In-person November Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book
All time are listed in Eastern Time Zone.
Please note that this schedule is subject to change and is currently being updated. Please excuse our appearance as we finalize the schedule. If you have any questions, please contact annualmeeting@aarweb.org.
The Annual Meeting of the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship invites all scholars to the presentation of papers and extended discussion and fellowship. Presentations by Prof Tom Greggs, Dr Scott Harrower, and Dr Myk Habets will be followed by extensive time for discussion. This year’s theme is pneumatology. All welcome.
The phenomenon of religion is exerting a critical role in the world. Our times require more robust religion theory. The tradition of the history of religions, as articulated by Charles Long, urges us to take religious phenomenology seriously. While the academy has spent years discounting and dismissing history of religions this panel investigates its continued relevance. Long foresaw how religion is integral to nation states and the rise of authoritarianism as an extension of colonialism as a context for cultural contact and erasure. There's an urgency today for returning to Long’s critical theoretical framework from various perspectives with renewed vigor and creativity.
This panel will explore the central role of compassion in both theory and practice in the Dharma traditions, with specific focus on Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Hinduism. Across these diverse spiritual paths, compassion is not only a virtue but also a transformative practice that shapes the way practitioners engage with themselves, others, and the world as they pursue liberation. Scholars will elucidate the unique expressions of compassion within each tradition, examining how compassion serves as a path to spiritual freedom, liberation, social harmony, and ethical living. The panel will highlight the philosophical underpinnings, practical applications, and transformative power of compassion as taught in each tradition, while demonstrating their applicability in contemporary society.
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
