NAASR CFP 2025
Interlocutions II: The Extra/Ordinary
“There is nothing more difficult to convey than reality in all its ordinariness.” (Pierre Bourdieu, On Television, 1998)
“Crisis is not exceptional to history or consciousness but a process embedded in the ordinary that unfolds in stories about navigating what’s overwhelming.” (Lauren Berlant, Cruel Optimism, 2011)
Last year’s NAASR program brought discourses in other academic fields to bear on the study of religion, examining new directions for our field moving forward. The 2025 meeting will advance this interdisciplinary endeavor more specifically by hosting discussions aimed at exploring how, in our scholarly methodologies and vocabularies—whether in our field or in others—we draw distinctions between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Scholars in religious studies have staked out a particular corner of the broad humanistic charge to “make the strange familiar and the familiar strange,” sometimes separating out an aspect of the mundane and presenting it as exceptional, and sometimes taking what others consider exceptional and demonstrating how it is, in fact, exceedingly mundane. Such scholarly moves reflect the deepest currents of our methodological agendas, including the critiques our field has offered of the arbitrary lines separating the sacred from the profane, the “savage” from the “civilized,” and the normal from the pathological.
Priority will be given to papers that depart from well-trod avenues of inquiry; rather than revisit, e.g., the sacred/profane or religious/secular dichotomies (on which there is already a massive literature), we hope to see interventions that draw attention to less-studied forms of exceptionalizing or reducing, including (but not limited to) narratives of crisis, normalization, exception, societal structuration, and the everyday. What forms of methodological exceptionalizing or reducing seem necessary for you to accomplish your work? How can the field move forward with a more nuanced understanding of the stakes of distinguishing the ordinary and the extraordinary? We especially seek examples of how scholars treat social phenomena as exceptional or ordinary and how/why these distinctions emerge in our data, our methodologies, and our theoretical frameworks. These examples can come from within religious studies or from outside the field. Presentations may focus on how religious studies scholarship might be recast with the assistance of work outside the field, or they may draw attention to how the categories in religious studies can help recast the categories elsewhere.
In making this call, NAASR takes inspiration from the challenge implicit in Bourdieu’s claim that “There is nothing more difficult to convey than reality in all its ordinariness,” and in Lauren Berlant’s treatment of “crisis” not as an exceptional event but a process that produces and shifts the boundaries of what counts as ordinary. Such an emphasis necessarily alters the way we might think of a wide range of discourses, from a “crisis of faith” to the “crisis” in the humanities, and beyond.
The 2025 program will retain last year’s conversational, roundtable format. To that end, individual submissions for individual presentations should consist simply of a brief (500-word max) abstract identifying a particular scholarly treatment of something as extraordinary/special or ordinary/mundane, exploring its methodological investments and implications. Include your name, institution, and email address on your submission.
In lieu of submitting full papers in advance of the meeting, participants will submit an outline of key ideas (and a brief annotated bibliography, if relevant) in early October 2025. Ultimately, the aim is to publish these sessions as an edited volume within the NAASR Working Papers series with Equinox. Therefore, by submitting a proposal for the annual meeting, you are agreeing to contribute a version of your remarks as a chapter in said volume. While the program will emphasize a conversational format with only informal notes due in advance, full-length essays (roughly 3,000-4,000 words) will be due by January 31, 2026.
Proposals are due by March 31 at 5pm EST via an email to Merinda Simmons with the subject line “NAASR 2025 Proposal.”
Direct any questions about this process to Merinda as well.
Method and Theory: CFP
CALL FOR PAPERS – FEBRUARY 2025 – METHOD AND THEORY IN THE STUDY OF RELIGION
The editors of Method and Theory in the Study of Religion (MTSR) would like to announce calls for
papers on four special topics: 1) On Money, 2) The Meat Paradox, 3) Decolonizing the Study of Religion,
and 4) Global Connected Histories for the Study of Religion. See below for brief descriptions; the full call
is attached. Feel free to distribute this call widely and share with anyone who may be interested.
MTSR is the journal of the North American Association of the Study of Religion and encourages new
submissions that broaden methodological and theoretical horizons in the academic study of religion. Click here to submit an article on any topic relevant to the journal. If you are submitting in response to this CfP, please select the article type “Call for Papers” and be sure that your abstract and cover letter mention the relevant call (e.g. “Decolonizing the Study of Religion”).
1. On Money
This CfP invites scholars of religion to approach money by critically examining the construction of its
apparent normality, and the process by which money as a technological fiction is transformed into
something “real.” Without reducing “money” to “religion,” it aims to deconstruct the ordinariness of money. How can method and theory in the study of religion bring new insights into the mythologization of moneyand the mythic entity called money?
2. The Meat Paradox
Human relationships with meat have always been paradoxical. While some see meat consumption as
necessary, others consider it to be murder. Many societies (past and present) have handled this paradox
through ceremonies expressing gratitude and respect for the animal. Moderns more often resolve it
through concealment and desensitization. Existing studies on meat in religious studies tend to focus on
ancient sacrificial rituals. This CfP asks scholars of religion instead to consider modern industrial systems
of meat production and meat consumption. The goal here is not to discuss the ostensibly “religious”
aspect of meat production, or the lack thereof. Rather, how might the tools of religious studies shed new
light on such topics as animal-human relations, concealment of violence, mechanization of killing,
production of indifference through divisions of labor, and more?
