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 2026 November Annual Meeting

Future/s: The 2026 AAR presidential theme for the annual meeting is “Future/s,” especially as it pertains to the future of religious scholarship within and without the academy, so we seek proposals that demonstrate concern for how film and visual media intersect with our ability to reckon with the future of Religious Studies as a discipline, its institutional homes, and how we might imagine the possibilities for scholars of religion. We also seek proposals that examine how our subjects and their artistic expressions formulate meaningful futures. What futures does film and visual culture open up for religious communities? How can their strategies for imaginative projection be put to use moving forward?

Visual Culture in Japanese Culture – Co-Sponsored with Japanese Religions Unit: We seek proposals that explore the religious context of Japanese film, television, anime, and popular culture. We would also like proposals that show how visual culture has been employed in religious contexts, such as imagery, maps, illustrations, iconography, and collectibles. How do these contexts intersect and co-construct each other? 

Visualizing Sacred Landscapes: Religious traditions often imagine geographies that plot out ontological possibilities for humans and the cosmos.  We seek proposals that address how traditions visualize inner and cosmological realms. How do religions map the body? How is land pictured as sacred? What do future geographical domains look like across traditions? What strategies are most effective in understanding the visualization of sacred landscapes?

Horror and Haunting in Religion: As the horror genre continues to remain a fixture in popular culture, we are interested in focusing our attention on “haunting” stories and images (both fictional and non-fictional), and their relation to religion. “Haunting” may include (but is not limited to): ghosts and spirits, seances and mediums, divination, ancestral worship, the occult, haunted locations, spirit photography, and a wide variety of other visual forms of the paranormal, supernatural, and spiritual.

Picturing Death and Dying: Documentaries such as How to Die in Oregon (2011), Extremis (2016), Dick Johnson Is Dead (2019), and Come See Me in the Good Light (2025) follow real-life individuals as they prepare for death after receiving a terminal diagnosis. How might such films—both documentary and fictional—serve as a kind of visual memento mori? We seek proposals that explore the visuals of death and dying, especially in religious contexts.

Animals in Film: Religions are typically understood from a human perspective or the vantage point of deities. Recent films, like Good Boy (2025), Flow (2024) and Eo (2022) have recentered the narrative subject of cinema and opened up new perspectives for understanding religion. We seek proposals that explore how animal characters have been used in film. What can we learn about religion when we focus on animals’ perspective? What functions do they have in storytelling?

Buddhism as Cinematic Experience and Practice – Co-Sponsored with the Buddhism Unit (Contact: Dhondup T. Rekjong (rekjong@gmail.com) and Jue Liang (storylj@gmail.com)) 

Instead of focusing on the content of films as relevant to Buddhism, this panel queries the embodied aspects of Buddhism as both cinematic experience and practice. Potential topics include: 

- Film viewing as a Buddhist practice (individual viewing, collective, conversational; locations, settings, multisensational experiences) 

- Filmmaking or film viewing as a new mode of studying Buddhism

- Filmmaking as both a depiction of Buddhism on screen and a practice of Buddhism itself

- Filmmaking as a cinematic way of practicing Buddhism that moves beyond its textual, oral, and institutional authorities

- Presenting Buddhism within the frame of a film is like experiencing it in a particular space and time.

We welcome participation from filmmakers, artists, and other practitioners in filmmaking. 

Key Scholarly Monographs: We’re interested in organized panels focused on monographs centered on the subject of religion, film, and visual culture published in 2025 or 2026. 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.