Online Program Book

This is the preliminary program for the 2024 in-person Annual Meeting, hosted with the Society for Biblical Literature in San Diego, CA - November 23-26. Pre-conference workshops and many committee meetings will be held November 22. If you have questions about the program, contact annualmeeting@aarweb.org. All times are listed in local/Pacific Time.


	A23-109 Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society Unit Theme: Asian American Shinto and Christianities Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Hilton Bayfront-Cobalt 500 (Fifth Level) Michael Karim, Fuller Theological Seminary, Presiding This paper session investigates the depth and breadth of Asian American religious life from an interdisciplinary perspective, covering Asian American Shintoism to a variety of Christian expressions in Hmong American, Korean American and Indian American contexts. Laura Snell, University of California, Santa Barbara The American Daijingu: Shinto in Pre-World War II Los Angeles Abstract Shinto shrines often form a component of the nation and its extension; consequently research surrounding Shinto is primarily undertaken within the borders of Japan. This paper challenges the traditional view of Shinto as geographically bound to the empire in the early 20th century through an examination of the American Daijingu (grand shrine), established in Los Angeles in 1909. Discussion of the American Daijingu considers religion in public, troubles the categories of religion and the secular, and, in a larger frame, invites challenges to the transnational historiography of religion in the United States and Japan. How and why the erasure of the American shrine after World War II happened in historical accounts engages Eiichiro Azuma’s transnational history of Japanese Americans and Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s theory of power and archival silence. This paper suggests that the absence of shrines in the material world delimits Shinto scholarship’s understanding of the tradition in transnational spaces. Der Lor, Emory University The Messianic Figure and the Political State Broker: Competing Paradigms of Transpacific Hmong American Leadership Abstract Following historical analyses comparing the relation between the Hmong messianic figure and the Hmong political state broker and their positionality to the state, this paper considers the dialectic of these two figures as a single site of examination for interpreting Hmong diasporic and Hmong American history. This paper contends that the political state broker’s assassination of the messianic figure reveals their competing leadership along the porousness of political and religious Hmong American identity. Subsequently, the paradigm of the political state broker continues to discipline the transnational political and religious imaginations of contemporary Hmong Americans. How this takes form domestically across various religious Hmong American communities will be the site of future research. Binu Varghese, Princeton Theological Seminary The Legacy of W.A. Criswell and Indian American Christianity Abstract Indian American Christianity is at a crossroads in the current socio-political order. One in five Indian Americans identifies as a Christian, and most embrace American evangelicalism. During the 2021 Capitol Hill riot, an Indian American waved the tricolor flag in support of Donald Trump. Although being a catholic, he identified himself as an evangelical in his faith and beliefs. Indian American Christianity had formed a tryst with white American evangelicalism post-1960 immigration reforms. In 1974, K.P Yohannan, one of the pioneers in Indian American Christianity, was appointed as the international POC pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas under the invitation of W. A Criswell, popular for his segregationist and divisive policies. In this context, the paper examines racist and casteist imagination idealized through capitalism, racism, and xenophobia. This paper also interrogates ratifications of white working-class economic anxieties, misogyny, anti-black prejudice, fear of Islamic terrorism, and xenophobia in Indian American communities. Chanhee Heo, Stanford University ‘Heathen’ Feminism: Korean Women's Religion and Marriage Immigration in the Early Twentieth Century Abstract This paper explores the discursive consciousness of Korean women who became picture brides in early twentieth century America, an area which has often been overlooked in scholarship of religion and race in a transpacific migratory context. Engaging with Korean women’s writings that began to appear in late nineteenth-century print media in Korea and Korean picture brides’ oral interviews, the paper suggests that Korean women reshaped the concept of ideal womanhood that was promoted to them by American women missionaries. Through reinterpreting a theological understanding of gender equality, Korean women utilized the picture marriage system to achieve goals for education and political empowerment in America. Although the picture marriage system was considered backward in American society, Korean women’s use of this system challenges the Western ownership of the New Woman label. Business Meeting Helen Jin Kim, Emory University, Presiding SueJeanne Koh, University of California, Irvine, Presiding
	A23-145 World Christianity Unit Theme: World Christianity and the Environment Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Convention Center-33A (Upper Level East) Briana Wong, Phillips Theological Seminary, Presiding This panel explores the relationship between Christianity and ecological concerns in the Global South. The first paper investigates the activities of twentieth-century Congregationalist missionary Ray Phillips in South Africa and connects the environmental consequences of gold mining to the broader program of western subjugation all too often expressed through missionary endeavors. The second draws on the work of two African women theologians, Wangari Maathai and Afua Kuma, which amplifies the voices of contemporary African women affected by climate change. The third analyzes Ling Ma’s 2018 novel, Severance, through the lens of religion and focuses on the novel’s uncanny prescience concerning the emergence and effects of COVID-19. The fourth highlights and engages the phenomenon of green churches in Korea, which seek to restore relations with non-human creation. The fifth highlights the American Marathi Mission’s attempts to mobilize transnational evangelical assistance during the famine of 1899–1901 in the India’s Deccan Plateau. Richard Pryor, Princeton Theological Seminary Men on the Mines: The Environmental Consequences of Missionary Masculinity Abstract For over a decade in the first half of the twentieth century, the Congregationalist missionary Ray Phillips worked with men on the mines of South Africa, attempting to combine both social control measures and evangelistic programs. This paper considers Phillips’s pre-1930 activities on the mines as representative of the larger missionary population and the violence inherent in their activities – both in social control and the remaking of indigenous minds, as well as in the environmental consequences of gold mining, and argues that they are related as part of the same program of western subjugation, through combining theories and practices from colonial/imperial studies, missiology, ecotheology, and history. David Lewis, University of Edinburgh Wangari Maathai and Afua Kuma: Prophetic Activism and Creation Care Abstract This paper will argue that Wangari Maathai and Afua Kuma represent two African women with significant theological insights, neither of whom were formally trained in theology, and illustrate a prophetic activism that promotes creation care, acknowledging the presence of Christ within his creation. By drawing on their works, I intend to demonstrate their prophetic warnings and prophetic hope which I will argue fuels an activism which challenges existing powers and lifts up the poor and oppressed, whilst also turning our eyes to the rest of creation. Their works declare theological truths that we desperately need to hear in an era of climate crisis. Their contributions also give voice to contemporary African women, particularly those suffering the effects of climate change, leading towards an egalitarian theological emphasis that cares for creation and for people who groan along with it. Jin Lu, Purdue University Northwest Religion on the Move: Migration, Globalization and Post-Apocalypse in Ling Ma’s Severance Abstract Ling Ma’s 2018 debut novel, Severance, weaves intimately three types of fiction: the storyline of a post-apocalyptic survival narrative, interlaced with the coming of age tale of the narrator/protagonist (Candace Chen) struggling to find meaning and make a living in a globalized economy that was posing increasing ecological threats to its inhabitants, and through the flashbacks of her memory, a traumatizing story of her immigrant parents and her own childhood facing unfathomable heart-breaking tragedy. Religion permeates each