Roundtable discussion by Latino/a scholars from the AAR/SBL on the challenges and opportunities for Evangelical Latino/a scholars in the academy. The topic of misión integral (an understanding of Christian mission that embraces both evangelism and social responsibility) brings together mainline, evangelical, and Pentecostal Latino/a Christians in a shared missional commitment. Followed by the annual business meeting of La Comunidad. Session is co-sponsored by the Latino/a Biblical and Theological Reflection Unit of the Evangelical Theological Society.
Taking its cue from political and theological discourses, political theology has often taken recourse to paternity, sovereignty, inheritance, etc., in order to think its conceptual coordinates. Even as those coordinates are offered for critique, this session will explore the elision of the figure of the mother in political theology. What of the mother in the making of political theology? Papers will be presented by
Amaryah Shaye Armstrong Miguel Vatter Janice McRandal Scott Kirkland
How do we define nonviolence? What does the practice of nonviolence entail? Can nonviolence be an efficient way to counter violence and create social justice, including gender justice? Can nonviolence be violent as well? Can neuroscience help us understand the impacts of violence and nonviolence on our bodies and minds? In this panel, three scholars explore these questions and more to enrich our understanding and practice of nonviolence and explore its social impact.
William Edelglass (Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and Smith College), “Violence, Nonviolence, and Antiviolence in B. R. Ambedkar’s Buddhist Thought”
Karma Lekshe Tsomo (University of San Diego), “Buddhism and Gender Justice: The Violence of Subordination”
Fadel Zeidan (University of California San Diego), “How Disentanglement of the Self Can Lead to Nonviolence and Compassion: Insights from the Brain”
The Committee on the Status of LGTBIQ+ Persons in the Professions cordially invites all LGBTIQ+ scholars, of all ranks and places/forms of employment/under-employment, to join us for our annual mentoring lunch. This year, instead of inviting specific mentors, we welcome all scholars interested in offering mentoring, receiving mentoring, or both. Table topics will include mid-career scholars, administrators & senior scholars, wellness and joy, publishing your first book, journal publishing, the job market, navigating grad school, and careers beyond the ivory tower. In order to make the mentoring lunch as accessible as possible, we do not require pre-registration and we do not provide pre-paid lunches; attendees are welcome to bring their own lunches if they want or need to do so.
This AAR member luncheon requires an advance purchase. Add this to your registration by MODIFYING your AAR Annual Meeting registration. Tickets not available after October 31.
Launched in 2023, Theologia seeks to promote and celebrate women working in the field of Christian theology through an annual networking event and to encourage these scholars by cultivating spaces for fellowship, mentoring, and academic engagement among women in Christian theology.
If you are a woman and consider yourself a Christian and theologian (even if en route), please join us the Saturday of AAR/SBL as we gather for lunch, fellowship, and a short program featuring reflections from Katherine Sonderegger, Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology, Virginia Theological Seminary.
We welcome women who are members of the American Academy of Religion, members of the Evangelical Theological Society, women pastor theologians, and beyond.
Advance registration is required to attend. To cover the cost of the event, attendees will also be asked to contribute $20. Financial help is available.
We can only guarantee spots for the first 65 who register, given our room capacity.
This lunch is co-sponsored by Baker Academic, Baylor University Press, Wipf and Stock Publishers, Zondervan Academic, Western Theological Seminary, and the John Templeton Foundation.
This mealtime gathering, for those who identify as BIPOC faculty, is a place for fellowship, connection, and mutual support. Hear about Wabash Center grants specifically allocated for BIPOC peer mentoring. The mealtime conversation will explore self-care and wellness as a fundamental component of the teaching life. Being healthy, getting healthy, staying health, is an essential aspect needed to successfully navigate the classroom, your institution, and academic career. Gather with a network that cares about life-affirming teaching and faculty formation. Please register directly on our website or at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeb3oDM9TAdiHFE3dbkT8N6mTWr_pO…
Welcome to the Christian Scholarship Foundation reception! We are delighted to have you join us for this special luncheon to reconnect with each other.
This paper addresses the urgent need for developing pedagogical practices that cultivate relationality, openness, and conscientização amidst what Henry Giroux (via hooks and Freire) has named as the current rise of political authoritarianism, anti-intellectualism, fascism, white supremacy, and the assault on critical education and pedagogy. Through the lens of "Deepening Belonging," a co-created contemplative practice by two educators of color, we explore how nurturing of belonging and relational flourishing can serve as foundational to democratic education. Rooted in the Latin American tradition of Convivencia, this practice embodies values such as mutual respect, adaptability, open-mindedness, and collaborative learning, offering a counter-narrative to the individualized, outcome-oriented, competitive, and consumerist paradigms often prevalent in educational settings. By fostering spaces for compassionate listening, deep witnessing, and embodied ritual-making, "Deepening Belonging" not only challenges oppressive structures through spiritual awareness but also nurtures the capacities necessary for creative democratic engagement and civic participation.
What happens in the world happens in our classrooms: post-truth claims, polarizing discourses, silencing, legislation designed to limit or prohibit the teaching and learning of specific ideas, students who are still learning to navigate social and scholarly realities after years of Covid isolation. These challenges are not just academic. What happens in our classrooms will happen in the world, and though higher education has long been conceived as a space where students learn the skills vital to a thriving democracy, current conditions make the creation of such spaces feel tenuous or even impossible. This paper presents Dialogic Classrooms as one approach that equips our students to engage authentically and civically across differences such that they are able to cultivate the skills and habits necessary for robust and active citizenship, even under pressures that work against such vital engagement.
Contemporary society is deeply divided along cultural, regional, religious, racial, and socioeconomic lines. What is more, these forms of division are intertwined with growing levels of political sorting and polarization. If not checked, extreme polarization and sorting can be highly destructive to democratic culture and structures. My presentation utilizes material, assignments, and processes from a course as well as a student organization that teach students strategies for navigating the polarized environment.
