American Academy of Religion

What can study of the beliefs and practices of one tradition bring to bear on another? Michelle Voss Roberts, associate professor of theology at Wake Forest University's divinity school, discusses how ethnographic study of Indian and South Asian Hindu rituals and aesthetics can bring new theological space to explore Christian practice. Using the Indian framework of "rasa," loosely defined as emotion or taste, Roberts suggests that Christian scholars, theologians, and practitioners can reexamine and experience the Divine through mood and affect. Robert's 2014 book, "Tastes of the Divine: Hindu and Christian Theologies of Emotion" (Fordham University Press), won the American Academy of Religion's 2015 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion for constructive-reflective studies.

The 1991 publication of Karen McCarthy Brown’s “Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn,” now in its third edition, was a watershed contribution to the field of religious studies and became a perennial favorite among assigned textbooks. Brown’s exemplary ethnographic treatment of the religious practices of a Haitian immigrant humanized the adepts of this much-maligned African diaspora religion, and made social science methodology accessible to religious studies, a field theretofore dominated by (and still largely defined by) textual studies. Brown’s feminist scholarship valued women’s accounts of their religious practices and life experiences as data for research, and provided a self-reflexive interpretation of the relationships she established with field subjects who became her own religious family. The panelists reflect upon the influence of Karen McCarthy Brown’s scholarship on their own research and teaching, and how her work marked, and helped to produce, the “ethnographic turn” in the study of religion. Following their discussion, Brown's students and colleagues in the audience share candid memories of their beloved teacher and friend. Panelists: Jalane D. Schmidt, University of Virginia, Presiding Robert A. Orsi, Northwestern University Pamela Klassen, University of Toronto Aisha Beliso-De Jesus, Harvard University Claudine Michel, University of California, Santa Barbara with remarks by Linda E. Thomas, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago Charles Selengut, County College of Morris Dorothy Austin, Harvard University Diana L. Eck, Harvard University Ennis Edmonds, Kenyon College Jack Hawley, Barnard College The session was recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 22 in Atlanta, GA.

Scholar and filmmaker Ziba Mir-Hosseini, a specialist in Islamic law, gender and development and Professorial Research Associate at the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Law, University of London, is the recipient of the 2015 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion. At the Marty Forum, Professor Mir-Hosseini will be interviewed by Diana L. Eck, Harvard University. The Marty Award recognizes extraordinary contributions to the public understanding of religion. Michael Kessler (Georgetown University) and Ayesha S. Chaudhry (University of British Columbia), Presiding

In this interview, Tariq Jaffer talks about the subject of his award-winning 2014 book, Razi: Master of Qur'anic Interpretation and Theological Reasoning. Razi (1148–1210), a post-classical scholar, solidified the rational method of interpretation and reasoning in the Islamic tradition. Jaffer's book won the 2015 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the textual studies category.

A 2015 article in The Atlantic by Graeme Wood - "What ISIS Really Wants" – and the controversy it has given rise to, has brought once again to the fore questions about the kind of role scholars of religion can legitimately and usefully play in ‘defining’ religion in the public square. Wood, citing heavily the work of the Princeton Scholar of religion Bernard Haykel, is of the view that ISIS is Islamic, rooted in the textual tradition its supporters employ to authenticate their actions. In a response to this article, also in The Atlantic, Caner K. Dagli, associate professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross, is sharply critical of Wood, writing, "On what grounds do non-Muslim journalists and academics tell Muslims that their judgment that ISIS does not take a full and fair view of the Quran and Sunnah (the example and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad) amounts to a 'cotton-candy' view of Islam, while these non-Muslims retain the right to judge how 'serious' ISIS is in its understanding of core Islamic texts?" However, it is not just non-Muslim academics and journalists and their critics who are engaging in the formation of representations of what is and is not Islamic through different media channels (responses and counter responses to What ISIS Really Wants are being played out across new social media, Twitter, blogs etc). ISIS/ISIL itself makes use of social networking to also engage in a process of making a claim on what counts as Islam and Islamic. This is a very public strategy that has involved the production and the global dissemination of videos of beheadings as well as the use of Twitter and Facebook to apparently lure young Muslim women, including those from North America and Europe, to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS and engage in ‘radical’ ‘jihadist’ activities. This in turn has received no small amount of media interest and some emergent academic commentary from those wishing to document and better understanding the way that young women might be ‘radicalized’ in this way via new media. This panel brings together experts from both academia and journalism that have engaged with: 1) The recent controversies over the way in which ISIS/ISIL is represented in the public square by academics and journalists; and 2) How ISIS supporters represent ISIS via different forms of new social media, including the rising concern over the radicalization of young women. The panel session was recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Atlanta, GA, November 21-24. Panelists: Kecia Ali, Boston University Caner Dagli, College of the Holy Cross Sohaira Siddiqi, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service Ayesha S. Chaudhry, University of British Columbia, presiding

