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.


	A25-430 Theological, Pedagogical, and Ethical Approaches to Israel/Palestine Seminar Theme: International and Discursive Approaches to Christian Zionism Monday, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM Convention Center-28B (Upper Level East) Robert O. Smith, University of North Texas, Presiding Gary Burge, Calvin Theological Seminary, Presiding Christian Zionism has become a vital topic for academic engagement in both Religious Studies and Biblical Studies. This transdisciplinary discussion among both AAR and SBL members will start with short presentations on their respective areas of critical engagement and then seek to determine the state of their fields' conversations on the topic. Over the past decade, discourse surrounding Christian Zionism has changed drastically, especially within the academy, even as the movement itself has changed and adapted to new conditions. Join us for an exciting, critical assessment not only of the movement but of the ways it is understood and discussed within teaching, learning, and research environments. Panelists Robert O. Smith, University of North Texas Brooke Baker, UCLA Erica Ramirez, Auburn Seminary Daniel Bannoura, University of Notre Dame Cynthia Holder Rich, Trinity Lutheran Seminary Aaron Woods, Asbury Theological Seminary Chauncey Handy,
	A25-431 Women of Color Scholarship, Teaching, and Activism Unit Theme: Transcending Borders: Women of Color's Constructive Responses to Marginality Monday, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM Hilton Bayfront-Cobalt 500 (Fifth Level) Oluwatomisin Oredein, Brite Divinity School, Presiding From questions of identity creation to innovative tactics to reclaim and re-make one's own identity - this panel session features papers exploring the colonial contours of marginal identity and what empowering, resistant, or subversive identity-making practices have been inspired as a result. Topically diverse and attentive to how the world's systems and religious systems can respond responsibly and humanely to minoritized women, this panel directly addresses sensitive yet critical issues such as: using affect theory to reconceptualize the margin as a locus of resistance, reproductive justice via a critical conversation around transnational adoption, a decolonial approach to naming and dismantling the multi-border oppressions of indigenous peoples, and the unjust and abelist pressures on minoritized women in the academy that can be resisted via these womens' commitment to "laziness." Overturning that which has been normalized and margin-making, these papers envision, theorize, and outline constructive ways to think forward that center the dignity of women. Seong Hyun Lee, Drew University Seeking alliance replacing alienation by reconceptualizing margins as the locus of resistance: a Praxis of Emotion-based Pedagogy of discomfort Abstract As the feminist scholars, activists, pastoral and non-pastoral caregivers of and for marginalized communities, how can we dismantle the equalization of those who are in the margins as inferior and subservient?” How can we utilize emotions as methods of resistance to challenge and change any socio-cultural perceptions, customs, norms that uphold and perpetuate this unjust and unequal society? How can we empower those who live their daily lives at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities by maximizing moral value of emotions such as anger, empathy, shame, and guilt; and minimizing the moral risks of emotions? By using pedagogy of discomfort (Megan Boler) and the pedagogy of the oppressed(Paulo Freire), I will offer a social imaginary as praxis that is based on the feminist care ethics. L. Nelson Leonard, University of Texas at Austin Making Diaspora: On Memory, Transit, and Ritual in Transnational Adoption Abstract For many adopted people, their authentic perspectives of adoption as a system are distinct from how they feel toward their adoptive parents and family. But the way that adoptees remember why and how they survived does not always align with the dominant cultural narratives and assumptions surrounding adoption. Many find themselves in the position of having to reinforce “positive” notions of adoption or remain silent, which reinforces unresolved feelings of displacement or loss. This paper focuses on what happens when transnationally adopted people resist those expectations and make themselves “un-silent” through discourses and performances that articulate a form of world-making otherwise suppressed, misrecognized, or ignored. Yenny Delgado, University of Lausanne “Decolonizing Borders in Abya Yala” Abstract The paper "Decolonizing Borders in Abya Yala" delves into imposed borders' historical and theological underpinnings during the colonization. Through comprehensive analysis, the study identifies three types of borders resulting from colonization and their far-reaching implications in Abya Yala. The first border explores the physical barriers that divided the motherland, profoundly impacting native communities, broken families, slavery, and land expropriation. The second border investigates the imposition of Spanish, Portuguese, and English as "civilized" languages, which overshadowed native languages, leading to forced assimilation and erasure of native languages. The third border pertains to the control of knowledge and spiritual practices, wherein native spiritualities and wisdom were marginalized, being viewed as pagan compared to a dominant form of Christianity presented as the only acceptable belief system. A decolonial approach challenges existing border paradigms and aims to empower native descendants to reclaim their heritage, knowledge, identity, and spiritual practices in Abya Yala. Kayko Driedger Hesslein, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon The Lazy Academic as Resistance Abstract This paper will theoretically and autobiographically engage the premise that living the "lazy" academic life can be an act of resistance against the totalitarianism of late stage capitalism in academia, as well as a position of solidarity with those who live with neurocognitive disability. Drawing on the presenter's experience as a "model-minority" academic diagnosed with neurocognitive post-exertional malaise caused by long COVID, this paper will critically examine the ways in which the pressure on model minorities to succeed in a culture shaped by a white Protestant work ethic both contributes to disability while simultaneously rendering disabled persons as unproductive and "lazy." Using the work of crip theologian Karen Bray and race and cultural theorist Sarah Ahmed, this paper will propose that living into the disabled "lazy" life can dismantle the ableism of white academia while simultaneously working towards life-giving and generative academic practices.
