In-person November Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book

This paper studies the Brahma Kumari tradition in Canada and in global space. The focus is on the issue of globalized identity and female religious authority of the followers. I examine several aspects of the globalization of Brahma Kumari in Canada and its complex links with South Asian religions in India. It seems that the tradition is at crossroads, just as the devotees’ cultural identity is at crossroads – being simultaneously Western and at the same time South Asian. What happens when traditions and identities are at crossroads? Do globalized traditions produce globalized identities? Are there any other transformations that happen in this cultural mobility? By means of analysis of texts and data from interviews with Brahma Kumari followers, this paper seeks to reframe the Brahma Kumari tradition in a global context, a truly global movement, which has made home in Canada while maintaining links with the spiritual homeland in India. 

In the Tamil Hindu diaspora in the United States, this paper will explore the presence, the vitality, and the active worship of two Hindu goddesses, one who is very well known, the Goddess Lakshmi, who represents wealth, health, auspiciousness and alertness and one not as focused upon, Bhudevi, the earth goddess. This ethnographic research will focus on Tamil Hindu Americans of the San Francisco Bay Area. Very recently, in January 2025, the Los Angelos area was a site of intense fires which were out of control for weeks and was one of the fiercest fire storms ever in a populated area in California. How do these uncontrollable fires affect Hindu American’s worship of Bhudevi? Or the Goddess Lakshmi? These questions will be investigated through the triple interlaced lens of economics, ecology, and climate chaos. 

Jagannath is best known for his Ratha Yatra festival that carries the deity out of the temple and into the world, extending his presence even into diaspora. Another important but lesser-known festival, Nabakalebara (“New Bodies”), highlights how Jagannath's image transforms to make him available to devotees across both time and space. This paper explores how Jagannath travels and transforms with and through diaspora communities, particularly in the Bay Area and its particular images of the deity as they have been re-created by devotees there. Relying on my own ethnographic studies and close analyses of images, I examine the different manifestations of the deity and how they take up each group’s unique circumstances and experiences. The paper focuses on the personal, intimate experiences of devotion, especially in the home. The study also emphasizes the material embodiment of Jagannath and his connection with devotees.

My presentation examines the religious lives of Thai-American restaurateurs in Elmhurst, New York, site of the East Coast’s first officially recognized “Little Thailand.” By considering why paintings and icons of Hindu figures like Ganesha, Brahma, and Kubera frequently appear in restaurant décor alongside images of Southeast Asian and Chinese deities, I explore how emerging trends in Thai religion—notably the growing popularity of Hindu deities in Buddhist-majority Thailand—shape Thai immigrants' beliefs and business practices. In the process, my ethnographic fieldwork and visual analyses raise two key questions: (1) By incorporating Indian deities into their religious practices, how do Thai Americans express their cultural identities? (2) How are conventional understandings of Orientalism reshaped when Asian Americans themselves curate and participate in syncretic devotional movements with roots in modern Asia? Through these inquiries, my talk highlights the intersections of migration, religious materiality, and transnational cultural flows in shaping contemporary Thai-American identity.

This paper examines the methodological and ethical challenges the author experienced while conducting ethnographic research with a spiritual community in India between 2022 and 2024. Focusing on the author’s fieldwork with this eclectic New Age organization that outwardly promotes pluralism and universalism, this paper explores her experience of uncovering the group’s—and its members’—affiliations with Hindutva and patterns of political exclusion. Drawing on scholarship on right-wing movements, it then analyzes how anthropologists and ethnographers navigate alienation, ideological discord, and strategic engagement while considering the broader implications of these challenges for fieldwork in India today.

In this presentation, I explore how Marsilio Ficino’s fear of inquisitorial scrutiny influenced his portrayal of polytheism. Ficino was subjected to Papal investigation after he published Three Books of Life due to the work’s portrayal of magic. This paper argues that the threat of inquisition led him to obscure his polytheistic cosmology, central to his magical praxis, particularly in his Platonic Theology. Ficino based his cosmological model on Plato’s concept of the 'One,' which preserved the autonomy of Greek deities. However, Ficino aligned his language with Christian monotheism to avoid persecution. His inclusion of Orphic hymns and his treatment of gods and goddesses, such as Jupiter and Nemisis, demonstrates Ficino’s cautious integration of ancient polytheism in a Christian intellectual theater. I hope to reframe Ficino’s work within the context of polytheism. I urge a reconsideration of the legacy of Platonism and challenge the traditional Christian-centric interpretation of the philosophy.

