Religion, Media, and Culture Unit

The Religion, Media, and Culture Unit invites individual presentations, paper/multimedia research presentation sessions, and roundtable proposals on the following themes:

“Freedom to” and “Freedom From” (2025 Presidential Theme): If people have democratized access to participate in online public discourse, what are the limitations of such discourse? Is such information even useful as objects of study or productive for the generation of public policy – given issues of disproportionate demographics, online trolling, algorithmic bias, news enclaves, and disinformation? While individuals may have the freedom to consume marginalized content, create new media, or navigate alternative digital spaces, how important are issues of social protection for our non-digital selves – that is, freedom from material and oppressive norms, hegemonic structures, and the like?

“Don’t Read the Comments”: We welcome proposals that offer a broad analysis of multimedia or transmedia discourse, especially those that comment and reflect on larger socio-cultural dynamics. Objects of study could include Discord and Twitch chats, Tweets and other social media posts, YouTube comments, (sub)reddits, film, game, and other media reviews, online articles, video game playthroughs and commentaries, and memes.

Digital Games/Gaming in the Religious Studies Classroom (co-sponsored by the Teaching Religion Unit): We welcome presentations on and/or demonstrations of innovative teaching methods and styles using various digital platforms with a particular focus on games/gaming in the religious studies classroom. We hope to facilitate discussions that evaluate any obstacles that arise when teaching said media in the classroom. Potential concerns include accessibility in terms of cost, skill, and socialization; relevancy and/or triviality; assignment of relevant scholarship; and evaluation of experiential learning. What new possibilities, for instance, are presented in the study and teaching of games in religious studies? How do we begin to recognize “religion” or the “religious” imaginary in games and other media?

Technology and Ritual (co-sponsored by the Ritual Studies Unit): We invite proposals that investigate the use of technology, automation, or artificial intelligence in religious ritual or ceremony. Examples could include a robotic arm performing aarti in India, electric wheelchairs made available to the elderly or disabled in Mecca, or Mindar, an AI-robot priest in Japan. This session also welcomes discussions of aniconism and/or technophobia across religious and world traditions.

Healing & Religion in the Digital Era (co-sponsored by the Religions, Medicines, and Healing Unit): How do religious or spiritual healing discourses and practices evolve amidst new technologies, digitality, and the (mis)information era? How is religious authority and expertise in health and medicine re-evaluated within online spaces? We welcome analyses of illness, affliction, and suffering across religious traditions, geographic regions, and forms of new media. We are particularly interested in how fractured identities, political divides, structural violence, and/or colonialism impact the affliction and healing of social bodies through material and/or digital spaces.

Open Call: We solicit research-based papers and pre-arranged panels on any topic related to the study of religion, media, and culture, from any region or time period.

RMC is committed to diversity and inclusivity. Pre-arranged panels should reflect gender and racial/ethnic diversity as well as diversity of field, method, and scholarly rank as appropriate. We strongly prefer papers that include audio/visual media and ask that proposals make use of media clear. We are also particularly interested in session proposals and presentations that break from traditional paper-reading formats. We encourage panels that propose innovative ways to develop collaborative conversation, especially those that allow for timely analysis of current events.