Future/s of the Field: Religion and Ecology at Thirty-five

The study of religion and ecology arrives at a moment dense with anniversaries and with pressures that make reflection more critical than commemorative. Taking the 2026 AAR presidential theme, “future/s,” as its organizing principle, this roundtable asks what futures—those both concerning and captivating—are visible from within the field. Ecological disruption is more often than not narrated in apocalyptic terms, and the institutional conditions sustaining humanistic inquiry are themselves under strain. Just as cultural and political conversations ask how communities, institutions, and practices must adapt to an altered world, it is worth asking the same of the scholarly field that studies those very questions. Organized in partnership with the ISSRNC, which convened a companion session at its Venice anniversary conference in October, it foregrounds critical, field-level exchange: what has worked, what is under strain, what feels insufficient, and what the field offers scholars carrying it forward.