Women and Religion Unit

While all submissions are welcome, we are particularly interested in paper and panel proposals that respond to the following topic.

Violence, Nonviolence and the Margin

In response to the 2024 AAR Presidential Theme “Violence, Nonviolence and the Margin”, the Women and Religion Unit invites panel and paper proposals that critically analyze the intersection of gender, violence, nonviolence and religion in any geographical location. Proposals may engage with the following questions: How do scholars of religion engage with gender and sexuality as an analytical tool when studying and responding to violence and nonviolence? In what ways does precarity relegate certain populations to the margins and result in them being differentially exposed to injury, violence, and even death? We are particularly interested in the lived experiences of women and women-identifying people in diverse global contexts.

Religion, Sacred “Texts” and Gender-based Violence

We invite panel and paper proposals that critically engage with the question of how religion can be considered as a factor in gender-based violence – including domestic and family violence, interpersonal violence, violence against minoritized women and women-identifying people, and reproductive violence. Proposed panels and papers may engage with the following topics: How does gender and religion interact to make some populations more precarious and exposed to gender-based violence than others? How are theologies, and sacred texts and symbols being weaponized to incite and uptick gender-based violences and discriminations? How are theologies, and sacred texts and symbols providing avenues for agency and resistance? We are particularly interested in how violence manifests in the experiences of women and women identifying people in diverse religious and global settings.

Women, Militarization, War and Colonialism

In the context of two major wars and other ongoing militarized conflicts throughout the world we seek paper and panel proposals that explore the impact of war, militarization and colonialism on women, women identifying people, and children. We welcome proposals that examine the impact of violence on women who are also acting as caretakers of people, place, and land. Of particular interest are the ways in which women mother through violence and create communities of care and agency. Beyond the caregiver role we invite papers to consider the active role women play in nonviolence and in bringing an end to violence, militarisation, and settler colonialism.

Strategies for Survival and Collective Care

Often care has been considered an individualistic act of survival. We challenge that notion as women, women identifying people and marginalised communities demonstrate care as a communal act. We invite proposals for papers, panels, and round tables that explore the concepts and strategies of survival and collective care in the face of violence. Of interest is what intersectionality brings to pedagogies of care and collective action in religious contexts. Proposals might consider relational autonomy, sacred practices and memory.

Feminist Religious Discourse on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

We invite proposals for panels and round tables that explore the intersection of feminist religious perspectives and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), particularly focusing on women in minoritized communities. As the DEI has now become a litmus test to pass for liberal institutions with often industry-generated canned curricula geared for the dominant group in race, ethnicity, gender, and class, it has become another tool to perpetuate white supremacist heteropatriarchy. We invite proposals that foster meaningful dialogue, share insights, and develop strategies to address the complex challenges faced by women and women-identifying people, particularly those within non-dominant communities in race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. We encourage contributions that critically examine the intersections of gender, race, religion, and culture while promoting inclusive and equitable practices within religious contexts.

Emerging Scholars

The Women and Religion Unit invites submissions from graduate students and early career scholars of any age to present innovative research asking questions of gender and religion and its juncture with the conference theme “Violence, Nonviolence and the Margin”. Scholars might want to examine connections between precarity and women’s experiences of all the various forms of physical and non-physical violence embedded in our societies, in our thinking, and in the language we use. We ask proposals to consider the following questions: How can women and women identifying people respond to violence? How are women currently dealing with gendered violence legitimated by religion? Are there new approaches to resistance? Can responding to violence with violence solve the problems women face? And how can women envision nonviolence in the midst of such rampant violence? How are women bringing their faith or spirituality to nonviolent praxis? Intersectional approaches incorporating class, race, ethnicity, gender, and/or sexuality are highly encouraged. Sponsored in cooperation with the AAR/SBL Women’s Caucus.

Feminist Theory Unit, Body & Religion Unit, and Women & Religion Unit Co-Sponsor Session

For a possible co-sponsored session, the Women and Religion, Body and Religion, and Class, Religion, and Theology units invite proposals addressing reproductive labor broadly defined (including the many labors of social reproduction, such as caring labor and emotional labor). We are particularly interested in understanding such labors as embodied practices/experiences within gendered, classed, and racialized structures of inequality and religious traditions. We are open to individual paper proposals, panel/roundtable proposals, or innovative interactive formats.