Anthropology of Religion Unit

We invite proposals from the full range of ethnographic theories and methods exploring diverse traditions, regions, topics, periods, and standpoints from across the discipline. The steering committee has identified the following areas to be of particular interest for individual and panel submissions:

• Anthropology in Times of Crisis. How we negotiate research in contexts of crisis (whether political, social, economic, or environmental), with particular attention to how knowledge is collected, analyzed, preserved, and disseminated. We are especially interested in papers addressing theoretical, methodological, and ethical innovations that come from confronting crises.
• Religion and the Environment. How anthropological perspectives can help us understand the place of the environment in religious traditions and among religious communities. We are especially interested in papers that explore how human interactions with (culturally-postulated) non-human actors shape people's understandings and experiences of the climate crisis.
• Non/areligion. What can anthropologists of religion offer to the expanding scholarship on the nonreligious/areligious/spiritual but not religious? What theoretical lenses work best to situate these categories ethnographically?
• Existential Anthropology and the Study of Religion (book session, for which we are securing a co-sponsor). This session gathers contributors and critics around a new edited volume at the intersection of anthropology, philosophy, and religious studies. Between Life and Thought: Existential Anthropology and the Study of Religion (University of Toronto Press, 2024; see here for the book’s website) explores the impact of the work of philosophical anthropologist Michael Jackson on religious studies. This is a preorganized panel for which we are not soliciting proposals.

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. One suggestion would be to choose a (number of) key term(s) in the anthropology of religion, to which panelists can respond.
• Authors Meet Critics. We suggest up to three authors engage with one another’s recent books around common themes and questions.
• Sensory Props. Presenters engage with a material form that bears fieldwork significance, such as physical objects, visual images, and/or sound recordings.