation theology, feminist theology, ground of being theologies, and theology and world religions. The vibrancy of Tillich’s contribution to the constructive work of these scholars indicates the lasting nature of his influence on the field.
A Q&A with the panelists and respondents (see below) follows.
Panelists: Harvey Cox, Harvard University Robert Russell, Center for Theology and Natural Sciences, Berkeley, CA Pamela Cooper-White, Union Theological Seminary Willie J. Jennings, Yale University
Respondents: Mary Ann Stenger, University of Louisville John Thatamanil, Union Theological Seminary
Sharon Peebles Burch, Presiding
This panel was recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 22.
This roundtable brings together public health experts and religion scholars to ask what we can learn from the epidemic in relation to the potential of religion to help or hinder effective responses to threats like Ebola, both in and beyond Africa, and how religious studies can nuance public health understandings of African realities.
Epidemics always highlight or exaggerate the power relations and inequalities that characterize everyday life--no less so in the case of the West African Ebola epidemic. The epidemic has revealed the inadequacy of medical infrastructures in Africa, the influence that international institutions have over African public health crises, and the prejudices that inform popular understandings of the continent. Religion has played a key role in these dynamics. Not only have ritual practices allegedly contributed to the epidemic's spread, but religious leaders have tried to educate their followers in collaboration with public health authorities to stem the epidemic.
Panelists: Elias Kifon Bongmba, Rice University Scott Santibañez, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention John Blevins, Emory University Ellen Idler, Emory University
Joseph Hellweg, Florida State University, Presiding
This roundtable was recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 23 in Atlanta, GA.
Pressure on humanistic disciplines like religious studies is enormous in the modern academy. From budget cuts and threats of downsizing, the professionalization of students and the instrumentalization of higher ed, to the adjunctification of faculties and STEM orientations that demand ever-increasing career-oriented outcomes for graduates, religious studies departments are no longer self-justifying in many colleges and universities.
This Special Topic Forum, recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, explores how religious studies departments have been and can be successful in defending their programs in the face of budget cuts or other pressures, and thus how we articulate the "value" of the study of religion to administrators and boards, to the broader academy, to funding sources like donors and legislatures, and to the public at large. Panelists, from community colleges, and private and public institutions, will share their experiences of navigating funding crises and share strategies for how to articulate the many "values" of the study of religion.
Panelists: Susan E. Hill, University of Northern Iowa Charles A. Kimball, University of Oklahoma Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida Grant H. Potts, Austin Community College
Erik Owens, Boston College, Presiding
This roundtable session features a discussion of Frans de Waal's Work on the theme of the development of "moral" practices outside of religion.
Dr. Frans B. M. de Waal is one of the world’s leading primatologists, known for his work on the behavior and social intelligence of primates. His book, The Bonobo and the Atheist, examines the origins and evolution of morality and the role of religion in human society.
He is C. H. Candler Professor in the Psychology Department of Emory University and Director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Center, in Atlanta. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (US), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. In 2007, he was selected by Time as one of The Worlds’ 100 Most Influential People Today, and in 2011 by Discover as among 47 (all time) Great Minds of Science.
Panelists: Frans de Waal, Emory University Sarah Brosnan, Georgia State University Edward Slingerland. University of British Columbia Robert N. McCauley, Emory University Azim Shariff, University of Oregon
Dimitris Xygalatas, University of Connecticut, Presiding
This roundtable session was recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on Saturday, November 21 in Atlanta, GA.
Anya Bernstein talks to Religious Studies News about her book Religious Bodies Politic: Rituals of Sovereignty in Buryat Buddhism (University of Chicago Press), which won the American Academy of Religion’s 2014 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Analytical-Descriptive Studies.
Music is Dexter Britain, "Fresh Monday"(www.dexterbritain.co.uk)
This panel session was added to the 2015 AAR program only a week before the Annual Meeting in response to the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, France. The panel of scholars, whose areas of focus range from interreligious dialogue to political Islam to French secularism to ancient Christianity. They discuss the media, Islamophobia, religious violence, geopolitics, rational actors, and activism. They engage questions including: what are the connections between the Paris attacks, other recent attacks in Europe, and ISIS-inspired attacks in Beirut and Baghdad? What should the role of scholars of religion be in contesting Islamophobia and debating appropriate responses to terrorism? How can scholars of religion help shape attitudes and conversations about Islam, religion and violence in the general public? How might the attacks in Paris, Beirut, and elsewhere open up classroom conversations about broader issues in the study of religion?
