Latina/o Religion, Culture, and Society Unit and World Christianity Unit

Navigating Language: (In)visibility and Power amongst Latinxs

The 2023 AAR presidential theme “La Labor de Nuestras Manos” and the conference’s geopolitical location offers us an opportunity to reflect anew on the communities that nourish scholarship in the religious academy, particularly Latinx communities and their experiences over time. The Spanish phrasing of the theme poses a challenge among those who do not speak the language and will struggle to grasp all that it communicates. This challenge reminds us of language’s power as a vehicle for (in)visibility.

we invite papers that consider how language in its broadest sense – that which foments culture and meaning-making – renders the labor of Latinx communities (in)visible. We urge scholars to consider this question from both the vantage point of Latinx communities and their (un)seen labor as well as from the perspective of the scholars of religion to whom they entrust their stories. Other considerations include: What are the languages (culture & meaning) that enhance or diminish the labor of Latinx communities? What obligations and ethical imperatives do scholars face, especially those doing ethnographic work, in representing the language (culture & meaning) of labor in Latinx communities?, What would it look like for scholars of religion in Latinx communities to utilize language to disrupt the hegemony of English as the lingua franca for the AAR?