In-person November Annual Meeting 2026 Program Book

Disco Elysium is a 2019 video game where the player plays as Harry DuBois, an amnesiac policeman and complete disaster of a human being tasked with solving a murder. Unlike more traditional “post-apocalyptic” narratives, this game’s setting exists not after a catastrophe, but at the intersection of several. It is a story where the world at once has ended (failed social and political revolutions of the past), is ending (Harry’s own obliteration of and struggle to rebuild the self), and will end (the Pale, connective tissue that both holds the world together and will someday swallow it). All the game’s characters are caught in a moment between the failures of the past and the inevitability of destruction in the future, unable to change either. Yet this is not cause for despair, but an invitation to discover the wondrous in the everyday and rebuild freed from normative demands.

This paper examines how recent video games reinterpret American evangelical apocalyptic discourse across different cultural registers. Focusing on the 2011 independent game The Binding of Isaac and the major studio release Far Cry 5, it argues that these games mobilize biblical apocalyptic imagery to critique two distinct cultural afterlives of dispensationalist eschatology: the intimate psychological world of the evangelical family unit, and the broader political landscape shaped by militant Christian nationalist doomsday prophesizing. In The Binding of Isaac, the apocalyptic imagery of fire-and-brimstone evangelical programming becomes the symbolic language through which a child interprets the collapse of his family unit, and expresses feelings of responsibility for his parents' separation. Far Cry 5 projects the same discourse outward into narratives of militia culture, political violence, and national catastrophe. Together, these games demonstrate how video games have become an indispensable medium for reinterpreting American evangelical biblical discourses of apocalypticism for wider publics.

At the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 2017, President Xi Jinping emphasized that national prosperity depends on “building stronger cultural confidence,” grounded in Chinese history and tradition (Xinhua, 2017). One prominent example is guochao, or the “Chinese cultural craze,” through which Chinese scholars and state-owned media celebrate the incorporation of traditional and religious narratives into consumer culture, showcasing cultural confidence locally and globally. This paper examines two guochao cases highlighted by state-owned media: Li-Ning’s 2018 “Wu Dao (A principle of Daoism)” sportswear line and the 2024 video game Black Myth: Wukong, an imagined sequel to Journey to the West. I argue that the state constructs guochao as a cultural branding strategy that repackages Chinese religious narratives into globally consumable cultural products, envisioning a future in which China reclaims the center of global cultural consumption by converting Chinese identity itself into a marketable commodity.

The Earth Magistrate of White Crane (Bạch Hạc Thổ Lệnh) is a deity of northern Vietnam whose cult began in the 650s CE, when the region was a Tang protectorate. Two accounts of its origin survive: one in a Daoist bronze bell inscription cast in 1321, and another in the 14th‑century narrative collection Compendium on Mystic Numina of the Việt Realm (Việt điện u linh tập). I compare these versions and show that the bell inscription is earlier, and that both preserve two contrasting narrative motifs. The evidence further indicates that Xu Zongdao, a Song Daoist refugee and author of the inscription, sought to embed court Daoism within 14th‑century Trần elite culture by anchoring its ritual efficacy in the sacred landscape of Đại Việt. His project aimed partly at securing state protection and military advantage during the Mongol invasions, and partly at providing post‑mortem salvation for Trần imperial clan members.

Hòa Hảo Buddism is a devotional movement based in the Mekong Delta, founded in 1939. The relationship between this group and the state has been mostly antagonistic, but Hòa Hảo leaders have recently made changes to improve this situation. One example is the implementation of the ritual Lễ Cầu Quốc Thái Dân An (Prayer Ceremony for National Peace and Prosperity) into Hòa Hảo practice. This ceremony is also an official ritual of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, which has performed it on the United Nations Day of Vesak since the early 2000s, together with senior politicians. After a long time of marginalization, Hòa Hảo is now seeking opportunities for revival. Based on participant observation and interviews with Hòa Hảo leaders, this paper examines the impact of these changes. It argues that the Prayer Ceremony has helped Hòa Hảo recruit new members, acquire political legitimacy, and gain recognition from other religious organizations.

Fishing communities in central and southern Vietnam venerate whales and dolphins as incarnations of Ông Nam Hải (Lord of the South Sea), also known as Cá Ông (Lord Fish). They enshrine the bones of stranded cetaceans at temples, give them ritual offerings, and hold annual festivals (lễ hội Cầu ngư) in their honour. In the early nineteenth century, the incorporation of this protective sea deity into the state pantheon was part of a strategy for justifying Nguyễn rule over southern Vietnam. During the colonial and revolutionary periods, whale temples and festivals lost state patronage, but they survived in many coastal villages and towns. This paper shows that in recent years, these practices have regained state patronage and acquired new ideological and economic significance under the "intangible cultural heritage" label. It will present ethnographic material from two port cities, Đà Nẵng and Phan Thiết, where this development is clearly visible.

