In recent years, critical Indigenous studies has challenged the Western European and colonial episteme that has shaped academic disciplines and fields such as anthropology, history, philosophy, and religious studies. Indigenous studies scholars and activists have long tested the limits of unitive epistemological and ontological thinking by deploying Indigenous situated knowledges/onto-epistemologies as a valid and valuable scholarship. 

For this special issue, we invite contributors to consider what possibilities engagement with critical Indigenous studies might present for the study of religion. How might the field be regarded if Western/European epistemology and ontology are not assumed to be a unitive framework and the academic norm? The category of “religion” itself, as many scholars have observed, emerged from very specific European imperial and colonial histories as well as the Enlightenment project. The term “religion” has been adopted and adapted and sometimes rejected by Indigenous nations/peoples who live with and negotiate colonialism and colonization in traditional territories across the globe. What would the study of religion look like—in terms of theory and method, approaches, and themes—when, if, and how scholars of religion ground their work in “making kin” with Indigenous collective knowledges and ways of relating?

Method and Theory in the Study of Religion invites article submissions for a proposed special issue on Indigenous Epistemologies and the Study of Religion co-edited by Paul Gareau (Métis; Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta) and Molly Bassett (white settler; Department of Religious Studies, Georgia State University). Please submit a short proposal (up to 1,000 words) to mbassett@gsu.edu  by July 15, 2024. If invited to submit, your final article (8,000-12,000 words) would be due by January 15, 2025 through the submission portal at Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.

**DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MARCH 13TH**

CALL FOR PAPERS

Exploring the Transdisciplinary “Ecology” of scholarship in the study of religion 

The North American Association for the Study of Religion describes itself as an organization committed to “the historical, comparative, structural, theoretical, and cognitive approaches to the study of religion.” Since its inception, NAASR has welcomed an assorted group of scholars to work across these entrenched disciplinary boundaries and wide-ranging areas of expertise. This synergy cultivates a level of transdisciplinary inquiry into the very idea of the category of “religion” that otherwise might be unattainable. Yet, this emphasis on transdisciplinary engagement mutes the profound impact of this underlying scholarly diversity on the intellectual exchanges and disputes that arise in the so-called critical study of religion. 

It is crucial to also acknowledge that many factors shape the scholar’s capacity to create, curate, and ultimately critique “religion” as an object of study. What are the unique paths that individual scholars travel to arrive at this shared endeavor? How do these differences matter? In what ways do their specific educational, institutional, and broader social locations inform their perspectives on religion and the contours of scholarly debate? Examining the elements that comprise the ecology of the field provides opportunities to sharpen our scholarly pursuits.  

The 2023 NAASR Annual Meeting will explore the “ecologies” in which scholars imagine religion.  Specifically, NAASR invites proposals for papers that target one of the following “niches,” each of which establishes parameters for the scholarly process: 

(1)  The Research Environment—how do specific types of research spaces (ex., archival, digital, ethnographic, etc.) determine the range or type of choices that scholars can make? How do different physical spaces (ex., home office, a local coffee shop) impact the creative processes of scholarly production? 

(2) Dissemination Platform—how do specific platforms for disseminating research (ex., peer-review journals, publishers, mass media, podcasts, etc.) shape the substance, form, and purpose of scholarship?

(3) Institutional Climate—how do institutions (ex., graduate training, rank/position of the scholar, administrations, public vs. private institutions, the state, markets, etc.)  play a role in framing scholarship on religion?  

(4)  Socio-cultural Location—how does the embeddedness of the scholar in wider social structures  (e.g., those related to race, gender, class, religious background, occupational history, etc.) inform their scholarly practices and pursuits?  

NAASR is especially interested in sessions that can represent the breadth of the field in terms of rank (graduate students, senior scholars), areas of expertise and disciplinary training, and socio-cultural backgrounds. Paper proposals can emphasize the individual’s personal/anecdotal experiences or more general observations in relation to one of these “niches” as long as the substance of the presentations isare grounded in robust scholarly or empirical support.

Submissions for proposals should each:

1.         Identify the area (one of the four immediately above) on which they will focus

2.         Provide a brief (500-word max) statement that outlines the basic elements of their response to the identified theme.

The sessions for the annual meeting will follow a roundtable format exploring each of these four (4) themes. Participants will submit full papers that apply their expertise to the designated topic one month prior to the meeting (approximately early October 2023). Each session will feature a “Pre-spondent,” an invited scholar who will introduce the panelists and offer substantive remarks on the topic. Participants will have 8-10 minutes to summarize their papers and will be followed by informal discussion between panelists and the general audience for roughly one hour. 

Ultimately the aim is to publish these sessions as an edited volume under the NAASR Working Papers series with Equinox publishing. Therefore, by submitting a proposal for the annual meeting, you are agreeing to eventually publish a version of this paper as a chapter in an edited volume in the NAASR working papers series. 