of those three strands. Published in the year before Covid-19, Ling Ma’s Severance offers an uncanny and unsettling depiction of the spread of a global pandemic and humanity’s chaotic response to it. While seamlessly rooted in the trajectory of a Chinese-American immigrant family, Severance can be placed in the long line of what Father Marc Rastoin (2018) termed “post-apocalyptic genre” in recent decades in which religion constitutes an important dimension. Jongseock Shin, Fuller Theological Seminary A Call for Creation Care: Korean and North American Green Churches in the Fight Against Environmental Violence and for Liberating Nature from Collective “Han” Abstract I will argue that churches are to embody a messianic fellowship, uniting in solidarity to grapple with environmental exploitation and violence. This mission seeks to heal the natural environment by expanding the collective ‘han’—the deep-seated grief stemming from unresolved frustrations to the natural world. This embraces the natural environment and non-human creatures into a “bapsang community” or a table community of Jesus Christ. In so doing, I will explore the engagement of local churches across various denominations in Korea, known as green churches selected by the Christian Environmental Movement Solidarity with green theology and practice, in dialogue with similar ecological churches in North America. I will highlight the need for organic solidarity among counterparts in Korea to enhance the effectiveness of their ministries by drawing upon core ideas of Minjung theology and expanding their scope into the natural environment. The green churches in North America provide viable examples for helping the Korean counterparts stand in solidarity, while also drawing insights from the Korean green churches to enrich the efforts in North America. Dax Mathew, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago Loss of Lives and Livelihoods in the Deccan: American Marathi Mission Response to Famine, Plague and Drought 1899 – 1901. Abstract Deccan in the last quarter of the nineteenth century experienced nine famines, two of which were great famines. The second great famine happened over the turn of the century in 1899, de-populating the region of human life and livestock. Neil Charlesworth’s monograph Peasants and Imperial Rule points out that along with the natural phenomena, the implementation of a flawed land revenue settlement policy accentuated the agrarian crisis. Scarcity of food and credit capital had left multitudes dependent on moneylenders. Amartya Sen in Hunger and Public Action has asserted that famines are triggered by the collapse of exchange entitlements rather than food availability decline. Based on archival research, this paper will highlight largely unexplored work of the American Marathi Mission in the famine period. The paper will focus on the actions taken by AMM missionaries to mitigate the immediate suffering of the famine population and efforts in mobilizing evangelical transnational help. Business Meeting Janice McLean-Farrell, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, Presiding Briana Wong, Phillips Theological Seminary, Presiding
	A23-221 Political Theology Unit and Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion Unit Theme: Theodicies under suspicion Saturday, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM Hilton Bayfront-Indigo 202B (Second Level) Nathan R. B. Loewen, University of Alabama, Presiding How might theodicies serve to mask and marginalize structural violence? (either tacitly or explicitly) “Theodicy” here works as a category for arguments that defend religious or metaphysical claims from contradictions based on events of the actual world. We have selected proposals that articulate a theodicy, and then critically analyze how it functions to justify structural conditions such as inequalities, civil violence, xenophobia, political structures, or disparities of health, education, etc. Proposals may work with typical sources (e.g. texts, scriptures) or less-conventional sources (e.g. oral traditions, social media, laws, etc.). Thaddeus Robinson, Muhlenberg College Spinoza on Theodicy as Foolish Wonder Abstract In this paper I consider the place of theodicy in Spinoza’s well-known critique of clerical power. In his Theological-Political Treatise, Spinoza explains how clerical authorities maintain power by driving a feedback loop between fear and superstition. Although Spinoza criticizes the philosophical underpinnings of theodicy itself, he also criticizes its promulgation as pernicious. Drawing on Spinoza’s account of the affects, I connect Spinoza’s view about the dangers of theodicy in terms of his account of wonder, and more broadly to 17th century concerns about the dangers of wonder—as opposed to curiosity—in natural philosophy. Understood as foolish wonder, we will be in a position to see how theodicy relates to the fear/superstition loop. I close by briefly comparing Spinoza’s criticism of theodicy to that of contemporary critics. Jack Bernardi, Virginia Tech The Price of Providence: Central Banking and the Book of Job Abstract This paper considers an economic dimension of theodicy as a legitimating discourse: reconciling the tension between a sovereign's ultimate power and yet inability (or their ultimate benevolence and yet refusal) to intervene into a system of distribution and valuation to create justice. It begins with a theo-political reading of the Book of Job, linking the text's insistence on (divine) sovereignty as the sole basis of wisdom and justice with Modern Monetary Theory's contentions in debates over the role of the Federal Reserve. The specter of Job is raised again with Hobbes' Leviathan: in the attempted 1611 monetary renovations of James Stuart, we observe an ostensibly 'divinizing' monarch perform uncharacteristic impotence before the demands of foreign markets, in which the cost of re-capitalizing domestic market liquidity is effectively forced onto the bearers of base-metal currency. Emily Theus, Yale University The “Partial Theodicy” of Donna Haraway’s Chthulucene Abstract Theorists of ecological crisis privilege concepts of ambiguity and partiality as simultaneously truer to material realities andmore politically and ethically promising. Taking Donna Haraway’s Chthulucene concept as a case study, this paper asks if this move successfully avoids theodicy. Though Haraway defines the “time-place” of the Chthulucene in opposition to the salvific logics of theodicy, her celebration of ambiguity emerges from a reading of ecological breakdown as the source of a renewed vision of entanglement. In other words, ecological crisis becomes an opportunity to materialize a reformulated best-case scenario. I argue that Haraway’s attempt to circumvent theodicy recapitulates its errors: naturalizing loss and assigning a silver lining to structural violence. I call this persisting logic of theodicy a “partial theodicy.” Justin Tse, Singapore Management University Xenia Chan, Augustana University ‘Transnationally Asian’ Theodicies: Troubling “Social Formations” in Transpacific Counterpoetics Abstract In this paper, we explore political theodicies in “transnationally Asian” literatures after 2010. We claim that the literary cultures of these transpacific networks and communities constitute what Yunte Huang calls a “counterpoetics” that attempts to challenge what Gary Okihiro calls the “social formations” that shape the power structures of transpacific arenas. Herein lies the theodicy: we argue that these transpacific counterpoetics also have trouble naming the powers that constellate these social formations. We move across three literary cultures: military apocalypses arising from Korean diasporas, geopolitical tensions in Sinophone and Vietnamese communities, and ecological disasters circulating from the Fukushima subduction earthquake in Japan. Our paper contributes to the global critique of political theodicies by showing in the transpacific region that evil might be seen in the wounds of war and disaster, but naming what exactly inflicts this violence is difficult – and generates even more pain in its indeterminate articulation. Business Meeting Marie-Helene Gorisse, University of Birmingham, Presiding Nathan R. B. Loewen, University of Alabama, Presiding
