Childhood Studies and Religion Unit
The Childhood Studies and Religion Unit welcomes proposals for individual papers, sessions, and roundtables that engage the intersection of religion and childhood or children, broadly construed. We are especially interested in proposals from non-Euro-American and non-Christian perspectives, and we welcome a range of methodologies from across the humanities and the social sciences.
In June 2026, we hope to organize sessions around one or more of the following topics:
- Childhood & Media
- Roundtable Discussion Reflecting on the Relaunch of the Journal of Childhood Studies & Religion
- Newly published book projects involving children or childhood (author-meets critics)
If you are interested in proposing a session that is not listed above, we welcome panel and roundtable proposals. In your submission, please indicate the type of session you are proposing (panel or roundtable) along with the confirmed participants. Innovative and interactive sessions are especially welcome, and our co-chairs are happy to discuss what category might best fit any given proposal. In keeping with our commitment to presenting diverse perspectives and voices in each of our sessions, we also urge you to indicate what types of diversity your proposal or participants might represent. For more information, please contact Dr. Kishundra King at kking@uts.columbia.edu.
This Unit’s overall aim is to investigate the complex and multifaceted relation between religion and childhood. The specific goals of the Unit are as follows: • Provide a forum for focused interdisciplinary and interreligious dialogue about the diverse relations of children and religion • Heighten academic interest in this topic in all fields represented in the AAR • Prepare scholars in religious studies to contribute to wider academic discussions about children and childhoods • Lend the voice of the academy to current questions of public policy and child advocacy The focus of the Unit is both timely and significant given the present concern for children across the globe and the rising interdisciplinary academic interest in childhood studies. The Unit functions as a forum at the AAR for advancing childhood studies as a line of scholarly inquiry; we also welcome collaborations with other AAR program units for which childhood studies represents a "new" intervention.