In-person November Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book

This presentation examines the relationship between presupposition and understanding,  through Vasubandhu’s discussions of perception (*saṃjñā, *pratyakṣa) and the Three Natures (trisvabhāva) in The Proper Mode of Exposition (Vyākhyāyukti). It details Vasubandhu’s phenomenological investigation, beginning with an interpretive experience where one’s perception conflicts with a text’s claim. Analyzing his notion of the Three Natures as the underlying structure of perception, it interprets that Vasubandhu affirms three irreducible kinds of perception and the ultimate validity of enlightened perception. Based on this interpretation, I argue that, for Vasubandhu, understanding arises from abandoning and accepting certain presuppositions about perception. Specifically, one must abandon privileging shared perception and assume the existence and validity of other minds whose perceptions transcend one’s scope. This argument suggests that certain presuppositions can be a path towards understanding.

Apoha (exclusion) theory, developed by Dignāga and Dharmakīrti, has been widely interpreted as a nominalist solution to the problem of universals. However, scholars increasingly recognize that purely nominalist readings struggle to provide a fully satisfactory account of meaning and inference. As Prabala Kumar Sen notes, for instance, apoha requires an alternative explanation that avoids both the defects of nominalism and the pitfalls of realist universals. In this paper, I explore whether a phenomenological approach to apoha, particularly through the lens of the constitution, can provide a more coherent account. In Husserlian terms, objects and relations do not merely exist but are structured through acts of consciousness. I argue that apoha functions similarly—constituting objects and inferential relations through exclusion rather than positive construction. This reinterpretation clarifies how apoha secures the necessity of meaning and inference, not through implicit similarity but by eliminating all alternative possibilities in lived experience.

The relationship of self and world and of body and mind are central to Buddhism. In this paper, I demonstrate how one thirteenth-century Tibetan thinker addresses paradoxes within these relationships. In his treatise on the inseparability of saṃsāra and nīrvāṇa, Drakpa Gyaltsen uses a diverse repertoire of techniques to guide the practitioner in realizing that all phenomena are included in the body and mind. In conversation with the work of Merleau-Ponty and critical phenomenologists responding to his legacy, I illuminate the role of paradox in approaching appearances, experience, and nonduality within the ritual and philosophical perspectives of the Sakya Path and Fruit tradition. In the process, I interrogate what “body” and “mind” mean in this context and where and how they are situated in relationship to one another.

Religious freedom laws are intended to support religious practitioners but often reinforce Christian-influenced models of religiosity. This particularly affects practitioners in the psychedelic renaissance, who seek legal protection but who also must conform to court-defined models of religiosity. Attorneys guide practitioners in replicating these frameworks, pressuring them to adapt Indigenous practices. This paper examines the arbitrary nature of these laws and their impact on practitioners. It compares U.S. religious freedom laws with South American regulations that protect psychoactive substance use outside religious paradigms. Ethnographic research contrasts Indigenous ayahuasca use in Peru with U.S. church-based models, revealing how American laws shape religious expression. Ultimately, these laws compel practitioners to adjust to Christian-centric frameworks, perpetuating neocolonial influences under the guise of religious freedom.

In this paper I focus on how transpersonal psychology and law affected individual and collective post-ceremony integration at Soul Quest Ayahuasca Church and inform the current integration approach and engagement with the DEA by Sacred Sanctuary (a new ayahuasca church that emerged from the bankruptcy of Soul Quest in 2024). I look specifically at how Soul Quests’ syncretic approach to ayahuasca integration was made sense of by church members and was situated in the philosophy and ethics of a secular psychedelic integration training program called Being True to You. Being True to you is an integration program which employs a transpersonal psychotherapeutic approach to psychedelic health and healing. I argue that Sacred Sanctuary, who is currently seeking religious exemption from the DEA to use ayahuasca for religious purposes, draws from Soul Quest’s oeuvre as well as nuances their approach based on Soul Quest’s bankruptcy and denial for religious exemption.

This paper examines the complex history and legal status of the Church of Ambrosia, with special attention to the role of the scholar in the legal process. Founded in the Bay area by David Hodges in 2019, the Church identifies Cannabis and Psilocybe mushrooms as its primary sacraments and now claims over 100,000 members. In the eyes of many critics, the church operates largely as an illegal dispensary and was the target of a massive raid by Oakland police in 2020. In turn, the church has sought advice and expert testimony from religious studies scholars (including this author) to try to make the case that it is a bona fide religious organization whose rights to use psychedelics should be legally protected. As such, this case raises profound questions of religious freedom and scholarly ethics that will become increasingly important as ever more psychedelic churches emerge in the twenty-first century.

This paper explores the intersection of psychedelic-assisted therapy, religious freedom, and the legal recognition of place as central to meaning-making. Drawing on Vine Deloria Jr.’s critique of Western legal frameworks, it highlights how U.S. law has historically marginalized the significance of place in Native American religious practices. While the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) has provided protections for some religious uses of psychoactive substances, it often fails to fully address the communal and spatial dimensions of Indigenous traditions. Furthermore, contemporary research on “emplacement” and extended mind theory underscores the importance of culturally meaningful environments in shaping cognitive and emotional experiences. This paper critiques the limitations of standardized therapeutic environments, or “non-places,” and advocates for integrating emplacement as a core design principle in psychedelic-assisted therapy. By bridging religious, legal, and therapeutic contexts, this research highlights how meaningful environments can foster spiritual transformation and inform discussions on religious freedom and healing practices.

