Our members often face challenging questions about whether, when, and how to disclose personal information—in graduate school, on the job market, or to colleagues. In this session, panelists address the complexities of negotiating disclosure related to disability, sexual/gender identity, family status and pregnancy, racial/ethnic identity, immigration status and religious commitment. We pay particular attention to intersectionality as a tool for examining interlocking systems of oppression and resisting the tendency to put diverse identities under erasure. Discussions will cover individual approaches in various institutional contexts, the strategic use of disclosure, the boundaries between public and private life, and the legal considerations surrounding these decisions.
Online June Annual Meeting 2026 Program Book
All time are listed in Eastern Time Zone.
This session will bring together several participants from APRIL’s summer colloquium. It will include perspectives from curators and religion scholars who have been writing about and organizing museum exhibitions, exploring the ways religion is represented, reified, and recreated in museums. This includes questions about representation and repatriation, conservation and conversion, display and delight.
A spate of news reports in the last few years has described an apparent trend of young men in the United States joining Orthodox Christian churches. Some reports describe this phenomenon as a turn to a perceived “masculine” form of Christianity; some describe it as a search for discipline or stability; some as a search for a sense of tradition and history. At least some men who convert appear to connect their religious ideas to far-right political views, including pro-Russia perspectives as well as rigid gender norms. This roundtable discussion will bring together scholars to discuss what is happening with this apparent trend of conversions and how it intersects with religion, politics, and gender in the United States. Panelists have expertise in Orthodox Christian theology, ethics, and worship; internet culture and anti-modernism; gender and Orthodox Christianity; political identity and religious conversion; religious history; and ecumenism.
This roundtable examines Mandinka intellectual traditions as systems for transmitting religious knowledge across generations. The discussion focuses on the relationship between jeliya, the Mandinka tradition of oral mastery, and the Ajami manuscript tradition. Mandinka forms of knowledge transmission, including genealogical narration, proverb, poetic performance, and disciplined memory, organize authority within Islamic scholarship in West Africa. Ajami writing emerges within this environment as a medium for Mandinka language, ethical teaching, devotional expression, and theological reflection. Knowledge circulates through lineages that link teachers, performers, and ancestors. In contexts shaped by migration, educational change, and new media, Mandinka traditions continue to carry inherited knowledge while adapting to new conditions. The session treats Mandinka scholarship as a case for studying indigenous epistemologies of religious authority and the role of language, memory, and lineage in sustaining intellectual traditions.
This roundtable examines Mandinka intellectual traditions as systems for transmitting religious knowledge across generations. The discussion focuses on the relationship between jeliya, the Mandinka tradition of oral mastery, and the Ajami manuscript tradition. Mandinka forms of knowledge transmission, including genealogical narration, proverb, poetic performance, and disciplined memory, organize authority within Islamic scholarship in West Africa. Ajami writing emerges within this environment as a medium for Mandinka language, ethical teaching, devotional expression, and theological reflection. Knowledge circulates through lineages that link teachers, performers, and ancestors. In contexts shaped by migration, educational change, and new media, Mandinka traditions continue to carry inherited knowledge while adapting to new conditions. The session treats Mandinka scholarship as a case for studying indigenous epistemologies of religious authority and the role of language, memory, and lineage in sustaining intellectual traditions.
By centering beliefs that are often problematically labelled as “New Age,” “Cults,” “Spirituality,” or other derogatory terms, the panel considers the fascinating potential for queering the very concept of “religion.” The papers in the panel explore four different sets of religious communities and practices, each within their own unique context but all on the margins of Religious Studies, to reveal how the concept of religion can be queered and some potential future possibilities this queering holds. The panel argues for a model of queerness that extends beyond sexuality and gender to include a variety of cultural, historical, and religious iterations. This queering seeks to unite Religious Studies with some communities, spiritual traditions, and spaces too often forgotten by the discipline. The panel poses the question of what the future may look like when we queer dominant and restrictive conceptions of religion in the present using religious beliefs from the margins?
