In-person November Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book

The Castlevania franchise has sold more than 20 million games since 1986. It has become popular again due to Netflix’ acclaimed series. The games are full of Christian symbols and icons, some functioning as weapons. For example, in Symphony of the Night, the Bible is a sub-weapon, giving fresh meaning to the term “bible thumper.”  In the Lords of Shadow, the main weapon is a multi-tool known as “the combat cross.” Castlevania’s religious weaponry frees the world from chaos and restores order, suggesting to players that religion is a violent, organizing, and liberating force, potentially shaping their real-world view of religion. This paper brings cultivation theory into the arsenal of religious research tools to theorize how Castlevania’s weaponized religion might affect gamers’ perception of religion. Additionally, gaming transfer phenomena (GTP) and a gamer-centered qualitative analysis on Let’s Play accounts contribute to understanding the effects of weaponized religion in games.

Despite the developments in the game industry over the past decades, game studies remain in an embryonic stage in Japan, especially those focusing on religion. One exception is the recent initiative to establish a university-based research unit on game studies led by a scholar of religion who was once severely criticized as being an Aum Shinrikyo supporter in 1995. The scholar, Shinichi Nakazawa, known as a “spiritual intellectual” for his postmodern interpretation of Buddhist philosophy and practices, now advocates for game studies in the Anthropocene, enhanced by AI technologies. He envisions a future where Homo sapiens are liberated from labor and exploitation, transforming into Anima ludens. This paper critically examines their new ideology and also compares it with how Japanese young people actually engage with games, where the religious elements of such engagement are more ritualistic.

In recent years, video game players have gathered on online forums to narrate their spiritual experiences of solitude playing the popular 2009 game, Minecraft, and the 2019 cult classic, Outer Wilds. Online, players describe how the game simulates an experience of silence that can effect feelings of loneliness but can also inspire introspective reflections on one’s relationship to God and the world. This paper turns to these sites of simulated silence at the heart of consumerist culture’s distracting leisure practices to challenge a narrative of monastically-informed Christian spirituality that positions ‘silence’ as a pure mode of anti-consumerist religious practice. Against this narrative, I suggest that these paradoxically ‘noisy’ simulations of silence decenter religious silence as a privileged site of encounter with God both by disrupting an over-simplistic binary of noisy consumerism and quiet spirituality and by serving as potential icons of God’s enduring presence in the midst of consumer culture.

From Kung Fu (1972 TV series) to the blossom of various Hollywood Chinese action films, Kung Fu, the practice of Chinese martial art, has been long mythicized and Orientalized by Western visual media and market. Over the years, scholars and the Chinese audience have criticized how such construction of Chinese identity perpetuates the stereotypes against China and recreates the “Chinese other” in the Western political environment. Now, this article looks at the French action-fighting game Sifu, which is about Chinese Kung Fu and has been popularized and appreciated among Chinese players, and asks how, if at all, it challenges the traditional Hollywood set-up of Chinese traditions. By conducting a textual analysis of Sifu’s narrative in contrast to its Hollywood counterpart, I argue that Sifu builds a rhetorical space for discussion of identity representation, urging the Western visual media to acknowledge the rich and complicated history that shapes Chinese identity.

This paper argues that the rise of Sinophobia in South Korea, particularly following President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration, is not merely reactionary but deeply rooted in religious and ideological discourse. Once limited to far-right circles, anti-China rhetoric now permeates mainstream politics, reinforcing Christian nationalism and pro-American sentiment while shaping domestic and foreign policy. The paper explores three dimensions of this phenomenon. First, it examines how the Chinese diaspora is framed as both economic and political threats. Second, it analyzes how Sinophobia underpins Yoon’s pro-U.S., anti-China stance, especially within the U.S.-South Korea-Japan security alliance, which Christian nationalists portray as divinely sanctioned. Third, it investigates how Sinophobia informs political reform narratives, particularly in the pro-martial law discourse of Kyeŏm intended for kyemong ("martial law for reform"). Ultimately, the paper reveals how Sinophobia is weaponized to justify authoritarian measures, reorient geopolitical alliances, and redefine South Korea’s nationalist and religious-political landscape.

This paper examines the role of gender discourse in contemporary South Korean politics and religion, focusing on the administration of Yoon Seok-yeol and the broader transnational anti-gender movement. While Yoon has not explicitly addressed LGBTQ policies, his statements on gender inequality reflect a broader effort to delegitimize feminist and queer activism by framing them as foreign impositions. His dismantling of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family aligns with global conservative narratives that seek to reinforce traditional heteropatriarchal norms. This study contextualizes gender discourse among Yoon’s evangelical supporters and juxtaposes the affective and aesthetic dimensions of protest cultures, analyzing both queer/feminist/progressive anti-Yoon movements and conservative pro-Yoon demonstrations. Drawing on Butler (2024) and Connolly (2008), this paper situates South Korea’s gender politics within transpacific networks of religion, militarism, economics, diaspora, race, and affect, highlighting the interconnected nature of political struggles across national boundaries.