	A25-434 Women's Caucus Theme: Women's Caucus Business Meeting Monday, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM Convention Center-19 (Mezzanine Level) Deborah Fulthorp, Grand Canyon University, Presiding All are welcome to join the Women's Caucus Leadership team! Come and learn about our many projects and plans for 2025! Business Meeting Kimberly Carter, California Institute of Integral Studies, Presiding Ulrike Auga, Humboldt University of Berlin, Presiding Rosalind F. Hinton, LAOUTLOUD, Presiding Colleen D. Hartung, Wikipedia Project, Women In Religion, Presiding Tracy McEwan, University of Newcastle, Australia, Presiding Theresa A. Yugar, California State University, Los Angeles, Presiding Mahjabeen Dhala, Graduate Theological Union, Presiding Jonathon Eder, Mary Baker Eddy Library, Presiding Colette Qualtieri, Arizona State University, Presiding Raya Hazini, Graduate Theological Union, Presiding Joshua Turpin, Brite Divinity School, Presiding Elaine Nogueira-Godsey, Drew Theological School, Presiding Elizabeth Freese, Drew Theological School, Presiding Elizabeth Ursic, Arizona State University, Presiding Connie Steel, Yale University, Presiding Janice Poss, Claremont Graduate University, Presiding Telesia Musili, University of Nairobi, Presiding Yvonne Zimmerman, Clarke University, Presiding Sheryl A.M. Johnson,, Presiding
	A25-432 Yoga in Theory and Practice Unit Theme: Engaging Contradictions: Yoga as a Site of and Response to Trauma Monday, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM Convention Center-29B (Upper Level East) Diana Dimitrova, University of Montreal, Presiding This interdisciplinary roundtable will delve into the complex intersection of trauma, healing, and social justice within the global yoga community. Drawing on their research in India, Israel, and Kenya, our invited panelists will critically examine the role of non-profit yoga organizations and yoga tourism as both sites of trauma and tools for recovery. Building on previous scholarship that complicates the popular understanding of yoga as practice for peace and well-being, the panelists will explore how yoga can address various forms of trauma, including sexual abuse, domestic violence, combat trauma, and political violence, while at the same time, replicating or re-enforcing larger structures of oppression. As practitioners and teachers, the panelists will also engage in reflexive conversation about their own experiences and processes of reckoning with the ugly sides of yoga, and why and how this work and teaching remains valuable. Panelists Sheena Sood, Deleware Valley University Samantha Griggs, University of California, Riverside Laurah E. Klepinger, Utica University Sowmya Ayyar, Benaras Hindu University
	M25-400 Theology Without Walls Group Theme: Methods in Theology Without Walls Monday, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM Grand Hyatt-Balboa A-C (Second Level - Seaport Tower) Katherine Janiec Jones, Wofford College, Presiding This session will explore ground rules about sources, assumptions, methods and products for constructing systematic theologies without walls. After a reflection on ground rules implicit in TWW's discussion last year, it will look at three proposed methodologies, and close with insights from the related project of comparative systematic theology. Mathias Schneider, University of Munster Mapping Eschatology: Toward a Methodology for Theology Without Walls Abstract . Perry Schmidt-Leukel, University of Munster Religion as Landscape: Fractal Analysis as a Resource for Theology without Wall Abstract . John Thatamanil, Union Theological Seminary Learning as the Other: Participation as Method for a Theology Without Walls Abstract . Jeanine Diller, University of Toledo Reflections on Methods from the Systematic TWW Panel Abstract .
	M25-500 Claremont Graduate University, Department of Religion Theme: Claremont Graduate University Reception Monday, 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM Omni-Gallery 1 (First Floor) Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Claremont Graduate University with the CGU Religion Department's friends and alumni!
	M25-501 Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies Theme: Celebrating the Publication of "Eastern Catholic Theology in Action: Essays in Liturgy, Spirituality and Ecclesiology" (CUA Press, 2024) Monday, 7:15 PM - 8:45 PM Convention Center-1B (Upper Level West) .
	A25-500 American Academy of Religion Theme: Program Unit Chairs and Steering Committee Members Reception Monday, 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM Hilton Bayfront-Aqua Salon C (Third Level) Amy Defibaugh, American Academy of Religion, Presiding .
	A26-100 Buddhism Unit Theme: Reaching the Audience: Buddhist Literary Strategies for Audience Engagement Tuesday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Convention Center-24B (Upper Level East) Ralph Craig, Whitman College, Presiding This panel considers how Buddhist texts display an awareness of their audiences and—relatedly—seek to take agency in their own reception. A common trope in Buddha-biographies, emphasized in discourses on "skillful means," is the Buddha's ability to anticipate the needs of his audiences and adapt his profound teaching to their terms. Working from a range of perspectives, our panelists demonstrate how Buddhist texts themselves incorporate subtle techniques for engaging their audiences, often at the level of affect, from depicting idealized audiences in-text to providing explicit rubrics for preachers. Others, meanwhile, use powerful affective cues to create certain kinds of audiences, distinguished by their feelings on certain matters. While recent literary scholarship has begun to consider the strategic roles Buddhist texts take in their reception, this panel reveals an awareness and creative engagement with the concept of audience to be the fundamental yet neglected element underlying these diverse pedagogical operations. Adam Miller, University of Chicago Flipping the Script: Fetters, Prophecies, and Audience Engagement in the _Concentration of Heroic Progress_ and the _Precious Banner_ Abstract This paper presents an intertextual reading of the _Concentration of Heroic Progress_ and the _Precious Banner Sūtra_ toward uncovering how these Mahāyāna sūtras invite their audiences to receive them. I argue that whereas the _Concentration_ presents itself as possessing unmediated soteriological power, the _Precious Banner_ exchanges such power for status as a normative authority to which response is necessary. To make this argument, I focus on the stories of Māra told in these sūtras. As Lamotte noted in his translation of the _Concentration_, pointing to the “conversion of Māra,” these sūtras share thematic