This roundtable brings together several academic contributors to the open-access volume, Sexual Violence in Muslim Communities: Towards Awareness and Accountability (svmcproject.org), launched in December 2024. Panelists discuss their contributions to the volume ranging from how sexual violence invokes specific gendered and racialized assumptions about Islam that threaten how Muslim advocates respond to these issues in their own communities; a critical rereading of Surat Yusuf in the Qur’an in light of the MeToo movement; a critique of the exclusive focus on bodily autonomy countered by a relational sexual ethic; reflections on Muslim chaplains’ responsibility in working with SV survivors; and a methodological and ethical reflection on scholars working with community advocates that highlights questions of hierarchy, leadership, and decolonization of methods. Together, the panelists invite attendees from all fields of religious studies to a necessary conversation that breaks the pervasive silence around sexual violence, in and beyond Muslim contexts.
In-person November Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book
All time are listed in Eastern Time Zone.
This roundtable brings together several academic contributors to the open-access volume, Sexual Violence in Muslim Communities: Towards Awareness and Accountability (svmcproject.org), launched in December 2024. Panelists discuss their contributions to the volume ranging from how sexual violence invokes specific gendered and racialized assumptions about Islam that threaten how Muslim advocates respond to these issues in their own communities; a critical rereading of Surat Yusuf in the Qur’an in light of the MeToo movement; a critique of the exclusive focus on bodily autonomy countered by a relational sexual ethic; reflections on Muslim chaplains’ responsibility in working with SV survivors; and a methodological and ethical reflection on scholars working with community advocates that highlights questions of hierarchy, leadership, and decolonization of methods. Together, the panelists invite attendees from all fields of religious studies to a necessary conversation that breaks the pervasive silence around sexual violence, in and beyond Muslim contexts.
This panel investigates the paradoxes of freedom in an era of repeatedly undermined human rights. Papers in this panel challenge the cooption of freedom’s language by oppressive groups, resists systemic oppression, and/or affirms enduring and transformative visions of freedom. The first paper examines the way Nana Kwame Adeji-Brenyah's novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars, asks us to redefine our concepts of freedom and annihilation. The second paper explores how the Black prophetic tradition manifests in the current Black Lives Matter era through a consideration of Angela Harrelson’s memoir. The third paper attends to Leslie Marmon Silko’s artistic expression as an Indigenous storyteller. The final paper offers a reading of Edward Elgar’s setting of Saint John Henry Newman’s poem, The Dream of Gerontius.
Papers
This paper examines the way Nana Kwame Adeji-Brenyah's novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars, asks us to redefine our concepts of freedom and annihilation. Set in a dystopian world where prisoners are able to obtain 'freedom' if they fight in gladiator style death matches, the novel constantly twists how we wish freedom or annihilation are experienced. Both in this setting, and his many factual footnotes on mass incarceration, the novel reminds us of Katie Cannon's foundational work on understanding the dignity reclaimed by enslaved peoples. In this paper, I argue that these redefinitions are also calling those in privilege to practice annihilation, in seeking a more true freedom and empowerment of all people.
Do the united discourses of freedom and secularity function in a singular way across the contexts of coercive colonial control in which they are deployed? Can the ideological union between secularity and freedom really be analyzed singularly, or is it more accurately understood as a cluster of related but ultimately discrete phenomena? In this paper, I will use the case study of freedom and secularity in Sydney Owenson’s 1806 novel The Wild Irish Girl as an example of the idiosyncrasy with which these interrelated discourses can function in comparison with frequently circulated theories. Through this analysis, I will come to a methodological suggestion that it may be useful to build on theories of secularization and colonialism with contextually specific analysis, greater descriptive accuracy to general theoretical characterizations. What could we gain from moving from speaking of “secularism” as such to a discussion of related but discrete “secularisms?”
This presentation attends to Silko’s artistic expression as an Indigenous storyteller, honoring the stories she weaves from her Indigenous traditions in pursuit of sovereignty and freedom--two different yet related terms. In the act of listening to Silko’s stories, questions are posed: What is the connection between storytelling and having sources of sovereignty and freedom, especially in times of oppression and despair? The presentation starts by exploring the liberating power of Indigenous storytelling. It then focuses on nuclear storied landscapes in Silko’s novels, Ceremony and Almanac of the Dead. We discover artistic storytelling for achieving two kinds of freedom: Sovereignty to enable accountability to the land and its people; and freedom from environmental racism and other forms of settler oppression. The presentation concludes with the curative role of artistic storytelling, assisting humans to survive and even flourish as they seek freedom and justice in the face of the catastrophic.