To many conservative Christians in South Korea, the 2024 martial law decree was not only justified but righteous in the face of threats posed by “pro-North Korea” enemies to the nation. This paper situates the contemporary politics of enmity by returning to the Korean War (1950–53) and its aftermath to offer historical perspectives on the entwinement of anticommunist nation-building and Christian political imagination in the making of the Cold War South Korean nation and its place in the U.S.-led Free World. By focusing on two particular processes—the violent excision of (internal) enemies and rescuing of Christians (mass killings/rescue) and the incarceration and (re-)making of enemies into good anticommunist subjects (containment/rehabilitation)—this paper examines subject-making and enemy-making as mutually constitutive processes in the violent coherence of Christian anticommunism in wartime South Korea at the height of the US empire’s military power.

Moving beyond the domestic and secular frameworks that dominate mainstream narratives about Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed 2024 martial law decree in South Korea, this paper examines the politico-religious dynamics that unfolded across transnational networks of charismatic Christianity. The analysis begins by tracing the origins of the ‘Gwanghwamun Movement’ ? a Protestant-based far-right movement in South Korea that drew crucial inspiration from the rise of Trumpism and its charismatic Christian support base in the USA from 2017 onward. Looking at recent developments in 2024-2025, this study further investigates how the Gwanghwamun Movement prefigured the political mobilization of several Christian nationalist groups which rallied behind Yoon Suk-yeol’s continued presidency during impeachment proceedings under the influence of Trump-supporting charismatic Christianity in the USA. Despite this trans-Pacific religious alliance, mainstream Korean Christianity largely regards these charismatic Christian movements as ‘heretical’ and maintains distance from them. This situation serves as a seed of division latent within the anti-impeachment movement centered around the Korean Christian community.  

This paper examines the intersection of medieval ritualism and modern literary expression in Kon Tōkō’s novella Chigo (1936). A prominent figure in early 20th-century Japanese literature and a Tendai priest, Kon reimagines medieval ritual practices, particularly the controversial Chigo Kanjō (Consecration of Acolytes) through a modern lens. The novella explores power dynamics and desire within monastic communities by focusing on the tragic relationship between Renshū, a high priest, and Hanawaka-maru, a young acolyte. Drawing on elements from setsuwa (didactic tales), classical novels, and ritual manuals, Kon critiques institutional authority and highlights the affective and erotic dimensions of religious practices. His portrayal challenges traditional interpretations of monastic sexuality and presents it as a complex interplay of devotion and worldly desire. This paper argues that Chigo bridges medieval and modern perspectives, offering a more nuanced understanding of premodern religious practices reimagined by a writer whose sensibilities were ahead of his time.

The study of ritual in the past has much to learn from the present. The relationship between these two sources of knowledge is apparent in archaeological applications to ritual. This paper introduces work on Buddhism in early medieval Japan’s hinterland, which saw an influx of monks from urban monasteries from the 11th-13th centuries. Archaeological work in the mountain villages and temples that border Kyoto has revealed the complex ways in which locals incorporated the rituals that Buddhist institutions and practitioners brought with them to the hinterland. One affordance of archaeological work is its focus on material heritage, which often involves interactions and negotiations in the present with existing communities for whom this heritage is a source of identity. As a result, research on the medieval hinterland has relied on collaborations with existing communities in these areas.  An archaeology of ritual in Japan’s past inspires collaborative archaeology in the present.

This paper investigates how Nichiren monks engage with the Internet, specifically with social media platforms, to promote knowledge related to daiaragyō 大荒行, an austere training that allows monastics to master a variety of initiated prayers (kaji kitō 加持祈祷) and exorcistic techniques. Despite being an esoteric practice shrouded in secrecy, daiaragyō has attracted a lot of attention on the Internet over the past few years: monks who have performed the training share their knowledge and experiences on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and temples’ websites. I argue that social media plays a central role in affecting and shaping contemporary Nichiren Buddhism’s identity, communities, and ritual practices. More specifically, social media platforms enhance monks’ eminence and reputation, foster the creation of larger and more diverse communities, and allow more personal and flexible ways for monastics and laypeople to engage with religion.

This paper examines the Genkō Festival at the Genkō Shrine in Fukuoka, Japan, and its annual rituals commemorating the 1281 Mongol Invasion of Japan. While these rituals honor the war dead from an “ancient” past, they are a rather modern phenomenon, emerging in the early twentieth century as part of nationalist efforts to construct historical memory. Tracing the transformation of Genkō commemoration—from a nationalist movement celebrating Japan’s victory, to a pan-Asianist project under imperial Japan, and to a contemporary diplomatic event—this paper explores how the meaning of “genkō” has shifted through ritual over time. By analyzing the 2024 rituals, which for the first time in decades included Mongolian participation, this study argues that these rituals not only reimagine the past but also serve as a platform for forging new geopolitical alliances under the rhetoric of reconciliation, peace, and the transcendence of historical enmity.