This study critically examines how religion is represented in U.S. high school social studies standards, focusing on the dynamics of power, particularly the dominance of Christianity. Building on Critical Religious Pluralism Theory (CRPT), which challenges hegemonic Christian narratives in higher education, this study explores how different religious groups and events are included in state standards and analyzes how power structures are reinforced or contested. Using a qualitative approach and grounded theory methodology, the study codes state social studies standards to identify instances where religion intersects with systems of power—such as consolidation, legitimization, or resistance. Preliminary findings indicate a continuing privileging of Christian perspectives, often in the form of historicized or anachronistic portrayals of non-Christian religions. This research aims to inform broader discussions about equity in religious education and curriculum development at the secondary level.

This paper argues for a revised account of religious literacy and reveals its implications for teaching in the public school system. I begin by exploring religious pluralism to show that 21st century students are learning in a diverse, multi-religious society. I highlight religion's role in conflicts to stress the need for cross-cultural literacy. Section 2 defines the term ‘covenantal pluralism’. Section 3 reviews previous approaches to religious literacy, focusing on the knowledge-based approach, the analytic-based approach, and the skills-based approach. In Section 4, I highlight the shortcomings of these accounts and in Section 5, I offer a revised approach to religious literacy. Specifically, I argue for an attentiveness-based approach to religious literacy. Ultimately, I argue that combining my revised account of religious literacy with key virtues can enable covenantal pluralism. Achieving this, however, requires rethinking how we cultivate religious literacy in students.

This paper explores how Danish teachers deal with controversial issues in religious education (RE). The study uses a mixed-methods approach, incorporating both survey data and observational data collected from workshops with teachers across eight public schools. The analysis will examine which issues teachers consider controversial in RE and the specific challenges they face when addressing these topics in the classroom. Furthermore, it will explore characteristics with the student talks on controversial issues in two RE-classes.

The findings of this study underscore the importance of recognizing contextual factors, related to societal, school, and classroom contexts, when dealing with controversial issues in RE. It illustrates how national and transnational discourses on controversies can manifest within the classroom setting and influence students' attitudes toward particular religions or religious practices. 

Finally, the paper will explore teaching strategies that create an environment in which the classroom can function as a “community of disagreement”.

This paper examines the role of religious sensitivity as an educational resource in migrant societies, focusing on pedagogical professionalism in multi-faith schools. Schools are central social spaces for negotiating migration-related pluralism, in which teachers must navigate religious and cultural diversity. Based on a qualitative study in German schools, the necessary skills for religiously and culturally sensitive teaching are analyzed. The study shows that religious affiliation is often perceived as a marker of difference that influences participation in education and identity formation. It also highlights the tension between individual religious freedom and school neutrality. The paper argues that religious sensitivity is a key competence for contemporary education, enabling teachers to use religious plurality as an opportunity for intercultural learning. The findings contribute to current debates about the role of religion in democratic societies and educational policy in increasingly diverse school environments.

This presentation focuses on Yiddish and Black press coverage of white Christian fascism in the NYPD at the outbreak of World War Two. The Christian Front was a nominally ecumenical, but mostly Catholic, political formation inspired by celebrity right-wing “radio priest” Father Coughlin. This presentation returns to the history of Christian Front influence within the NYPD in the ‘40s and ‘50s in order to argue that 1) Yiddish and African American media sources offer more perceptive analyses of Christianity and politics in this period than the white-dominanted English language press, and 2) Catholic fascism endures both through and beyond the Christian Front, facilitated by multifaceted ties between the police and the Church. The white Christian nationalist paramilitaries of the mid-century may have ceased to exist as specific organizations, but the alignments they reinforced between police, far-right politics, and white Christianity have been far more durable than any individual group.

Description forthcoming

This paper examines the Hindu nationalist rhetoric of Yogī Naraharināth (1913/15–2003), a key proponent of Nepal’s identity as the world’s last Hindu kingdom. Naraharināth reinterpreted Nepalese history to align with Hindutva ideology, casting Prithvi Narayan Shah as an anti-colonial defender of dharma and the Gorkhas as symbols of Hindu martial valor. His text Jaya Gorkhā reframes Nepal’s military conquests as religious victories, positioning the khukri (the traditional knife of the Gorkhali warriors) as an emblem of Hindu militancy and highlighting the protection of the cow as central to the ethos of the kingdom. Unlike India’s Hindutva discourse, which justifies its calls for violence as a reaction to a past of colonial subjugation that has defiled the nation, Nepal’s nationalist rhetoric proposed a narrative of invincibility and religious purity. This paper explores how Naraharināth’s vision adapts Hindutva to Nepal’s historical context, reinforcing a legitimization of Hindu violence in a nationalist perspective.

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the intricate dynamics surrounding female involvement in jihadism in Bangladesh. Drawing on expert interviews and surveys, the study uncovers a multifaceted picture of this phenomenon. Three distinct categories of factors – push, pull, and facilitating – emerge as central in explaining the surge in female participation within militant groups in the region. Push factors, which encompass grievances and vulnerabilities arising from personal crises, poverty, and family breakdown, as well as the narratives of global Muslim victimization create an environment ripe for radicalization. Pull factors reveal that ideological allure, the pursuit of glory, adventure, and the evolving gender roles offered by groups like the Islamic State play a significant role in attracting women to extremist ideologies. Facilitating factors, such as influential family members and online platforms, are pivotal in shaping female radicalization. The internet acts as a powerful tool, facilitating exposure to radical ideologies and creating virtual group bonding that reinforce extremist beliefs.