features. What Lamotte seems not to have noticed, however, is that these stories of Māra are mirror images of one another. This paper, then, follows up on Lamotte’s note to show that these sūtra share a discernible intertextual relationship and that the shared inverted narratives of Māra reveal how these texts want to be received. Julian Butterfield, Stanford University "Sympathetic Joy" as Affective Regime: How the _Lotus Sūtra_ Makes Joy of Itself Abstract This paper considers what the _Lotus Sūtra_’s emotional depictions of its own, in-text audience tells us about how it intends to be received and ritually embodied by its readers. As a _sūtra_, the _Lotus_ recounts a sermon delivered by the Buddha to an audience of disciples, frequently shown responding to him with intense expressions of joyous assent. The Buddha, meanwhile, explicitly encourages such affective responses in passages such as the “Chapter on the Merits of Responding with Joy.” This metatextual feedback loop, I argue, both influences reader response, aiming to provoke similar feelings in the reading present, and foregrounds expressions of joyful affect as crucial to Buddhist soteriology: a perspective corroborated and practically elaborated by medieval Chinese ritual texts such as Zhiyi’s _Lotus Samādhi Repentance_. Overall, this paper suggests how the _Lotus Sūtra_’s metatextual strategies—and their ritual elaborations—contributed crucial yet overlooked affective dimensions to East Asian Buddhism. Marielle Harrison, University of Chicago Animal and Cannibal: Cannibalism and Identity in Early Buddhist Vegetarian Texts Abstract Guided by Susanne Mrozik’s exploration of virtue as an embodied phenomenon in South Asian Buddhist traditions, this paper attends to the corporeal specificity of human beings in Buddhist literature. However, rather than focus on the relationship between virtue and living bodies, I would like to direct our attention instead to the corporeal specificity of dead bodies—and how the idea of consuming those bodies signifies a threat to the consumer’s humanity. In this paper, I argue that early Buddhist texts promoting vegetarianism mobilize the shocking image of the cannibal in order to make arguments to their audiences about the permeability of one’s identity. I hope to show that attention to the themes of cannibalism invoked in some of the most influential early vegetarian _sūtras_ can help us better understand how the acts of consumption—both consuming and being consumed—signify a fundamental loss of humanity within these texts. Xi He, Appalachian State University Touching Heart and Transforming Mind: Huijiao's Comments on "Scripture Chanters" and "Recitation Guides" Abstract This paper explores how Buddhists and Buddhist texts envision the relationship between themselves and their audiences by examining the comments Shi Huijiao 釋慧皎 (497-554CE) made in the last two sections of his _Biographies of Eminent Monks_ compilation. It looks closely at the role of the scripture chanters and recitation guides in teaching and the qualities they should possess, as discussed by Huijiao in his comments. It argues that for Huijiao, touching the hearts of the audiences is at the core of the relationship between texts/teachings and audiences. His emphasis on touching the heart as the scripture chanters' and recitation guides' most effective pedagogical means to reach the soteriological transformation of the audiences, with both their voice and their content, highlights the Buddhist deep understanding of human emotions and resonates with the teaching tradition of the Buddha and those who speak for the Buddha in India and beyond. Responding Natalie Gummer, Beloit College
	A26-101 Comparative Studies in Religion Unit Theme: Comparative Studies of Religion(s) and Comparative Theology: Reflections on Methodological and Epistemological Challenges Tuesday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Convention Center-30A (Upper Level East) Helmut Zander,, Presiding Comparative theology has the term “comparative” in its title, but reflection on the consequences is weak. But comparative theology can only remain in interdisciplinary conversation if it is not limited to material comparison. On the interdisciplinary panel, theologians from the field of comparative theology will discuss this methodological deficit with a representative from religious studies. The focus will be on two questions: 1. How does comparative theology deal with the normative implications of comparative studies? 2. What role do the reflections in the neighbouring disciplines of theology play for (comparative) theology? If approved, the event would take place in cooperation with the Comparative Studies in Religion Unit of the AAR. Oliver Freiberger, University of Texas, Austin Theological and Non-Theological Religious Studies: Do they Use the same Comparative Method? Abstract Do comparative theology and (non-theological) religious studies use the same comparative method? The central question to be discussed is how goals, content and methods relate to each other and what role transparency plays with regard to the religious interests of the researcher. Megan Hopkins, Boston College Epistemology and Embodiment at the Ritual Turn Abstract This paper surfaces the unique epistemology being developed at the ritual turn within comparative theology, in and through embodiment. These methodological queries are raised by the example of Catholic Eucharist and Sufi dhikr, demonstrating how learning ritually is structurally different than textually based learning. Conceptions of God held by comparative theologians are shaped by the sources used. In addition to Moyaert’s foundational work, Mara Brecht offers somaesthetics and embodied reception of revelation to continue the development of the ritual turn.[i] An expansion of comparative theology to ritual, liturgy, embodiment, and beyond requires an interdisciplinary approach. Previously unexamined questions reveal new aspects of the divine: How does God reveal Godself in and through bodies, shaped by ritual and liturgical practices? How is the comparative theologian’s epistemological perspective shifted through symbiosis of text and ritual? [i] Brecht, Mara. “Embodied Transactions,” The Enigma of Divine Revelation, eds. Jean-Luc Marion, C. Jacobs-Vandegeer, Springer (Switzerland) 2020. 151-175. Marianne Moyaert, University of Leuven Comparative Theology as a Rhetorical Act Abstract Comparison in comparative theology is more than the determination of similarities and differences, more than a methodically reflected scientific approach, but a rhetorical act. Not only arguments, but also emotions are exchanged and political goals are pursued. How do we deal with a comparison that is more than rational methodology?
