Childhood Studies and Religion Unit

The Childhood Studies and Religion Unit welcomes proposals for individual papers and sessions that engage the intersection of religion and childhood or children, broadly construed. We are especially interested in proposals from non-Euro-American and non-Christian perspectives, and we welcome a range of methodologies from across the humanities and the social sciences.

For the 2024 AAR Annual Meeting, we hope to organize sessions around one or more of the following topics:

Re-imagining Eschatology: Pediatric Hope, Chronic Illness, and Children's Experiences

A book panel that engages Duane Bidwell's new text After the Worst Day Ever: What Sick Kids Know About Sustaining Hope in Chronic Illness offers an opportunity to re-imagine hope, eschatology, chronic illness, and healthcare from the perspective of children, asking, "What do sick children know about hope that the rest of us have forgotten?" The book uses grounded theory to identify five practices that children with end-stage renal disease use to nurture hope: realizing community, claiming power, attending to Spirit, choosing trust, and maintaining identity. Scholars and practitioners who would like to participate in the panel conversation should send a brief description of their interest to Duane Bidwell at duane.bidwell@gmail.com

Children, Childhood, and Disability

How are disabled children represented across different times, places, and traditions? How do they appear (or disappear) in religious spaces? Is it possible to separate the study of children and disability from the long history of infantilizing people with disabilities?

Theologies of Child Well-Being

What would it mean to devote sustained attention to children in religious and theological studies? What could sustained theological and religious reflection secure for children that might promote their thriving in a world not ergonomic, a world even sometimes hostile, toward them?

If you are interested in proposing a session that is not listed above, we welcome panel and roundtable proposals. In your submission, please indicate the type of session you are proposing (panel or roundtable). Innovative and interactive sessions are especially welcome, and our co-chairs are happy to discuss what category might best fit any given proposal. In keeping with our commitment to presenting diverse perspectives and voices in each of our sessions, we also urge you to indicate what types of diversity your proposal or participants might represent.