The Song of Songs is key to articulating the sefirotic cosmology of kabbalah, its conceptions of the human body, its kinships, its relationships cosmos and divine, and its capacity to act on both through ritualized sexuality. Over time, these kabbalistic interpretations of the Song of Songs are used to innovate ritual performances that push orthodox, nomian conceptions of the power of the body past its limits and into heterodox antinomian practices that led to widespread condemnation, litigation, and punishment of practitioners. At the same time, and by similar strategies, each iteration is grounded in its time and place and in dialogue with the discourses and practices of its neighbors. In this essay I examine these synthetic interpretations and ritual performances in kabbalistic texts from the 13th to the 17th Centuries to show how they are all part of a cumulative orthodox tradition leading from sacred sexuality to self-sexuality and heterodoxy. 

Moral panics are revealing of social anxieties, popular critiques, and tensions bubbling up from beneath the surface of a community. In this paper I trace a series of up-swells of rumors and “mob” actions connected to an esoteric boogieman in Trinidad called Gumbo Glisse. According to popular accounts, Gumbo Glisse uses devil dealings and esoteric books in order to menace and mesmerize unsuspecting victims. I argue that the initial appearances of Gumbo and the mass vigilante justice that followed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries suggest social tensions connected to anti-witchcraft laws, esoteric practice, and race as well as emerging disquiet over oil extraction in the colony. 

As Buddhist campus chaplaincy continues to develop as a field, the work of a Buddhist chaplain requires both creative adaptation and deep engagement with Buddhist traditions. Providing spiritual care to young adults – especially undergraduate students – demands a thoughtful translation of Buddhist discourses, skillful interpretation of core concepts, and innovative ways to apply them in dialogue and practice. Drawing from my experience as a Buddhist chaplain in higher education, this presentation explores how Buddhist literature – rich with stories, similes, and parables – can serve as a resource for engaging students in meaningful spiritual reflection. I will share case studies illustrating how I have applied Buddhist teachings to campus life, including pastoral care, interfaith dialogue, and mindfulness practices. Additionally, I will reflect on how my own Buddhist experience has shaped my approach to chaplaincy, highlighting the challenges and opportunities of recontextualizing Buddhism within a university setting.

Originating in India, yoga has become globally popular, with 38.4 million US  practitioners in 2022. Despite modern emphasis on yoga postures, yoga is a multi-faceted practice system for attaining freedom from suffering. Indeed, according to Patañjali, the fifth-century author of the Yoga Sūtras, yoga aims to restrain the movements of the mind. Indeed, yoga seeks to calm an agitated mind through ethical discernment, posture, breathwork, and meditation. Here, I argue for an innovative chaplaincy based on accessible translation of Sanskrit yoga texts to provide an interfaith support system based on yoga. Since Patañjali does not overtly express a religious affiliation, yoga chaplaincy potentially resonates across faiths. Indeed, yoga enjoys widespread multi-faith traction, encompasses teachings for calming the mind, and has medical benefits, according to the scientific research literature. Therefore, it has the potential to form the basis of a comprehensive interfaith chaplaincy.

This paper explores integrating spiritual care practices within public defense, redefining the boundaries of spiritual care beyond traditional religious settings. Drawing on my experience as a public defender and training in spiritual care, I argue that these practices are crucial for public defenders to uphold the dignity of their clients and resist the dehumanization that happens to people who go through the criminal legal system. The paper unfolds in three parts: a narrative account of my work, an analysis of "story companionship" as resistance to state violence, and a call for recognizing public defense as a viable site for spiritual care. Public defenders can promote healing and liberation for clients facing a dehumanizing system by providing empathetic listening, presence, and narrative advocacy. This reimagined approach to spiritual care recognizes the profound impact of systemic injustice on the human spirit and advocates for a more holistic and compassionate approach to justice.

This paper will present three case studies based on actual experiences of social work students and their social work supervisors from three institutional settings: a high school, a long-term health care facility and a state prison. The case studies represent three unique contexts in which students and their internship supervisors have engaged with issues of religious freedom in relation to belief, identity, affiliation and practice of the clients served and/or the professionals working in the institution. The paper will examine philosophical and practical approaches for how the teaching about religion can strengthen professional and inter-professional educational learning outcomes for students and practitioners in a variety of educational and professional settings. 

