Meet the Editors: The Place of NAASR Publications in the Field

12:00-1:30pm EST

K. Merinda Simmons, Editor of Concepts in the Study of Religion: Critical Primers

Leslie Dorrough Smith, Editor of Interdisciplinary Studies in Religion: Key Thinkers

Mitsutoshi Horii and Tisa Wenger, Editors of Method & Theory in the Study of Religion

Emily Crews, Editor of NAASR Working Papers

Keynote Address

Cobbled Fictions: Lessons from Cultural History in Reception and Aesthetics

2:30-4:00pm EST

Robyn Faith Walsh, University of Miami

The grand fiction of the lily-white art and built environment of ancient Greece and Rome has largely been debunked in recent years. Likewise, of late there has been greater recognition of the tattered and often paltry state of our manuscript traditions in fields like early Christianity. All of this has necessitated self-reflection in certain corners of religious studies about the assumptions we perpetuate in our scholarship. This is a reckoning that has taken place within cultural and art history, classics, and related disciplines and there is much that we can still learn from their examples. In this keynote, I will discuss how cultural aesthetics intersect with our theoretical approaches to history-telling by reexamining the museum and tourism industries and how they have packaged a highly romantic idea of the past that we have been reticent to challenge. I will also discuss the real-world implications for continuing to authorize an ancient Mediterranean imaginary steeped in the aesthetics of violence and colonialization.

Virtual Happy Hour

4:00pm EST

Human/Subject/World

10:00-11:50am

Grand Hyatt, Balboa A-C

This roundtable will engage with questions and topics related but not limited to: subjectivity and data networks, critical access studies, waste studies, digital technologies, governmentality and global religions, indigenous studies, queer theory, trauma studies, and structures of time.

Tenzan Eaghll, ISIC, RMUTK, Bangkok

Adrian Hermann, University of Bonn

Matt Sheedy, University of Bonn

Lauren Lovestone, Florida State University

Bryce McCormick, University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill

Claire Rostov, Duke University

Interrelation and Cognition

1:00-2:50pm

Grand Hyatt, Balboa A-C

This roundtable will engage with questions and topics related but not limited to: affect theory, cognitive studies (including cognitive psychology, cognitive science, and analytic philosophy of mind), structuring dynamics of belief and social groups, and critical methodologies in studies of history and text.

Chris Jones, Washburn University

Shreya Maini, Duke University

Daniel Miller, Landmark College

Cooper Minister, Shenandoah University

Thomas Waldrupe, University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill

Tommy Woodward, Florida State University

Structure and Infrastructure

3:00-4:50pm

Grand Hyatt, Balboa A-C

This roundtable will engage with questions and topics related but not limited to: infrastructure studies, animal studies, theories of nationalism and social conservatism, neo-liberalism and deregulated markets, formalism and literary theory, fiscal/monetary studies, and theories of the “gimmick.”

Jack Bernardi, Virginia Tech

Talia Burnside, Florida State University

Finbarr Curtis, Georgia Southern University

Mike Altman, University of Alabama

Isaiah Ellis, University of Toronto

Rebecca Janzen, University of South Carolina

Annual Reception

7:00-9:00pm

Half Door Brewing Co. (903 Island Ave, San Diego Ca 92101)

Business Meeting

11:00am-12:00pm

Grand Hyatt, Balboa A-C

Cross-currents: Interdisciplinary Applications of Religious Studies

1:00-2:50pm

Grand Hyatt, Balboa A-C

While the other sessions will focus on the potential influence of other disciplines on religious studies, this roundtable will consider where and how other disciplines can benefit from greater familiarity with established research in our field. Where are the findings of our field currently being applied? Where might/ought our findings be utilized? What might we as scholars do to translate our findings more effectively for other disciplines?

Jennifer Eyl, Tufts University

Mayanthi Fernando, University of California—Santa Cruz

Donovan Schaefer, University of Pennsylvania

Jolyon Thomas, University of Pennsylvania

Leslie Dorrough Smith, Avila University

Retrospective on Jonathan Z. Smith’s Drudgery Divine

4:00-6:30pm

Convention Center, 20A (Upper Level East)

Co-sponsored with Rethinking Christian Origins Seminar, Society of Biblical Literature

This panel offers a reassessment of and re-engagement with Jonathan Z. Smith’s Drudgery Divine. Panelists will discuss and reflect on the legacy of Smith’s work on the study of religion in antiquity, and theory of religion more broadly. The panel is a joint session with the Rethinking Christian Origins seminar of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Jennifer Eyl, Tufts University, Presiding

Karen Devries, University of Colorado—Colorado Springs

Russell McCutcheon, University of Alabama

Pamela Klassen, University of Toronto

Kevin Schilbrack, Appalachian State University

Deane Galbraith, University of Otago

Sarah Rollens, Rhodes College

Robyn Walsh, University of Miami

Brian Rainey, Interdenominational Theological Center

Theron Clay Mock, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität—München

NAASR Working Group Meeting: American Examples

9:00-11:50am

Grand Hyatt, Balboa A-C

This working group meeting is for existing members of the American Examples research workshop, as well as those possibly interested in participating in the future.