3. Decolonizing the Study of Religion
MTSR seeks papers that will contribute to a more robust theorization of decolonization in the study of
religion. Scholars working in this area have argued that decolonizing religious studies must include
questioning assumptions about what counts as legitimate scholarship in the field and who has the right to determine its contours (Avalos 2024; Nye 2024). Colonial modernity arguably produced the entire field of religious studies and the very concept of “religion” itself. If so, what kinds of transformation should be carried out in the name of decolonizing the field? What does decolonizing religious studies mean for method and theory in the field? Where and how could the study of religion be reconstructed after its colonial structures have been dismantled?
4. Global Connected Histories for the Study of Religion
This CfP aims to deepen recent critiques of the world religions paradigm and the idea of European
Enlightenment. The dominant discourse of modernity assumes its origin in the European Enlightenment
and its eventual triumph over “religion.” More critical narratives have described how ostensibly “secular”
modern thinking colonized indigenous ways of life in many parts of the world. Recent work in archaeology and intellectual history, however, suggests an ancient history of mutual influence across continents and deep historical connections among the traditions commonly known as “world religions.” At the same time, new scholarship shows how Africans, Native Americans, and enslaved people in the Americas played key roles in the intellectual revolutions of the Enlightenment, including the emergence of secular epistemes.
MTSR invites papers that consider the implications of connected histories of “world religions,” and/or non-European origins of the European Enlightenment, for method and theory in the study of religion.
NAASR 2024 Annual Meeting
Interlocutions
Interlocutions
About our program: The 2024 NAASR Annual Meeting will provide a space to explore contemporary theoretical gains that have a bearing on and/or implications for academic studies of religion. Doing so will not only diversify our conversational points of analysis but also demand a sharper focus on NAASR’s own specific theoretical commitments. Inasmuch as religious studies is a necessarily interdisciplinary field, we will think about and discuss scholarly inroads and debates that newly energize our analyses of discourses on religion. Many of us engage with such discourses in our own work, but bringing them to bear more directly on the NAASR program will hopefully refocus our organization as a hub for scholarly interlocutions by way of publication and analysis. The motivation for doing so is a drive to make our scholarly critiques all the clearer, expanding our critical canon by remembering that theory is not a defensive response but a generator of new knowledge. To that end, we will not recapitulate academic “greatest hits” within social theory but instead think about the current work that is exciting us but which may be unfamiliar to our colleagues within NAASR.
[ABSTRACTS AND OUTLINE of participant presentations are available below]
Virtual Programming | Saturday, November 16
(Click here to register and receive a Zoom link for these sessions.)
Meet the Editors: The Place of NAASR Publications in the Field
12:00-1:30pm EST
K. Merinda Simmons, Editor of Concepts in the Study of Religion: Critical Primers
Leslie Dorrough Smith, Editor of Interdisciplinary Studies in Religion: Key Thinkers
Mitsutoshi Horii and Tisa Wenger, Editors of Method & Theory in the Study of Religion
Emily Crews, Editor of NAASR Working Papers
Keynote Address
Cobbled Fictions: Lessons from Cultural History in Reception and Aesthetics
2:30-4:00pm EST
Robyn Faith Walsh, University of Miami
The grand fiction of the lily-white art and built environment of ancient Greece and Rome has largely been debunked in recent years. Likewise, of late there has been greater recognition of the tattered and often paltry state of our manuscript traditions in fields like early Christianity. All of this has necessitated self-reflection in certain corners of religious studies about the assumptions we perpetuate in our scholarship. This is a reckoning that has taken place within cultural and art history, classics, and related disciplines and there is much that we can still learn from their examples. In this keynote, I will discuss how cultural aesthetics intersect with our theoretical approaches to history-telling by reexamining the museum and tourism industries and how they have packaged a highly romantic idea of the past that we have been reticent to challenge. I will also discuss the real-world implications for continuing to authorize an ancient Mediterranean imaginary steeped in the aesthetics of violence and colonialization.
Virtual Happy Hour
4:00pm EST
In-Person Programming | Friday, November 22-Sunday, November 24
Friday, November 22
Human/Subject/World
10:00-11:50am
Grand Hyatt, Balboa A-C
This roundtable will engage with questions and topics related but not limited to: subjectivity and data networks, critical access studies, waste studies, digital technologies, governmentality and global religions, indigenous studies, queer theory, trauma studies, and structures of time.
Tenzan Eaghll, ISIC, RMUTK, Bangkok
Adrian Hermann, University of Bonn
Matt Sheedy, University of Bonn
Lauren Lovestone, Florida State University
Interrelation and Cognition
1:00-2:50pm
Grand Hyatt, Balboa A-C
This roundtable will engage with questions and topics related but not limited to: affect theory, cognitive studies (including cognitive psychology, cognitive science, and analytic philosophy of mind), structuring dynamics of belief and social groups, and critical methodologies in studies of history and text.
Chris Jones, Washburn University
Daniel Miller, Landmark College
Cooper Minister, Shenandoah University
Structure and Infrastructure
3:00-4:50pm
Grand Hyatt, Balboa A-C
This roundtable will engage with questions and topics related but not limited to: infrastructure studies, animal studies, theories of nationalism and social conservatism, neo-liberalism and deregulated markets, formalism and literary theory, fiscal/monetary studies, and theories of the “gimmick.”
Talia Burnside, Florida State University
Finbarr Curtis, Georgia Southern University
Mike Altman, University of Alabama
Saturday, November 23
Business Meeting
11:00am-12:00pm
Grand Hyatt, Balboa A-C
Cross-currents: Interdisciplinary Applications of Religious Studies
1:00-2:50pm
Grand Hyatt, Balboa A-C
While the other sessions will focus on the potential influence of other disciplines on religious studies, this roundtable will consider where and how other disciplines can benefit from greater familiarity with established research in our field. Where are the findings of our field currently being applied? Where might/ought our findings be utilized? What might we as scholars do to translate our findings more effectively for other disciplines?
