Law, Religion, and Culture Unit
As always, the Law, Religion, and Culture Unit welcomes proposals for individual papers, papers sessions, and roundtable panel proposals, including author-meets-critics sessions, on any aspect of the cultural, historical, critical, and comparative study of the intersections of law and religion globally. This year we're particularly interested in paper and/or panel proposals addressing the presidential theme of “Futures,” spanning issues of ecological catastrophe and the future of nature to issues of the legal status of children and law’s relationships with futurity.
We’d also be particularly interested in panel and paper proposals addressing issues of homeschooling and the law, including legal education and practice among
homeschooling parents.
Due to the conference’s location in Denver, attention to American Indian law and legal history as well as histories and present practices in service of ecological justice and possible futures, would be welcome as well.
On the sesquicentenary of the independence of the United States, proposals either on the idea of "independence" broadly and comparatively (critiquing genealogies of
freedom through law, or examining relations between notions of individual freedom and nation states globally and historically) or examination of rhetoric and spectacle around memorialization (again, either of US history specifically or with an eye toward comparative global examples) would also be of interest.
In a time of widespread governmental (and private) policing of academic speech and action, papers or panel proposals on the notion and practice of academic freedom, particularly with critical examination of specific legal case studies, would also be appealing to the steering committee.
This Unit is interested in the cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, and comparative studies of the interrelationships of law and religion. The terms “law” and “religion” are broadly conceptualized and our interests have extended to include ancient and contemporary contexts and a wide variety of critical approaches. We hope to instigate consideration of religion and law issues at the AAR beyond issues concerning religious freedom and the United States Constitution.