The panel discussion is followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Panel Participants: Sarah Rollens, Rhodes College Stephanie Frank, Columbia College, Chicago Edward E. Curtis, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis Jerusha Lamptey, Union Theological Seminary
Todd Green, Luther College, Presiding
This panel was recorded on November 21 at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Atlanta, GA.
In this plenary 2015 AAR president Tom Tweed addresses urgent issues we face within and beyond the academy by asking about how the study of religion is valued. First, he analyzes how it is valued—and devalued—in the public arena and discerns what that can tell us about how to refine the usual arguments for the importance of the study of religion and, thereby, help endangered programs fare better in negotiations with administrators and stakeholders. Second, he encourages the Academy to identify the epistemic, moral, and aesthetic values it enacts to confront two challenges we face in the AAR: how to advance the divisive conversation about divergent approaches and how to enhance our ongoing discussion about professional obligations and professional ethics—from institutions’ duty to report graduate student placement rates to individual researchers’ obligation to adhere to standards of professional conduct. We must remain vigilant in addressing trends that violate shared commitments and endanger professional life—from the recent rise in contingent faculty to the chilling challenges to academic freedom. Finally, a focus on values allows us to address divisions within the academy by reframing the stale debate about the relation between religious studies and theology. By frankly acknowledging our guiding values—and concomitant normative judgments—we will not resolve all differences, but we might gain more clarity about what we share and what we don’t.
Serene Jones, of Union Theological Seminary, presides over the session and introduces Tweed.
This plenary was recorded at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 22, 2015 in Atlanta, GA.
This conversation focuses on one of the most enduring and difficult issues facing the Academy: what is the relationship between theology and religious studies? 2015 AAR president Tom Tweed presides over the exchange between Ann Taves, a distinguished scholar of religious studies (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Graham Ward, a distinguished scholar of theology (University of Oxford), by asking each to identify the epistemic, moral, and aesthetic values that inform their work.
Recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the AAR in Atlanta, GA. The 2015 annual meeting focused on “Valuing the Study of Religion,” which includes pondering how religion has been valued—and devalued—in public spaces. Addressing a variety of social spaces from the legislature to the streets, this panel analyzes religious responses to racial injustice. In 2015, the fiftieth anniversary of the historic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, attending to injustice seems more morally urgent than ever. Considering both the historical trajectory that led us to this painful moment and the religious resources activists have employed, this conversation brings together notable voices to offer their assessments of the contemporary situation. Ruby Sales, the human rights activist and public theologian who joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s and later founded a non-profit organization dedicated to “racial, economic, and social justice,” joins Cornel West, distinguished religion scholar and democratic intellectual, in a conversation with Professor Imani Perry, a celebrated scholar of African American Studies and Law who has written eloquently about racial injustice and “pathways to freedom, equality, and enriched democracy.”
Panelists: Imani Perry, Princeton University Cornel West, Union Theological Seminary Ruby Nell Sales, SpiritHouse Project, Atlanta, GA
Thomas A. Tweed, University of Notre Dame, Presiding
Leela Prasad, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Duke University, was awarded an American Academy of Religion’s 2014 Individual Research Grant. She talks to Religious Studies News about her project Moved by Gandhi -- A Documentary Film.
Music is Dexter Britain, “Fresh Monday” (www.dexterbritain.co.uk)
Mark Rowe, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at McMaster University, was awarded an American Academy of Religion’s 2014 Individual Research Grant. He talks to Religious Studies News about his project Female Priests in Japanese Temple Buddhism.
Music is Dexter Britain, “Fresh Monday” (www.dexterbritain.co.uk)
Brian Pennington, Director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society and Professor of Religious Studies at Elon University, was awarded an American Academy of Religion’s 2014 Individual Research Grant. He talks to Religious Studies News about his project Natural Disaster and Divine Agency: Hindu Theodicies of Climate Change.
Music is Dexter Britain, “Fresh Monday” (www.dexterbritain.co.uk)
SherAli Tareen, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin and Marshall College, was awarded an American Academy of Religion’s 2014 Individual Research Grant. He talks to Religious Studies News about his project Islam, Tradition, and Democracy: The Case of the Deoband Madrasa.
Music is Dexter Britain, “Fresh Monday” (www.dexterbritain.co.uk)
A panel discussion with Judith Butler about her book "Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism" (Columbia University Press, 2012).