Jennifer Eyl, Tufts University
Mayanthi Fernando, University of California—Santa Cruz
Donovan Schaefer, University of Pennsylvania
Jolyon Thomas, University of Pennsylvania
Leslie Dorrough Smith, Avila University
Retrospective on Jonathan Z. Smith’s Drudgery Divine
4:00-6:30pm
Convention Center, 20A (Upper Level East)
Co-sponsored with Rethinking Christian Origins Seminar, Society of Biblical Literature
This panel offers a reassessment of and re-engagement with Jonathan Z. Smith’s Drudgery Divine. Panelists will discuss and reflect on the legacy of Smith’s work on the study of religion in antiquity, and theory of religion more broadly. The panel is a joint session with the Rethinking Christian Origins seminar of the Society of Biblical Literature.
Jennifer Eyl, Tufts University, Presiding
Karen Devries, University of Colorado—Colorado Springs
Russell McCutcheon, University of Alabama
Pamela Klassen, University of Toronto
Kevin Schilbrack, Appalachian State University
Deane Galbraith, University of Otago
Sarah Rollens, Rhodes College
Robyn Walsh, University of Miami
Brian Rainey, Interdenominational Theological Center
Theron Clay Mock, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität—München
Sunday, November 24
NAASR Working Group Meeting: American Examples
9:00-11:50am
Grand Hyatt, Balboa A-C
This working group meeting is for existing members of the American Examples research workshop, as well as those possibly interested in participating in the future.
New Research Roundup: The Follow Up
On March 16th, NAASR members gathered virtually to talk about their new research and the scholarship from outside of Religious Studies that was inspiring them. Dr. Lauren Horn Griffin (Louisiana State University) and Dr. Vaia Touna (University of Alabama) shared about their current research projects and the conversation that followed produced a list of exciting resources! We have collected those here and have included a little blurb from the person who suggested the resource:
- Algorithmic Culture Before the Internet by Ted Striphas (Columbia University Press, 2023).
- The book asks how we construct ideas of “culture” and how those ideas both change with new media but also influence our perception of new media. An exciting question that comes out of this is how the Arnoldian idea that culture consists of the best thought of a time might relate to how we imagine the ranking and selection functions of social-media algorithms. (Suggestion by Lauren Horn Griffin)
- Algorithmic Desire: Toward a New Structuralist Theory of Social Media by Matthew Flisfader (Northwestern University Press, 2021).
- This book tracks the ways in which new media follows the logic of neoliberal desire and shapes our desire in line with the reigning forms of ideology. (Suggestion by Matt Sheedy)
- Ancient Greece on British Television edited by Fiona Hobden and Amanda Wrigley (Edinburgh University Press, 2019).
- An edited volume that explores the way Ancient Greek myths adopted and adapted to meet present interests in a variety of tv genre, from documentaries to animation, that were produced and broadcasted on British Tv since the ’50s showcasing how “Ancient Greece” is always “in the making.” (Suggestion by Vaia Touna)
- Archaeology and the Senses: Human Experience, Memory, and Affect by Yannis Hamilakis (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
- Hamilakis is arguing for a different approach to the archaeological practice one that considers bodily senses, aiming to reconstitute archaeology as a sensorial and affective multi-temporal practice. (Suggestion by Vaia Touna)
- Artifact and Artifice: Classical Archaeology and the Ancient Historian by Jonathan M. Hall (University of Chicago Press, 2014).
- Through a series of cases studies Hall is looking at how historians construct a past that is not supported when one is looking at the archaeological evidence, urging for a collaboration between history and classical archaeology as a way to make up for the discrepancy. (Suggestion by Vaia Touna)
- Deconstructing History by Alun Munslow (Routledge, 2006 [1997]).
- In this book Alun Munslow looks at the historical practice as has developed after the postmodern era. He not only provides an overview of the debates and issues of postmodernist history but also offers his own challenging theories as a way forward. (Suggestion by Vaia Touna)
- Digital Mythology And The Internet’s Monster: The Slender Man by Vivian Asimos (Bloomsbury, 2021).
- In this book Vivian Asimos is looking at Slender Man, a story of a monster that emerged in the digital world, Asimos is interested in answering two questions “what cultural group can claim the Slender Man?” and “What is the myth actually saying?” To answer these questions Asimos proposes a structuralist approach arguing that the method offers more possibilities in understanding the digital culture. (Suggestion by Vaia Touna)
- Haunting History: For a Deconstructive Approach to the Past by Ethan Kleinberg (Stanford University Press, 2017).
- This book has interesting things to say about, among other things, how scholarly historicizing efforts fetishize lived experience, materialism, and the “real.” Kleinberg offers a Derridean approach to the past, positioning it as both present and absent and applying it to contemporary digital forms of historical writing. (Suggestion by K. Merinda Simmons)
- Immediacy: Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism by Anna Kornbluh (Verso Books, 2024).
