In-person November Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book

Join a reproductive rights activist and strategic communications expert for an interactive media training for scholars of religion and abortion. Participants will learn practical strategies for interacting with journalists, including vetting media requests, understanding reporter terminology, preparing for interviews, and developing compelling messaging that communicates the complexity of your research. By analyzing interview clips and conducting interview practice sessions, attendees will refine their ability to reach diverse audiences through prepared remarks, video interviews, and audio-only conversations. While the workshop will be most helpful for scholars studying reproductive rights, it will also illuminate strategies for discussing politically charged topics while maintaining nuance and academic integrity. Participants will leave with concrete tools to confidently engage with media outlets and contribute meaningfully to public discourse on the intersection of religion and reproductive rights.

This interactive workshop, led by a multiethnic and multicultural team of three generations of scholars, aims to provide theoretical, practical, and pedagogical insight into teaching theology and religion in a trauma-informed manner. The tools and insights are deduced from an original qualitative research project that interviewed student and faculty at an R1 divinity school to learn about their experiences regarding trauma in the learning environment. Aspects of trauma-informed teaching will be modeled through the format of the workshop. Presenters will create a space for attendees to consider how trauma-informed teaching suggestions might be contextualized for their institution. 

This session begins with a panel bringing together scholars publishing on dialogue to discuss the possibilities and challenges for forging fresh conversations across religious differences in this difficult historical moment. Drawing on their distinct disciplinary approaches, the panelists' research and practice dialogue in a variety of contexts, including higher education, community groups, inter- and intra-religious organizations, and publicly funded programs. The panel discussion will be facilitated around a set of questions inviting conversation between panelists about what they have been learning about dialogue and the insights as well as questions they have about how to do dialogue across religious differences now.
Building on the panel discussion, the second half of this event will invite everyone to participate in structured, small-group dialogues about the possibilities and challenges people are experiencing as scholars, educators, activists, or individuals engaging across religious differences in today’s environment. 
Register for this event at: aiistudies.org

Anthropologists, sociologists, theologians, and religious studies scholars together reflect on how biohacking, a DIY approach to augmenting the human body and mind (including DIYbio, spiritual augmentation, health and wellness optimisation, and technological futurism) relates to broader questions of meaning, purpose and spirituality.

This workshop is for anyone who is involved in (or interested in being involved in) programs/centers/institutes or initiatives related to religion and public life. It offers:

• insights into the 'state of the field' with established and emerging leaders working in a diversity of institutions
• networking, dialoguing, and peer-resourcing opportunities for  anyone involved in leading or supporting an institute, center, or program that engages with religion in public life.
• discussion of critical topics relevant to religion and public life, both substantively and practically
• resources on public scholarship, public programming, funding, and building institutional infrastructure for research, teaching, and other initiatives
• support for all stages of leadership, including early-career and non-traditional

This is an ongoing venue to share best practices, pool ideas, and develop collaborations.