Using the Hobby Lobby and Holt v. Hobbs Supreme Court decisions as a starting point, the panel will discuss the challenges of valuing religion in law, addressing such questions as: Do court decisions in cases such as Hobby Lobby and Holt v. Hobbs serve or undermine religious pluralism? When are religious exemptions to laws that apply generally to everyone warranted? How ought religious liberty be weighed against other rights (e.g., equal protection of the laws—LGBT rights)? How do the Supreme Court Justices' opinions reflect the broader societal arguments about what counts as “religious exercise” and whether or how religion is valued in public spaces? Panelists: Matthew Scherer, George Mason University Winnifred Sullivan, Indiana University Mark Silk, Trinity College Barbara A. McGraw, Saint Mary’s This audio was recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on Sunday, November 22.

In this conversation with Kristian Petersen, scholar Winnifred Fallers Sullivan discusses how the role of chaplains in the United States developed alongside understandings of the First Amendment. Chaplaincy, she argues, provides a legal solution to the fragile problem posed by the free exercise and establishment clauses in the Constitution. Sullivan is the author of "A Ministry of Presence: Chaplaincy, Spiritual Care, and the Law" (University of Chicago Press, 2014, which won the American Academy of Religion's Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the analytical-descriptive studies category.

Just over fifty years ago, on October 22, 1965, Paul Tillich died, just days after having given his final public lecture. Consideration of the theological endeavor between then and now highlights how seminal his thought has been within the field of religion. In contemporary parlance, it could be said that in many ways today’s Academy is Tillich gone viral. On this panel, leading scholars address how Tillich’s ideas have contributed to their work in religion and science, theology and culture, theology and psychology, black liberation theology, feminist theology, ground of being theologies, and theology and world religions. The vibrancy of Tillich’s contribution to the constructive work of these scholars indicates the lasting nature of his influence on the field. A Q&A with the panelists and respondents (see below) follows. Panelists: Harvey Cox, Harvard University Robert Russell, Center for Theology and Natural Sciences, Berkeley, CA Pamela Cooper-White, Union Theological Seminary Willie J. Jennings, Yale University Respondents: Mary Ann Stenger, University of Louisville John Thatamanil, Union Theological Seminary Sharon Peebles Burch, Presiding This panel was recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 22.

This roundtable brings together public health experts and religion scholars to ask what we can learn from the epidemic in relation to the potential of religion to help or hinder effective responses to threats like Ebola, both in and beyond Africa, and how religious studies can nuance public health understandings of African realities. Epidemics always highlight or exaggerate the power relations and inequalities that characterize everyday life--no less so in the case of the West African Ebola epidemic. The epidemic has revealed the inadequacy of medical infrastructures in Africa, the influence that international institutions have over African public health crises, and the prejudices that inform popular understandings of the continent. Religion has played a key role in these dynamics. Not only have ritual practices allegedly contributed to the epidemic's spread, but religious leaders have tried to educate their followers in collaboration with public health authorities to stem the epidemic. Panelists: Elias Kifon Bongmba, Rice University Scott Santibañez, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention John Blevins, Emory University Ellen Idler, Emory University Joseph Hellweg, Florida State University, Presiding This roundtable was recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 23 in Atlanta, GA.

Pressure on humanistic disciplines like religious studies is enormous in the modern academy. From budget cuts and threats of downsizing, the professionalization of students and the instrumentalization of higher ed, to the adjunctification of faculties and STEM orientations that demand ever-increasing career-oriented outcomes for graduates, religious studies departments are no longer self-justifying in many colleges and universities. This Special Topic Forum, recorded at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, explores how religious studies departments have been and can be successful in defending their programs in the face of budget cuts or other pressures, and thus how we articulate the "value" of the study of religion to administrators and boards, to the broader academy, to funding sources like donors and legislatures, and to the public at large. Panelists, from community colleges, and private and public institutions, will share their experiences of navigating funding crises and share strategies for how to articulate the many "values" of the study of religion. Panelists: Susan E. Hill, University of Northern Iowa Charles A. Kimball, University of Oklahoma Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida Grant H. Potts, Austin Community College Erik Owens, Boston College, Presiding