This paper examines the intersection of medieval ritualism and modern literary expression in Kon Tōkō’s novella Chigo (1936). A prominent figure in early 20th-century Japanese literature and a Tendai priest, Kon reimagines medieval ritual practices, particularly the controversial Chigo Kanjō (Consecration of Acolytes) through a modern lens. The novella explores power dynamics and desire within monastic communities by focusing on the tragic relationship between Renshū, a high priest, and Hanawaka-maru, a young acolyte. Drawing on elements from setsuwa (didactic tales), classical novels, and ritual manuals, Kon critiques institutional authority and highlights the affective and erotic dimensions of religious practices. His portrayal challenges traditional interpretations of monastic sexuality and presents it as a complex interplay of devotion and worldly desire. This paper argues that Chigo bridges medieval and modern perspectives, offering a more nuanced understanding of premodern religious practices reimagined by a writer whose sensibilities were ahead of his time.

The study of ritual in the past has much to learn from the present. The relationship between these two sources of knowledge is apparent in archaeological applications to ritual. This paper introduces work on Buddhism in early medieval Japan’s hinterland, which saw an influx of monks from urban monasteries from the 11th-13th centuries. Archaeological work in the mountain villages and temples that border Kyoto has revealed the complex ways in which locals incorporated the rituals that Buddhist institutions and practitioners brought with them to the hinterland. One affordance of archaeological work is its focus on material heritage, which often involves interactions and negotiations in the present with existing communities for whom this heritage is a source of identity. As a result, research on the medieval hinterland has relied on collaborations with existing communities in these areas.  An archaeology of ritual in Japan’s past inspires collaborative archaeology in the present.

This paper investigates how Nichiren monks engage with the Internet, specifically with social media platforms, to promote knowledge related to daiaragyō 大荒行, an austere training that allows monastics to master a variety of initiated prayers (kaji kitō 加持祈祷) and exorcistic techniques. Despite being an esoteric practice shrouded in secrecy, daiaragyō has attracted a lot of attention on the Internet over the past few years: monks who have performed the training share their knowledge and experiences on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and temples’ websites. I argue that social media plays a central role in affecting and shaping contemporary Nichiren Buddhism’s identity, communities, and ritual practices. More specifically, social media platforms enhance monks’ eminence and reputation, foster the creation of larger and more diverse communities, and allow more personal and flexible ways for monastics and laypeople to engage with religion.

This paper examines the Genkō Festival at the Genkō Shrine in Fukuoka, Japan, and its annual rituals commemorating the 1281 Mongol Invasion of Japan. While these rituals honor the war dead from an “ancient” past, they are a rather modern phenomenon, emerging in the early twentieth century as part of nationalist efforts to construct historical memory. Tracing the transformation of Genkō commemoration—from a nationalist movement celebrating Japan’s victory, to a pan-Asianist project under imperial Japan, and to a contemporary diplomatic event—this paper explores how the meaning of “genkō” has shifted through ritual over time. By analyzing the 2024 rituals, which for the first time in decades included Mongolian participation, this study argues that these rituals not only reimagine the past but also serve as a platform for forging new geopolitical alliances under the rhetoric of reconciliation, peace, and the transcendence of historical enmity.

Readers of the Qur’an often emphasize the verses outlining what we imagine as fetal development in “the wombs” as evidence of an inherent Islamic reverence for conceiving bodies. Yet, there is more to the Qur’an than a reading that values women based on their assumed fertility. Drawing on gender and disability studies, I argue that the Qur’an conveys a complicated relationship with women and reproduction, both affirming and unsettling binary understandings of female embodiment. While the Qur’an’s maternal citations support readings that elevate motherhood to a status that is almost sacred, its narrative dimensions hint at the complexities of these embodied experiences. The term “barren,” for example, is semantically linked to the notion of Divine Punishment; however, Sarah’s reaction to the annunciation suggests that she preferred her “barren” body and did not desire to achieve the conceiving ideal highlighted by many readers.