	A26-102 Ethics Unit Theme: Practicing Hope, Practicing Lamentation: Religious Ethics in a Tragic World Tuesday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Hilton Bayfront-Cobalt 520 (Fifth Level) Elizabeth Agnew Cochran, Duquesne University, Presiding . Katherine Karam McCray, University of Toronto Multigenerational Trauma and Suicidality in the Eastern Orthodox Moral Tradition Abstract As Christian ethics surveys the ongoing complexity in Gaza, much of the theological reflections come from Western Christian scholars, sometimes in dialogue with Islamic figures, but the Eastern Christian tradition is largely overlooked as an area of ethical discourse. This paper represents the important area of Levantine social ethics in diaspora, specifically the ways in which Arabic and Aramaic speaking communities have liturgized their experiences of genocide and displacement to offer descendant communities a unique social ethic that is non-Western and overtly decolonial. I examine how mass violence has impacted generational identity formation, informed by social science work on suicidality in multigenerational trauma, and then examine discourse on resilience from Eastern Orthodox communities abroad. I argue that the Eastern Orthodox moral tradition has formed language-protective traditions, ritual practices that commemorate experiences of displacement, and other cultural community protective factors which could provide an infrastructure for resiliency after trauma. Peng Yin, Boston University Beyond Theodicy: Spiritual Exercises in Moral Tragedy Abstract Moral traditions have consistently addressed the tragic fact of unjust suffering. The most prominent among the ethical responses are Stoic ones, which counsel apathia, ataraxia, and self-mastery as antidotes. These strategies can nurse complacency in the face of injustice, absorb individual suffering to some overall good, and turn one’s attention away from the historical plane. I propose an alternative by drawing from Mencius and Thomas Aquinas, who are often mistakenly assimilated to Stoicism. By attending to the centrality of lament and protest in them, I suggest a set of spiritual exercises different from Stoicism. I commend these exercises, not because they make catastrophe explicable or justifiable through theodicy, but because they render suffering culturally thinkable. Rather than demanding mental accommodation in the wake of injustice, moral tragedy is more properly seen as material for mutual recognition and a call for collective redress. William Ball, Yale University “A New Assumption”: Democratic Hope as a Just Response to the Tragedy-Attuned Abstract The tools of religious ethics are uniquely equipped to propose a vision of democracy as a theory of virtuous practice. Among the primary democratic virtues worthy of attention is hope - which I define as the just response to the tragedy-attuned. I contrast this vision with rival conceptions of hope, Augustinian and otherwise, where hope is understood as a merely internal disposition, where hope requires an object hoped in or hoped for, and where hope is understood to be solely future-oriented. I argue that hope instead is inextricable from the discursive practices endemic to its expression, and that the primary focal point of hope is one’s fellow tragedy-related-citizens for the sake of whom and with whom one is hoping. I conclude with meditations about the necessity of the recognition of tragedy for democratic practice.
	A26-103 Hinduism Unit Theme: Retelling Hindu Narratives Outside the Epics Tuesday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Convention Center-32A (Upper Level East) Sohini Pillai, Kalamazoo College, Presiding In the past thirty-five years, there have been a plethora of scholarly studies of retellings of the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata epic narrative traditions. But what about retellings of Hindu stories outside of the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata such as the Upaniṣads, the Purāṇas, sthalapurāṇas, hagiographies, and other religious narratives? The goal of this panel is to highlight the outstanding diversity of premodern and modern retellings of Hindu narratives throughout South Asia. This panel brings together four scholars of religion who examine retellings of Hindu stories in multiple different languages including Sanskrit, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, and English and in several different mediums such as narrative poems, comic books, magazines, and television serials. The four papers in this panel span diverse locations in South Asia from Gujarat to Kashmir to Tamil Nadu to Andhra Pradesh and integrate approaches from different fields including comparative literature, anthropology, gender studies, and media studies. Arun Brahmbhatt, Syracuse University A Dialogue at Death’s Door: Naciketas Retold Abstract Though narratives from the Purāṇas and epics are far more prevalent in Hindu imaginings, the Upaniṣads also provide a series of enduring stories. This paper focuses on modern refigurations of the didactic dialogue between Naciketas and Yama in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad. The narrative itself is relatively straightforward: a young child made to wait at Death’s doorstep is granted three wishes, one of which is to learn about death itself. However, its complex teachings, including the famous chariot analogy, have long invited reflection and interpretation. Exploring three different formations—in Advaita Vedānta storytelling, in a 1979 issue of the illustrated series Amar Chitra Katha, and in a 45-minute water and light show in Gandhinagar, Gujarat—I attend to how the chosen form of the retelling factors into differential emphases aimed at diverse target audiences. John Nemec, University of Virginia The Bṛhatkathā Re-told Again: The Double-narrative of Somadeva’s Kathāsaritsāgara Abstract The eleventh-century Kathāsaritsāgara of Somadeva is a magisterial narrative, so large as nearly to constitute an encyclopedia of Indian story literature, this even as it is likely to convey only a fraction of the original text of which it is a retelling, Guṇāḍhya’s perhaps sixth-century, Paiśācī-language narrative, the Bṛhatkathā. In this presentation, I identify unique features of what is in fact only one of many retellings of Guṇāḍhya’s now-lost work. I argue it presents a double narrative, transforming a text originally steeped in Buddhism and mercantile life into a Brahmanical work tied to a popularized understanding of Śaiva tantrism. Ultimately, the narrative claims that kings need Brahmins to succeed in the world and beyond, and that Brahmins need tantra—and the powers that can be furnished at the edges of polite society in the dangerous charnel grounds—if they are fruitfully to guide kings to the same. Aalekhya Malladi, McGill University Marriage and Asceticism in Veṅgamāmba’s Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmyamu Abstract This paper explores a retelling of the origins of the goddess temple in Tiruchanur (also known as Alamelumangapuram) a couple of kilometers outside of the bustling pilgrimage town of Tirupati. Though it is an oft overlooked story, this paper will explore 18th-century poet Tarigonda Veṅgamāmba’s retelling of this story found in her Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmyamu. This version of the story spends time not only describing the ascetic practices of the goddess Lakṣmī, but also exploring the domestic tensions that developed as a result of her separation from Viṣṇu. Through analysis of a prolonged discussion about the roles of wives and women, I argue, Vengamamba considers the possibility of a woman’s ability to simultaneously commit to asceticism and marriage. Further, because this conversation occurs between Lakṣmī and Kapila (a renounced sage, and an incarnation of Viṣṇu), I read their conversation as a kind of meta-textual commentary on the narrative. Sowparnika Balaswaminathan, Concordia University, Montreal What’s in the box: Emboxed narratives, horror, and ethics in the Vetala Tales Abstract The narrative popularly known as the Vetala Tales has unknown origins and prolific variations, including four Sanskrit recensions and several regional linguistic variations. In more recent times, the Vetala Tales have taken the form of children’s stories in Amar Chitra Katha comics and Chandamama magazines, two televised serials, at least three films (with a fourth in the making), and innumerable adaptations in print, including a Vikram and Vetala management training manual. In this paper, I ask two questions pertaining to this narrative: What makes this narrative possess such lasting influence and popularity? Secondly, why is a didactic narrative about ethics presented with the stylings of horror? I will explore two modern adaptations of the Vetala Tales to answer these questions – the long-running serialized children’s stories in the Chandamama magazines (specifically English and Tamil), and the Ramanand Sagar television serial Vikram aur Betaal (1985) telecast on Doordarshan. Responding Emilia Bachrach, Oberlin College and Conservatory
