Women and Religion Unit
While all submissions are welcome, we are particularly interested in paper and panel proposals that respond to the following topics.
Gender, Labor, and Migration
In response to this year’s theme La Labor de Nuestras Manos, the Women and Religion Unit invites proposals that critically analyze the intersection of gender, labor, migration, 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 migration? What roles would religion play in migrant communities and labor movements as these communities and movements seek out gender and sexuality justice?
Religious Hybridity and Trans* Understandings of Religion
- We invite proposals that challenge the categories of religion, faith, and spirituality and offer new perspectives on these categories, particularly through religious syncretism, hybridity, and transnational, transgender, and transsexual approaches.
- We also seek out proposals that critically engage in women’s lived experiences of transnational, transgender, cross-racial, and/or transsexual solidarity for justice and a new understanding of religion emerging from this engagement.
Intersectionality as a Method in the Academic Studies of Religion
We invite panels and papers that critically engage with the question of how religion can meaningfully be considered at the intersection of race, gender, and class. Does it matter which religion might be added to the intersection? How do feminist approaches to religious studies and women's lived experiences define women and gender as categories intersecting with race and class? What other analytical tools besides intersectionality would scholars and activists consider when studying religious communities and their social movements?
Harnessing Our Scholarly Privilege and Power for Public Good: Reproductive Justice and Religion
Contact: Shana Sippy (shana.sippy@centre.edu) and Michal Raucher (michal.raucher@rutgers.edu)
With particular awareness of the AAR's presence in Texas (or wherever we may be), this call for proposals seeks to respond directly to the realities of a post-Dobbs America. We hope to bring together scholars who work in a range of regions and on different religious traditions in order to share their knowledge and comparative perspectives that will deepen our understanding of the issues surrounding reproductive justice. In the planning phase, we seek to gather together scholars and activists who wish to think through and prepare some type of public program on the issue of Reproductive Justice for the annual meeting. We anticipate this session will be jointly sponsored by a number of different units and, depending on the response, may involve multiple sessions or additional programming.
Renewing Women’s Voices in Religion: Sexual Politics, Symbols and Metaphors, and the Erotic
We welcome paper and panel proposals that critically reconstruct sexual politics grounded in various understandings of the erotic from women pioneers in religious studies and critical gender and racial theories. For instance, proposals may illuminate the complex intersection of the ethical, the political, and the spiritual in women’s social movements by revitalizing Marcella Althaus-Reid’s Indecent Theology (i.e., french kissing God), Gloria Anzaldúa’s nepantla, amina wadud’s queering Islamic studies, and many other examples of groundbreaking scholarship on race, gender, class, and sexuality. Proposals may critically engage with “queering” as a method to study the critical intersection of contemporary social issues and religion (i.e., religious symbols and metaphors). We also welcome proposals to reconstruct the meanings of the erotic, for example, as seen in Sharon Patrician Holland’s The Erotic Life of Racism and in M. Jacqui Alexander’s Pedagogies of Crossing: the erotic as a deep yearning for wholeness and capacity to desire justice and peace.
Israel/Palestine: the UN Resolution to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Nakba
On November 30, 2022, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, a term used to describe the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the lead-up to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. In response to the UN resolution, we invite paper and panel proposals that critically examine the intersection of religion and gender in the history of Israeli-Palestinian relations, Palestinian youth movements, peace activism, and the commemoration of Nakba. Comparative religious or interfaith approaches to conflict and peacebuilding in the Israeli-Palestinian context as well as transnationally comparative studies of the Palestinian liberation movement and other popular liberation movements (i.e., Black Lives Matter, Hong Kong movement, etc.) would be welcomed, too.
Asian American Feminist Theologies for Just Racial Relations
This panel discusses antiracist resources informed by Asian/North American feminist theology and biblical scholarship. Although scholarly books and articles on Asian American theology (broadly defined) in response to the current ethical, political, and cultural issues have been prolific, there have been no to few concerted efforts to interrogate or dismantle anti-Asian racism inseparable from anti-black racism and white settler colonialism that have often undermined the communal spirit and livelihood of Christianity. In the current political climate, COVID-related anti-Asian hate and racial conflict, which all intersect with gender and sexuality-based violence, require theological, moral, and political inquiries. Hence, this panel notes the current paucity of work with critical discussions on the multiple facets of racism from Asian American feminist theological perspectives. Panelists deepen the inter/transdisciplinary approaches concerning how to dismantle racist theological teachings, biblical interpretations, liturgical presentations, and the Christian church’s leadership structure.
Pre-arranged panel. Contact co-chairs for any inquiry about this panel.
Abortion and Religion: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives
Based on T&T Clark Reader in Abortion and Religion (2023), this panel examines cultural and theological responses to abortion as background for understanding a diversity of ethical positions in contemporary Christian, Jewish, and Muslim writings. Politicized debates about abortion are often presented in terms of binary rhetoric of pro-life versus pro-choice; however, the panel shows how that binary often breaks down when abortion is seen from different religious perspectives and in light of the voices of women themselves. While abortion is a global phenomenon, the panel focuses on the U.S. context. American abortion politics and culture wars have been dominated by Christian voices; nevertheless, Jewish and Muslim abortion ethics engage many of the same issues from different cultural and religious perspectives. Finally, the panel presents important examples of recent social scientific studies about the relationship of religion and abortion in the diverse cultural, racial, and economic fabric of American society.
Pre-arranged panel. Contact co-chairs for any inquiry about this panel.
The 2022 protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini while in custody of the country’s ‘guidance control’ (or, ‘morality police’) represent a new experience in the voice of youth, especially women, in articulating religious and secular theories of resistance. Its practical and intellectual impact continues to be felt in Iran and globally, especially through the amplification of the Kurdish protest slogan “Women, Life, Freedom!”. This session is dedicated to understanding the dynamics of gender and sexuality in activism and political change. Proposals are encouraged that touch on the role of women in protest with regards to the movement in Iran and internationally, as well as gender, women and the public role of the religious/secular at large. Other possible areas include:
- Gender and sexuality as lens to think about protest, globally
- The relationship between protest and religion
- Non-oppositional ways of considering “loyalty” and “dissent”
Engaging Diaspora Religions Through Literature, Storytelling or Archival Narratives
Our units propose a panel focused on literature, poetry, orality, and archival sources related to African, African Diaspora, or Afro-American religions. Iconic texts from authors such as Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Gloria Anzaldua, and Gloria Naylor, among others, engage with faith, spirituality, embodiment, ancestrality, mourning, fellowship, borders/border crossings, and other issues, questions, and challenges. We invite papers that explore the power dynamics reflected in such texts, the provenance of the same, and the benefits and challenges of working with these kinds of sources. Do we understand and interpret faith differently depending on whether we rely on oral history or literature? Do archives permit access to faith?
The Women and Religion Unit seeks to promote inclusivity and excellence in scholarship. We have been intentional about including participants/presenters from interdisciplinary approaches and encouraging non-traditional ways of sharing scholarly work on the intersection of women’s and gender studies and religious and theological studies. In making selections for the annual sessions, we work collaboratively with other program units of AAR to promote scholarly conversations across fields and methodologies. We are committed to providing an inclusive scholarly environment where new voices can be heard, and critical analyses of women and religion can be advanced.