From: Jennifer Selby <jselby@PROTECTED>
Date: January 30, 2019 at 8:16:17 PM EST
To: "sar-l@PROTECTED" <sar-l@PROTECTED>
Subject: [SAR-List] 2019 AAR Call for Papers: Anthropology of Religion Unit

Dear colleagues:

I write on behalf of the AAR’s Anthropology of Religion unit to share our Call for Papers for the 2019 meetings in San Diego November 23-26.

AAR 2019: Anthropology of Religion Unit Call for Submissions

 

We invite proposals from the full range of ethnographic theories and methods exploring diverse traditions, regions, topics, periods, and encourage standpoints from across the discipline. We especially encourage individual and panel submissions that address:

 

·      Author Meets Critics. We encourage traditional and creative arrangements, including single authors, books from multiple authors on a related or contested theme, and prominent writers of religion in the public sphere. Book(s) should be recently published and anticipated to have an enduring impact on theoretical and/or methodological dimensions of the anthropology of religion.

·      Querying the “public” in “public religion” and “public scholarship.” Critically reflecting on the relations among contested and diverse publics; the multiple configurations and performances of being public; the spatial, temporal, structural, and ideological dimensions of public-ness. 

·      Technologies of Fieldwork. Exploring the ways in which various media shape ethnographic theory and method, fieldwork encounters and relationships, and understandings of what constitutes religious practice (including but not limited to smartphone devices, software applications, and social media platforms).

·      Contact zones of infrastructure and labor. How does religion help shape the origins, development, and impact of contact zones? How do the transnational, cultural, political, economic, and technological conditions of these zones structure forms of lived religion and religious institutions?

·      Borders, boundaries and borderlands. Considering contestations of space and religiosity related to the nation-state or to space more figuratively. 

·      Nationalism, Religious Violence, and Peace-Making. Emerging forms of religious nationalism, religious critiques of nationalist ideology, religious movements supported and challenged by the nation.

·      Ethnographies of Environment and Ecology. Sustainability, nature-culture relationships, responses to climate change.

 

Further, we encourage panel proposals that use creative and alternative formats that elevate critical dialogue and engage multiple senses, for example:

 

·      Flash Formats. An increased number of presenters are allotted ~7 minutes, followed by a robust, guided discussion. 

·      Sensory Props. Presenters engage with a material form that bears fieldwork significance, such as physical objects, visual images, and/or sound recordings.  

 

Method: PAPERS (https://papers.aarweb.org/content/general-call-instructions) 

Process: Proposals are anonymous to chairs and steering committee members during review, but visible to chairs prior to final acceptance or rejection.

Leadership: 

Chairs

- James Bielo, bielojs@PROTECTED

- Jennifer Selby, jselby@PROTECTED

Steering Committee:

- Marcus Harvey, mharvey1@PROTECTED

- Eric Hoenes del Pinal, ehoenes@PROTECTED

- Hillary Kaell, hillarykaell@PROTECTED

- Sarah King, kingsar1@PROTECTED

- Marc Loustau, mloustau706@PROTECTED

- Brendan Thornton, bjthornt@PROTECTED

 

https://papers.aarweb.org/content/anthropology-religion-unit