| Submitted to Program Units |
|---|
| 1: Special Session |
| 2: Teaching Religion Unit |
This panel commemorates Religious Studies Review, the only journal devoted entirely to publishing reviews in religious studies and theology, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Writing and publishing reviews is essential for assessing the quality, importance, and advances in our field’s research. And yet reviews and reviewing today are increasingly under threat.
At RSR, for example, reviews are increasingly difficult to commission. A key reason is the pressure scholars feel to publish peer reviewed work because they fear not making the bar for tenure and promotion . It's an open secret that, as a genre of academic writing, reviews are generally ignored or devalued compared to research monographs and articles, which are what really count for academic success institutionally. What value does writing a review have if it is irrelevant for scholars' professional advancement? Reviews are indeed part of the cv, but they have little or no real currency in terms of career advancement. They matter but they also don’t matter. This is paradoxical given the fact that key to a scholar’s academic standing is peer assessment of their work: They need to have their own work favorably peer reviewed to make their case for tenure and promotion. Scholars need people to read, review, and assess their work while, at the same time, they are increasingly reluctant to do the same for their own colleagues’ work. This is deeply problematical to say the least.
Another serious threat to reviews and reviewing is the increasingly precarious economic situation of religious studies journals. This is largely due to dramatic changes in the publishing world, particularly the recent drive to open access publishing. Open Access incentivizes peer reviewed research articles over reviews; it offers no financial incentives for publishing short reviews. In RSR’s case almost half of the journal’s content (the short reviews or book notes section) does not now generate any income in the Open Access system, making it increasingly difficult for the journal to remain financially viable with a short and long review publishing mission. Open Access has already forced RSR to make changes editorially—by introducing the somewhat peculiar new category of the "peer reviewed review", for example. RSR is also facing pressures from its publisher to increase the number of 2000 word large reviews we produce if we wish to remain financially solvent--this, they assure us, is possible to expand our content without sacrificing quality. This double threat of inding scholars to do peer review while journals lose the financial basis for publishing them makes this a timely moment to contemplate what the future holds.
This panel celebrates book reviews and reviewing. The review is a genre of academic writing that offers creative possibilities stylistically and interpretatively for advancing scholarship. This panel explores the important reasons why department and university administrators, who, too often, dismiss this labor as (merely) service to the profession, should be more cognizant of the intellectual value of reviews. Panelists include RSR editors as well as academic administrators who will discuss not only on the necessity of reviews and reviewing academically, but will also explore how such work be judged more favorably, as a critical part of one’s curriculum vitae—how, to put it bluntly, reviews should “count” as scholarship.
The panel’s guiding premise is that the review is a genre vital for academically engaging new scholarship and for helping to advance the fields of religious studies, biblical studies, and theology. Panelists will explore the benefits of a terse summation of content and argument as key to a review’s value. But reviews also, panelists will argue, do vital argumentative and interpretive—comparative and dialogic—work, proceeding through a variety of analytical tactics to not only unpack and contextualize the book(s) reviewed but also to add breadth of details, deepen analysis, and foster novel critical perspectives through conversation with other works and taking other methodological approaches. Another premise of the panel, which is also basic to Religious Studies Review’s work, is the value of reviews and reviewing pedagogically. Reviews are an important resource for teachers and the review-writing process is also an essential craft for graduate students and junior scholars to learn at the beginning of their careers.
Panelists—active reviewers, area editors for RSR, and college and seminary administrators with experience considering the role of the review in professional dossiers—will present brief statements of their vision of the good review, what constitutes a useful critique, and its role in advancing scholarship. Panelists will also speak to the role of the review in their own professional life, development, and dossiers. A third topic panelists will address is how the labor of review-writing (and editing) should be highlighted as part of their tenure and promotion process.
Presider #1,the Executive Editor of RSR, will guide the discussion, starting with a short overview of the 50-year history of Religious Studies Review, outlining the unique problems of running a review journal, and raising questions, when necessary, for panelists to discuss.
Panelist #2 is a scholar of Pauline literature, RSR editor, and a professor at a religiously-affiliated college.
Panelist #3 is a scholar of Hinduism, RSR editor, and a professor at a state university.
Panelist #4 is a biblical studies scholar and president at a theological seminary.
Panelist #5 is a scholar of Hinduism and president- of a small liberal arts college.
Panelist #6 is a scholar of global Christianities and colonialism, with an additional focus on gender studies and RSR editor, holding a teaching position at a large state university.
Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)
This panel focuses on the book review, as genre and form, arguing for its centrality within scholarship, insisting on its creative possibilities in terms of style and approach, and investigating ways to make review-writing more legible to department and university administrators who, too often, dismiss this labor as (merely) general “service” to the profession. This panel also commemorates Religious Studies Review, the only journal devoted entirely to publishing reviews in religious studies and theology, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Panelists, a selection of current RSR editors as well as administrators from academic institutions, will discuss the function and necessity of reviews and reviewing. Attention will also be given to advice on review-writing for graduate students and junior scholars, and audience members will also have the opportunity to sign up to review books with RSR during this panel.