	A23-227 Religion and Human Rights Unit and Religion and Migration Unit Theme: Religion, Migration, and Human Rights Activism in a Time of Hardening Borders Saturday, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM Convention Center-33A (Upper Level East) Ulrich Schmiedel, Lund University, Presiding Presenters in this session will examine religious thought and practice in situations where borders are violently guarded, the rights of migrants (and others) often brushed aside, and democratic norms come under attack. The papers explore diverse forms of religiously-inflected activism that arise under situations of significant human rights violations. The first paper uses a Christian ethical lens to examine rights across borders when strict ideologies of sovereignty diverge from facts on the ground. The second considers how gender-based rights violations in immigration detention arise out of the context of detention itself. The third elucidates the role of religion in undocumented Filipino Americans’ activism to resist violence in the immigration enforcement system. And the fourth considers how religious actors and scholars have acted across borders to resist manipulation of historical memory, advocating for both democratic norms and the rights of migrants and the most vulnerable. Gabriel Catanus, Fuller Theological Seminary Double-Crossed: Rethinking Filipino American Faith after Crimmigration Abstract As many as 370,000 Filipinos live in the United States without legal status. Under the Trump presidency, their daily lives were plagued by fears of state violence in the forms of incarceration and deportation. Despite his promises, President Biden has not succeeded in changing U.S. immigration policies. Seizing on a crisis at the Southern border, nativists have continued to depict undocumented immigrants as “illegals” who are a danger to American society, even though empirical studies have consistently shown otherwise. In this paper, I examine the lived realities of undocumented Filipino Americans in order to challenge assumptions about their Christian faith and ethics. By situating their decisions historically and sociologically, I show that they are not only victims of largely-hidden legal violence, but that their communities offer important contributions to the work of nonviolent resistance. Aixin Aydin, University of Texas Gender-based violence in immigration detention centers Abstract Based on religious scholarship of “micropractice,” I demonstrate how immigration detention work produces violence. Through examination of incidents of gender-based violence in immigration detention contexts across history–from ships moored off the California coast to modern private prisons–I show how workplace micropractices culminate into incidents of gender-based violence. Through methods of control, surveillance, and humiliation, those involved within the immigration system learn how to treat immigrants that they encounter; if you spend every workday demeaning immigrants, what is one more personal act of degradation? I propose that in order to end gender-based violence within the immigration system, and the violence of the immigration detention system itself, we must look not just at the religious ideologies that support xenophobia, but also the ritual practices that sustain it. Seulbin Lee, Vanderbilt University Religion’s Influence on Memory Activism for Democracy: Korean American Diaspora Activists and the Remembrance of a Pro-democracy Uprising in South Korea Abstract This paper investigates religion’s ongoing contribution to the transmission of the memories of the May 18 Uprising, a historic South Korean pro-democracy uprising against the authoritarian Korean government, and the generation of new multi-racial activist networks in the U.S. Based on qualitative research and drawing from feminist and womanist theo-ethical frameworks on memory, I examine the role of religion in three sites of social memory: haunted bodies, political art, and religious networks. In these three sites, the Christian religion and the Korean spiritual traditions preserve the memory of the movement and regenerate its radical spirit. I argue that such a confluence of religious traditions provides fertile ground for mobilizing resources for cultivating transnational democratic (political and cultural) belonging. More broadly, my presentation invites conversation on how religion uniquely contributes to keeping memories of progressive social movements “alive” for a liberative and decolonial democracy. Gary Slater, University of Münster The Border and the Wound: Rethinking Rights in Times of Toxic Westphalianism Abstract The particular intersection of the novel and the unchanged in today’s relations between borders, sovereignty, and migration—which can be called “toxic Westphalianism”—represents both a moral challenge and an opportunity to rethink rights with respect to violations of migrant rights in border spaces. In light of the history of Westphalian sovereignty, in which nonhuman considerations were excluded, theological elements were sublimated, and non-European territories were colonized, the examination of borders as systems of exclusion renders visible elements that can be brought together in challenging but promising ways. The situation demands Christian ethical attention, both as a moral concern and because of Christianity’s ambivalent historical relationship with sovereignty. Such attention facilitates rethinking rights in terms of encounters that ramify across wider social relationships. This account of rights does not occlude the universalism that typically accompanies assertions of rights so much as deploy it within specific acts of contestation or resistance. Business Meeting Laura Alexander, University of Nebraska, Omaha, Presiding Jenna Reinbold, Colgate University, Presiding
	A23-339 Theology and Religious Reflection Unit Theme: Trauma and Representation Across Borders Saturday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire 400B (Fourth Level) Abdul Rahman MUSTAFA, University of Paderborn, Presiding How does movement across borders affect the self-understanding of a Korean immigrant church in the United States? How does the trauma experienced by Vietnamese refugees lead to the need for an embodied epistemology? And how might the trauma of Christ's passion be represented in differently situated gospel narratives written in contexts of political contestation - conquest and exile from an emperor's court? Exploring the complicated textures of trauma, its consequences, and its movement into new political conditions, these three papers offer case studies in trauma and representation across borders. Madison Chau, Boston University Touching War Wounds: Vietnamese Refugee Trauma, Textured Forgiveness, and the Need for Sensory Epistemologies Abstract The “frame” of the American War in Vietnam has rendered Vietnamese refugees, particularly women, legible only insofar as they are willing to offer their forgiveness of American male violence. Christian theology, in prioritizing the forgiveness of American war crimes over the need to witness Vietnamese refugee’s pain, has colluded with the dehumanizing structures that deny Vietnamese refugee women’s subjectivity. Yet the solution is not to offer a complete narrative of Vietnamese refugee trauma; both critical refugee studies and the material turn in trauma theory question whether narrative is sufficient to bear witness to war wounds. Building from critical refugee studies combined with Shelly Rambo’s work on trauma and theology, I argue for a Christian theological account that witnesses to trauma by utilizing a sensory epistemology to construct a more textured perspective on forgiveness Hangyoon Cho, Yale University From Separation/survival to Embrace/self-emptiness: Politics, Religion, and the Korean Immigrant Church Abstract Due to their ties to their home countries, immigrant churches reflect foreign political, ideological, and cultural influences. These influences impact both the church and the immigrant community. Korean immigrant churches, shaped by Korea's political context, often maintain mono-faith and mono-ethnic structures, fostering exclusionary attitudes. In the diverse landscape of the United States, this exclusivity may provoke isolation or even violence. Therefore, examining the intersection of political-religious identity and immigration in these churches is crucial. In this paper, I argue that Korean immigrant church should transition its foundational structure from an exclusive structure of separation/survival to the structure of embrace/self-emptiness. It explores the origins of the separation/survival structure through the political context of Korea and proposes a theological framework based on Christ's ministry for embrace/self-emptiness. Samuel Youngs, Conquered and Exiled: Comparative Traumatizations of the Betrayed Jesus in the Heliand and Homerocentones Abstract This paper posits that constructive theologies of interpersonal trauma are often cyphered through religious texts and reflections. This is illustrated via a comparison of the betrayal of Christ in two unique and highly contextualized gospels. The first, the Old Saxon Heliand, depicts Jesus as a conquered chieftain, submissive to his fated agony, potentially intending to domesticate the rebellious ethos of the recently conquered Saxons. The second example emerges from a criminally understudied text, the Homerocentones of the Empress Eudocia. She presents a defiant Christ, who levels a poetic condemnation of Judas and other evildoers and thus reflects facets of Eudocia’s own character and possibly aids in her own internal adjudication of her unjust banishment from the imperial court. Such trauma informed reading produces fresh understandings of how collective and individual traumatization can be navigated within the resources of a scriptural tradition and its varied contextualizations.
