Religion and Migration Unit

The Religion and Migration Unit seeks both individual paper proposals and panel proposals (presider, three presenters, plus respondent). The Religion and Migration Unit is committed to diversity and inclusion. Panel session proposals should incorporate gender diversity within the panel; diversity of race/ethnicity, and rank are also highly encouraged. 

The 2025 Religion and Migration Unit Call for Papers for the Annual Meeting to be held in Boston, MA welcomes proposals on the following themes:

1. Religion, Migration, and Mass Deportation

“Mass Deportation Now” has become a rallying cry for politicians and pundits alike. In the U.S., Donald Trump’s administration has plans for “the largest deportation operation in American history,” involving governmental and non-governmental actors on all levels of society in targeting people and places that were previously off-limits, such as worshippers and sites of worship. Albeit with a less drastic and draconian rhetoric, such plans have also been proposed beyond the U.S., thus cutting across contexts, countries, and even continents. We seek empirical as well as evaluative papers that explore the role that religion plays in the preparation, production, and problematization of these plans, including accounts of faith-based resistance. Analyses of political and public discourses of mass deportation, including the euphemism “remigration,” are also welcome.

2. Myths, Metaphors, and the Framing of Migration

Migration continues to stir up controversy. Both public and political debates often employ religious myths and religious metaphors to frame the movement of people. Located on a spectrum that reaches from the utopian to the distopian, these myths and metaphors draw on a variety of faith traditions to present their account of migration as self-evident. Examples include apocalyptic accounts of “uncontrolled mass migration” as a cause for the collapse of the Roman Empire as well as techno-capitalist accounts of humanity’s migration to new planets. We seek papers that explore the understanding and use of religious myths and metaphors in the framing of migration, examining how such frames are conceptualized, communicated, or critiqued by both refugee communities and receiving communities. 

3. Religion and Climate Migration (co-sponsored with the Religion and Development Unit)

Changes in environments—often a consequence of rapid and radical anthropogenic climate change—are an increasingly important driver of migration. Despite a consensus among scholars that the environmental impact on migration is difficult to measure, its significance for the movement of people across the globe needs to be studied. This co-sponsored session seeks proposals that explore the nexus between religion and climate migration from both empirical and explanatory angles, including normative questions. We are interested in receiving proposals for: 1) Case studies of religious beliefs and practices affecting and being affected by climate migration; 2) The collaboration of faith-based organizations in humanitarian and development interventions for climate migrants; 3) The contribution that different and diverse faith traditions make to emerging normative frameworks that aim to address the governance of climate migration; 4) The challenge that climate migration poses to discourse about people on the move, both locally and globally; and 5) Definitional and conceptual debate on the parameters of this emerging area of research on intersections of religion and climate migration. 

4. Book Review Panel- (Co-sponsorship Religion & Migration and Bible in America Unit)

This book review panel gathers scholars of U.S. immigration, politics, and apocalyptic ancient and modern to think with and respond to Yii-Jan Lin's Immigration and Apocalypse: How the Book of Revelation Shaped American Immigration. The book weaves together U.S. religious history, immigration and ethnic studies, and the use of biblical texts and imagery.

Finally, we offer an open call for any other topics dealing with religion and migration, especially proposals that address theoretical and methodological issues at the intersection of migration and religious studies. We are also interested in hosting a book panel, so please feel free to submit panel proposals for recently published books on Migration and Religion (author, panelists, and respondents).