In-person November Annual Meeting 2026 Program Book

This panel discussion, hosted at the Colorado State Capitol, brings together Denver-area scholar-practitioners who hold positions in city and state leadership and bring theologically informed perspectives to their public roles. Drawing on their training in theology and religious studies, panelists will examine how scholarly engagement with religion shapes the intellectual and ethical frameworks that guide policy decisions and institutional leadership. The discussion will also address the challenges of navigating political structures as theologically trained professionals, and the broader contributions that religious scholarship can make to contemporary democratic practice. Collectively, this panel makes the case that formation in theology and religious studies provides a substantive and generative foundation for principled civic leadership. For more information, including panelists and directions, visit tinyurl.com/RACStateCapitolEvent. For questions, contact aarreligionandcities@gmail.com.

Blaine Charette, Northwest University, Presiding Panelists:  Carmen Joy Imes, Talbot School of Theology (20 min) Rebecca Basdeo Hill, Pentecostal Theological Seminary (20 min) Jon Bentall, Northwest University (20 min) Response: Rebecca Idestrom, Tyndale Seminary (30 min) Panel Discussion (30 min) Open Discussion (30 min)

Sabbath Worship
9:30 -10:15 am Sabbath School Panel Discussion: “The Church Reimagined”
10:15 – 11:00 am Interview “Looking Ahead” with Tihomir Lazić
11:00 – 11:30 am Worship 
11:30 am – 12:30 pm Sermon, Kendra Haloviak Valentine, La Sierra University

Lee Edelman writes that “For politics, however radical the means by which specific constituencies attempt to produce a more desirable social order, remains, at its core, conservative, insofar as it works to affirm a structure, to authenticate social order, which it then intends to transmit to the future in the form of its inner Child." This session takes Edelman’s point seriously for religious studies, where the graduate student is quite literally the figure in whom the discipline invests its futurity. Each panelist - themselves PhD candidates trained on the field's critical apparatus - offers a brief provocation from within Edelman's frame, examining how the logic of disciplinary reproduction shapes what the field can imagine for itself: what counts as legitimate scholarship, what gets preserved and at what cost, and why alternatives that might require genuine transformation remain foreclosed in favor of transmitting the field as it already is. Their provocations then become the basis for a larger open conversation that asks not what religious studies owes its future but what its commitment to having one - in a specific, recognizable form - forecloses.

Boniuk Institute Meeting to disscuss current context and future directions in research on Faith and AI.

Theologia seeks to promote and celebrate women working in the field of Christian theology by cultivating spaces for fellowship, mentoring, and academic engagement. If you are a woman and consider yourself a Christian and theologian, please join us as we gather for light brunch and a short program. 
Cost to attend is $25; financial help is available. Gathering is being held at First Baptist Church of Denver. Advance registration is required. https://www.westernsem.edu/theologia/ 
We can only guarantee spots for the first 65 who register. Co-sponsored by Baker Academic, Baylor University Press, Zondervan Academic, Western Theological Seminary, Wheaton College, and Wycliffe College. 
Contact Kristen Deede Johnson kd.johnson@utoronto.ca with questions.

This event showcases new research in the field by recent PhDs as well as ABDs who are completing their dissertation work.