November 25, 2013 Baltimore, Maryland
Panelists: Claire Katz, Texas A&M University Samuel Brody, University of Cincinnati Yaniv Feller, University of Toronto Mark Lewis Taylor, Princeton Theological Seminary Saba Mahmood, University of California, Berkeley Martin Kavka, Lehigh University Judith Butler, University of California, Berkeley (Responding) Rebecca Alpert, Temple University (Presiding)
(Audio File: 2 hours, 28 minutes)
November 25, 2013 American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting Baltimore, Maryland
Panelists: Shaun Allen Casey, Wesley Theological Seminary Ingrid Mattson, University of Western Ontario Josef Sorett, Columbia University Laurie Zoloth, Northwestern University (Presiding)
(Audio File: 57 minutes)
November 25, 2013 Baltimore, Maryland
Panelists: Robert P. Jones, Public Religion Research Institute E.J. Dionne, The Brookings Institution and Washington Post Kristin Heyer, Santa Clara University Manuel A. Vasquez, University of Florida William Galston, The Brookings Institution Erik Owens, Boston College (Presiding)
(Audio File: 2 hours, 26 minutes)
November 24, 2013 Baltimore, Maryland
Panelists: Harvey Cox, Harvard University David Little, Harvard University Ann Swidler, University of California, Berkeley Steven M. Tipton, Emory University Richard Madsen, University of California, San Diego Harlan Stelmach, Dominican University of California Philip Gorski, Yale University Anna Sun, Kenyon College Mark Juergensmeyer, U. of California, Santa Barbara (Presiding)
(Audio File: 1 hour, 33 minutes)
November 24, 2013 Baltimore, Maryland
Panelists: Wendell Berry, Port Royal, Kentucky Norman Wirzba, Duke University Michael Kessler, Georgetown University (Presiding)
(Audio File: 1 hour, 32 minutes)
November 24, 2013 Baltimore, Maryland
Panelists: John L. Esposito, Georgetown University Laurie Zoloth, Northwestern University (Presiding)
(Audio File: 54 minutes)
November 23, 2013 Baltimore, Maryland
Panelists: Diana L. Eck, Harvard University Charles A. Kimball, University of Oklahoma John L. Esposito, Georgetown University (Presiding)
(Audio File: 56 minutes)
November 23, 2013 Baltimore, Maryland
Panelists: Joan Chittister, Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Erie, PA Ingrid Mattson, University of Western Ontario Ivan Petrella, Universidad Di Tella; Universidad San Andres Thomas Reese, National Catholic Reporter George Weigel, Ethics and Public Policy Center Erik Owens, Boston College (Presiding)
(Audio File: 2 hours, 20 minutes)
November 23, 2013 Baltimore, Maryland
Panelists: Adrian Ivakhiv, University of Vermont Bron Taylor, University of Florida Daniel Deudney, Johns Hopkins University Tim Morton, Rice University William E. Connolly, John Hopkins University Sarah M. Pike, California State University, Chico (Presiding)
(Audio File: 2 hours, 11 minutes)
November 23, 2013 Baltimore, Maryland
Panelists: Karen Armstrong, Charter for Compassion John L. Esposito, Georgetown University (Presiding)
(Audio File: 58 minutes)
Andrew Quintman talks to Religious Studies News about his book The Yogin and the Madman: Reading the Biographical Corpus of Tibet's Great Saint Milarepa (Columbia University Press), which won the American Academy of Religion’s 2014 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Textual Studies.
Music is Dexter Britain, "Fresh Monday"(www.dexterbritain.co.uk)
Kyle Harper talks to Religious Studies News about his book From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity (Harvard University Press), which won the American Academy of Religion’s 2014 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Historical Studies.
Music is Dexter Britain, "Fresh Monday"(www.dexterbritain.co.uk)
Anna Sun talks to Religious Studies News about her book Confucianism as a World Religion: Contested Histories and Contemporary Realities (Princeton University Press), which won the American Academy of Religion’s 2014 Best First Book in the History of Religions award.
Music is Dexter Britain, "Fresh Monday"(www.dexterbritain.co.uk)
Willis Jenkins talks to Religious Studies News about his book The Future of Ethics: Sustainability, Social Justice, and Religious Creativity (Georgetown University Press), which won the American Academy of Religion’s 2014 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Constructive-Reflective Studies.
Music is Dexter Britain, "Fresh Monday"(www.dexterbritain.co.uk)