Publicly Engaged Scholarship in the Study of Religion Seminar
Call for Papers
In line with the 2026 AAR Presidential theme, “Future/s,” theme, the Publicly Engaged Scholarship in the Study of Religion Seminar invites proposals that consider the futures of public and community-engaged partnerships, how they are built and sustained over time, and how they are entwined with religious beliefs and practices, environmental attitudes and behaviors, and academic institutions and power structures.
Following the theme “Futures,” we invite paper, panel, and alternative format session proposals that engage/address any of the questions below:
Relationship Building: Strategies and Tactics
- How do publicly-engaged scholar-educators imagine relationships at different scales?
- Individual relationships: Navigating personal issues of trust, values-based collaboration, access, and accountability with collaborators
- Community relationships: Finding appropriate partnerships, establishing cooperative partnerships and strategic alliances, and maintaining rapport and reciprocity over time
- Institutional relationships: Procuring funding and other forms of support, accountability, and establishing criteria for reporting structures (i.e., to whom do community engagement facilitators report?; Is outreach coordinated at the university level, or does it depend on the efforts of individual instructors?; Is engagement accessible to everyone?)
- What types of relationships do we strive for?
- Identifying issues in specific communities and working backwards from there to envision solutions
- Cultivating values-based commitments from different constituencies/groups
- Ensuring access for, and partnership with community groups
- Examining the landscape of advocacy, cooperation, and accountability as it relates to social, political, and economic nodes of power
- What tools can we employ to build relationships?
- What do publicly engaged scholars and educators need beyond access, connection, cooperation, and funding?
- What types of skills are necessary for building quality, lasting relationships?
The “Afterlife” of Funding
- All funding streams leave legacies in their communities. What are the positives, negatives, and potential outcomes of partnerships after funding runs out?
- Conversations about the structures and systems needed to make community engaged projects succeed beyond the revenue streams provided by grants.
- Investigations of the kinds of structures needed to facilitate transition (to…?).
Religion and Public Engagement in the 21st Century
- Research questions:
- What is the future of research?
- What role does our scholarship play in this dialogue?
- What is the role of religion?
Case Studies
- Describe a program that you are working on:
- How are you thinking about the future of your organization, your students, community partners, and the social implications of your work?
- What are your needs?
- How are you building communities/coalitions? What challenges have you faced and how have you worked to address them?
- What role does religion play in the organization or community you engage?
- What are the roles of academics/ the academy in this work, if any? Is there value added through academic collaborations and partnerships?
Proposals are due February 1, 2026. Please consult the Co-chairs or members of the Steering Committee if you have any questions.
Steering Committee:
Lucas Johnston, Co-Chair (johnstlf@wfu.edu)
Victoria Machado, Co-Chair (VMACHADO@rollins.edu)
Amanda Nichols (dr.amanda.m.nichols@gmail.com)
Jeremy Sorgen (j.sorgen@northeastern.edu )
Joseph Witt (jwitt16@utk.edu)
This seminar creates a multi-disciplinary space to explore the intersections between publicly engaged research, collective knowledge production, and relations of power in the study of religion. As part of broader conversations about the relationships between social change and the public humanities, the seminar is organized around diverse ideas of “the public” and interrogates the forces of racialized and colonial power that shape our fields. Whereas disciplinary training often privileges postures of political neutrality, we orient conversations around what it means to do scholarship that has political stakes, who we do that work with, and how we can strengthen that work. The seminar aims to generate a space for those with broad interests in the theoretical, methodological, and historical foundations of knowledge production in the study of religion and its political and public impacts. The seminar provides a nexus for collective consideration of processes of social change and social justice as they relate to theories of religion. The space will also interest those with practical interests in how to establish and sustain community and/or politically-engaged research and teaching programs within and beyond the academy.
| Chair | Dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucas Johnston | johnstlf@wfu.edu | - | View |
| Victoria Machado, Rollins College | vmachado@rollins.edu | - | View |
| Steering Member | Dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Amanda Nichols, Independent Scholar | nichols.amanda08@gmail… | - | View |
| Jeremy Sorgen, Northeastern University | jsorgen@berkeley.edu | - | View |
| Joseph Witt | jwitt16@utk.edu | - | View |