Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Unit

The Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Unit invites proposals on the following topics. We are committed to diversity and thus work to ensure attention to visual culture in a global context and to the gender, ethnic and geographic diversity of participants. Additionally, we expect presenters to incorporate visual media in presentations; authors should frame proposals such that they indicate their attention to the sensory factors of visual culture, including but not limited to visuals. Finally, we ask that authors be clear about their theoretical and methodological approaches and perspectives. 

Call for Proposals for 2025 November Annual Meeting

• The 2025 AAR presidential theme for the annual meeting is "Freedom," so we seek proposals that demonstrate concern for how film and visual media intersect with freedom, sovereignty, injustice, and unfreedom. In what ways have films and visual narratives opened up the possibilities for expanding freedoms of individuals and societies? And in what ways have they been used to limit or hinder freedoms, religious and otherwise?
• Keywords in the Study of Religion, Film, and Visual Culture: What theories, practices, or themes are critical for our study? What are the new vocabularies emerging that set the scope and horizon of our future research? We are interested in papers, panels, and roundtables that consider and explore the changing landscape of the “religion and film” scholarly conversation in our contemporary era.
• Propaganda and Visual Culture: What is the role of visual culture in religious indoctrination? How are images used to promote public norms and religious consensus? We seek proposals that examine the relationships between visual culture and propaganda across various religious contexts, such as religious nationalism, high control communities, supremacy groups, liberation movements, etc.
• Film Adaptation and Religion: What translation work goes into adaptation? How does it affect the new artistic production? How should we account for the tension between the original piece and the new creation? What are the losses and gains of such transpositions, and how have they been utilized in religious contexts and communities? We seek proposals exploring the adaptation, creation, and reception of such audiovisual works. Film adaptation may encompass a variety of visual media, including cinema, television, advertisements, museum installations, photography, graphic design, video curriculum, YouTube, online social media (e.g., Instagram, TikTok), digital communication (e.g., Zoom calls), and other forms of audiovisual moving images—we're especially interested in exploring cinematic works which are outside the "Bible film" genre. We welcome submissions that theorize the adaptation and interpretation process and/or examine the implications of such cinematic works for various religious or sociopolitical groups, particularly marginalized communities.
• Key Scholarly Monographs: We’re interested in organized panels focused on monographs centered on the subject of religion, film, and visual culture published in 2024 or 2025. These panels can take the form of critical review, generative roundtable responses, prompts for further exploration, author dialogue, and more. Be sure to include a brief summary of the book and clearly delineate its significance and relevance for the study of religion, film, and visual culture. Outline how the participants will contribute to a broad conversation on the subject and advance the book's arguments and conclusions.
• POV in Film and Religion (co-sponsored with the Religion, Affect, and Emotion Unit): What is the craft of artistic creation? How do technical creative choices reflect or affect religious sensibilities and identities? We seek proposals that explore how the interpretive aesthetics of artists—such as cinematography, point of view, framing, editing, angles, exhibition, etc.—shape viewers' emotional and affective reception of them.
• The Ethicist as Hero (co-sponsored with the Ethics and Religion Unit): The 2024 film Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. ignited criticism from scholars who argued that it distorts Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s legacy and promotes a message at odds with his writings. Similar criticism has been levied at Gandhi (1982), Confucius (2010), Hannah Arendt (2012), and Restless Heart: The Confessions of Saint Augustine (2012). Do the historical figures who appear on ethics course syllabi also belong on the silver screen? What are the benefits and dangers of looking to the lives of philosophers and theologians for inspiration and entertainment? How have storytellers done this responsibly or irresponsibly in the past, and what lessons can be learned from analyzing their efforts?