In contemporary Vietnam, grassroots charity movements are rising to address humanitarian needs. Rapid development compounds these needs, as social services become privatized and urban migration strains city infrastructure. Volunteer groups respond by fundraising to subsidize medical treatments, distribute food, and construct bridges for their local communities. Many charities attract volunteers and promote their projects by appealing to Vietnam's most common religion, Buddhism, often incorporating Buddhist rituals into charity events. However, the styles of Buddhism invoked by these movements are not monolithic. Volunteers join charities for distinct and contradictory reasons. While some charities advocate for Buddhist volunteerism as fulfilling duties of socialist citizenship, other charities promote Buddhist volunteerism as a solution to the state's failed political promises of abundance and equality for all citizens. I analyze these two disparate political stances as converging to create a wave of ritualized "political spirituality" (Foucault 1978) that drives social change at a grassroots level.

The Earth Magistrate of White Crane (Bạch Hạc Thổ Lệnh) is a deity of northern Vietnam whose cult began in the 650s CE, when the region was a Tang protectorate. Two accounts of its origin survive: one in a Daoist bronze bell inscription cast in 1321, and another in the 14th‑century narrative collection Compendium on Mystic Numina of the Việt Realm (Việt điện u linh tập). I compare these versions and show that the bell inscription is earlier, and that both preserve two contrasting narrative motifs. The evidence further indicates that Xu Zongdao, a Song Daoist refugee and author of the inscription, sought to embed court Daoism within 14th‑century Trần elite culture by anchoring its ritual efficacy in the sacred landscape of Đại Việt. His project aimed partly at securing state protection and military advantage during the Mongol invasions, and partly at providing post‑mortem salvation for Trần imperial clan members.

Hòa Hảo Buddism is a devotional movement based in the Mekong Delta, founded in 1939. The relationship between this group and the state has been mostly antagonistic, but Hòa Hảo leaders have recently made changes to improve this situation. One example is the implementation of the ritual Lễ Cầu Quốc Thái Dân An (Prayer Ceremony for National Peace and Prosperity) into Hòa Hảo practice. This ceremony is also an official ritual of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, which has performed it on the United Nations Day of Vesak since the early 2000s, together with senior politicians. After a long time of marginalization, Hòa Hảo is now seeking opportunities for revival. Based on participant observation and interviews with Hòa Hảo leaders, this paper examines the impact of these changes. It argues that the Prayer Ceremony has helped Hòa Hảo recruit new members, acquire political legitimacy, and gain recognition from other religious organizations.

Fishing communities in central and southern Vietnam venerate whales and dolphins as incarnations of Ông Nam Hải (Lord of the South Sea), also known as Cá Ông (Lord Fish). They enshrine the bones of stranded cetaceans at temples, give them ritual offerings, and hold annual festivals (lễ hội Cầu ngư) in their honour. In the early nineteenth century, the incorporation of this protective sea deity into the state pantheon was part of a strategy for justifying Nguyễn rule over southern Vietnam. During the colonial and revolutionary periods, whale temples and festivals lost state patronage, but they survived in many coastal villages and towns. This paper shows that in recent years, these practices have regained state patronage and acquired new ideological and economic significance under the "intangible cultural heritage" label. It will present ethnographic material from two port cities, Đà Nẵng and Phan Thiết, where this development is clearly visible.

In contemporary Vietnam, grassroots charity movements are rising to address humanitarian needs. Rapid development compounds these needs, as social services become privatized and urban migration strains city infrastructure. Volunteer groups respond by fundraising to subsidize medical treatments, distribute food, and construct bridges for their local communities. Many charities attract volunteers and promote their projects by appealing to Vietnam's most common religion, Buddhism, often incorporating Buddhist rituals into charity events. However, the styles of Buddhism invoked by these movements are not monolithic. Volunteers join charities for distinct and contradictory reasons. While some charities advocate for Buddhist volunteerism as fulfilling duties of socialist citizenship, other charities promote Buddhist volunteerism as a solution to the state's failed political promises of abundance and equality for all citizens. I analyze these two disparate political stances as converging to create a wave of ritualized "political spirituality" (Foucault 1978) that drives social change at a grassroots level.

In my paper, I investigate the evolution of the concept of dharma, a rich and multifaceted Sanskrit principle embodying moral duty and social responsibility within Indian philosophico-religious traditions. Through an analysis of the perspectives of influential figures such as Gandhi and Ambedkar, I illustrate that dharma extends beyond mere religious definitions to encompass universal ethics and legal responsibilities.

