Teaching Religion Unit

The Teaching Religion Unit critically examines pedagogical theory and practice. We particularly value proposals that combine scholarship of teaching and learning *and* innovative teaching practices. We invite both individual paper proposals as well as proposals for fully-developed roundtables or sessions. For 2026, paper and panel proposals that address the following themes are especially welcome:

Back to the Future / Revisiting the Classics

Aligned with the 2026 Annual Meeting theme of “Future/s,” the Teaching Religion Unit invites proposals for presentations and/or teaching demonstrations on the theme of “back to the future.” We seek presentations that revisit classic aspects of classroom teaching – effective lecturing, foundations for discussion, and more – with an eye toward how these classics remain relevant or can be adapted moving forward. This is meant to be a practical session framed for an audience looking to learn core pedagogical techniques that are supported by Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 

“Teaching Tactics”

The Teaching Religion Unit regularly hosts an annual session on “Teaching Tactics,” which features lightning-round presentations (7-10 minutes total) of a specific teaching technique, assignment, etc., followed by discussion. This year we are particularly interested in presentations that not only describe a teaching tactic, but demonstrate an actual lesson or model engaged, interactive, and experiential pedagogy. For 2026, we are considering a themed Teaching Tactics session centered around tactics for ethical formation (peacebuilding, compassionate listening, collaboration, group work, etc.). 

The FUTURE of Teaching and Learning: Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom

The Religion, Media, and Culture Unit, Teaching Religion Unit, and Class, Labor, and Religion Unit invite proposals for a possible co-sponsored session. We hope to facilitate discussions that:

• Analyze and/or demonstrate innovative teaching methods/styles using various A.I.-answer engines – per past experience or future teaching plans.
• Evaluate any obstacles that arise when A.I. enters the religious studies classroom. Potential concerns include plagiarism convenience, threats to academic integrity, “hallucination,” inaccuracy, and bias deficiencies, “homogenized” thought, and compromises to student attention and effort.
• Address the future of academic labor as related to AI: how our work as educators is being affected by both changes to the university and AI. How does the growing movement towards teaching, grading, and writing using AI tools affect our work? How might it further implicate us and our students in unjust labor, environmental impact, and structural injustice broadly understood?

Teaching and Learning about Religion Beyond the Classroom

The Teaching Religion Unit and Religion and Public Schools Unit invite proposals for a possible co-sponsored session. The landscape of education is changing rapidly, from primary school through university, and the structures that supported the academic study of religion are changing at the same time. There are more and more opportunities to teach and learn about religion outside of the traditional classroom setting, from museum exhibits designed to engage young children and their families with their religiously diverse neighbors, to community and continuing education; from new online opportunities to religious literacy training embedded in workforce development programs. This call seeks papers that examine the experiences and/or impacts of teaching or learning about religion in alternative settings. 

Topics could include:

• teaching about religion in museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions;
• intergenerational learning or teaching opportunities;
• online courses outside of a university program;
• continuing education for casual learners (non-degree programs);
• public installations, exhibits, or experiences;
• students-focused programs outside of school hours;
• the integration of learning about religion with other forms of training.

Teaching the Canon: Schleiermacher

The Teaching Religion Unit and the Schleiermacher Unit invite papers for a possible co-sponsored session on the topic of “Teaching the Canon: Schleiermacher.” What does it mean and what might it look like to teach "canonical" texts and figures in religion today? This session explores this question through a reexamination of F.D.E. Schleiermacher's place in the religion and theology curriculum. Whether as a lead-up to Barth's "No!" to natural theology, as a founder of the academic study of religion, or as early textual critic, Schleiermacher has long been a mainstay of the theological curriculum and courses on theory and methods in the study of religion. Generations of scholars have been exposed to debates over whether or not Schleiermacher's definition of religion's essence as lying in "feeling" rendered it beyond the scope of conceptual analysis and Schleiermacher's role in formulating the hermeneutic circle. The Reden and Glaubenslehre remain required readings in many religion classrooms. Yet many of the assumptions that have undergirded Schleiermacher's place in the curriculum have been complicated or challenged. Reception histories that have highlighted the distance between Schleiermacher and his appropriators, greater access to a wider breadth of Schleiermacher's intellectual production, increased attention to the historical and political context of Schleiermacher's work, and genealogies that have recontextualized the task of studying religion itself all have enormous implications for how Schleiermacher can (or whether he should) be taught today.

This session calls for proposals for individual papers, presentations, or panels that address the practical task of engaging F.D.E. Schleiermacher in the context of undergraduate programs, theological education, graduate school, preaching or public scholarship, engaging with recent research on Schleiermacher and exploring the place of historical context, close reading, genealogies, or lived religion in the classroom. Topics for proposals might include (but are not limited to) the following:

• The (ir)relevance of Schleiermacher's understanding of religion and approach to theology for introductory courses and graduate theory and methods seminars
• Exploring the way that historical narratives about the development of modern theology, the academic study of religion, or the rise of the modern university shape the way that Schleiermacher is presented and alternatives to situating Schleiermacher's project as a foil or as a stepping stone to Ritschl / Troeltsch / Barth, the history of religions school / Otto / Eliade, or Dilthey / Gadamer
• How confessional and non-confessional institutional locations shape the reception of Schleiermacher's theological and academic project
• Teaching Schleiermacher as a social activist whose life and thought holds constructive potential for ethical and political issues
• Teaching Schleiermacher in a post-colonial and gender- / race-conscious way or in non-Western spaces

Roundtable Discussion: The Dialogic Classroom in Higher Education

The Teaching Religion Unit also plans to host a pre-arranged roundtable discussion with authors of the book, The Dialogic Classroom in Higher Education (Routledge, 2026).

General Call

We invite proposals for individual papers and panel sessions that join innovative teaching practice with the scholarship of teaching and learning. Of particular interest this year are papers that might include: re-enchanting the teaching of religion, teaching religion responsibly with/in the context of AI, teaching alternative texts (podcasts, graphic novels, streaming series), teaching to scale (large/small classes, grading), trauma-informed pedagogy, and/or competency based education in religious studies. Preference will be given to presentation formats that model engaged, interactive, and experiential pedagogy.