- This book argues that ‘immediacy’ is the new master-category for understanding 21st century cultural production, where things like same-day shipping, on-demand viewing, and algorithmic curation limit our capacity to mediate the world through systems and theories in favour of a post-critical NOW. (Suggestion by Matt Sheedy)
- “Recycling History: An Essay” by Carla Nappi (and other books)
- Nappi is a “historical pataphysician” who plays with scholarly methods in really exciting and novel ways. Her discussions are useful to anyone interested in questions of method and theory. (Suggestion by K. Merinda Simmons)
- Secrets, Lies, and Consenquences: A Great Scholar’s Hidden Past and His Protégés Unsolved Murder by Bruce Lincoln (Oxford University Press, 2023).
- A page-turner and a must-read book especially for religious studies scholars. Bruce Lincoln is looking at the events that led to the unsolved murder of Ioan Culianu, associate professor at the University of Chicago and Mircea Eliade’s protégé, starting from Mircea Eliade’s involvement with the Romanian fascist movement. The book certainly is an invitation to self-reflexivity of the field’s complex past. (Suggestion by Vaia Touna)
- The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff (Hachette Book Group, 2019).
- This book draws heavily on thinkers like W.H. Auden and Emile Durkheim and takes aim the ways in which corporations like Google have increasingly monetized human digital relations, leading to what she calls a ‘third modernity,’ where the means of production happens out of sight, over and above our heads. (Suggestion by Matt Sheedy)
- The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media by José van Dijck (Oxford University Press, 2013).
- This book looks at how then-emerging forms of networked communication has lead to platformed modes of sociality, tracing early developments that have shaped our echo-cultural worlds. (Suggestion by Matt Sheedy)
- This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture by Whitney Phillips (MIT Press, 2016).
- The book talks about trolling as a feature rather than a bug of the contemporary media landscape. Focusing on cultural context rather than the exceptionalism of a specific phenomenon, it’s got some interesting resonance for religion scholars who want to think about how phenomena (whether media-related or not) are manufactured. (Suggestion by K. Merinda Simmons)
- Trans: Gender and Race in an Age of Unsettled Identities by Rogers Brubaker (Princeton University Press, 2016).
- In this book Roger Brubaker is interested in exploring “the contemporary transformations of, and struggles over, gender and race as systems of social classification” by looking at the cases of Caitlyn Jenner and Rachel Dolezal and the kind of discussions they have sparked both within but also outside scholarly circles. (Suggestion by Vaia Touna)
- “Twenty Theses on Posthumanism, Political Affect, and Proliferation” by Dominic Pettman
- ” I use this in as many class settings as possible. It’s a terrific list of concise statements that both introduce people to posthumanism and make important claims about technology and social formation. (Suggestion by K. Merinda Simmons)
MTSR Special Issue: Indigenous Epistemologies and the Study of Religion
In recent years, critical Indigenous studies has challenged the Western European and colonial episteme that has shaped academic disciplines and fields such as anthropology, history, philosophy, and religious studies. Indigenous studies scholars and activists have long tested the limits of unitive epistemological and ontological thinking by deploying Indigenous situated knowledges/onto-epistemologies as a valid and valuable scholarship.
For this special issue, we invite contributors to consider what possibilities engagement with critical Indigenous studies might present for the study of religion. How might the field be regarded if Western/European epistemology and ontology are not assumed to be a unitive framework and the academic norm? The category of “religion” itself, as many scholars have observed, emerged from very specific European imperial and colonial histories as well as the Enlightenment project. The term “religion” has been adopted and adapted and sometimes rejected by Indigenous nations/peoples who live with and negotiate colonialism and colonization in traditional territories across the globe. What would the study of religion look like—in terms of theory and method, approaches, and themes—when, if, and how scholars of religion ground their work in “making kin” with Indigenous collective knowledges and ways of relating?
Method and Theory in the Study of Religion invites article submissions for a proposed special issue on Indigenous Epistemologies and the Study of Religion co-edited by Paul Gareau (Métis; Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta) and Molly Bassett (white settler; Department of Religious Studies, Georgia State University). Please submit a short proposal (up to 1,000 words) to mbassett@gsu.edu by July 15, 2024. If invited to submit, your final article (8,000-12,000 words) would be due by January 15, 2025 through the submission portal at Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
NAASR 2024 Annual Meeting CFP
2024 Call for Papers!
Interlocutions
The 2024 NAASR Annual Meeting will provide a space to explore contemporary theoretical gains that have a bearing on and/or implications for academic studies of religion. Doing so will not only diversify our conversational points of analysis but also demand a sharper focus on NAASR’s own specific theoretical commitments. Inasmuch as religious studies is a necessarily interdisciplinary field, we should think about and discuss scholarly inroads and debates that newly energize our analyses of discourses on religion. Many of us engage with such discourses in our own work, but bringing them to bear more directly on the NAASR program will hopefully refocus our organization as a hub for scholarly interlocutions by way of publication and analysis. The motivation for doing so is a drive to make our scholarly critiques all the clearer, expanding our critical canon by remembering that theory is not a defensive response but a generator of new knowledge. To that end, let’s not recapitulate academic “greatest hits” within social theory but instead think about the current work that is exciting us but which may be unfamiliar to our colleagues within NAASR.
We thus invite submissions that invoke contemporary scholarship (published within the last ten years) from a discourse outside the disciplinary constraints of religious studies and discuss its utility for academic studies of religion as such. Possible areas of emphasis—whether applied to ancient or present-day contexts—include but are not at all limited to:
Aesthetic Studies
Affect Theory
Ancient and Pre-Modern Materialities
Art History
Black and Africana Studies (including approaches such as Afro-futurism and Afro-pessimism)
Cognitive Science and Cognitive Psychology
Diaspora/Migration Studies
Global Development Studies
Heterodox Economics and New Class Critique
Indigenous Studies
Latinx Studies
Literary Theory
Queer Theory and Contemporary Gender Studies
Postcolonial Theory
Posthumanism, Cybernetics, and/or Media Theory
Post-Marxist Theory
Psychoanalytic Theory
Philosophy of Nature and Environmental Theory
Political Science and Legal Studies
Submissions for individual presentations should consist of a brief (500-word max) abstract identifying a particular area of emphasis, presenting the basic arc of a contemporary thread of scholarship (whether a specific thinker, text, or discussion/debate), and explaining its significance for discourse on “religion.”