This paper situates menstruation within the discussion of reproductive freedom in Islam, analyzing how the everyday phenomenology of menstruation disrupts traditional ‘ulama-led knowledge-making related to women’s bodies. The paper asks: how do ordinary Muslim women draw on nuances of their menstruating bodies to create Islamic knowledge related to menstrual purity (tahārah)? Drawing on the pietistic emphasis on menstruation (hayd) in the Islamic tradition at large, basing analysis on contemporary ethnographic accounts of menstrual effluent disposal in Pakistan, and using frameworks of embodied phenomenology, this paper inverts the doctrine-making direction of menstruation laws in Islamic fiqh by showing how the bodily nature of menstruation dictates a context of its Islamic interpretation. The paper shows how challenges of effluent disposal raise questions of agency for women, answered by the discursive closeness of menstruation with vernacular concepts of purity and pollution, re-imagined as the ‘Islamic’ norms of menstruation by women in Pakistan.

This paper analyzes North American Muslim religious discourses on elective abortion. With references to the Qur'an, Islamic oral traditions, jurisprudential discourses, feminist Islamic scholarship, and contemporary Muslim American social media posts, I analyze discourses that seek to limit, on one hand, or to expand on the other, a pregnant Muslim's recourse to terminating pregnancy through elective abortion. Considering various circumstantial factors and drawing upon the Foucauldian concept of biopower, I track how pregnant people may be encouraged to procreate through tactics of coercion that seek to mold pregnant bodies into docile reproductive forms in the name of religious compliance. Yet, nuances in Islamic approaches to reproductive-related decision-making create fissures in which pregnant people can maintain pious aspirations and simultaneously exercise their reproductive agency in jurisdictions where reliable reproductive care is readily accessible. 

The overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision put women’s reproductive freedom in significant peril. The decision also generated debate within the American Muslim community on the permissibility of abortion in Islam. Muslim organizations submitted an amicus brief opposing overturning Roe v. Wade, arguing that Islamic law permits abortion (before a certain period). Other Muslim groups disputed this claim, stating that abortion is based on values which are not upheld by Islamic law. Hinging on this tension, this paper explores legal discussions in the Hanafi legal school on abortion (isqat al-haml) to investigate the juristic assumptions regarding the reproductive body and the fetus and how this shapes their conception of women’s reproductive rights. To address this, the paper asks whether the fetus is a legal person. What is the nature of the fetus’ rights and how were these rights considered in relation to the rights of the pregnant person? 

Nakada Juji 中田重治 (1870–1939) was a Christian leader in Japan whose theology merged with nationalism, shaping his views on Jewish people. This paper explores his theological influences, missionary work, and advent movements, analyzing his support for nichiyu dōsoron日猶同祖論 (Japanese-Jewish common ancestry theory) and alignment with Japan’s militarization. Using emotional capital theory, it examines how Nakada’s beliefs structured religious and national identity, depicting Japan as a spiritual mediator. His case highlights how religious ideology intertwines with political ambitions, contributing to discussions on faith, nationalism, and historical discourse.

The 1934 International Eucharistic Conference in Argentina signified decades of advocacy and work by Catholic Nationalists to perpetuate the mythos of the "Catholic nation." Around these years, we can see a proliferation of Protestants combatting their Catholic opponents with rhetoric around notions of citizenry and patriotism. This period saw the pitching of nationalism from both ends, one with a rigid integralist/conservative Catholic vision and the other espousing a Protestant civic liberal position. This paper takes the period of the 1930-1940s as a critical point to understand these two positions that articulated their disparate visions through the language of patriotism and nationalism. Through a reconceptualization of the past, Catholics and Protestants sought to establish themselves as proper "heirs" to the construction of the Argentine political project. Thus, Nationalism becomes the center point of these contested visions of democratic common life. 

This paper compares the works of two theologians based in Taiwan—Huang Po-ho and Chow Lien-hwa—to explore how, in the construction of contextual theology and the establishment of indigenized Christian churches, two kinds of “freedom” were pursued: a freedom concerning liberation from political and theological colonization, and a freedom concerning independence from Western cultural and religious imperialism. In the theological methods practiced or espoused in these treatises, we are able to see a tension between differing views of national ideology and visions for the church, thus nuancing two ideas in the current academic discussion: the meaning of “Taiwanese theology” and the boundaries of what counts as “Chinese theology.” Ultimately, the goal of this paper is to aid in the imagination and construction of contextual theologies that truly bring freedom to Taiwanese people and churches today as well as communities that find themselves in similar circumstances. 

This paper examines Brazilian Christian Nationalist networks and their role in shaping ideological and practical engagements across faith communities and political landscapes. These networks establish complex national, transnational, and multinational coalitions that leverage faith communities as local bases while positioning representatives in federal politics. However, their strategy extends beyond politics, incorporating business leaders, military personnel, and artists to promote a vision of governance called “government of the just.” This movement aspires to dominate spiritual, cultural, economic, and political spheres. Additionally, the paper highlights the multidirectional relationships between Brazilian and U.S. Christian Nationalist networks. It uncovers evolving border-crossing alliances with reciprocal influences by mapping transnational exchanges, illuminating the operative theopolitics and strategies of transnational coalitions in contemporary contexts.

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