The historical applications of dharma, prominently inscribed in the ancient royal edicts of Aśoka and notably revisited in modern Indian political theories, prioritize societal harmony above individual interests. My comprehensive examination of the definitions and selected interpretations of dharma in classical Indian philosophical texts, alongside relevant commentaries (Hindu: Bhagavad Gītā, Vaiśeṣikasūtra, Nyāyasūtra, and Jain: Saman Suttam, Tattvārtha Sūtra, among others), will yield a novel classification that enhances our understanding of these intricate obligations. I aim to illuminate the enduring impact of these ancient principles on contemporary identity and governance in India.

Traditional Indian commentators and modern scholars alike frequently construe Sāṃkhya atheism in terms that resonate with the modern scientific rejection of intelligent design. This paper corrects certain misreadings of prakṛti in early Sāṃkhya as mere materiality—that is, a materiality that is reducible to parts, moves according to fixed causal patterns, and remains motionless unless acted upon by an outside force. It shows that early Sāṃkhyans theorized prakṛti (nature) as a living, purposive being whose unfolding manifestations are not only well-coordinated but trustworthy when seen in the context of nature’s own creative agency. Thus viewed in the context of a naturalistic spirituality without trust in God, early Sāṃkhya atheism sought to ground our faith in life itself instead of outsourcing it to an external agent.

This paper explores the Daodejing’s cosmogony, where the Dao is metaphorically identified as the “Great Mother” and the “Enigmatic Female” whose “portal” serves as the root of heaven and earth. I argue that Daoist creationrepresents a creatio ex profundis—creation from the primordial, chaotic “womb” of nothingness (wu)—rather than the traditional Judeo-Christian creatio ex nihilo. Unlike Western models that posit a transcendent masculine deity imposing order from a void, the Daoist “womb cosmology” is autopoietic (ziran). It describes a world that self-unfolds naturally without external “assistant managers” or teleological blueprints. By prioritizing this primordial womb as the generative source of being (you), this model dismantles the “man-standard” of a sovereign creator. Drawing on cross-cultural dialogues with contemporary theopoetics, I demonstrate how this feminine paradigm offers a subversive alternative to the logic of domination inherent in masculine models of creation.

This paper undertakes a hermeneutic and comparative-philosophical analysis of Woongnyeo (熊女), the Bear Woman of Korean primordial myth, alongside the Kitsune (狐/キツネ/狐女, shape-shifting fox woman) and the Korean Gumiho (九尾狐, 구미호, nine-tailed fox woman). These mythic female-animal figures inhabit liminal spaces between human and non-human life, historically coded as morally ambivalent or threatening, revealing enduring cultural anxieties about women, agency, and liminality. Tracing their narratives from the past—Woongnyeo’s ascetic transformation and nurturing role, the Kitsune’s and Gumiho’s transgressive portrayals—to contemporary reinterpretations, this study examines their potential to model interspecies relationality, ethical care, and ecological imagination. Reconfigured through a transhumanistic ecofeminist lens, these myths offer frameworks for a future in which humans, animals, and ecosystems co-flourish. Myth functions both as lens and method, connecting past, present, and future, cultivating relational imagination, critical ethical reflection, and hope as sustained, pragmatic, and transformative engagement with planetary and social futures.

In the global study of "Worship Wars," congregational conflicts typically center on musical genre and theology. This paper argues that in Hong Kong, this conflict is fought on a fiercely linguistic-aesthetic battlefield, where the demand for in-tone singing functions as an "aesthetic bullet." Reflecting the musicological principle of Hip-wan (協韻), Cantonese,a language with six contrastive lexical tones,requires a strict relational manifestation of tone to maintain the speech-melody complex. Misalignment distorts sacred meaning, allowing factions to weaponize acoustic integrity: progressives critique "out-of-tone" hymns as archaic, and disconnected from local belonging, while traditionalists attack "in-tone" CCM aesthetic as secularized . This study analyzes how acoustic integrity, “in-tone” aesthetics operate within Mandarin worship hegemonies, local music economies, and global diasporic migrations. Ultimately, in-tone practice transcends musical preference; these "bullets" exert tangible political influence by fortifying acoustic resistance against cultural assimilation, articulating a resilient, post-secular Hong Kong Christian aesthetic and identity.