	A23-342 Women of Color Scholarship, Teaching, and Activism Unit Theme: Let Us Meet There: Black and Asian Women Making a Pedagogical Home in the Margin(s) Saturday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Hilton Bayfront-Cobalt 520 (Fifth Level) Hinasahar Muneeruddin, University of North Carolina, Presiding Using a Black and Asian women peer learning experience as a narrative frame, this creative presentation explores the possibilities and challenges of women of color making a pedagogical home in the margin(s). Through vignette-based reflections, this presentation celebrates and critiques various embodied and margin-formed practices that carry gifts of knowledge and wisdom that are often unacknowledged in the formal academic context but that shape and form who we are, how we know, and what we are becoming. These practices bear witness to the legacies of our forebearers and point us toward pedagogies of care and solidarity for women of color. Inspired by bell hooks' notion of the margin as a site of resistance, creativity, power, and inclusion, we aim to inspire participants to re-member, embody, and reflect on their pedagogical formation and how teaching from, in, and for the margins might (re)energize their practice of theological education. Rachelle Green, Fordham University Maria Liu Wong, City Seminary of New York AHyun Lee, Wesley Seminary, Indiana Wesleyan University "Let Us Meet There": Black and Asian Women Making a Pedagogical Home in the Margin(s) Abstract Using a Black and Asian women peer learning experience as a narrative frame, this creative presentation explores the possibilities and challenges of women of color making a pedagogical home in the margin(s). Through vignette-based reflections, this presentation celebrates and critiques various embodied and margin-formed practices that carry gifts of knowledge and wisdom that are often unacknowledged in the formal academic context but that shape and form who we are, how we know, and what we are becoming. These practices bear witness to the legacies of our forebearers and point us toward pedagogies of care and solidarity for women of color. Inspired by bell hooks' notion of the margin as a site of resistance, creativity, power, and inclusion, we aim to inspire participants to re-member, embody, and reflect on their pedagogical formation and how teaching from, in, and for the margins might (re)energize their practice of theological education. Responding Yara Gonzalez-Justiniano, Vanderbilt University Business Meeting Oluwatomisin Oredein, Brite Divinity School, Presiding Deborah Rogers, Other, Presiding
	A23-404 Bioethics and Religion Unit Theme: Intersecting Spiritual, Ethical, and Health Advocacy in Different Religio-cultural Contexts Saturday, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM Convention Center-32A (Upper Level East) Devan Stahl, Baylor University, Presiding The session examines the integration of spiritual beliefs, ethical principles, and health advocacy in addressing socio-political and health crises. The first paper explores how Buddhist teachings and AI ethics can guide bioethical decision-making in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The second paper analyzes the lived experiences of Korean immigrants in the U.S., highlighting the spiritual and cultural influences on prenatal care practices. The third paper assesses the role of violence in Haiti from historical and contemporary perspectives, exploring how healthcare workers utilize liberative medicine to combat health and political instability. Collectively, these studies emphasize the importance of culturally and contextually informed approaches for resolving complex global challenges, advocating for a synthesis of faith, ethics, and advocacy in public health and policy. Jane Compson, University of Washington Dharma in the Digital Age: Some reflections on Buddhism and Artificial Intelligence. Abstract This paper will argue hat religious teachings can provide can offer helpful, multidimensional perspectives to these discussions - the work of a non-profit, Artificial Intelligence and Faith (AIF) will be presented as a helpful model of the engagement of faith communities with AI. As part of this exploration, the paper will focus in on Buddhist teachings. Drawing on both Buddhist canonical sources and contemporary teachings and scholarship, this paper will explore some examples of how Buddhist theory and practice can offer insights, conceptual analysis and practical wisdom for skillfully navigating in the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the context of bioethics. Hajung Lee, University of Puget Sound Taegyo and Lived Religion: Exploring Spiritual Practices in Prenatal Care Among Korean Immigrants Abstract This qualitative study investigates the experiences of Korean immigrants with taegyo (“prenatal education”), targeting 30 participants and focusing on 'lived religion.' Taegyo, a traditional Korean prenatal practice influenced by spiritual and cultural beliefs, reflects a unique blend of Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Christianity. Through in-depth interviews, this study aims to understand how Korean immigrants integrate these spiritual practices into their prenatal care within the U.S. cultural context. Data will be analyzed using modified grounded theory to underline the importance of integrating immigrant experiences and spiritual practices into healthcare, promoting more inclusive and culturally sensitive care. This investigation contributes to the broader understanding of the intersection between spirituality, immigration, health, and lived religion. The study highlights the importance of recognizing patients' lived religion to provide optimal reproductive care for immigrant populations of color. Shaunesse' Jacobs Plaisimond, University of South Florida The Power of Accompaniment as Practiced by Haitian Health Workers in Times of Violence Abstract Centuries ago, violence in Haiti was used as a tool by the enslaved population against European oppressors to fight for freedom and human dignity. In the 2020’s, violence continues to be used, but by Haitians against one another, to bring global attention to dehumanizing and dismal conditions in which the majority of the nation lives. Caught between gangs and politicians, a government in absentia, and global powers that have exacerbated harsh living conditions are healthcare workers continuing to model accompaniment to a beleaguered citizenry fighting for basic health. Modeled after the late Dr. Paul Farmer, this paper seeks to analyze the model of liberative medicine practiced by health workers in Haiti as they continue fighting the physical and political fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic that both exacerbated poor health conditions and a deteriorating government. Through their example, a model of health advocacy amid physical and political chaos has the potential to improve health promotion in other nations facing unending violence.
