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This is the most up-to-date schedule for the 2023 AAR Annual Meeting. If you have questions about the program, contact annualmeeting@aarweb.org. All times are listed in Central Standard Time.


	AO26-201 Religions, Medicines, and Healing Unit Theme: Teaching about Religions, Medicines, and Healing Wednesday, 12:30 AM - 1:45 PM (June Online Meeting) Online June Session Mark Lambert, University of Chicago, Presiding Courses on religion and health have become more popular with the rise of health humanities and applied religious studies as well as efforts to enroll health science undergraduates in our courses. In this online session, we will learn from four teacher-scholars based on their experiences teaching about religions, medicines, and healing. The first presenter analyzes challenges and obstacles involved in establishing community partnerships with curanderos, botánicos, and traditional healers and integrating traditional healing modalities into a medical humanities curriculum at a Hispanic Serving Institution. The second examines efforts to develop interreligious literacy skills among undergraduate Nursing students. Inspired by African American spiritual care practitioners, the third presenter constructs a genealogical pedagogical methodology for students to trace their lineages of spiritual care to and beyond white American Protestantism. Our final presenter discusses the challenges and possibilities of integrating world religion and global health into a first-year writing seminar. Amanda Furiasse, Hamline University Navigating Medicine's Borderlands: Curanderismo and Community Partnerships in Health Education Abstract This paper provides a first-hand analysis of the challenges and obstacles involved in establishing community partnerships with curanderos, botánicos, and traditional healers and integrating traditional healing modalities into a medical humanities curriculum at a Hispanic Serving Institution. Religion scholar Ellen Idler has been particularly adamant about the benefits of integrating the study of religion into health education and advocated for a more comprehensive and dynamic understanding of the religious and historical dimensions of health systems. More specifically, Idler argues that religion should be recognized as a social determinant of health, since religious beliefs, practices, and institutional structures significantly influence health decisions and behaviors. In this paper, I explain how I was able to effectively draw upon Idler's framework and develop an experiential learning course for pre-med and nursing students that enabled them to gain first-hand exposure of Hispanic communities’ diverse religious cultures and health practices. Susan Myers, University of St. Thomas Introducing Interreligious Literacy for Undergraduates in Health Care fields Abstract This presentation examines the need for interreligious literacy for health care professionals, given the desire on the part of patients to discuss such matters with their healthcare providers, and presents the development of a course for undergraduate Nursing students to develop skills to engage in that discussion. In a course that focuses on the Abrahamic religious traditions and that engages the intersection of religion identity with gender, ethnicity, etc., attention is also given to the importance of developing health care providers who care for the whole person. Through guest speakers, case studies, and role playing, students are encouraged to learn about the complex personal experiences and needs that future patients will bring, in the hope that the students may begin to become comfortable raising questions and engaging in conversations that will allow them to serve the needs of their patients and will encourage them to care for their own needs. Jessica Chapman Lape, Teaching Genealogies of Spiritual Care Abstract Teaching the history of spiritual care in the United States is a genealogical journey into white American Protestantism. This assumption of a shared lineage contributes to increasing calls for standardization in teaching methods and curricula for chaplaincy and clinical spiritual care. This assumption also hinders a liberative healing call for those outside of white America to embrace their collective memory and return to ancestral healing methodologies (Page and Woodland, 2023; Riley, 2023; Riley, 2024). This paper constructs a genealogical pedagogical methodology for spiritual care students to trace their lineages of spiritual care to and beyond white American Protestantism. This methodology, inspired by African American spiritual care practitioners inside African Diasporic Traditions, engages storytelling of rootedness inside traditions of practice; explores religious-ancestrally derived artifacts and technologies used in contemporary care practices; and investigates archives retaining relgious-ancestral insight. Tyler Fuller, Boston University Integrating World Religions and Global Health into a First-Year Writing Seminar: Challenges and Possibilities Abstract It can be difficult to enroll health sciences students in courses on religion, health, and medicine. Often this is accomplished by offering to meet general education requirements. Seeking to expand this engagement I am designing a first-year writing seminar around the theme “world religions and global health.” At Boston University all first-year students are required to take a two-semester seminar sequence through the writing program. Health sciences students may be particularly interested in a seminar on global health. A challenge is that the seminar must balance the topical material and discussion with writing instruction and practice. To address this students write memos to a fictional global health practitioner about the religious background of a community being engaged in a health promotion intervention. Doing so students gain practice writing in a new genre and must contextualize how the tradition shapes world views and health seeking behaviors.