This paper offers a reading of Edward Elgar’s setting of Saint John Henry Newman’s poem, The Dream of Gerontius, and argues that the work reveals Elgar’s ambivalence about his Catholic faith at the same time as he celebrates it. 125 years after its premiere, Gerontius remains one of Elgar’s most highly regarded and most performed works, but its current canonical status disguises both the contentiousness of Elgar’s choice of text and the mixed critical reception the work initially received. Informed not only by research into Elgar’s religious faith and compositional practice but also by insights gained from conducting Gerontius, this paper will demonstrate how musical choices can convey theological concerns just as eloquently as words. In Gerontius, Elgar asserted his freedom both to be a Catholic in a society in which that identity disadvantaged him, and to question the tenets of the faith in which he was raised.
This paper explores how the Black prophetic tradition manifests in the current Black Lives Matter era through a consideration of Angela Harrelson’s memoir, Lift Your Voice: How My Nephew George Floyd's Murder Changed the World. I argue that Harrelson’s autobiographical appeal demonstrates a shift in the source and scope of Black prophetic literature and orations in the current political moment. Artistic expertise, oratorical ability, political fame, or academic pedigree are no longer the sole qualifications for Black prophecy-making. Everyday aunts can render prophetic thought by virtue of their proximity to police brutality’s latest victim. Analyzing Harrelson’s prophetic intonations demonstrates how Harrelson is one among other Black maternal figures that challenge existing conversations around the scope and source of Black prophetic tradition, demonstrating a shift from “exceptional prophets” to “everyday prophets” in the Black Lives Matter era.
In this roundtable discussion, scholars from a variety of institutions will reflect on how they teach the history and politics of genocide at time when the federal government is withholding research money and requiring vetting of university courses. How do we teach the topic of genocide with integrity and academic rigor in politically polarized classrooms, especially when accusations of genocide may be met with intimidation by law enforcement? Scholars will reflect on their pedagogical strategies that keep in mind student learning, university missions, and ongoing debates over free speech and inquiry.
This session explores the significance and legacy of pioneering American composer of sacred music, William Billings, who died 225 years ago this year. Billings tanned leather, taught singing schools, fathered a large family, and composed sacred music in Boston during the American Revolution. A staunch Whig, his music was associated with the cause of American freedom. The centerpiece of the roundtable will be a musical program, The Billings Pendulum, composed this year. Panelists will offer brief comments on the musical program and Billings's religiosity, politics, and lasting significance.
This session explores the significance and legacy of pioneering American composer of sacred music, William Billings, who died 225 years ago this year. Billings tanned leather, taught singing schools, fathered a large family, and composed sacred music in Boston during the American Revolution. A staunch Whig, his music was associated with the cause of American freedom. The centerpiece of the roundtable will be a musical program, The Billings Pendulum, composed this year. Panelists will offer brief comments on the musical program and Billings's religiosity, politics, and lasting significance.
The Second Vatican Council was not only a meeting of the world’s bishops but also a gathering of theologians. After nearly fifty years of theological renewal, theologians such as Henri de Lubac, John Courtney Murray, Karl Rahner, Yves Congar, Gregory Baum, and Hans Küng gave almost daily lectures in their national groups, greatly influencing the council’s direction and teachings. Following the council, however, the relationship between theologians and bishops remains ambiguous. While the International Theological Commission was established in 1967 to advise the church’s magisterium, a series of investigations were also conducted against theologians like Leonardo Boff, Elizabeth Johnson, and Jacques Dupuis. What can be learned from the period leading up to, during, and after the council regarding the role of a theologian, especially the emergence of lay theologians, in relation to academic theology and church life? If Pope Francis’s vision of synodality is deeply rooted in the Council, then what is the role of the theologian in a synodal church? How might Pope Francis’s recent 2023 motu proprio Ad Theologiam Promovendam reflect the different paradigms and schools of thought at work in a global church?
Papers
Theologians in a synodal church are called to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue, which was signaled by the Second Vatican Council. This paper explores how theologians can engage with the field of biology to provide the church with a more nuanced theological anthropology on sex, gender, and sexuality. The essay examines Pope Francis’ call for interdisciplinary scholarship, as emphasized in his 2023 apostolic letter to the Pontifical Academy of Theology. Then, this piece critically engages the 2019 Vatican document on gender theory, highlighting its reliance on biology to support theological claims while not actually incorporating biological research. By addressing intersex conditions, gender identity, and sexuality through both theological and scientific lenses, the essay argues that a more informed interdisciplinary approach is essential for theological anthropology. Such engagement not only deepens the church’s understanding of human identity but also strengthens its dialogue with contemporary society.
In this paper, I observe a gap between the theological aspirations of synodality and its structural implementation. Synodality emphasizes mutual relationship and dialogue as means of discerning the fullness of the sense of the faithful (sensus fidelium) in service of proclaiming the Gospel to the world. However, in practice synodal processes involve acts of selection and curation that do not account for dimensions of Christian community life that are not immediately legible to the norms of formal facilitated discourse. To theorize these “left out” dimensions, I draw on the non-representational theory of Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift and note resonances with Orlando Espín’s examination of lived experience and popular devotion as expressive of the sensus fidelium. Finally, I argue that these gaps suggest a role for theologians, as teacher-scholars, to create occasions to thematize and articulate dimensions of Christian community life that are not accounted for in formal synodal processes.