	A24-323 North American Religions Unit Theme: Religion Across the Americas Sunday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Convention Center-7B (Upper Level West) Mélena Laudig, Princeton University, Presiding Embracing a geographically capacious definition of "North American religions," this panel features research papers that explore religious life in different locations across the Americas. The first paper focuses on the Nahua people of Mexico and considers the ontological foundations of their cultural perseverance and resistance to colonization. The second paper centers on Hawaii and investigates how Korean immigrants drew on notions of America as "white Christian nation" to advance nativist views of Japanese Americans. The final paper focuses on the U.S./Mexico borderland and considers the religious dynamics of tents and tented events in that region. All together, these papers invite a comparative and transnational approach to the study of American religion that reaches across and beyond national boundaries. Katie Brodhead, Western Carolina University Nahua Ontological Contributions Towards Perseverance: A Telling through Modern Voices arising from Interviews Abstract Following the 16th Century invasion of the Anahuac by Hernán Cortés different forms of assimilation, acculturation, accommodation took place amongst the Nahua people throughout the centuries. Notwithstanding, the Nahua resisted and persevered to become an enduring people. A distinct Nahua ontology, in contrast to Western forms of ontology arising from Aristotle and a consequent arising therefrom - namely, an emphasis on imagination - has contributed to Nahua perseverance. A result of the Nahua worldview is an emphasis on work, discipline, and penance. This is expressed in collective community, obligations to the earth, and self-identity with respect for difference. An inclusion of variety of modern Nahua voices, arising from interviews across Mexico is included to support these claims. These voices also shed light on the past, particularly where the Nahua fell at diverse times on the three pillar modalities which facilitate change in subaltern-dominant group interactions: assimilation, acculturation, accommodation. Chanhee Heo, Stanford University The Foreign Nativist: Tracing Korean Immigrants’ Racial Consciousness in a “Christian Land” Abstract This paper explores how religion played a central role in the understanding of US citizenship and racial categorizations during World War II, centering on Haan Kilsoo, a Korean immigrant who firmly supported a nativist viewpoint toward Japanese Americans. Drawing from public statements, correspondence between intelligence agencies, legal documents, news articles, and letters, this paper examines how Korean immigrants like Kilsoo claimed their loyalty to the States by drawing from the predominant idea of America as a “White Christian nation” in Korean immigrant communities. Korean immigrants’ understanding of race as intertwined with religious affiliation helped many to disassociate themselves from the broader racial category of “Asian,” particularly during a time in which Korean immigrants were negotiating between their racialization in the States and the colonization of their homeland by the Japanese empire. Samuel Stella, Columbia University The Subjects that Tents Make: The Architecture of Early Pentecostal Missions, Mexican Circuses, and Detention Camps in the US/Mexico Borderlands Abstract This paper examines three kinds of tents and tented events that have been erected and coordinated in the US/Mexico borderlands, particularly Texas. The first two, early Pentecostal missionary meetings designed to convert Mexican people, and semi-local, small Mexican circuses, or carpas, coincided in the nineteen teens and early nineteen twenties. The third, tented migrant detention camps run by the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, especially those used to detain minors seperated from their caregivers, exploded across the borderlands and the national consciousness almost exactly one hundred years after the heyday of missionary tents and carpas. The paper details the similarities of the material infrastructure of the tent at all three sites, noting how the tent form offers a set of affordances and connotations that enable and constrain three distinct subject-making enterprises. Responding Brandon Bayne, University of North Carolina
	A24-326 Religion and Ecology Unit Theme: Rethinking Non-human Sentience and Sapience: Cross-Cultural Perspectives Sunday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Convention Center-28D (Upper Level East) Nixon Cleophat, Bloomfield College, Presiding The new boom in research and interest in non-human sentience and sapience (in particular, “critical plant studies” and the Rights of Nature movement) calls for a deeper theoretical engagement with ethics, ontology, religious studies, and metaphysics. This panel explores the biological and ethical promises of these new frameworks, while critically analyzing their incompleteness. While welcoming the agency and personhood of our non-human kin is one way to enter into deeper, and perhaps decolonial, relationships with the more-than-human world, this panel explores the complexities involved, asking questions like: When do our frameworks of analysis perpetuate the very violence and colonial assumptions we seek to do away with? When do our imaginaries and cosmologies promote ecological hope? And what philosophical and religious frameworks can create mutually beneficial relationships nonhumans? Muslim environmentalism, Black Studies, Hindu perspectives on animals, Buddhist perspectives on trees, Dark Green Religion, and Korean mythology on big cats are considered. Warren Lattimore, Duke University Celestial Bodies, Terrestrial Troubles: Non-Human Agency and Ecological Violence in W.E.B. Du Bois’s ‘The Comet’ and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Abstract This paper explores the role of non-human agency in addressing ecological violence through the lens of W.E.B. Du Bois's "The Comet" and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Employing the concept of "melancholic hope," the paper argues that by centering celestial bodies and non-human entities, these works of speculative fiction challenge anthropocentric narratives and expose the slow violence of systemic racism, imperialism, and extraction. Drawing on religious frameworks that consider non-human sentience and sapience, this paper examines how marginalizing these perspectives perpetuates ecological imbalance and undermines the sacred equilibrium necessary for the survival of all species. Engaging with literature and art that re-centers the non-human nurtures our moral imagination and makes possible alternative paradigms for a more inclusive and sustainable Anthropocene. This paper invites scholars of religion to consider the transformative potential of melancholic hope in fostering a responsible and empathic relationship with our planetary cousins. Mark Larrimore, New School The Knowing Nonviolence of Trees Abstract One of the little examined margins of ecological thought is the kinship between human and arboreal beings. The recent emergence of “critical plant studies” tries to remedy this, and we find ourselves in the midst of a boom of popular books on trees. Both graft enchantment at trees’ newly (re)discovered sentience and sociality onto inherited ideas of sacred groves, world trees and the apparently unstinting generosity of trees. Entwining easily with what Bron Taylor calls “dark green religion,” these discussions also often recapitulate dubious ideas of planty passivity and selflessness which are both biologically and ethically incomplete. In this talk I weave together representative contemporary discussions with the more complicated and profound sentience and sociality of the enlightenment-hosting ficus religiosa and the San Diego native Torrey Pine, precious to the Kumeyaay, to ask: what can trees teach us about the spirituality of non-violence? Ha Young Kang, Drew University The Gaze: The Companionship among the Colonized Animals Abstract This paper explores the entangled reality of coloniality in the relationship between human and non-human animals, drawing on the insights of Jacques Derrida and Donna Haraway as well as the gaze of Beom in the Korean tradition. Derrida generates a profound rupture in the discussion of human and non-human animals where the problems of ability and passivity resurface through the symbolic actions of gazing and naming. Haraway expands on Derrida’s insights, advocating for an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates a more comprehensive understanding of animals. In furthering this discussion, I invite beom, Korean-origin big cats, to serve as a lens through which to explore animals and animality from a non-Western tradition and reveal the intersection among colonialism, Western imperial power, and the naming of species. Through the gaze of the beom, the notion of passivity in animality will be challenged by a deeper appreciation for the shared experience of living together. Kai Ngu, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor When conferrals of “humanity” and “personhood” beget violence: an ethical examination of animal-human relations Abstract When does the recognition of “humanity” or “personhood” to nature’s bodies enable, rather than restrict, certain kinds of violences? I focus on a few key examples: bestiality practices in medieval England, the violent taming of wild elephants in 19th century Malaya, and the sacrifices of goats to deities in rural India. In understanding the relationship between ontology and violence, does it matter what kind of “violence” we are discussing, whether it is operating within an intimately interpersonal home or at the large-scale of mass factories? How can thinking with Black scholars, such as Saidiya Hartman and Zakiyyah Jackson, give us resources to understand when recognition of humanity licenses, rather than restricts, violence? For those who are invested in both more-than-human cosmologies and environmentalism, we need a more precise ontological and ethical framework than a generic respect of agency or personhood of nature’s bodies to conceptualize nature-human relations.