	A26-104 History of Christianity Unit Theme: Themes in Pre-modern Christianity Tuesday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Hilton Bayfront-Cobalt 502A (Fifth Level) Jon-Paul Lapeña, Yale University, Presiding This session offers a variety of new research papers on pre-modern Christian history. Tommy Woodward, Florida State University “Christ Was Crucified, And You Laugh?” Reconsidering the Laughter of Early Christians Abstract A common scholarly narrative in the history of Christianity proposes that early Christians did not laugh. While this narrative compile compelling evidence from their primary sources, they often treat the equally compelling evidence of Christian laughter as exceptional. I suggest that this narrative simplifies the diversity found between sources and within individual ones to represent a proto-orthodox antigelasticism defined in opposition to either Jewish or Gnostic groups who, unlike the early orthodox Christians, laugh. I linger on the rhetorical use of laughter by John Chrysostom to differentiate between Antiochene Christians and Jews, and by Irenaeus to differentiate between his own orthodoxy and Gnostic heresy. I suggest that scholars should take these claims as rhetorical strategies of social formation rather than statements of pre-existing orthodoxy. I call for a remapping of early Christian laughter in all its diversity, showing connections across categories of Christian/Jewish/Pagan and diversity within each community. Lucas McCracken, University of California, Santa Barbara Christianity's Addiction: The Metaphor of Debt-Bondage in Roman Theology Abstract Is addiction voluntary self-enslavement or an inherited disease of the will? Lawmakers and clinicians have debated this question for hundreds of years; however, despite centuries of investigation, one important aspect of the concept of addiction remains entirely unexamined—its deep theological history. Christian theologians writing in Latin from the second to the seventeenth century used the Roman legal term addictio—originally denoting debt-bondage—as a metaphor to describe the sinful human condition. In this talk, I uncover the genesis and development of the Christian addiction metaphor in the writings of Roman Church Fathers Tertullian, Ambrose, and Augustine. I analyze their theologies of addiction to show how the language and logic of Roman pecuniary jurisprudence structures their thinking about sin, salvation, and the free will. I contend that the disease-delinquency ambivalence constitutive of today's understanding of addiction originated in their paradoxical definition of sin as both generational enslavement and willful servitude. Judith Bishop, A Communion of the Created: Beasts, Books, and Saints in early Medieval Irish vitae. Abstract This paper addresses the roles of human and non-human animals in the religious narratives of early medieval Ireland. Texts are drawn from the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae with an emphasis on those found in the Codex Salmanticensis. Selected narratives betray a construction of both human and non-human animals as together occupying the community of the Created—the Incarnated--- with the Divine functioning as the powerful Other. The problematic categorizations of “domestic”, “wild”, and “fabulous” animals will also be explored leading to a discussion on the role of traditionally “wild” animals in conjunction with sacred texts and non-human animals as participants in the cosmological transformations of early medieval Ireland. The paper concludes with a comparison of the manner in which human and non-human animals are conceived in the narratives of St. Francis versus the early Irish saints, particularly in the concept of their relationship and access to the Divine Other. Ann Chapman Price, Duke University Mysticism in the Zusterboeken (Sister Books): Evidence for the Mysticism of the Modern Devotion in the Vernacular Writings of the Sisters of the Common Life Abstract The late-medieval reform movement of Modern Devotion has heretofore been understood as overwhelmingly moralistic rather than mystical. This perspective must be reassessed, based on numerous findings of mystical themes within the vernacular texts of the Sisters of the Common Life (the women who, along with lay men, comprised one branch of the movement). Themes such as _gelatenheid_ (Cf. Eckhart), _godformicheid_ (Cf. Ruusbroec), and _neiging_ (Cf. William of St. Thierry), as well as accounts of overwhelming fiery devotion (such as that of Sister Gese Brandes), all demonstrate that medieval mysticism provided an important foundation and nourishment for the Modern Devotion. This paper employs recent theoretical work on women’s spirituality and on mysticism within the Christian tradition to examine how Sisters of the Common Life received, incorporated, and refashioned the theological resources of medieval Christian mysticism, particularly as is evidenced in the vernacular texts authored for, about, and by the Sisters themselves.
	A26-105 Philosophy of Religion Unit Theme: Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Philosophy of Religion Tuesday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Hilton Bayfront-Cobalt 500 (Fifth Level) Andrew Chignell, Princeton University, Presiding This session draws together papers that deal with power (divine and/or human) and gender. They treat the topic from the perspectives of analytic philosophy, Christian theology, and Islamic philosophy and theology. Two of the presentations deal with sexual ethics, one on abortion and one on consent. The presentation on consent brings medieval Islamic jurisprudence, and the significance of intent in that discourse, into conversation with contemporary philosophical discussions on consent. The other calls for attention to the testimonies of women who have had abortions as a way to contest testimonial and epistemic injustice. The third presentation makes a case for more attention to God's love in analytic philosophy of religion, and aims to develop an account of divine love that is incompatible with divine violence. Maha Agha Kalsoum, University of California, Santa Barbara Rethinking Consent: Advocating for Intent-Based Consent Abstract The paper “Rethinking Consent: Advocating for Intent-Based Consent” investigates the notion of consent. It extends the current scholarly debate on consent by synthesizing contemporary philosophical insights with medieval Islamic legal formulations on will, coercion, and intent. The paper critiques the traditional reliance on verbal consent in sexual assault contexts. Accordingly, the paper illuminates the failure of verbal consent to truly capture the dynamics of consent and the complexity of human interactions. By utilizing the works of scholars Sarah Conly, Lois Pineau, Ann J. Cahill, and the conceptualizations of intent by medieval Islamic jurists, the paper introduces an intent-based model of consent. This model prioritizes the internal states and genuine intentions of individuals over mere verbal affirmations. The paper incorporates the psychological perspectives provided by Jeffrey Young, which aid the formulation of a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of consent. Danielle Tumminio Hansen, Emory University Testimonial Injustice, Epistemic Violence, and Abortion Abstract This paper describes the mechanisms by which passive and active forms of social power result in testimonial injustice and epistemic violence inflicted upon women who have had abortions. These forms of imposed power result in the silencing of women who have had abortions, thereby denigrating their embodied wisdom, stigmatizing their actions, and excluding them from policy and political discussions. I argue that attentiveness to the personal testimonies about the experience of abortion can help disrupt the structures that perpetuate testimonial injustice and give recognition to the real dangers faced by those who may want to disclose their experiences. Mahala Rethlake, University of Chicago Divine Nature, Love, and Violence: Toward A Feminist Analytic Philosophy of Religion Abstract In this paper, I critically examine the way in which divine love is commonly discussed in analytic philosophy of religion. I argue that we have good reason from feminist perspectives to focus more thoroughly on divine love in discussions of divine personality than has been done in the past. Furthermore, I entertain the possibility that, in the context of the divine-human relationship, love is an aspect of divine personality of a different order of influence, compared to other traits. Additionally, I show how greater attention to divine love can forge new pathways for discussion by considering this in relation to the topic of divine violence. I conclude by suggesting two ways to give greater priority to divine love, one that takes up my constructive proposal that love ought to be given a special status and another that takes a more conservative approach.