In lieu of submitting full papers in advance of the meeting, participants will submit an outline of key ideas from this thread of scholarship and a brief annotated bibliography (which may consist only of one text depending on the presentation’s focus) in early October 2024. Panels will consist of presenters and discussants selected by the program committee, talking together about how and why they find a certain text/scholar/discussion useful to their work in religious studies.
Ultimately, the aim is to publish these sessions as an edited volume within the NAASR Working Papers series with Equinox. Therefore, by submitting a proposal for the annual meeting, you are agreeing to contribute a version of your remarks as a chapter in said volume.
Proposals are due by March 15 at 5pm EST! Click here to submit a proposal.
Direct any questions about this process to Merinda Simmons.
2023 NAASR Annual Meeting
2023 NAASR Annual Meeting Program
Exploring the “Ecologies” of Scholarship in the Study of Religion
#naasr2023
ONLINE (PRE-CONFERENCE) Program
Saturday, November 11, 2023 (via Zoom link)
Register for the online (pre-conference) program here.
MEET THE EDITORS: Religion in 5 Minutes Series (Equinox Publishing)
12:00-1:30pm EST
Russell McCutcheon (University of Alabama), Series Co-Editor
Natalie Avalos (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Suzanne Owen (Leeds Trinity University)
Angela Puca (Leeds Trinity University)
Teemu Taira (University of Helsinki)
Emily Crews (University of Chicago)
Rebekka King (MTSU), Presiding
BREAK (30min-1hr)
2023 KEYNOTE ADDRESS
2:00-4:00pm EST
Leslie Dorrough Smith (Avila University)
A Different Type of Climate Crisis: Thinking and Teaching With Critical Interdisciplinarity When the University is on Fire
Annual Virtual “Happy Hour”
6:00pm EST
IN-PERSON PROGRAM
November 17-18, San Antonio, TX
Friday, November 17, 2023
Research Environment
10:00 am – 11:50 am
Hilton, The Stetson
Prespondent:
Sarah Dees (Iowa State University)
Panelists:
Allison Isidore (University of Iowa)
Rebecca Janzen (University of South Carolina)
Stacie Swain (University of Victoria)
Javan Smith (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Presiding
Dissemination Platform
1:00 pm – 2:50 pm
Hilton, The Stetson
Prespondent:
Lauren Horn Griffin (Louisiana State University)
Panelists:
Jacob Barrett (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Thomas J. Carrico (Independent Scholar)
Daniel Miller (Landmark College)
Trevor Linn (University of Alabama)
Edith Szanto (University of Alabama)
Anastasia Popham (Nebraska Wesleyan University), Presiding
Institutional Climate
3:00 pm – 4:50 pm
Hilton, The Stetson
Prespondent:
Rita Lester (Nebraska Wesleyan University)
Panelists:
Savannah Finver (Ohio State University) & Craig Martin (St. Thomas Aquinas College)
Chris Jones (Washburn University)
Matthew Baldwin (Mars Hill University)
Chris Miller (University of Ottawa)
Allison Isidore (University of Alabama), Presiding
NAASR 2023 Reception
Mad Dog British Pub Riverwalk (123 Losoya St., San Antonio, TX 78205)
7:00-9:00pm
Saturday, November 18, 2023
Sociocultural Location
1:00 pm – 2:50 pm
Hilton, The Stetson
Prespondent:
Sean McCloud (University of North Carolina, Charlotte)
Panelists:
Vaia Touna (University of Alabama)
Lech Trzcionkowski (Jagiellonian University)
Mary Hamner (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Xochiquetzal Luna Morales (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Camryn Melroy (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Presiding
BUSINESS MEETING
3:00 pm – 3:50 pm
Hilton, The Stetson
NAASR 2023 Annual Meeting CFP Extension
**DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MARCH 13TH**
CALL FOR PAPERS
Exploring the Transdisciplinary “Ecology” of scholarship in the study of religion
The North American Association for the Study of Religion describes itself as an organization committed to “the historical, comparative, structural, theoretical, and cognitive approaches to the study of religion.” Since its inception, NAASR has welcomed an assorted group of scholars to work across these entrenched disciplinary boundaries and wide-ranging areas of expertise. This synergy cultivates a level of transdisciplinary inquiry into the very idea of the category of “religion” that otherwise might be unattainable. Yet, this emphasis on transdisciplinary engagement mutes the profound impact of this underlying scholarly diversity on the intellectual exchanges and disputes that arise in the so-called critical study of religion.
It is crucial to also acknowledge that many factors shape the scholar’s capacity to create, curate, and ultimately critique “religion” as an object of study. What are the unique paths that individual scholars travel to arrive at this shared endeavor? How do these differences matter? In what ways do their specific educational, institutional, and broader social locations inform their perspectives on religion and the contours of scholarly debate? Examining the elements that comprise the ecology of the field provides opportunities to sharpen our scholarly pursuits.