“Can the mouse forgive the cat for eating him?” Howard Thurman quips after making the oddly equalizing claim that “the ethical demand upon the more privileged and the underprivileged is the same.” He identifies “forgiveness” as integral to love, yet his concluding comments are as elliptical as they are generative. How does Thurman describe forgiveness as a “spiritual discipline”? What contribution does his perspective make to this core theme of religious psychology? How can his moral vision help us navigate the dual pitfalls of what he refers to as psychological slavery to resentment, on the one hand, and oppressive religious applications of “forgiveness,” on the other? His understanding of “freedom” is key to an ethical practice of forgiveness. But Thurman adds a theological twist that helps us clarify the meaning of the term—he points away from the dispossessed to an eschatological reality that transcends any human obligation or capacity. 

The primordial darkness [Greek: ἄβυσσος; Hebrew: תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔, English: abyss] is not merely absence nor lack, but a space of fecund possibility, the womb of creation itself. This presentation explores mystical darkness as a transformative space for spiritual purification, social resistance, and divine encounter through the works of San Juan de la Cruz, Howard Thurman, and Raimon Panikkar. 

Each theologian reframes darkness—not as absence or despair but as a site of re-creations: San Juan’s noche oscura purifies the soul, Thurman’s luminous darkness resists racial oppression, and Panikkar’s advaitic mysticism dissolves dualistic thought. 

In dialogue with liberation theologies, this presentation reclaims the spaces of mystical darkness as a sacred, generative force, challenging theological traditions that privilege light and offering a vision where transformation unfolds within the shadows of the dawn of new life.

Exploring the systematic immigrant harms contributing negatively to the wellbeing of undocumented African immigrants in the USA, this paper engages the holistic conceptualization of healing in Exodus to argue for an inclusive pastoral care approach that takes seriously critical social therapeutic models for caring for the spiritual, emotional, and material needs of clients in North American contexts. Specifically, this paper will examine the liberative and holistic conceptualization of healing in the book of Exodus for pastoral care and counselling to undocumented African immigrants in the USA who are plagued with emotional and spiritual distress because of their traumatic migration experiences. This paper assumes that because the factors that contribute to the distressing mental health outcomes of African immigrants include systematic oppressions, the existing bio-medical and individualistic pastoral psychology models can be improved with intercultural psychosocial therapeutic methods as argued by Emmanuel Y. Lartey and discovered in the book of Exodus.

While not exactly “science” in the modern sense, the Buddhist “science of reasons” (yinming 因明) aims to provide universal criteria for assessing the validity of arguments and claims. Describing the development of this discipline in China in terms of “sinification” might, therefore, appear to be a generous euphemism for what some scholars have previously dismissed as a flawed transmission, or plain misunderstanding, of these intricate Indian theories. However, in my talk I would like to provide some arguments for reconsidering the fate of “science of reasons” in China, not as a failed attempt at reproducing the original Indian system, but rather as a case of its “domestication” within a new intellectual and cultural context.  I will focus on Chinese interpretations of pramāṇas (“means” of valid cognition) in the late-Ming period, demonstrating how these Indian epistemological concepts became reconstructed and recontextualized within a distinctly Chinese intellectual framework.

This paper focuses on the notion of “mental consciousness simultaneous with five sensory consciousnesses” (henceforth abbreviated as MSF) preserved in the Chinese Yogācāra sources. I argue that this notion was crucial for better understanding Dignāga’s epistemology but it was totally forgotten by Dharmakīrti’s time. 

I begin by arguing that Dignāga’s notion of mental perception (mānasa-pratyakṣa) can be made sense by taking MSF into consideration. I further suggest that MSF is closely related to the notion of mental construction by the nature [of the five sensory consciousness] (svabhāva-vikalpa) in the Abhidharma tradition. Finally, I show how MSF could help shed light on Dignāga’s notion of self-cognition (svasaṃvedana).

In conclusion, the importance of the Chinese sources is that they preserve the relevant context before and around the time of Vasubandhu, Dignāga and Dharmapāla. By carefully studying the Chinese pramāṇa sources, we see the continuity between Dignāga and his Abhidharma and Yogācāra predecessors.