Please submit your proposals Monday, March 13, 2023 at 5pm ET to the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdGT7xXH3Y_0wbQ3nfXKr_xMrwpwgH8m3mPuJJFMqg4J4nGDA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Direct any questions or concerns about this process to dennislorusso@gmail.com 

NAASR Annual Meeting 2021

Religion and the Study of Religion in Times of “Crisis”

#naasr2021

CONFERENCE  PROGRAM (VIRTUAL)

Friday, November 12, 2021

NAASR Keynote Address: Crisis? What Crisis? The Study of Religion is Always in Crisis

7:00 PM- 9:00 PM (EST)—Links to Virtual Session Pending

Aaron Hughes (University of Rochester)

Saturday, November 12, 2021

Roundtable: Critiquing Crisis in Higher Education

11:00 AM- 1:00 PM (EST)—Links to Virtual Session Pending

Panelists:

Emily Crews (University of Chicago)

Lauren Horn Griffin (University of Alabama)

James Dennis LoRusso (Unaffiliated Scholar)

Russell McCutcheon (University of Alabama)

Craig Martin (St. Thomas Aquinas College)

Suzanne Owen (Leeds Trinity University College)

James Dennis LoRusso (Unaffiliated), Presiding

LOCUS: Landmarks in Religious Adaptations in the Face of Crisis

1:30 PM- 3:30 PM (EST)

Description:

Moments of crisis provide a rich backdrop to observe how religion and religious groups themselves adapt and, sometimes, even thrive. History has shown that in times of political, cultural or social distress, religion offers people alternatives to cope with a crisis. At the same time, religion, either understood in institutional or communal terms, can be a force of change, prompting members and non-members to rethink and recreate the social milieu. Further, a religion itself changes by adapting its practices to the needs of the time. In this sense, a crisis may change religion, but religion also changes the way we approach and understand crisis.

This panel presents and discusses three instances of religious teachings, practices, and/or institutions adapting to crises in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and Russia. It theorizes that religions are not fixed entities but live constructions that, especially at times of crisis, adapt themselves at different levels, consolidating, changing, or enriching their place in society.

Panelists:

Xochiquetzal Luna (Wilfred Laurier University),

 “’Social Church’ and ‘Pragmatic’ Relationship with the State: The Wager of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico and Orthodox Church in Russia in Times of Crisis”

Gustavo Moura (Wilfrid Laurier University)

“Yoga’s ‘Flexibility’ in Brazil During the COVID-19 Pandemic”

Ben Szoller (University of Waterloo)

“Across the Land: How Subsidiarity and Solidarity Informed Catholic Responses to ‘Crisis’ in North America”

Ashley Lebner (Wilfrid Laurier University/Balsillie School of International Affairs), Responding

Doaa Shalabi (University of Waterloo), Presiding

LANGUAGE: Theorizing Crisis as “A Turning Point”

4:00 PM- 6:00 PM (EST)

Description:

The etymology of the term crisis (from the Greek krisis) denotes a “decisive turning point.” While initially concerned with the progression of a disease, it captures the moment in which change is perceived as inevitable “for better or worse.” The papers in this panel examine the social rhetoric that emerges in historical moments of rupture, resistance, and reconstitution. Focusing on the relationships between language and authority, this panel offers theoretical, historical, and philosophical analyses of distinct case studies conceptualized as crises and the decision-making strategies employed by social agents.

Panelists:

Zoe Anthony (University of Toronto)

“Profit and Loss: The New Time of Crisis”

Aaron Treadwell (Middle Tennessee State University)

“Tongues of Fire: The Relationship Between Black Liberation Theology and Arson in the South”

Karen Zoppa (University of Winnipeg)

“Force of Law: Resources in Derrida for Rethinking Policing”

Andrew Durdin (Florida State University), Responding

Jacob Barrett (University of Alabama), Presiding

NAASR 2021 VIRTUAL RECEPTION

7:00 PM- 9:00 PM

Sunday, November 14, 2021

LEXICON: Crisis as Method in the Study of Religion

11:00 AM – 1:00 PM (EST)

Description:

Like all academic disciplines, the study of religion has developed in response to intellectual and social crises. Looking at the rise of neoliberalism, the propagation of conspiracy theories, and the critique of essentialism, the papers in this panel consider the impact of such frameworks on the larger work of teaching and theorizing religious studies as a discipline. How have crises become paradigms that are replicated in publications and pedagogies? Echoing Bruce Lincoln’s “Theses on Methods,” this panel considers different projects of persuasion exemplified in the critical study of religion in and through crisis.

Panelists:

Carmen Celestini (University of Waterloo/Centre on Hate, Bias, and Extremism)

“Pop Goes the People—Populism, Panics, and Pandemics”

Michael DeJonge (University of South Florida)

“The Crisis of World Religions and the Critique of Essentialism”

Matt Sheedy (University of Bonn)

“Enlarging Religious Studies, Wither-ing Neoliberalism”

Erin Roberts (University of South Carolina), Responding

Allison Isidore (University of Alabama), Presiding

LOCUTION: Upending the Discipline—A Critical Roundtable on Crisis

1:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Description:

“There is no crisis to which academics will not respond with a seminar.” – Marvin Bressler (1923-2010)

This year’s AAR Presidential Theme calls for “thinking about the actual human implications of religion in a world upended.” Given NAASR’s work as a critical engagement, this roundtable brings together senior and early-career scholars to assess this stated aim. What does it mean to frame the world which we study as a “world upended”? How can we think critically about not just crisis itself but also about what is constructed as “crisis”? What are the implications to our scholarly endeavors and our profession if responding to “crisis” becomes our modus operandi? How does this framework privilege certain voices or interests over others within the field (or within the objects of study)?

Panelists:

Merinda Simmons (University of Alabama)

Jeremy Posadas (Austin College)

Adrian Hermann (University of Bonn)

Robyn Walsh (University of Miami)

Rebekka King (Middle Tennessee State University), Presiding

NAASR 2021 BUSINESS MEETING

4:00 PM- 5:00 PM (EST)