The 2023 NAASR Annual Meeting will explore the “ecologies” in which scholars imagine religion. Specifically, NAASR invites proposals for papers that target one of the following “niches,” each of which establishes parameters for the scholarly process:
(1) The Research Environment—how do specific types of research spaces (ex., archival, digital, ethnographic, etc.) determine the range or type of choices that scholars can make? How do different physical spaces (ex., home office, a local coffee shop) impact the creative processes of scholarly production?
(2) Dissemination Platform—how do specific platforms for disseminating research (ex., peer-review journals, publishers, mass media, podcasts, etc.) shape the substance, form, and purpose of scholarship?
(3) Institutional Climate—how do institutions (ex., graduate training, rank/position of the scholar, administrations, public vs. private institutions, the state, markets, etc.) play a role in framing scholarship on religion?
(4) Socio-cultural Location—how does the embeddedness of the scholar in wider social structures (e.g., those related to race, gender, class, religious background, occupational history, etc.) inform their scholarly practices and pursuits?
NAASR is especially interested in sessions that can represent the breadth of the field in terms of rank (graduate students, senior scholars), areas of expertise and disciplinary training, and socio-cultural backgrounds. Paper proposals can emphasize the individual’s personal/anecdotal experiences or more general observations in relation to one of these “niches” as long as the substance of the presentations isare grounded in robust scholarly or empirical support.
Submissions for proposals should each:
1. Identify the area (one of the four immediately above) on which they will focus
2. Provide a brief (500-word max) statement that outlines the basic elements of their response to the identified theme.
The sessions for the annual meeting will follow a roundtable format exploring each of these four (4) themes. Participants will submit full papers that apply their expertise to the designated topic one month prior to the meeting (approximately early October 2023). Each session will feature a “Pre-spondent,” an invited scholar who will introduce the panelists and offer substantive remarks on the topic. Participants will have 8-10 minutes to summarize their papers and will be followed by informal discussion between panelists and the general audience for roughly one hour.
Ultimately the aim is to publish these sessions as an edited volume under the NAASR Working Papers series with Equinox publishing. Therefore, by submitting a proposal for the annual meeting, you are agreeing to eventually publish a version of this paper as a chapter in an edited volume in the NAASR working papers series.
Please submit your proposals Monday, March 13, 2023 at 5pm ET to the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdGT7xXH3Y_0wbQ3nfXKr_xMrwpwgH8m3mPuJJFMqg4J4nGDA/viewform?usp=sf_link
Direct any questions or concerns about this process to dennislorusso@gmail.com
NAASR 2023 Annual Meeting: Call for Papers
NAASR 2023 Annual Meeting
CALL FOR PAPERS
Exploring the Transdisciplinary “Ecology” of scholarship in the study of religion
The North American Association for the Study of Religion describes itself as an organization committed to “the historical, comparative, structural, theoretical, and cognitive approaches to the study of religion.” Since its inception, NAASR has welcomed an assorted group of scholars to work across these entrenched disciplinary boundaries and wide-ranging areas of expertise. This synergy cultivates a level of transdisciplinary inquiry into the very idea of the category of “religion” that otherwise might be unattainable. Yet, this emphasis on transdisciplinary engagement mutes the profound impact of this underlying scholarly diversity on the intellectual exchanges and disputes that arise in the so-called critical study of religion.
It is crucial to also acknowledge that many factors shape the scholar’s capacity to create, curate, and ultimately critique “religion” as an object of study. What are the unique paths that individual scholars travel to arrive at this shared endeavor? How do these differences matter? In what ways do their specific educational, institutional, and broader social locations inform their perspectives on religion and the contours of scholarly debate? Examining the elements that comprise the ecology of the field provides opportunities to sharpen our scholarly pursuits.
The 2023 NAASR Annual Meeting will explore the “ecologies” in which scholars imagine religion. Specifically, NAASR invites proposals for papers that target one of the following “niches,” each of which establishes parameters for the scholarly process:
(1) The Research Environment—how do specific types of research spaces (ex., archival, digital, ethnographic, etc.) determine the range or type of choices that scholars can make? How do different physical spaces (ex., home office, a local coffee shop) impact the creative processes of scholarly production?
(2) Dissemination Platform—how do specific platforms for disseminating research (ex., peer-review journals, publishers, mass media, podcasts, etc.) shape the substance, form, and purpose of scholarship?
(3) Institutional Climate—how do institutions (ex., graduate training, rank/position of the scholar, administrations, public vs. private institutions, the state, markets, etc.) play a role in framing scholarship on religion?
(4) Socio-cultural lLocation—how does the embeddedness of the scholar in wider social structures (e.g., those related to race, gender, class, religious background, occupational history, etc.) inform their scholarly practices and pursuits?
NAASR is especially interested in sessions that can represent the breadth of the field in terms of rank (graduate students, senior scholars), areas of expertise and disciplinary training, and socio-cultural backgrounds. Paper proposals can emphasize the individual’s personal/anecdotal experiences or more general observations in relation to one of these “niches” as long as the substance of the presentations isare grounded in robust scholarly or empirical support.
Submissions for proposals should each:
1. Identify the area (one of the four immediately above) on which they will focus
2. Provide a brief (500-word max) statement that outlines the basic elements of their response to the identified theme.
The sessions for the annual meeting will follow a roundtable format exploring each of these four (4) themes. Participants will submit full papers that apply their expertise to the designated topic one month prior to the meeting (approximately early October 2023). Each session will feature a “Pre-spondent,” an invited scholar who will introduce the panelists and offer substantive remarks on the topic. Participants will have 8-10 minutes to summarize their papers and will be followed by informal discussion between panelists and the general audience for roughly one hour.