This paper focuses on xianliang (現量), a Chinese translation and interpretation of an Indian Buddhist epistemic term, pratyakṣa (perception)—Dignāga described as non-conceptual while Dharmakīrti added a non-deceptive feature. Interestingly, influenced by Xuanzang’s (600/602–664) implementation of xianliang to translate both pratyakṣa and pratyakṣaṃ pramāṇam, pre-modern Chinese Buddhist interpreters, who lacked sufficient sources from Dignāga and without access to Dharmakīrti, developed theories about pratyakṣa that would not occur in the Sanskrit context. The seeming impact of “sinifying” pratyakṣa lingers even in the twentieth-century translations of Dignāga’s and Dharmakīrti’s works derived from Tibetan sources. Drawing from the works of Lü Cheng (1896–1989) and Fazun (1902–1980) and examining them alongside the classical works, this paper suggests that the preservation of the non-literal translation, xianliang, is not merely a result of relying on the established terminology, but is essentially a linguistic adaptation and notably a hermeneutic extension of the philosophical meaning.

Today, millions of Christians of Middle Eastern descent reside in Latin America—a primary destination for Arab immigrants since the late nineteenth century. Notably, more Palestinians now live in Chile than in any other country outside of the Middle East. The majority of these 500,000 Chilean-Palestinians are Eastern Orthodox, a population that far outnumbers the small Palestinian Christian community remaining in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel. Calling for more scholarship on the flourishing Middle Eastern Christian communities of Latin America and their lived religion, this paper focuses on the unique role of Chile as a place of refuge and spiritual development for Christian Palestinians. Based on ethnographic interviews it seeks to answer the following questions: What does it mean to be Palestinian Christian in the Chilean diaspora? How do Chilean Christians of Palestinian descent speak about and enact ideas of freedom and Palestinian nationhood in religious and secular spaces?

This paper presents some of the most salient results of an ongoing research on religion and politics in Peru, focusing primarily on conservative trends. We delve on the new alliances woven between political and religious actors. 

Three salient features may be identified: 1 Revisited moral agenda. In terms of sexual rights, Peru is one of the most conservative country in the hemisphere. The moral agenda focuses on protecting the population from homosexuality and on defending the conservative legal Status Quo. 2 Moral agenda and politicians. To compensate their lack of popularity and in an attempt to legitimate their position, politicians mediatize their religious practices and their closeness to clerics and pastors. Additionally, outspoken Catholics belonging to new movements and Charismatics pastors unite to create political parties. 3 Abuses in Catholic environments. The Church and its allies are confronted with an evolving crisis in its first stages.  

Political parties anchored in religious identity or issues of church and state are one of the oldest forms of political organization in Latin America. Recently, such parties have proliferated as evangelical Christians with political ambitions form their own electoral platforms, bringing diversity to a field long dominated by the Catholic Church. What forms of religious political party exist in contemporary Latin America? What factors explain their varied electoral success, longevity, and relations with other parties, both secular and religious? Do they reinforce the longstanding divide between Catholicism and Protestantism, or do they appeal to a broader Christian identity? Do these parties embrace an exclusionary Christian nationalism—asserting Christianity as the core of national identity and public policy—or do they respect religious pluralism and state secularism amid growing nonbeliever populations? This paper will explore these questions as it surveys contemporary religious political parties across Latin America.

This presentation combines close textual and performative analysis of comedian Dave Chappelle’s recent work with comparative theological and ethical inquiry, as well as intersectional approaches, to investigate how humor can simultaneously cause and potentially heal moral injury across diverse communities. By focusing on Chappelle’s role as both a provocateur – accused by some of “punching down” on transgender identities – and a cultural figure sought for guidance (notably as host of Saturday Night Live following multiple pivotal U.S. elections), the study integrates perspectives from A. Roy Eckardt, Brian Powers, and Resmaa Menakem to illustrate how comedy serves as a ritual space where communities confront trauma and reimagine manhood. Anchored in Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada’s conceptualization of manhood as an institutionally guarded construct forged through family, community, and faith commitments, the talk highlights Chappelle’s Islamic identity and suggests that comedy, properly understood, can foster new possibilities for moral repair and constructive public discourse.

