Religion and Science Fiction Unit

Individual papers and panel sessions are invited on the following themes:

• We seek proposals on Speculative Fiction's (SF) use in the religious studies classroom to illustrate topics and problems in the study of religion.  We are especially interested in proposals that suggest how SF (text, theory) challenges the very understanding of "religion" and how such challenges can be posed in the classroom.  We encourage proposals from advanced graduate students.  We will not consider full panel proposals unless individual papers are articulated.  
• We are interested in how "traditional" religious organizations are represented in "off world" / space / other worlds.  We note, for example, the theme of Jesuits in space in the science fiction canon; the Latter-Day Saint Ship (L.D.S.S.) Nauvoo in The Expanse series; Mel Brooks' "Jews in Space" segment in The History of the World, Part 1.   How are common themes, issues, and theological sources and norms altered by detaching religious bodies from their earth-based histories and cultural formations. 
• For a joint session with the Tibetan and Himalayan Religious Unit we are looking for papers that pair a Tibetan/Himalayan Buddhist narrative source of any genre with a piece of speculative fiction to explore one of the following thematic binaries: freedom/oppression, imagination/reality, enlightenment/delusion, birth/death, or humanity/other sentience. The focus is on the ways that liberation narratives in both Tibetan/Himalayan Buddhism and speculative fiction may serve as mutually enriching heuristic devices for deepening interpretation and understanding.
• In response to the 2025 Annual Meeting theme "Freedom" we seek proposals that explore Speculative Fiction's pursuit of freedom and species flourishing through resistance to authoritarian regimes real and imagined.  
• We are always interested in proposals that apply Speculative Fiction theory to provoke mutation in the study of religion.