The invigorated attempt to engage and dialogue with Indigenous peoples within Catholicism at an institutional level is an encouraging step to the Church being truly universal and synodal. At the same time, the voice of lay Indigenous Catholic theologians from Moana Pasifika (or Oceania) remains largely missing in the global church. As a lay female, Pasifika Catholic early-career theologian who is a māmā and wife, I speak into the space of where many of my peers are grappling with binary discourse that to be Indigenous means to reject Christianity or being Christian is to reject Indigenous spiritualities. “Synodal life is not a strategy for organising the Church, but…being able to find a unity that embraces diversity without erasing it.” (IL, 2023, §49). The role of lay Indigenous theologians is important in the future of a synodal church and part of the living legacy of Vatican II.
The 21st century poses its own challenges to education to which imaginative and liberative pedagogy must respond. Examining how marginalized identity empowers teaching as tool of resistance, exploring how political and health crises around Covid-19 diversify the tools of pedagogy, and honoring how the decades old question of womanism’s influence on the existential question of thriving in the classroom comes to bear, these papers explore how pedagogy is as much a personal practice as it is an interpersonal one - an intersectional commitment as much as it is a political one.
Papers
This research examines the persistent threats of racism and sexism in higher education, particularly as they impact Asian immigrant women scholars in the U.S. The Trump era and its resurgence have intensified structural inequalities, reinforcing xenophobic and misogynistic narratives that marginalize women of color and immigrant faculty. Our positionality—as women in male-dominated spaces, as racial minorities in predominantly White academic fields, and as immigrants negotiating transnational identities—complicates our legitimacy in scholarly spaces.
By centering our lived experiences, we challenge the ontological negation that reduces our expertise to our identities and reframe our presence as a performative force of disruption and resistance. This research interrogates systemic barriers, intersectional stereotypes, and pedagogical constraints, offering critical insights into how academic spaces can be transformed to embrace vulnerability, equity, and solidarity.
This paper explores a trauma-informed critical pedagogy as an adaptive challenge in online theological education. The digital component is not primarily concerned with the latest technology and learning tools; rather this approach centers on how the learning experience resonates in learners’ bodies in all modalities, especially raced and gendered bodies who bear the disproportionate impacts of this syndemic reality, implicated in multiple, overlapping pandemics. I begin by establishing a foundation of intersectional critical pedagogy using the work of Paulo Freire and bell hooks. I then explore the pandemic positives that have been identified in K-12 and higher education research that can be applied to online theological education. To conclude, I reflect on how I incorporated this pedagogical approach to two hybrid-synchronous courses with women-identifying teaching partners. The resulting learning experiences were empowering for instructors and students alike as they centered context and community.
The need for the curation of a womanist playground in classrooms is great; it can aid in teaching, being, learning, and existing across difference through inviting persons to critically remember and reflect, deliberately question, creatively and collaboratively imagine, and live into emancipatory hope. This critical consciousness stems from and is deepened by womanist thought’s invitation to embrace self, engage in culture and community, embody God’s love, and to enkindle the world. In this session we will explore and engage in womanist modes of play and strategize how academics can practice and experience more wholeness, solidarity, resistance and embodied liberation, in the classroom, through curating a womanist playground.
This panel furthers the functional turn in the study of art to recouple philosophical analyses of concepts with empirical research on material culture. Bringing together scholars who work on Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Confucian traditions, the panel explores how and why aesthetic experiences function to ameliorate the moral and soteriological cultivation of practitioners. To unpack such a transformative function of art, presenters in this panel examine theories proposed by thinkers across South Asian and East Asian traditions for an interregional, intercultural, and interdisciplinary conversation. Besides, they will tap into the efficacy of art in resolving various types of paradoxes in the cultivating process. Such a conversation lays the groundwork for reconsidering the possibility of closing the rift between theories and praxis in contemporary studies of art.
This panel furthers the functional turn in the study of art to recouple philosophical analyses of concepts with empirical research on material culture. Bringing together scholars who work on Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Confucian traditions, the panel explores how and why aesthetic experiences function to ameliorate the moral and soteriological cultivation of practitioners. To unpack such a transformative function of art, presenters in this panel examine theories proposed by thinkers across South Asian and East Asian traditions for an interregional, intercultural, and interdisciplinary conversation. Besides, they will tap into the efficacy of art in resolving various types of paradoxes in the cultivating process. Such a conversation lays the groundwork for reconsidering the possibility of closing the rift between theories and praxis in contemporary studies of art.