This paper examines how Buddhist electronic music in Taiwan has become a site for reworking Buddhist modernism. Focusing on the Awakening Music Festival, a Buddhist electronic music festival in Taiwan, I argue that the event does more than reframe “tradition” for the present. Instead, it stages new relations between chanting, electronic sound, and collective listening. From ethnographic research, I analyze how the festival creates a shared sonic space in which religious and secular participants engage the performances through different modes of attention and embodiment. Drawing on Charles Hirschkind’s approach to moral listening and Tara Rodgers’ account of synthesis, I suggest that these contemporary music practices can be part of how devotional experience is produced. By placing Buddhist sonorities within festival infrastructure, club aesthetics, and translocal networks, the paper argues that Buddhist contemporary music in Taiwan offers a useful lens for understanding Buddhist modernism as an emergent and experimental formation.

In this paper, I argue that Contemporary Praise and Worship Music (CPWM) sounds in Brazil function as a form of sonic occupation. Leaning on ethnographic data collected in three megachurches in São Paulo, Brazil, I demonstrate how CPWM sounds participate in constructing a colonial ear in six ways: (1) the disciplining of vocal expressiveness, (2) the (dis)embodied formation of timbre, (3) sacrotechnotimbre as an aspiration to modernity, (4) masculinizing worship sounds, (5) the deterritorialization of the sonic realm, and (6) the commodification of tones in worship. Interpreting these practices through decolonial frameworks of musicoloniality, cosmophobia, and hungry listening, I argue that CPWM soundscapes produce an aesthetic of hyperculture—the detachment of culture from place, history, and land, as described (Han 2021)— that deterritorializes listening environments and detaches listeners from localized cosmologies and land.

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This paper will argue that previous studies of Martin Luther on masculinity and fatherhood have overlooked how these themes are applied over the course of his exegesis of the stories of the biblical patriarchs in the book of Genesis. To that end, this paper will examine how Luther’s depiction of the biblical patriarchs Joseph in visible emotional distress provides an alternative narrative of sixteenth century Protestant masculinity as dependent on demonstrable signs of ‘weakness’ in the form of tears and lament. In the modern era, this forgotten minor tradition of Luther’s highly emotionally intelligent biblical patriarchs presents an important challenge to contemporary depictions of masculinity as necessitating militarism and aggression. Ultimately, the recovery of these forgotten themes in Luther’s writings can provide a counter-memory that serves as the basis for a different vision of male embodiment in the twenty-first century. 

In the wake of postmodernity’s embrace of “Death of God” and democracy giving way to fascism, there is need for mature Protestant Christians responding to socio-political crises from their freedom found in faith and with responsible action. Sadly, the way Lutheran and Luther’s theology are framed as antagonistic toward faithful socio-political action and resistance in the world, cuts off the vibrant future of “adult” social action that is faith working itself out in loving deeds. This paper creates a theological link between theologian and activist Dorothee Sölle and Martin Luther demonstrating Sölle’s ability to take what Luther started and push it toward relevancy, specifically toward validating a theology of resistance as faith working itself out in loving deeds. This paper demonstrates Sölle’s work as the natural progression of Luther’s conception of freedom and responsibility by the “law of love” for the benefit of the neighbor to the glory of God.

To explore lost and possible futures of Lutheran theology demands an expansive view of the history of Luther’s reception. The expansive view recognizes the agency of protagonists of the tradition, but also the agency of detractors, reproducing elements of Lutheran thought or practice while trying to diminish, overwhelm, or destroy their power. The expansive view requires a dialogical method, one focused on the total play of ideas in conflict, and not merely on core concepts traveling across time. I explore a dialogical approach in three unconventional examples: 1) an immigrant silver miner tried for Lutheran heresy by the Bishop of Guadalajara in sixteenth-century Mexico, 2) the clandestine philosopher Jean Baptiste de Boyer d’Argens (d. 1737), and 3) the Protestant clergyman-critic of American imperialism, Samuel Guy Inman (d. 1965).

This paper proposes a reconstruction of Lutheran eschatology to address the "terminal acceleration" of late modernity, where technological and economic change outpaces human social integration. Moving beyond 20th-century eschatological proposals that focused on the inbreaking of the future, I advocate for a shift from purely chronological focus to the recovery of "shared space". By synthesizing Hannah Arendt’s concepts of promise and forgiveness with Luther’s communicatio idiomatum, I outline a tri-partite proposal for relating Lutheran eschatology to the healing and transformation of interpersonal, communal, and public spheres.

The proposal reimagines the church not as a "thin" institution or a weaponized political instrument, but as a "thick" architectural space of reconciliation and "new creation". Ultimately, Lutheran eschatology is presented as an apocalyptic power that resists fragmentation by re-embedding the promises of God within tangible, neighborly relationships and corporate healing.