Roundtable Session In-person November Annual Meeting 2025

A Discourse of Our Own?: on the merits (and demerits) of a cohesive vocabulary for embodiment in the study of religion

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

As embodiment has sought to assert itself in humanities and psychology, it has had to borrow and augment existing language from other theories and methodologies. This might be a necessary step in establishing a new body of theories and/or methods. It may also be a particular growing pain for introducing a theory/method that contrasts so distinctly from the established theories and methods for those topics that embodiment tends to address: ritual, performance, religious experience, religion and psychology, etc.... However, since embodiment has been emerging for decades now, it seems fair to ask: Have we arrived (or are we arriving) at a point when we can point to a cohesive vocabulary for embodiment studies? If such a cohesive vocabulary is desirable, what would it look like and where might gaps in vocabulary suggest gaps in research or in embodiment as a theory/method?

Audiovisual Requirements
LCD Projector and Screen
Comments
FYI (NOT AN AAR2026 PROPOSAL) This roundtable seeks to initiate wide and sustained conversation well beyond this conference session. One peer-reviewed journal has expressed interest in extending this conversation throughout 2026. Several scholars (6) who cannot participate in AAR 2025’s roundtable have expressed interest in participating in a follow-up session at AAR 2026. Building on this roundtable’s opening conversations, next year’s session will offer a seminar style discussion to move the discursive project forward.

AAR 2026: Tentative Participants
Thomas Csordas, UC San Diego
Sam Gill, Emeritus, U Colorado, Boulder
Katherine Zubko, UNC Asheville
Kristy Nabhan-Warren, University of Iowa
Tanya Luhrman, Stanford University
Sarah Imhoff, Indiana University
Tags
#embodiment #theory #methodology