Existing in a world not built for disabled bodies and within millennia of hierarchical church history which still today too often insists that some bodies are better than others, this paper examines the moral injury experienced by disabled people when dealing with the ableist theology of their faith communities. While in recent years some scholars working at the intersection of psychology and disability have thought about moral injury itself as a type of disability, I am instead interested in the way that ableist theologies taught by and reinforced in community cause moral injury for disabled Christians whose perception of the Divine does not match the embedded, communal theologies they have been taught. Through dialogue with disabled and not-yet-disabled scholars, this paper offers a first practical step beyond religious ableism in order to disrupt the continuing violence and cocreate healing for disabled beloveds who have been morally injured by the church.

This paper aims to illustrate the history of the Bible Society Service for Overseas Chinese (1955-1957), a short-lived programme of the British and American Bible societies to continue their presence among Chinese-speaking communities outside China following their withdrawal from the People’s Republic of China. Based on relevant archival materials of these Bible societies, this paper will examine how Ralph Mortensen, a Bible society staff member with China experience, worked with the secretaries of the Bible societies’ East and Southeast Asian agencies to develop a series of measures and promotional activities to increase Bible distribution among the Chinese residents in the regions. It will also pay attention to the role of Hong Kong in the Service. It will conclude with a discussion on the legacies of the Service to the institutional indigenization of Bible societies in the Chinese-speaking world.

The Beigang Wude Temple in Taiwan utilizes cutting edge technology in its divination practices and on its temple grounds. This paper uses textual sources and ethnographic methods to explore the temple's integration of traditional divinatory practices (i.e., Chinese spirit writing, divination) with a robust online presence, including an extensive website and social media.

The temple's construction of a virtual world with 500,000 Facebook followers and a comprehensive website and YouTube! presence is augmented onsite by the organization's use of artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize characters in spirit written text using optical character recognition as well as its use of other technologies. The temple further integrates technology with its onsite operations through the use of customer relationship management (CRM) software to manage the flow of visitors to the temple and to gain an accurate accounting of those numbers. 

The temple demonstrates a commitment to existing traditions while engaging in technological innovation.

This study is based on fieldwork conducted between 2023 and 2025 around Mount Tai, with a particular focus on incense associations and spirit mediums, to examine the roles of contemporary religious groups in terms of practice, memory, and salvific functions. While Chinese salvationist religions have been widely studied, they are often seen as unique to the Republican and early PRC eras. This research argues that incense associations and spirit mediums continue to perform salvific functions akin to earlier groups, helping individuals navigate uncertainty amid social change. These groups offer spiritual solace and social support via ritual healing and community mutual aid. Furthermore, by reconstructing traditions and historical narratives, they reassert orthodoxy and legitimize their practices in contemporary society. Thus, they represent both a continuation of salvationist memory and a departure from their stigmatized past, illustrating the dynamic interplay of continuity and change in daily religious life under social transformation.

This paper examines the annual June 4 candlelight vigils in Hong Kong as an example of how political mourning can manifest as ritual protest, particularly in response to the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. Despite the Chinese government's efforts to suppress public remembrance, Hong Kong citizens organized these vigils to honor the victims, establishing a tradition that lasted over three decades.

By engaging with theories on ritual and mourning, this paper develops an analytical framework to explore the intersections between political mourning and ritual protest. Drawing on historical documents and video recordings, it investigates religious and ritualistic elements of the vigils, including their incorporation of Chinese funeral practices. It emphasizes the vigils' liminal nature, explains the symbolic meaning of those rites, and illustrates their sociopolitical functions. To conclude, this paper argues that a grassroots-driven political mourning/ritual protest can transform collective grief into acts of resistance and foster a counter-narrative to state propaganda. 

This research explores the Opening the Horse Servant (kai matong 開馬僮) of Huashan jiao ritual masters in Liuyang, Hunan, through which the ritual masters transform individuals into spirit mediums. The Teaching of Mount Hua in Liuyang's Hakka community serves as a cornerstone for the creation and consecration of divine statues, highlighting the key role of these masters in local religious life. Revered as both sculptors and custodians of consecration rituals, Huashan jiao masters are revered as the architects and animators of the gods themselves, infusing wooden statues with divine vitality. The Opening the Horse Servant (kai matong 開馬僮), alongside other rituals, is dedicated to creating spirit mediums for the consecrated temples. The unique approach in Liuyang, where spirit mediums are created as needed, is similar to conventional transmission tradition and suggests nuanced ties to Daoism and Buddhism. Through a meticulous reconstruction of the Opening the Horse Servant ritual, this research aims to illuminate the intricate spiritual milieu of Liuyang.