Papers
Drawing on Homi K. Bhabha’s postcolonial theory of hybridity, the paper proposes the concept of a “virtual-sacred hybridity” to argue that Indian tarot channels on YouTube exemplify a hybridity at multiple levels: a) sacred hybridity where Tarot readers incorporate and synthesize elements from different religions and spiritual traditions, b) linguistic hybridity as seen in Tarot channels that combine different languages and cultural idioms, and c) spatial hybridity where online Tarot functions within a liminal, virtual space between the analog and the transcendental space. Based on case study and content analysis, the paper further contends that the hybridity of online Tarot remains embedded in queerness just as queerness embraces hybridity by challenging heteronormative binaries. The online blending of Tarot and Tantra offers insights into how digital platforms allow space for non-majoritarian, spiritual practices even though content creators remain governed by the market logic of algorithm, revenue production, and consumption
There is a substantial gap when looking for religious research about the micro-blogging social media site Tumblr and its unique communities. This is especially true for supposedly “new age” spiritual practices and beliefs like those associated with witches, mystics, crystal girlies, druids, Wicca, and other related practices. Yet Tumblr’s affordances have empowered Neopaganism to spread on the site and provided a new spiritual home for many users who have been harmed by or feel negatively about mainstream religions. Thus, by studying the nuances of how Neopaganism functions on Tumblr, and how Tumblr’s own affordances empower it to flourish, the papers offers insights into how scholars of religion can gain new information that queers established conceptions of what is or is not “religion” while presenting effective ways for mainstream religions like Christianity to readdress themselves in the future by embracing the nonhierarchical values that vulnerable populations find and appreciate in Neopaganism.
The paper explores ideas of future reclamation of the witch as a feminine symbol of power and uses Florence Welch as a case study of witchcraft as power, activism, and search for a better more just future. Through the exploration of lyrics and imagery in music videos, discussion of Welch’s activism, and embracing of the unconventional, this presentation will argue for Florence Welch as an example of witchcraft unlike the stories of the past. By critically reading Mariam Kaba, Kelly Hayes, other activists on the ground, the paper compares witchcraft as a modern-day movement of collective power. It further addresses the themes of wildness and reclamation of ancient traditions in the movement to embrace a historical witch as inherently powerful and feminine. The paper approaches “the witch” as a queer figure that rejects the heteronormative values of patriarchy and childbearing to instill a sense of independence in a postmodern world.
The religious use of hallucinogenic mushrooms has been around for centuries, yet upon the “discovery” of the Americas these Indigenous practices were erased from history; but some survived underground where they eventually become incorporated into US mushroom/psychedelic churches. Through the use of textual and literary analysis, the paper examines the history of mushrooms in Mexico by comparing scholars that study sacraments in religious spaces. It further dives into the emergence of two mushroom churches in the US: The Divine Assembly and Psanctuary. The paper then discusses the role of mushrooms in each church and ends with the legal implications of the use of mushrooms in these churches. The paper argues that despite these churches’ attempt to subvert Eurochristianity, their use of mushrooms as sacraments fits in with neoshamanism which is the appropriation of Indigenous rituals and ought to be avoided when queering religion in the future.
By centering beliefs that are often problematically labelled as “New Age,” “Cults,” “Spirituality,” or other derogatory terms, the panel considers the fascinating potential for queering the very concept of “religion.” The papers in the panel explore four different sets of religious communities and practices, each within their own unique context but all on the margins of Religious Studies, to reveal how the concept of religion can be queered and some potential future possibilities this queering holds. The panel argues for a model of queerness that extends beyond sexuality and gender to include a variety of cultural, historical, and religious iterations. This queering seeks to unite Religious Studies with some communities, spiritual traditions, and spaces too often forgotten by the discipline. The panel poses the question of what the future may look like when we queer dominant and restrictive conceptions of religion in the present using religious beliefs from the margins?