	A24-328 Religion and Migration Unit Theme: Religion, Migration, and Gendered Relations Sunday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Convention Center-26A (Upper Level East) Ulrike Auga, Humboldt University of Berlin, Presiding Janice Poss, Claremont Graduate University, Presiding This panel session is a collaborative effort between the Religion Migration Unit and the International Women's Caucus. The category of gender is a central factor to any discussion of migration including the causes, characteristics, and consequences of migration. This session explores how gendered cross-border relationships, including different and diverse types of marriage, are shaped by and shape the dynamics of religion and migration. Engaging Jordanian, Korean, and American contexts, the papers draw on a variety of methodological approaches to analyze and assess the significance of gender as an analytical category as well as an activist category in the current geopolitical context. Hanna Kang, Berkeley School of Theology Decision to Leave: A Theological Reflection on Orpah and the Cross-border Female Marriage Immigrants in South Korea Abstract This article is a theological exploration into the marginalization of Cross-border female marriage immigrants within Korean churches. The author employs a feminist interpretation of Orpah from the book of Ruth—the Moabite widow who chose to return to her mother’s house—to challenge the conventional expectations held by the Korean government, families, and churches that marginalize cross-border marriage immigrants: the unquestioning assimilation into the cultural norms and the performance of the traditional female roles. By revisiting Orpah’s courageous decision not to renounce her mother’s house, the author explores how her story can empower immigrant women not only to retain and pass down their cultures but firmly believe that their decision will be met with blessings (1:8b). Furthermore, by highlighting Naomi’s role in encouraging and blessing Orpah, the author underscores the church’s responsibility to foster a safe environment for women to express themselves rather than legitimizing marginalization. Luis De Prada, Boston University La Fuerza de Voluntad Among Hispanic/Latine Catholic Married Couples: A Hopeful and Imaginative Discernment Towards a Spirituality of Migration Abstract The U.S. reality is permeated with migration waves that have led to a Hispanic/Latine population of over 62 million. In the present essay, I assess how a sample of Latine married couples within a Catholic parish discern a home outside their birthplace. I interrogate how such a community seeks, creates, and implements a spirituality of migration born out of the struggles before, during, and after the process of forced mobility. I enter this journey by sharing some of the most valuable lessons on the migration journey these couples have had via interviews. I clarify the terms of in-between, lo cotidiano, la lucha, accompaniment, vocation, and Christian Spirituality through the import of relevant theologians and spiritual writers who offer vital wisdom to this complex reality. Finally, attention is given to the implications of an emerging spirituality of migration as this group discerns how to build a home away from home. Yafa Shanneik, Lund University The Ambiguity of Justice: Imam Marriages, Gender Security and Human Rights among Syrian Refugees in Jordan Abstract This paper focuses on a particular type of Islamic marriage, so-called imam marriages, which are not recognised by the Jordanian state but widely practised among and with Syrian refugees since their influx to Jordan in 2011. State institutions and European faith-based organisations advocate the registration of religious marriages on the basis of fulfilling UN conventions on gender and human rights. Through a case study of Syrian refugees in Jordan, this paper offers new insights into the ambiguity inherent in the enforcement of marriage registration and the impact of humanitarian interventions on gender rights and the safety of displaced individuals in the Middle East. It further highlights the need for a nuanced understanding of gender justice and security and underscores the importance of considering the broader implications of such interventions, particularly on the lives and well-being of displaced people in the global south.
	A24-418 Korean Religions Unit Theme: Religion and Marginality in Korea Sunday, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM Convention Center-30E (Upper Level East) John Grisafi, Yale University, Presiding The margins of religion and other conceptual categories are where meanings and definitions are contested, where belonging is debated and where the boundaries are drawn between in-groups and out-groups, where otherization occurs, and where narratives are (re)constructed. Contributing to the study of Korean Religions and of discourse and constructivism, the papers in this panel address the marginalization of Muslim immigrants in modern South Korea (Mert Sabri Karaman), the marginalization of Korean shamanic traditions of the inter-Korean border area (Seonghee Oh), the marginalization of contemporary self-cultivation movements in the study of Korean religion (Victoria Ten), and the marginalization of South Korea’s LGBTQ community by evangelical Protestants (Timothy Lee). The panel thus speaks also to the fields and disciplines of LGBTQ and sexuality studies, legal studies, race and migration studies, heritage studies, inter-Korean politics, and reflection on the epistemologies of our own scholarly approaches to the fields of religion and culture. Mert Sabri Karaman, Tübingen University Muslim Immigrants in Modern Korea Abstract The aim of this study is to present current data by examining Muslim immigrants in Korea and their activities, and by investigating how they lead their lives, their interactions within society, and their positions in society. How the Muslim identity was established after the Korean War, including the process of Korea becoming one of the centers of attraction for Muslim immigrants following the success of economic development. Muslim immigrants existing in modern Korea will be researched and their nationality, population, status in Korea, the environment in which Muslim minorities live. While researching Muslim immigrants in Korea, the focus will be on the conditions of the Muslim labor class. The ongoing problems of Muslim minorities in Korea, their impressions in society, Koreans' perception of Muslims, and also the perception of South Korea from the perspective of Muslims will be examined. Seong Hee Oh, Seoul National University Korean Shamanism Marginalized In-Between Two Koreas Abstract The two representative kuts of Korean Shamanism, which are inscribed as National Cultural Heritage, are from Hwanghae-do (a province in North Korea) and Seoul (capital of South Korea). Meanwhile, the shamanic rituals located in-between these two regions are marginalized. They are not researched as well and not listed as cultural heritage. Rather, they are depreciated because their forms are a kind of hybrid of the two recognized heritages. Nonetheless, there are shamans who perform and inherit the ‘Gaeseong kut’ in Seoul. Gaeseong is a city now located in North Korea and is one of the border areas between the two Koreas. In this project, I have three main research questions: first, what is Shamanism in the Gaeseong area? Second, is this locality continued in South Korea? Third, what is the practice of ‘Gaeseong’ kut in Seoul and what makes it have the locality beyond the DMZ? Victoria Ten (Jeon Yeon Hwa), Independent Scholar Ki Suryŏn and GiCheon in Korea: Immortality Practices as a Marginalised Religious Movement Abstract Korean ki suryŏn (氣修練 training related to ki – “life energy”), also referred to as sŏndo suryŏn (仙道修練 learning the way of immortality) is a contemporary urban practice, which, similarly to Chinese qigong and Indian yoga, is reinvented in modernity on the basis of ancient Asian traditions. Despite been widely spread and popular across the population in South Korea, ki suryŏn is severely marginalized in Western academia. Extensive scholarship exists on such practices in China and Japan, however, similar phenomena in Korea have hardly been studied in European languages. Many of ki suryŏn practices are based on a Daoist view of the body, but the practitioners come from various religions persuasion, including Christians and Buddhists; the ki suryŏn leaders do not advertise ki suryŏn as a “religion”, and ki suryŏn is usually not included under the rubric of “Korean religions”. Timothy S. Lee, Brite Divinity School Keep Them on the Margin: Evangelical Pushback against LGBTQ Human Rights Advocacy in South Korea, Focusing on Controversies over the 2007 Anti-Discrimination Bill Abstract The paper seeks to make the argument that evangelical Christian community’s pushback against LGBT human rights is a key reason that LGBT people are relegated to the margin of South Korean society. It seeks to do so by focusing on evangelicals’ opposition to the introduction of the Anti-Discrimination Bill at the National Assembly in late 2007, a bill introduced by Roh Moo-hyun’s justice department, inspired by the LGBTQ rights advocacy of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. The paper analyzes the theological and other rationale evangelicals espoused as well as the social and political pressure they brought to bear on their pushback. Business Meeting Chong Bum (Sean) Kim, University of Central Missouri, Presiding Liora Sarfati, Tel Aviv University, Presiding