Ultimately the aim is to publish these sessions as an edited volume under the NAASR Working Papers series with Equinox publishing. Therefore, by submitting a proposal for the annual meeting, you are agreeing to eventually publish a version of this paper as a chapter in an edited volume in the NAASR working papers series.
Please submit your proposals Monday, March 13, 2023 at 5pm ET to the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdGT7xXH3Y_0wbQ3nfXKr_xMrwpwgH8m3mPuJJFMqg4J4nGDA/viewform?usp=sf_link
Direct any questions or concerns about this process to dennislorusso@gmail.com
NAASR 2022 Annual Meeting Program
Critique in the Study of Religion: Past, Present, and Future
#naasr2022
ONLINE (PRE-CONFERENCE) PROGRAM
Saturday, November 12, 2022 (Virtual Only), 3:00 pm EST (followed by a virtual happy hour)
NAASR Keynote Address:
Mitsutoshi Horii (Shumei University), Co-editor, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion (MTSR)
Title: “Critique for What? Critical Religion and the Problems of Modernity”
REGISTER FOR THE VIRTUAL KEYNOTE HERE.
IN-PERSON PROGRAM
November 18-20, Denver, CO
Friday, November 18, 2022
8:30 am – 9:50 am (MST) Executive Council Meeting
Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 3C
10:00 am – 11:50 am (MST) Theory Panel
Convention Center, 103
This session features panelists who explore various theoretical formations that are
specifically relevant or applicable to the critical study of religion. What existing theoretical
frameworks should critical scholarship enlist? What unique opportunities for theory-building
does the critical study of religion present to scholars?
Pre-spondent:
Julie Ingersoll (University of North Florida)
Panelists:
Lina Aschenbrenner (University of Erfurt)
“Assemblage thinking and theory for a critical study of religion”
Jacob Barrett (University of Alabama)
Michael DeJonge (University of South Florida)
“What is constructionism? Theory for the critical study of religion?”
Lauren Horn-Griffin (University of Alabama)
Sean McCloud (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Presiding
1:00 pm – 2:50 pm (MST) Teaching Panel
Convention Center, 103
This session considers the role of critical religious studies in classrooms. To what
degree does the critical study of religion differ from the critical pedagogies in religion? What
distinguishes critical from non-critical approaches to teaching religion? How do these
pedagogies enhance student learning?
Pre-Spondent:
Leslie Dorrough-Smith (Avila University)
Panelists:
Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand (Middle Tennessee State University)
Beverly McGuire (University of North Carolina, Wilmington)
Hussein Rashid (Independent Scholar)
“Practicing What We Teach—Critical Religious Studies in the Classroom”
John McCormack (Aurora University)
“Still in Search of Dreamtime? Finding a Pedagogical Logic for the Study of Religion”
Steven Ramey (University of Alabama)
“Pedagogical Description as Method: A Non-Linear Approach”
Andrew Durdin (Florida State University), Presiding
3:00 pm – 4:50 pm (MST) Scholar Panel
Convention Center, 103
This panel examines the relationship of the critical study of religion to its primary
constituents. The papers consider various themes, including the politics of so called critical
methodologies and assumed distinctions between critical scholarship and activism.
Pre-Spondent:
Jennifer Selby (Memorial University)
Panelists:
Jason WM Ellsworth (Dalhousie University)
“Scholarly Identification in the Field: Critical Scholars and Theoretical Methodological
Implications”
Lucas Johnston (Wake Forest University)
“Scholars in Their Natural Habitats: Criticism, Vulnerability, and Exposure”
Daniel Miller (Landmark College)
“Critical Religious Studies and Engaged Scholarship”
Matt Sheedy (University of Bonn)
“Critical Religion Versus Critical Islam and Indigenous Studies: Insiders, Outsiders, Activists”
Merinda Simmons (University of Alabama)
Emily Crews (University of Chicago), Presiding
7:00 – 9:00 pm – NAASR Reception – Henry’s Tavern, Denver (co-sponsored by Equinox Publishing)
Saturday, November 19, 2022
9:00 am – 10:50 am (MST) ROUNDTABLE: On the Very Idea of “Critique”
Embassy Suites, Crestone Ballroom Salon A
This roundtable brings together a wide-ranging group of senior and established
scholars to reflect on the concept of “critique” in the study of religion. What are the contours of a
critical study of religion? What role(s) can it serve for the wider field of religious studies? What
challenges confront it?
