Cultural History of the Study of Religion Unit

The Cultural History of the Study of Religion Unit seeks papers that examine the formation and transformation of “religion” and related categories in social, cultural, and political practice in different geographic and historical contexts and in relation to the scholarly study of religion as that study has evolved over time.

We aim to facilitate theoretically and methodologically rigorous sessions that are attuned to dynamics of power and that feature scholars from multiple subfields, methodology, type of institution, and professional rank. 

This group regularly uses its sessions to develop new models for conference conversation. Toward that end, we ask that participants be prepared to write shorter papers for possible pre-circulation or short position papers for roundtable format. We also welcome suggestions for new models.

For the 2025 Annual Meeting, we particularly welcome proposals on the following topics:

Lived Religion Retrospective
Since its appearance in the late 1990s, “lived religion” has become a widely accepted and broadly applied modality of the study of religion, bringing an ethnographic corrective to the textual and institutional bias of the field. We invite a wide range of critical perspectives on the origins, application, and legacy of the lived religions movement, with special attention to how this term has been differently mobilized in the various subfields of religious studies.

The Hermeneutics of (Neo)fascism in the Study of Religion
How does the present landscape of our field relate to terms and methods linked to fascist, Nazi, and authoritarian scholarship? From Carl Schmitt’s theory of sovereignty to Mircea Eliade’s sacred to Rudolph Otto’s science of religions, we invite proposals that probe how recent turns in scholarship – with its turn to the fugitive sacreds, unassimilable remainders, effervescent flights, and esoteric knowledges – inherit, disavow, repress, and/or reconfigure the hermeneutics of fascism. 

Palestine in the Study of Religion
Building on the success of the 2024 co-sponsored session “Constitutive Absence? The Cultural History of Palestine in the Study of Religion,” we invite papers that advance this project of addressing the historical (if disavowed) presence of Palestine, Palestinians, and the global anti-colonial struggle for Palestine liberation in the field.

Power, Politics, and Identity in the Constitution of Subfields
Inspired by successful and important conversations about the prevalence of whiteness and caste in the generational trajectories of Hindu Studies, we welcome submissions that open this conversation and reflect on resonant themes in relation to other subfields