	A25-208 Comparative Religious Ethics Unit Theme: Ethics and Advocacy Monday, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM Hilton Bayfront-Indigo H (Second Level) Peng Yin, Boston University, Presiding Collectively, the papers on this panel help us consider the proper role (if any) of advocacy and normative arguments within the academic study of religious ethics. Papers dealing with specific issues related to sexual ethics, femininity, and the role of chaplains, as well as with a variety of religious traditions including Christianity, Confucianism, and Daoism will provide diverse perspectives on this important question. Charles Mathewes, University of Virginia Analysis and Advocacy in Comparative Religious Ethics Abstract Comparative Religious Ethics seeks to promote multiple “encounters with difference,” but what capacities should we be developing, in ourselves and our audiences, to engage genuinely with multiple views? A careful attention to analysis, leading to appreciation though not assent, has marked many of the most interesting efforts in CRE over the past few decades. But some critics think that such efforts fail, and that the protocols of contemporary culture and scholarship turn encounter into consumerist amusement and genuine toleration into indifference, diluting subjects’ own convictions and producing “Don Juans of the myths, courting each one in turn.” This paper directly addresses these challenges, trying to appreciate their power while still proposing that constructive encounters with difference are possible, though they may require more serious self-reflection than scholars have often theorized. Sarah Robinson, Dominican University of California Informed Ethics and Advocacy: Comparative Ethics in Cross-boundary Buddhist Spaces Abstract Ethics is not only anemic, but vacant without a modicum of advocacy, as ethics defines the good without remaining starkly neutral. Comparative religious ethics charts real-time communities, facing salient and timely issues. Yet, informed ethics complicates the good by viewing it comparatively. Comparative ethics requires attention not only to textual, traditional, or theoretical factors, but dynamic, historically-rooted social circumstances. The first case concerns Soto Zen norms during Japanese annexation of Korea in the early 20th century, in which many celibate Korean monastics were required to marry. By Korean independence in 1945, a small minority of celibate Korean monastics remained. The second case charts San Francisco Zen Center’s leadership transitions from a beloved root teacher of Soto Zen lineage, Shunryu Suzuki, whose American successor’s misdeeds pushed restructuring of the community to prevent ethical violations. Comparing Buddhist community adjustments after ethical challenges, this study affirms aspects of advocacy in comparative, informed ethics. Eunchul Jung, Drew University Reimagining Femininity: Toward an East Asian Feminist Discourse Beyond Masculine Constructs Abstract This paper will attempt to translate East Asian thinking into a new cultural setting where feminist and pluralist discourses prevail by pointing out certain limitations of Western feminist discourse and comparatively reinventing femininity as an alternative concept. Firstly, Western mainstream epistemology and ontology will be critically reviewed from the gender perspective. The paper will argue Western mainstream thought operates through masculine discourse and that some feminism is actually a byproduct of and reinforces it. Next, it will examine East Asian gendered cosmology, systematically completed in Neo-Confucianism and discuss how the gender binary framework of yinyang can remove the charge of essentialism and modify Western masculine discourse and feminism. It will be argued that the Dao can offer a new feminist paradigm. Here, femininity is not an antithesis of masculinity in the confrontational male-female dichotomy, but an alternative discourse at a larger level that transcends and encompasses that dichotomy. Lucinda Mosher, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace That Professional Spiritual Care May Be Just: Comparative Religious Ethics and Chaplain Formation Abstract Convinced of the value of Comparative Religious Ethics as a framework both for conveying foundational concepts and for nurturing multireligious fluency, an ethicist with deep experience in chaplaincy education presents an approach to ethics instruction for professional spiritual caregivers that is informed by interreligious studies, comparative theology, and post-colonial methods and concerns. It is a model through which chaplains-to-be learn best practices of comparison-making as they broaden and deepen their understanding of worldviews and ethical theories beyond their own. At least as importantly, it is a model that facilitates the understanding of the interconnectedness of individual and systemic issues that impede equity; hence it develops competencies that enable spiritual care to be provided justly. Among its goals is to ensure that, when confronted with calls to serve as advocates, chaplains be well equipped to know whether, when, and how to respond.
	A25-225 Religion, Media, and Culture Unit Theme: Masculine Religious Conflict in Christianity and Islam Monday, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire 400B (Fourth Level) Sana Patel, University of Ottawa, Presiding This papers session investigates the media construction of masculine religious conflict, with presentations that range across regional contexts in South Korea, Somalia, the United Kingdom, and United States. Christians and Muslims circulate a diverse range of media as emergent institutional domains for the expression of religious discourse – masculine in either focus or presentation. Such media includes popular music and memes, warzone photographs, alter egos developed through alternative “free speech” social media platforms, niche market evangelical films, and peripheral comedy-drama television series. The stakes and implications of this session, a study of “lived religion” through media, include the following: popular critiques of established institutions, demonization of political opponents, historical distortions online, plasticity of social media identity formation, moral sensationalism, and subsidiary status of women. Eunjin Jeon, University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology Meme, Mediatization, and Lived Religion: Case Study of Zior Park’s ‘Christian' in K-Pop Culture Abstract K-pop singer Zior Park's "Christian" song, reaching 11 million views in 2023, critiques religious hypocrisy within Christianity. This paper examines the impact of related religious memes on understanding religion in South Korea and fostering religious dialogue. Situated within the framework of memes, mediatization, and lived religion, the study analyzes how "Christian" sparks discussions on Korean religious piety, gender norms, and materialism, challenging both believers and non-believers. Through exploration of diverse memes, from Buddhist interpretations to critiques of North Korea, it reveals the multifaceted nature of religious discourse on South Korean social media. Moreover, it highlights the role of religious memes in promoting open discourse, blurring sacred and profane boundaries, and inspiring creative memetic expressions on religious matters. By studying Zior Park's "Christian" and its associated memes, this research offers insights into the evolving dynamics between memes, mediatization, and lived religion. Christopher Glen White, Vassar College “This is your Enemy”: Spiritual Warfare against Muslim Demons in Mogadishu and Beyond Abstract In this presentation I examine how American evangelicals reproduce and mediate the demonic supernatural and link it to non-Christians and political opponents. I examine one case in particular—the case of US Army Lt. General Jerry Boykin, who fought in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu and brought home supernatural photographs of the conflict. Boykin took photographs from a helicopter that seemed to show a shadowy figure in the sky over the city. Back home in the U.S., he spoke at several churches about this. In this presentation I will talk about how Boykin and other evangelicals produce visual evidence of the demonic, how they (then and now) sometimes link this kind of visual evidence to Islam, and how related media (such as the film Black Hawk Down) all combine to create a representational regime that buttresses evangelical identity, rationalizes Christian missionary failures in Muslim-majority countries, and justifies ongoing western spiritual and political intervention. Spencer Kunz, Florida State University Popular Medievalism, Sacred Hierarchy, and the "Crusader Persona" in Twenty-First-Century Christian Nationalism Abstract In the twenty-first century, online media help U.S. Christian nationalists to divorce eye-catching, quasi-medieval imagery from its historical narrative. The internet’s relative anonymity encourages U.S. Christian nationalists to remake themselves in the (fictionalized) image of the crusader. By portraying themselves and their political ideals as the direct descendants of the Western ordo militaris (e.g., Knights Templar), Christian nationalist crusaders imbue their cause with a sense of historical authenticity, and themselves with the chivalric splendor of the martial aristocracy. This paper observes alternative “free speech” social media platforms (e.g., Gab, Truth Social) to analyze the role of medieval ethos in U.S. Christian nationalism. In conclusion, the paper suggests that popular misconceptions about the Middle Ages, combined with the plasticity of social media identity formation, foster an environment in which U.S. Christian nationalists construe themselves as continuing a cultural struggle that dates back to medieval Europe. Matthew Konerth, Independent Scholar The Gazeless Male Gaze: Maintaining Misogyny in Evangelical Anti-Pornographic Media Abstract The proposed essay will utilize textual analysis of several of the more successful examples of Evangelical anti-pornographic media, as well as a brief exploration of the fundamentals of porn studies and feminist film theory. Through the combination of these fields the essay will use the proliferation of Evangelical anti-pornographic media to define and analyze the ‘Gazeless Male Gaze’, emphasizing on the importance of women’s agency and the dangers of symbolic annihilation. In 1975, Laura Mulvey defined the Male Gaze as the voyeuristic objectification of women within cinema for a perceived all male audience by male filmmakers. (Mulvey, 58-69) The Gazeless Male Gaze maintains the same patriarchy and the same objectification within cinema as Mulvey’s Male Gaze with the voyeurism removed. Evangelical Anti-Pornographic films may not be literally gazing upon women, yet by patronizingly removing their voices from the subject of porn studies these films continue in women’s objectification. Tazeen Ali, Washington University, Saint Louis Narratives of Islamophobia on American and British TV: The Specter of the Violent Muslim Man in Hulu’s Ramy & Netflix’s Man Like Mobeen Abstract This paper investigates how narratives of Islamophobia, specifically the trope of the violent Muslim man, appear in two comedy-drama series created by Muslim producers: Ramy (2019) and Man Like Mobeen (2016). Previous scholarship has attended to anti-Muslim bias in entertainment media by situating them within discourses of sympathy. These analyses have attested to how show producers, both Muslim and non-Muslim, uphold multiculturalism and inclusivity as Western liberal values, and present instances of racism as exceptions rather than the norm (Shaheen 2006, Alsultany 2012, Conway 2017). I argue in this paper that performances of Islamophobia in Ramy and Man Like Mobeen, function as a critique of the limits of liberal inclusion for Muslims and lay bare racism as endemic, rather than exceptional, to American and British societies. Moreover, these series demonstrate how Muslim masculinity is necessarily formed in tandem with the image of the violent Muslim terrorist.
