Liberation Theologies Unit

“Labor is Not Enough”

Considering the 2023 AAR meeting theme, La Labor de Nuestras Manos, the Liberation Theologies program unit invites proposals that consider the provocation “Labor is Not Enough.” Whether we are talking about the violence of the ‘adjunctification’ of the academy (especially in the humanities and religious studies); “right to work” legislation and its affront to full time or unionized labor; the promotion of anti-work or ‘good living’ ideologies that inevitably disenfranchise certain work sectors; or the varieties of unpaid labor in our institutions and society at large - we are confronted with the reality that labor is not enough - whether from the political Right or even the Left. Staggering economic inflation in prices for the essentials of life (healthcare, food, housing, education) means that most workers experience economic disenfranchisement and need at an unparalleled level globally. In what ways does our work reflect this reality? In what ways does the religious academy participate in the structures that disenfranchise labor? Where is liberation to be found when labor - as it is hegemonically or counter-hegemonically construed - is not enough to sustain communities and life with dignity? Might there be categories and things that fail to be acknowledged as labor?

For this session, we welcome papers that discuss:

• Labor organizing in the academy and elsewhere
• Analysis and critiques of “the good life” or “good living” trends
• Racial capitalism and racial communism
• Terror capitalism 
• The labor of the earth and non-human creation
• Labor legislation (“right to work”, etc.)
• Invisible or unpaid labor 
• Critical analysis  of the “dignity of labor” theme in religious ethics and other areas
• Liberation Theology as a ‘commodity’
• Movement work as labor - especially around gender/sexuality
• Aesthetics, art and class critique. Avant Garde approaches to ‘labor’ or anti-labor
• Reactionary hijacking of labor and labor critiques
• Limits of economic reductionism around labor on the Left
• Religious and secular notions of labor and anti-labor thought
• Radical hospitality and labor

“Gender, Sexuality, and Protest: The Iranian Protests and Beyond”

Co-sponsors: Liberation Theologies unit; Religion, Social Conflict, and Peace unit; Women and Religion unit, Political Theology unit

The 2022 protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini while in custody of the country’s ‘guidance control’ (or, ‘morality police’) represent a new experience in the voice of youth, especially women, in articulating religious and secular theories of resistance. Its practical and intellectual impact continues to be felt in Iran and globally, especially through the amplification of the Kurdish protest slogan “Women, Life, Freedom!”. This session is dedicated to understanding the dynamics of gender and sexuality in activism and political change. Proposals are encouraged that touch on the role of women in protest with regards to the movement in Iran and internationally, as well as gender, women and the public role of the religious/secular at large. Other possible areas include:

• Gender and sexuality as lens to think about protest, globally
• The relationship between protest and religion
• Non-oppositional ways of considering “loyalty” and “dissent”

“Labor Union Organizing in San Antonio and Beyond”

Co-sponsors: Class, Religion and Theology unit; Ethics unit; Religion and Economy unit 

Units call for proposals regarding labor issues and worker organizing in general, in San Antonio or Texas, and/or in the hotel/convention center/hospitality industry. We hope to organize both a pre-conference workshop and a panel on these topics, and encourage submissions from labor organizers, activists, and scholars. For a number of years it was a priority of the AAR to take into account the labor situation on the ground in its host cities. This session and possible pre-conference workshop, therefore, offer an opportunity to reflect on that commitment, understand the labor situation in our host city, and hopefully re-energize the AAR's commitment to solidarity with all those the labor of whose hands makes the annual meeting possible at all.

“Political Theology in the Asia Pacific” (Book Launch/Discussion)

Geopolitical changes in the Asia Pacific have challenged the world order and will shape the destiny of the twenty-first century. It is urgent to reflect on the relationship between the theological and the political in this region. This book (edited by Kwok Piu Lan, Baylor University Press, 2023) demonstrates the necessity of a transnational framework for political theology in the Asia Pacific. Contributions to this volume consider: race and caste, racial capitalism, gender, geopolitics, power, environmental issues, the struggles of Pacific peoples, political authority in China, national ideology and people’s folklores in multireligious Indonesia, Asian American identity in the US-China contest; perspectives on conflict resolution, war, and violence, elucidating the power of mourning, the use of art in interreligious healing, the search for just peace, the arguments for reparations; and the intersection between sexual politics and theology by queering heteronormativity, Asian values, and binary thinking in national narratives. 

We invite proposals that engage this pioneering book showcasing the work of representative Asian, Pacific, and Asian American scholars who live in nine different countries in Asia, Europe, the South Pacific, and North America.

This Unit asks “What does liberation theology mean in and for the twenty-first century?” We encourage crossover dialogue — between contexts and between disciplines — and reflection on the implications of liberationist discourse for the transformation of theology as a whole, both methodologically and theologically.