	A26-106 Psychology, Culture, and Religion Unit Theme: Trans Day of Remembrance and Beyond: Exploring the Intersections of Trans Lives, and Queer and Trans Studies in Psychology and Religion Tuesday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Convention Center-25A (Upper Level East) Brooke Petersen, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Presiding This year's conference follows the Trans Day of Remembrance (TDOR) on November 20, 2024, a day dedicated to honoring the lives of transgender individuals lost to violence. This session includes papers that build on the TDOR theme, exploring the intersection of psychology, trans and queer studies, and religion for trans and gender nonconforming persons. Presenters address queer and trans critiques of normative development in the context of psychology and religion; psychological, theoretical, and spiritual insights related to the Trans Day of Remembrance and its impact on communities, and exploring resources at the intersections of trans lives, queer and trans studies in religion, and psychology and religion for flourishing in the midst of violence. Keith Menhinick, Emory University Chasing Queer and Trans Resilience Abstract This study follows an ecumenical and interfaith Trans Day of Remembrance/Resilience (TDOR/R) service, which took place in Atlanta, GA. Based on participant observation, thick description, and one-on-one interviews with service leaders, I explore how the TDOR/R service reveals the complex spiritual lives and religious gatherings of local LGBTQ+ communities in response to violence and trauma. Throughout the service, the community engages in a variety of spiritual practices: care, flocking, lament, veneration, and repair (among others). Combining ethnographic description with pastoral-psychological analysis, I consider the psychospiritual functions and impact of these spiritual practices and the TDOR/R service more broadly on the mind-body-spirits of people and communities. Ultimately, I offer a descriptive account of queer and trans resilience as reclaimed ancestry and spirituality. Skyler Jay Keiter-Massefski, Independent Deadly Data: Necropolitics and the Psychological Effects of Transgender Day of Remembrance Abstract Trans youth are growing up in an empire of immi/a/nent death – a constant spatial and temporal closeness to death that has devastating psychological effects on the developing brain. The necropolitics of Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) in particular demonstrates how the rhetoric of memorialization functions to foreclose the future life chances even of those still-living, causing them to exist in an ambiguous, haunted positionality where the possibility of trans flourishing appears to be foreclosed. The first part of this paper considers the data and accounting of trans death that is central to TDOR observances, and particularly the abstraction of anti-trans violence from race and class. The second half of the paper consists of ethnographic accounts from participants at an interfaith summer camp for trans youth to illuminate the psychological effects that TDOR rhetoric has on the livability of young trans people and considers the possibilities for remembering otherwise. Max Thornton, Drake University Mad Trans Ritual Abstract The relationship of transness to psych regimes is fraught. Caught between a long and still living history of attempts to eradicate transness, on the one hand, and, on the other, the practical need for validation from the gatekeepers of medical treatment, trans people must navigate a narrow middle way of proving themselves sufficiently gender-distressed to merit treatment without being deemed too mentally unwell for such treatment. This institutional demand for trans sanity is incompatible with the realities of trans life under cisheteropatriarchy, which both produces and punishes trans Madness. Trans Day of Remembrance has the potential to be a ritual space of resistance to the violence of the gender regime and a site for trans life to be honored in the fullness of its trans Madness and prophetic maladjustment.
	A26-107 Religion and Popular Culture Unit Theme: Sacred Scripts: History and Narrative in Religion and Popular Culture Tuesday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire L (Fourth Level) Eden Consenstein, Princeton University, Presiding The papers on this panel each contend with popular sites that order historical memory, value and affect. Authors address the melodies that accompany Walt Disney's dubious empire, the figures of haunted children in horror films, and the policing of Salem, Massachusetts. Together, these authors start a conversation about the religious valences of rembering, mis-rembering and scripting narratives. Joshua Parks, University of Virginia Making Walt Worthy: "Feed the Birds," Disney Fan Culture, and the Construction of a Musical Myth Abstract In the 2023 Disney short film Once Upon a Studio, Mickey Mouse stops beneath a photo of Walt Disney, thanks his creator, and invites viewers to join in this act of devotion. Meanwhile, a quiet piano phrase from the 1964 Disney song “Feed the Birds” plays in the background. According to Disney legend, this was Walt’s favorite song, and he would ask the song’s composers to play it for him when he was feeling anxious or melancholy. In this paper, I argue that this song and story are central to the creation and maintenance of Walt Disney as a religious figure worthy of devotion. As the “Feed the Birds” story is retold and reenacted in films, fan events, biographies, and other media, it constructs Walt as someone who both needed and received spiritual help. In other words, it sanctifies him—not as a perfect man, but as a worthy one. Micah Rensunberg, WITHDRAWN: Sacred Hauntings: Childhood Agency in the Horror Genre Abstract Children as a rhetorical device are central to the horror movie genre. Their presence often takes the shape of the one who is haunted (or is an agent of haunting) in a way that relates to questions of meaning making or divination. Using Jacques Derrida’s notion that the combination of psychoanalysis and cinema is, in essence, the science of ghosts, I will examine how the oppression of young people is a cyclical pattern that has become a part of the creative, cultural imagination. The minimizing effect of individuals and institutions that casts a child as the person of tomorrow comes into conflict against a subversive reality in the horror genre which might indicate another way forward. M. Stang, Yale University Policing Witch City Abstract "Policing Witch City" reevaluates contemporary consumer interests in Salem, Massachusetts as the site of The Witch Trials. Through an analysis of both the appearance of and collector market for Salem's police regalia, this study investigates the intersection of popular culture, tourism, and law enforcement practices in the downtown historic district. This paper, therefore, seeks to document the complex relationship between perceived notions of religious tolerance, Halloween, and policing elsewhere in the U.S. Drawing from performance studies and cultural history methodologies, this paper moves beyond traditional historical records. Instead, it examines Salem's police regalia alongside participant-observation studies, interviews, and digital research to illuminate why Salem's history has continued to thrive in America's popular imagination.