	A25-414 Korean Religions Unit Theme: Global Korean Buddhism: Transnational and Trans-denominational Change Monday, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM Hilton Bayfront-Cobalt 502A (Fifth Level) Liora Sarfati, Tel Aviv University, Presiding Historically, Buddhism on the Korean peninsula was deeply intertwined with the greater East Asian Buddhist tradition, so much so that identifying a “Korean” Buddhism is a problematic task. Since the late 19th century, however, nation-centered histories have distinguished “Korean” Buddhism from other forms of Buddhism, for better or worse. In reality, Korean Buddhism is not monolithic or insular, and, in recent years, the footprint of Korean Buddhist organizations has grown around the world. Buddhist teachings have been adapted to the dynamic, transnational religious landscape of the 20th and 21st centuries. What does Korean Buddhism’s place in the world Buddhist community reveal about the religion? How has the “Koreanness” of Korean Buddhism been retained, reformulated, or challenged when the religion leaves the Korean peninsula? Our panel is composed of scholars studying minority and innovative Buddhist denominations in Korea, a much under-researched area in the broader field of Korean Buddhist Studies. Tommy Tran, UC Merced Coffee, Ethnography, and the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra Abstract Many members of the Taego Order scoff at the idea that one needs to be celibate and cloistered to be authentically Buddhist, or specifically Korean Buddhist. Members of the Taego Order emphasize their practical similarities with the dominant Jogye Order and their strong affiliation with the Korean Seon tradition, but many also emphasize their own regional uniqueness vis-à-vis dominant mainland South Korean Buddhisms. This paper considers the self-perception of the Taego Order’s place within the larger category of “Korean” Buddhism but also explores the locality of place. I shall reexamine how the questions of place and “Korean” Buddhism played out in distinct ways during the coffee break pauses—the spaces in which self-perceptions tend to be the least fitted into conventional frameworks—in my 2012-2018 field research in Jeju Island, South Korea and Osaka, Japan as well as interviews in Anaheim Hills, California between 2014 and 2024. Sungha Yun, St. Olaf College The Evolution of Wŏn Buddhism in America Over Five Decades Abstract Amidst Korea’s tumultuous modernization and colonial era in the early 20th century, Sot’aesan revitalized Chosŏn Buddhism, aligning it with the evolving times. Recognizing the limitations of traditional Chosŏn Buddhism, Sot’aesan endeavored to reshape it into a uniquely Korean Buddhism for Korean people. Wŏn Buddhism, which started from its early days with concerns about “Koreanness,” and “popularization,” has moved beyond Korea and moving towards globalization. Wŏn Buddhism began spreading in the United States in 1972, with the Central Headquarters in Iksan dispatching Rev. Yi Chesŏng to Los Angeles. As of 2024, approximately 60 ordained kyomus of Wŏn Buddhism in the United States engage in both Korean-centered and English-speaking Dharma services across 40 temples and institutions spanning the Americas. This paper delves into the fifty-year history of Wŏn Buddhism’s immigration to America, examining how the essence of Korean Buddhism has been preserved, confronted, and transformed as it ventured beyond the Korean Peninsula. Yohong Roh, Forging a Distinctly Korean Buddhist Tradition: The Korean Ch'ŏnt'ae Order's Lay-Centered Community Abstract The Korean Ch’ŏnt’ae order is one of the most successful contemporary Buddhist movements in Korea. After the 1970s, the Ch’ŏnt’ae order continuously interacted with Japanese Tendai and Chinese Buddhism. In 2007, Ch’ŏnt’ae donated 5,000 copies of the Chinese version of their catechism, which were distributed to Chinese temples and university libraries. While seeking religious identity in China, Korean Ch’ŏnt’ae emphasized a unique Korean Buddhist form worthy of being re-exported to China. Ch’ŏnt’ae presented itself as a lay-centered community, a characterization that was also reflected in the observations of Japanese monks and Chinese scholars. They noted practitioners, numbering up to 10,000, gathering in large halls at local temples, joint monastic-lay administration, a well-organized nationwide Lay Association, and 24-hour practice spaces. These elements, such as modern mega-temples, large collective dharma halls, lay-centered communities, and accessible practices, were recognized as distinctly Korean characteristics within the Ch’ŏnt’ae order itself. Grace Song, Won Institute of Graduate Studies Wŏn Buddhism in America: Exploring Ways to Balance Tradition and Innovation Abstract The introduction of Wŏn Buddhism to the United States has reached its fifty-year mark. Innovation has always played an important role in the formation and growth of Wŏn Buddhism. The founder, Sot’aesan declared the necessity to reform traditional Buddhism to make it accessible to the laity and espoused values such as inclusiveness, equality, public work, and practicality. These innovations have helped Wŏn Buddhism in America to shift from a strictly ethnic-related context to an emphasis on its universal nature. What are the detriments to decontextualizing and de-emphasizing elements thought to be “too Korean” or “too traditional,” or thought to be irrelevant in the West? I argue in this paper that if Wŏn Buddhism is to thrive in the United States conscious consideration will have to be given to the indispensable aspects of its Korean roots and tradition while connecting with the multicultural and ethnic makeup of the US. Responding Jonathan Feuer, Yale University

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