Panelists:
Kathryn Lofton (Yale University)
Craig Martin (St. Thomas Aquinas College)
Kevin Schilbrack (Appalachian State University)
Winnifred Sullivan (Indiana University)
Robyn Walsh (University of Miami)
Rebekka King (Middle Tennessee State University), Presiding
11:00 am – 11:50 am (MST) NAASR Business Meeting
Embassy Suites, Crestone Ballroom Salon A
Sunday, November 20, 2022
12:30 PM – 2:30 PM (MST) Moving Body as Foundational to the Proper Study of Religion: A Response to and Celebration of the work of Sam Gill
CO-SPONSORED SESSION with Body and Religion Unit and Comparative Studies of Religion Unit
Convention Center-Mile High 4C (Lower Level)
Panelists:
Mary Corley Dunn (Saint Louis University)
Aaron W. Hughes (University of Rochester)
Kimberley Patton (Harvard University)
Seth Schermerhorn (Hamilton College)
Jeanette Reedy Solano (California State University, Fullerton)
John Thibdeau (University of Rochester)
Hugh B. Urban (Ohio State University)
Michael Zogry (University of Kansas)
Sam Gill, Responding
Jeffrey Stephen Lidke (Berry College), Presiding
NAASR 2022 Annual Meeting: Call for Papers
**DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MARCH 8TH**
2022 Annual Meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Religion
Call For Papers
Critique in the Study of Religion: Past, Present, and Future
The 2021 Annual Meeting addressed the idea of “crisis” as an organizing principle for practitioners and scholars of religion. Krínein (Gr.), from which the English term “crisis” derives, also gives us the word “critique.” Many of our members have sought to position NAASR as an intellectual space that emphasizes and facilitates the critical study of religion across a wide range of specializations. However, what counts as “critique” remains highly contested, as does the question of whether such a term best encapsulates the primary mission of NAASR. What exactly does “critical religious studies” imply? Is it a distinctive set of analytic approaches or rather rhetorics deployed in defense of particular intellectual or professional positions? To what degree does adopting the moniker of “critic” help or hinder our scholarly vision? In what ways can the critical study of religion make important interventions in the current intellectual trends shaping the academic study of religion today?
The program for 2022 will explore the role of “critique” in the study of religion as it applies to four areas:
1. Theory: What theoretical frameworks have been or currently are productive/useful for performing “critique” in the study of religion? And which theoretical frameworks have critical religion scholars not adequately engaged with?
2. Method: What methodological criteria should constitute a “critical” approach to studying religion — and what’s the case for these rather than others?
3. Teaching: How should critical religious studies manifest in pedagogy? Is the critique deployed in producing scholarship about religion the same as the critique used in teaching that scholarship, i.e., in religious studies pedagogy? If so, in what sense? If different, how are they different?
4. Scholar: Does being a critical scholar require distance from or disinterest in our data? If so, to what degree? Is being a critical scholar of religion incompatible pursuing other political and activistic commitments? If not, how does one balance these responsibly?
NAASR invites submissions that substantially respond to any one of these four provocations and explore the implications for the field. Submissions for possible respondents must each:
1. Identify the area (one of the four immediately above) on which they will focus
2. Provide a brief (500-word max) statement that outlines the basic elements of their response to the identified theme.
The sessions for the annual meeting will follow a roundtable format exploring each of these four (4) themes. Participants will submit full papers that apply their expertise to the designated topic one month prior to the meeting (approximately early October 2022). Each session will feature an invited scholar who will introduce the panelists and offer substantive remarks on the topic. Participants will have six minutes to summarize their papers and will be followed by informal discussion between panelists and general audience for roughly one hour. Ultimately the aim is to publish these sessions as an edited volume under the NAASR Working Papers series with Equinox publishing.
We welcome scholars from diverse areas of expertise and disciplinary training.
Please upload submissions on our Google Form: https://forms.gle/tBGymCaYpdT9MwJ89 no later than 5pm EST March 8, 2022.
Email any questions to dennislorusso@gmail.com
NAASR MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: JANUARY 31, 2022
NAASR Media and Communications Coordinator
NAASR is looking for a graduate student or early career scholar to coordinate its social media and other online communications. Under the supervision of NAASR President, Vice-President and Secretary/Treasurer, this individual will support social media content creation and operations.
This position will come with a Travel and Conference honorarium.
Responsibilities:
- Monitor NAASR social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter).
- Create cross-platform content promoting activities, publications, and other initiatives by NAASR and NAASR members.
- Promote NAASR’s position as a scholarly society dedicated to historical, critical, and social scientific approaches to the study of religion, as well as a relentlessly reflexive critique of the theories, methods, and categories used in such study.
Qualifications:
- Enthusiastic and knowledgeable about social media.
- Excellent organizational and communication skills.
- Ability to take and upload digital photos.
- Initiative, sound judgement, and ability to work independently and complete assigned tasks within identified timeframes.
- Keen attention to detail when proofreading, copyediting, and fact-checking.
- Comfortable utilizing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, WordPress.
- Familiarity with Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Excel, and Email template program.
Opportunities:
- Gain valuable social media experience and proficiency in communicating to a large audience.
- Learn how to participate in a creative and collaborative content-production process.
- Network with NAASR members and other scholars in the field of religious studies and cognate fields.
Applications:
Email applications to NAASR President, Rebekka King (rebekka.king@mtsu.edu) by January 31, 2022.
To apply, send your CV, a brief cover letter describing how you can contribute to NAASR communications, and how the position might be beneficial to you. Please attach 2 – 3 examples of your best work on any social media platform.
This position is a volunteer position, which includes a travel stipend to attend the NAASR annual meeting.
Postdoc in Cognitive Neuroscience of Religious Cognition
The Psychology Department at the University of Groningen is seeking a highly motivated candidate for a postdoc position within a project funded by the Templeton Foundation and the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, granted to Dr. Brian Ostafin and Prof. Dr. André Aleman. 12 month contract with an extension of 12 additional months being possible.
The project examines the influence of inducing the emotion of awe on interpretation of religious narrative and the neural and psychological mechanisms of the main effects. fMRI assessments will be conducted at the Cognitive Neuroscience Center of the UMCG.
Tasks and responsibilities:
- Designing and carrying out experimental study using experimental psychology and fMRI methods
- Presenting research results at conferences and workshops
- Publishing academic articles
- Participating in regular meetings with the other project team members, including supervision of researchers
- Assisting in communication tasks (e.g., co-managing project website, writing blog posts
See the full advert here.
naasr.com 