Papers
Drawing on Homi K. Bhabha’s postcolonial theory of hybridity, the paper proposes the concept of a “virtual-sacred hybridity” to argue that Indian tarot channels on YouTube exemplify a hybridity at multiple levels: a) sacred hybridity where Tarot readers incorporate and synthesize elements from different religions and spiritual traditions, b) linguistic hybridity as seen in Tarot channels that combine different languages and cultural idioms, and c) spatial hybridity where online Tarot functions within a liminal, virtual space between the analog and the transcendental space. Based on case study and content analysis, the paper further contends that the hybridity of online Tarot remains embedded in queerness just as queerness embraces hybridity by challenging heteronormative binaries. The online blending of Tarot and Tantra offers insights into how digital platforms allow space for non-majoritarian, spiritual practices even though content creators remain governed by the market logic of algorithm, revenue production, and consumption
There is a substantial gap when looking for religious research about the micro-blogging social media site Tumblr and its unique communities. This is especially true for supposedly “new age” spiritual practices and beliefs like those associated with witches, mystics, crystal girlies, druids, Wicca, and other related practices. Yet Tumblr’s affordances have empowered Neopaganism to spread on the site and provided a new spiritual home for many users who have been harmed by or feel negatively about mainstream religions. Thus, by studying the nuances of how Neopaganism functions on Tumblr, and how Tumblr’s own affordances empower it to flourish, the papers offers insights into how scholars of religion can gain new information that queers established conceptions of what is or is not “religion” while presenting effective ways for mainstream religions like Christianity to readdress themselves in the future by embracing the nonhierarchical values that vulnerable populations find and appreciate in Neopaganism.
The paper explores ideas of future reclamation of the witch as a feminine symbol of power and uses Florence Welch as a case study of witchcraft as power, activism, and search for a better more just future. Through the exploration of lyrics and imagery in music videos, discussion of Welch’s activism, and embracing of the unconventional, this presentation will argue for Florence Welch as an example of witchcraft unlike the stories of the past. By critically reading Mariam Kaba, Kelly Hayes, other activists on the ground, the paper compares witchcraft as a modern-day movement of collective power. It further addresses the themes of wildness and reclamation of ancient traditions in the movement to embrace a historical witch as inherently powerful and feminine. The paper approaches “the witch” as a queer figure that rejects the heteronormative values of patriarchy and childbearing to instill a sense of independence in a postmodern world.
The religious use of hallucinogenic mushrooms has been around for centuries, yet upon the “discovery” of the Americas these Indigenous practices were erased from history; but some survived underground where they eventually become incorporated into US mushroom/psychedelic churches. Through the use of textual and literary analysis, the paper examines the history of mushrooms in Mexico by comparing scholars that study sacraments in religious spaces. It further dives into the emergence of two mushroom churches in the US: The Divine Assembly and Psanctuary. The paper then discusses the role of mushrooms in each church and ends with the legal implications of the use of mushrooms in these churches. The paper argues that despite these churches’ attempt to subvert Eurochristianity, their use of mushrooms as sacraments fits in with neoshamanism which is the appropriation of Indigenous rituals and ought to be avoided when queering religion in the future.
This panel explores the frameworks—epistemological, linguistic, symbolic, anthropological, and moral—by which healing is variously understood and attempted. The first paper suggests that religion/spirituality is a symbolic and cultural process that transforms the primarily private suffering of illness into a public reality. This “transfiguration” enables accompaniment, shared meaning-making, and ultimately, healing. The second paper proposes the Christian theological concept of “kenosis” as moral counter to medicine’s focus on mastery and control. Kenosis reframes healing as relational presence rather than technical intervention. The next paper offers the heart-centered epistemologies of Islamic spiritual psychology and Traditional Chinese medicine as holistic counters to the cerebrocentrism of modern medicine. Doing so, they argue, can present a more comprehensive “science of the soul.” The final paper promotes the incorporation of components of Clinical Pastoral Education into the conventional training of healthcare professionals. Doing so can reform existing medical curricula and encourage more humanistic healing frameworks.