	A26-108 Science, Technology, and Religion Unit Theme: Religion and Laboratory Life: Revisiting Latour on Science and Religion Tuesday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Convention Center-31B (Upper Level East) Seth Hart, Durham University, Presiding This panel builds on the careful attention to the life of the laboratory advanced by Bruno Latour (1947–2022) over the course of his career. Rather than seeing science as a product of pure intellect, Latour was fascinated by the contingencies of the material, social, and spatial conditions of knowledge-production. Laboratories, for Latour, became places that meaningfully shape how science gets done. The papers in this panel continue this consideration of living scientific and laboratory milieus, considering how religious, ethical, political, and cosmological dimensions define scientific cultures. Alison Renna, Yale University Art, Science, and the Spirit of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Abstract This paper explores the cosmological and moral aspects of the "systems" model used to model life in US Nuclear programs during the mid-20th century. Through the lens of the friendship between medical researcher and UN Atomic Energy Agency administrator Ralph Kniseley and artist and critic Charles Counts, it argues that the "systems" models developed in life sciences division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratories were deployed as a means of atonement for the scientists who developed the bomb, through which they sought to integrate "ethics" and "spirit" into scientific practice. Counts and Kniseley were both critics of and participants in this process. This paper reflects on the power of "systems" to capture the concept of "ethics," suggesting that contemporary theorists who draw from "ecosystems" and "networks" as a form of moral solution may be repeating the mistakes first made by nuclear scientists in those concepts' early past. Dylan Lott, The University of Chicago Thanato-technics: temporal horizons of death and dying Abstract Recent advances in end-of-life technologies have destabilized religious notions of personhood, identity, and ethics; for example, in the reliance on specific device and tests to mediate decisions about when to end life support and declare death. As notions of personhood and identity in the medical setting are made to conform to the limits of the technology it deploys, some in the West have sought guidance in the techniques and views related to the dying process cultivated in other cultures and religions, particularly Tibetan Buddhism. This paper will explore this seeking behavior in connection with the author’s psychophysiological and ethnographic fieldwork (2016-2020) in the Tibetan Buddhist monastic community in India. The details and history of this fieldwork—a scientific, religious, and cultural collaboration to determine the effects of meditative practice on the post-mortem body—are also explored in relation to narrative and semiotic resonances in the intersecting spaces of exile, research setting, and death. Connor Martini, Columbia University The Far-Seeing Cyclops: How SETI Promised to Save the World Abstract In 1971, Barney Oliver and John Billingham led a NASA-funded research study aimed at designing an instrument for conducting the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). The proposed instrument, a colossal array of 2,500 radio telescopes, was called Project Cyclops. The instrument was never built, but not for lack of trying. Oliver and Billingham worked to further an argument, common among SETI researchers, that a successful detection would mean more than we are not alone in the universe--it would prove that our nuclear age, the period at which our technology could occasion our annihilation, was survivable. Humanity could yet be redeemed by the mere presence of the far-off alien. All this talk of redemption and apocalypse certainly smacks of religion, and this talk will attempt to unpack the leveraging of this rhetoric and make a case for why something like Project Cyclops belongs in the domain of religious studies. Enoch Kuo, Princeton University Bio-colonialism and Bad Scientific Anti-Racism: Bruno Latour and the (Violent) Politics of Religion and Science Abstract Over the course of his life, Bruno Latour has sought to unravel the taken-for-granted character of sharp distinctions between nature and culture, religion, politics and science. After recapping the trajectory of Latour's "political epistemology", I argue that Latour's account of the laboratory as a locus for the rearticulation of power enables the development of new categories to analyze the distinctive ways that scientific institutions may enact violence. The violence of "Non-reciprocity" and "Non-representative authority" may make themselves present even in scientific encounters which attempt to be more sensitive to the concerns of indigenous populations or racial minorities, illustrated by the encounter of D. Carleton Gajusek with the Fore people and the (failed) attempts to enlist African-Americans in Tuskegee for a purportedly antiracist genomics program. Focusing attention on how overlapping, but non-identical communities navigate politico-epistemological authority and the circulation of knowledge opens a new angle to approach the religion-and-science conversation.
