Religious Studies Reviews: On the Importance and Future of the Form

This panel focuses on the book review, as genre and form, arguing for its centrality within scholarship, insisting on its creative possibilities in terms of style and approach, and investigating ways to make review-writing more legible to department and university administrators who, too often, dismiss this labor as (merely) general “service” to the profession. This panel also commemorates Religious Studies Review, the only journal devoted entirely to publishing reviews in religious studies and theology, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Panelists, a selection of current RSR editors as well as administrators from academic institutions, will discuss the function and necessity of reviews and reviewing. Attention will also be given to advice on review-writing for graduate students and junior scholars, and audience members will also have the opportunity to sign up to review books with RSR during this panel.