Papers
This paper proposes that healing — whether practiced by shamans, allopathic physicians, curanderos, priests, or therapists—achieves its greatest efficacy when illness is transformed, through metaphor and language into a manageable object placed in relation to an existing world of meaning, shared with others, and part of the culture, such as spirituality and religion. That is, a private to public transfiguration, as Arendt in The Human Condition (1958) and the author (hidden, 2026) have elaborated. Drawing from anthropologist Michael Jackson’s The Palm at the End of the Mind (2009) and Between One and One Another (2012), my paper argues that language functions not merely as communication but as world-constitution: private fears and questions are turned into direct objects of language, i.e. into culturally shared concepts that allow the person and society to confront disease and exert a measure of control over illness and suffering.
Modern medicine has often conceived of itself as a project of mastery over bodies, disease, and mortality. While medical humanities has challenged this expansion of technical and institutional authority, the moral and relational dimensions of healing remain difficult to articulate within prevailing clinical frameworks. This paper proposes the Christian theological concept of kenosis, i.e., altruistic self-abnegation, as an ethical framework for redescribing healthcare. Drawing on theological and medical humanities sources, it explores how a 'kenotic' medicine might resist reductive explanations of suffering, emphasize accompaniment over cure-based interventions, and challenge clinicians’ moral authority within the therapeutic relationship. Deployed appropriately, medical kenosis can bolster medical humanities by providing a theological resource for interrogating contemporary crises in healthcare. At the same time, it can recover the relational conditions necessary for healing, reimagining care as being-with and being-for the patient.
This research investigates the "sovereign" role of the heart within Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Islamic spiritual psychology, challenging the prevailing modern cerebrocentric paradigm of mental health. While TCM regards the heart as the seat of Shen (spirit), Islamic tradition identifies the Qalb as the moral and spiritual compass. Despite theological differences, both traditions emphasize the primacy of the heart over the brain in regulating emotions. By integrating these classical epistemologies with contemporary neurocardiology, this study highlights practical techniques such as the TCM five-element strategy and Islamic muhasabah that provide a holistic framework for emotional regulation. Incorporating these heart-centered perspectives into contemporary psychotherapy offers significant clinical benefits, advancing beyond the limitations of the conventional biopsychosocial model toward a more comprehensive "science of the soul".
In the vulnerable space of illness, the fickle and often ill-defined patient-physician relationship is an integral pillar of the healthcare experience. Recognizing that the spiritual care dimension of medical care and education has long been overlooked, Do Not Forget the Spirit explores how components of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), an interfaith professional education that trains hospital chaplains and ministers to care for people in crisis, are valuable and viable pedagogies for the education of physicians and other medical professionals. Drawing on autoethnographic experience as a chaplain intern, interviews with healthcare professionals, and emerging literature, this paper offers programmatic suggestions for integrating chaplain shadowing and CPE-style educational opportunities into existing medical curricula. Not only do these interventions have the potential to foster more cohesive interprofessional patient care, but they also encourage medical students to turn inward and contemplate the humanistic aspects of healing.
In the wake of ICE's Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis/St. Paul, on CNN, Lutheran Pastor Ingrid Rasmussen named the experience "like the aftermath of a tornado. This was not a natural disaster; it was an 'unnatural' one, a human-made one." This roundtable session brings together Minnesota Lutheran clergy and multifaith leaders and activists alongside scholars of immigration, ethics, and White Christian Nationalism to reflect on the intersections of this unnatural disaster. We will consider ongoing religious responses to ICE's occupation of Minneapolis and St. Paul, including but not limited to Lutheran theological perspectives. We will ask how religious organizations, immigrants, and communities responded to the surge, detentions, and the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. How did the context of Minnesota shape the response? What theologies impacted communities and what new perspectives on theological ethics and organizing emerged? What kinds of scholarly activisms are needed now? What comes next?