	A26-109 Sociology of Religion Unit Theme: What Christians Talk About When They Talk About Marriage: A Roundtable on Courtney Ann Irby’s Guiding God’s Marriage Tuesday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Convention Center-24A (Upper Level East) Tazeen Ali, Washington University, Saint Louis, Presiding How do Christians understand the question, “What makes a good marriage?” How do evangelicals and Catholics alike frame this question and how do they answer it in our contemporary moment, when Christians are concerned that the institution of marriage is on life support? And, what does studying these questions reveal about how Christians navigate gender, sexuality, and intimacy as they practice their lived religion? Courtney Ann Irby’s insightful new book Guiding God’s Marriage: Faith and Social Change in Premarital Counseling (New York University Press, May 2024) answers these questions and more through rich qualitative analysis. This roundtable panel gathers sociologists of religion and historians of religion, gender, and sexuality to amplify its important contributions to the sociology of religion specifically and the study of religion more broadly. Panelists Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada, Kalamazoo College Kristy Slominski, University of Arizona Jeffrey Guhin, University of California, Los Angeles Sara Moslener, Central Michigan University Amy DeRogatis, Michigan State University Responding Courtney Ann Irby, Illinois Wesleyan University
	A26-110 Teaching Religion Unit Theme: Embodied Pedagogy In The Study of Religion Tuesday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire 411B (Fourth Level) Sravana Borkataky-Varma, Harvard University, Presiding This round table panel engages the complex topic of embodied pedagogy in the academic study of religion. It is animated by a concern that one of the more basic goals of the academic study of religion, namely developing “informed understandings of belief systems and worldviews” other than students’ own, is not possible if that understanding is only engaged as the process of a disembodied subject. In response to this problem, this panel gathers a group of scholar-teachers who cultivate bodily experience in the classroom. Panelists will discuss their pedagogical practices, including the underlying assumptions and concerns that guide them, and will debate the benefits, challenges, and risks of engaging the body and bodily practices in the the classroom. While their approaches and personal pedagogical commitments differ, these scholar-teachers are committed to engaging bodily experience in the service of shaping more thoughtful and religiously literate students. Panelists Anya Foxen, California Polytechnic State University Sarabinh Levy-Brightman, Harvard Divinity School Hugh B. Urban, Ohio State University Stefan Sanchez, Rice University Aaron Ullrey, University of California, Santa Barbara Responding Sarah Imhoff, Indiana University, Bloomington
	A26-111 Women and Religion Unit Theme: Unveiling Women's Resistance Movements: Intersections of Nonviolent Resistance, Religion, and Gender Justice Tuesday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Convention Center-33A (Upper Level East) Hadia Mubarak, Queens University, Charlotte, Presiding This session delves into the complex intersections of gender, violence, and nonviolence within the sphere of religious and political conflicts across various cultural contexts. Exploring case studies from Nigeria, Myanmar, Africa broadly, and Java, the session explores how women and women-identifying people confront and navigate the challenges posed by religious extremism, military regimes, cultural norms, and historical narratives. It examines the roles that gender plays in both experiencing and resisting violence, highlighting efforts ranging from public discourse participation and the creative protest movements to philosophical reflections on relational autonomy and revisionist mythmaking. Through nuanced understandings of how women's agency and resilience in the face of violence are intricately tied to their religious and cultural environments, the session offers innovative perspectives on fostering peace, justice, and gender equity. Ruth Amwe, Princeton Theological Seminary Engendering Religious Extremism and Violence: Nigerian Women and the Pursuit of Non-Violence Abstract Nigeria has endured the explosion of such religious extremism and violence, eliciting mass civil unrest particularly in the last two decades. Women are often especially at the risk of victimization, enduring diverse forms of human rights violations though their participation and instrumentalization in orchestrating such acts of violence complexifies the relationship between gender and religiously motivated violence in Nigeria. In addition, the exploration of their efforts to form part of the nexus of public discourse critiquing religious extremism and violence in the public sphere within scholarly discourse leaves room for more to be said especially with respect to Nigerian and African women. Through the juxtaposition of two of such women-led efforts, this paper, therefore, seeks to engage contemporary scholarship on the intersection of religion, violence, and gender by examining the resources Nigerian and African women utilize in their mobilizing quest towards demanding accountability and justice for the oppressed. This paper will argue that Nigerian and African women’s pursuit for social justice are often constructed in spaces of duality where their agency is firmly asserted and remains uncontested and the margin between violence and non-violence at blurred. Sau Nam, University of Denver Sarong Revolution: Myanmar Women’s Courageous and Creative Nonviolence Movement in Resisting the Violence of Military Regime Abstract Myanmar women are aware of the inseparable connection between their struggle for gender justice and political liberty, and they express their concerns in the “Sarong Revolution.” By waving a sarong as a flag, Myanmar women fight against taboo, sexism, and an unjust political system. I posit that a new interpretation of the male-biased gender norm, phon, helps women realize their true liberated womanhood and leads them to resist gender-based violence, and regime. First, I briefly introduce the political background of Myanmar, and then, the “Sarong Revolution” will be presented. Lastly, I present a new interpretation of phon and its application in protest. To support my argument, I use Martin Luther King Jr’s view on protest, Kwok Pui-Lan’s view on demystifying religious myths, Aye Nwe’s view on reinterpreting gender-biased cultural norms, and monk Nandamala Bhivamsa’s view on a new understanding of phon. It is a timely, intersectional, and inspirational proposal. Telesia Musili, University of Nairobi Violence and Nonviolence: The Double-edged Sword Effect of Relational Autonomy Abstract African social ordering is centered around the philosophy of Ubuntu. The maxim I am because we are, propagates a communalism organization of societies. Ubuntu postulates a relational form of personhood, which means you are because of others, not only in being but also in moral action. The communal ordering is contrasted with subjective autonomy that governs most of the developed world. As such, in Africa, autonomy is founded primarily on relationships. A central aspect of relational autonomy is protecting people from violence and abusive relationships. However, though venerated in Africa, relational autonomy has the potential to propagate violent behavioral tenets among relations. This is because social structures and relationships abound them and can be oppressive and destructive to autonomy. This proposal calls for interrogating relational autonomy as an enabler of violence, nonviolence, and peace among all earth communities. Verena Meyer, Leiden University The Woman at the Margins: Violence, Gendered Erasures, and Recoveries in Memories of Java’s Islamization Abstract This paper approaches the intersection of gender and violence in Javanese Islam by using as a heuristic the historical narrative of a violent murder in early modern Java where a woman, despite her central role, is erased from the story. It examines attempts in contemporary Javanese theater to recover the woman in the story as a strategy of revisionist mythmaking and an avenue for women’s agency and resistance. Specifically, it focuses on a play produced by self-identified Muslim women with a feminist project in which a woman’s courageous intervention prevents the murder, presenting a non-violent historical vision as a normative model of Islamic ethics. Because the play conceptualizes this re-vision as a recovery of a truth that became distorted by colonial scholarship, the feminist and decolonial project are intimately linked in the play’s recovery of early Javanese Islam as a normative vision of Islamic orthodoxy for today.

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