North American Religions Unit

This Unit advances the study of religions in North America, broadly conceived (Mexico, the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, etc.), as well as the study of historical, social, and structural links between North American religions and those beyond North American boundaries. We are committed to sponsoring sessions that explore fundamental questions that have shaped the field in the past or should shape it in the future.

The Unit sponsors roundtables, debates, workshops, performances, pre-circulated papers, and other creative formats. As always, this program unit also welcomes proposals for keyword panels based on important concepts in the field. We encourage the submission of both individual contributions and complete panels, though we may reconfigure proposed panels to place them on the conference program. For panel proposals, diversity of rank (including graduate student, post-doctorate, contingent faculty, and junior and senior participants), and gender, race, and ethnicity are strongly encouraged. We especially seek proposals from junior and contingent scholars. Presenters in any format should expect to give short presentations that maximize time for audience questions and comments. All presenters should explicitly relate research to ongoing discussions in the field and the wider academy. Please ensure that all submissions are anonymous.

In addition to the above, we seek proposals on the following topics for our 2024 meeting in San Diego:

• In keeping with the presidential theme of Violence, Non-violence, and the Margins, we welcome papers and panels that think about religion and war, religion and both violent and non-violent protest movements, religious responses to trauma, religious pacifism, and religion and violence more broadly (including gender based violence, sexual violence, and others)
• We are interested in scholarship that considers the role of the scholar of North American religions in times of crisis. We are interested in proposals addressing scholarship and pedagogy in specific contexts (teaching in Florida or other settings where critical engagement with race, gender, and sexuality are under attack), teaching in the face of broader crisis (the climate crisis, the crisis in reproductive health, attacks on bodily autonomy of a wide range of people). We are interested in the exploration of the risks that scholars take, the cost benefit analysis that they make in deciding when to speak and what to teach, and how people care for themselves in the face of those risks.
• In recognition of the 100th anniversary of the Immigration Act of 1924 (also known as the Johnson-Reed Act) and the conference’s location in San Diego (home of both Friendship Park and a border wall), we invite papers and panels that think about the intersections of immigration and religion, in both contemporary and historical contexts. Our location in California offers a particularly useful opportunity to consider migration in relation to Asia and the Americas.
• We encourage proposals that mark the anniversaries of other notable events in the religious history of North America, or the anniversaries of major historiographical interventions.
• We welcome papers and panels outside of the themes above and encourage scholars at all levels to submit work reflecting their ongoing research, whether or not it is reflected in this call.