#CFP: 2026 Conference: Religion, Technology, and Innovation
## 2026 Call for Papers
## 2026 Conference Proposal Instructions
### **2026 Conference Theme**
### **Religion, Technology, and Innovation**
Membership in AAR is required to present at the conference. **Become an AAR Member here**.
Submission of an abstract alone, however, does not require membership.
### **Submit your Proposal Form (****Word version****or****PDF version****) to the relevant****Unit Chair****listed below by October 31, 2025.**
The 2026 Annual Meeting will be hosted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) is the closest major airport.
**Proposal Form (PDF) - 20250825**
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## Call for Papers List
### **Black Religion and Theology**
Julius Bailey, University of Redlands, julius_bailey@redlands.edu Aaron Grizzell, NorCal MLK Foundation, aaron@norcalmlkfoundation.org
The religious experience is of significant and acute concern among our varied African diasporic communities and is worthy of close academic exploration and study. The Black Religion and Theology Unit’s mission is to further the development of scholarly research and discussion about the black religious experience; encourage the broadening of Black religion as an academic endeavor; and engage in discourse, from the African diasporic perspective, about religious and theological expression.
Following along with this year’s theme, which focuses on examining the complex intersections of religion, technology, and innovation, we welcome proposal submissions from two focus areas. The selected panelists can expect 15-20 minutes to present their work and to enable time for questions and audience responses.
Focus Area A: Artificial intelligence and generative technologies are changing the landscape of the modes and definitions of communication, imagination, connectivity, and, arguably, reality. Both religion and theology in African diasporic expressions have much to say on these matters. We welcome papers that delve into the challenges, opportunities, and innovative expressions that are being forged in this space.
Focus Area B: In many ways, the Black religious expression has been the vanguard through which social movements have forged new rights under law, and Black religious scholarship has been vital to building a bulwark against theoretical and methodological pushback in the academy regarding the grounding of these movements in the Black experience. We welcome papers that take an innovative look at modes of Black scholarship at the fulcrum of movements for justice, civil and human rights. This includes speculative and afrofuturist thought now at the forefront of many popular cultural expressions.
Please send abstract submissions (no more than 250 words) and Program Participant Forms to Aaron Grizzell (aaron@norcalmlkfoundation.org) and Julius Bailey (julius_bailey@redlands.edu). The deadline for submission is October 31, 2025. The AAR membership information is found at aarweb.org.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Julius Bailey and Aaron Grizzell by October 31, 2025.
**Buddhist Studies** Jake Nagasawa, University of California, Santa Barbara, jnagasawa@umail.ucsb.edu Alina Pokhrel, University of Virginia, alina.pokhrel@virginia.edu
Religion is often seen as a conservative force in the face of rapidly-developing technologies. Yet, as both scholars of religion and practitioners know, religious thought and practice are necessarily in dialogue with the world and can also serve as catalysts for transformation or reference points for negotiating the intersections of tradition and innovation. We are especially interested in papers/presentations that address the ethical and social implications of these issues, including how they intersect with cultural and socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, race, and differing ability. We welcome all perspectives, including those not yet represented in our ongoing conversation.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Jake Nagasawa and Alina Pokhrel by October 31, 2025.
**Catholic Studies** Samantha Kang, University of California, Santa Barbara, samanthakang@ucsb.edu Nathan McWeeney, University of Southern California, mcweeney@usc.edu
Catholic Christian traditions are often thought to be inherently conservative. However, history often reveals that these traditions have a porous relationship with their surrounding cultural and technological movements. In concert with this year’s conference theme, the Catholic Studies unit invites paper submissions that explore how Catholic traditions and technology have intersected in the past and are intersecting at present. This theme invites panelist to explore, and call into question, the very definitions of key terms like religion, Catholic, Christian, and technology. We might further explore questions like, how has technology influenced religious thought and practice in these traditions? And how have these traditions influenced technology? The unit welcomes papers from a full range of disciplines such as a philosophy, theology, history, ethnography, and anthropology.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) by October 31, 2025: Nathan McWeeney: nathan.mcweeney@gmail.com Samantha Kang: samanthakang@ucsb.edu Thomas Davis: tomdavis@csusb.edu
**Christianity** “Joey” Alan Le, Independent Scholar, joeyalanle@gmail.com
Religion is often seen as a conservative force in the face of rapidly-developing technologies. Yet, as both scholars of religion and practitioners know, religious thought and practice are necessarily in dialogue with the world and can also serve as catalysts for transformation or reference points for negotiating the intersections of tradition and innovation. We are especially interested in papers/presentations that address the ethical and social implications of these issues, including how they intersect with cultural and socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, race, and differing ability. We welcome all perspectives, including those not yet represented in our ongoing conversation.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to ”Joey” Alan Le by October 31, 2025.
**Dharma Studies** Kali (Meera) Tanikella, mtanikella@ses.gtu.edu
Decolonizing Dharma Studies in Performancex
In line with the 2025 AAR-WR conference theme, Performing Religion, Spirituality, and Faith, the Dharma Studies Unit invites proposals that critically engage with the performance of dharma traditions through the lens of decoloniality. We recognize that the study of dharma has long been shaped by colonial epistemologies, disciplinary boundaries, and orientalist frames that obscure the lived, embodied, and diverse performances of dharma across global contexts.
We seek papers that foreground the importance of decolonizing dharma studies—recovering marginalized voices, centering practitioner knowledge, and engaging with indigenous hermeneutics and community-based epistemologies. We are especially interested in how dharmic traditions are performed, embodied, contested, and re-imagined in light of colonial histories, global migration, and technological change.Please send your submissions to unit chair Kali (Meera) Tanikella, at mtanikella@ses.gtu.edu by Oct 31, 2025 .
**Disabilities Studies** Elizabeth Staszak, Independent Scholar, elizabeth.staszak@gmail.com
Relationships with technological progress vary because of spiritual and ethical challenges, particularly the worry of such technologies as threats to the very being of humanity. Questions arise from the relationship between technology, religion, and disability: Can technology generate spiritualities or alternatives to traditional religious practices? How have religious communities and individuals been shaped or reshaped by digital life? How have people responded to being shaped by digital life? Has religious studies been transformed by technology? Has disability studies been transformed by technology? At what points do technology, religion, and disability weave? How has technology aided people with disabilities ability to worship? What resistance have religious traditions had: -to using technology? -to using technology to making worship accessible for people with disabilities and other marginalized groups? Are a religion’s tenets activating resistance to technology and innovation, or are people the source of resistance? Is it both? How do concerns about technology and fear of the unknown or change factor into resistance or eventual acceptance of innovation? In what ways does technology augment or subtract from a disabled or nondisabled person’s religious experience? Do sacred scriptures warn about technological innovation? How do sacred texts speak about disability? Have religions involved texts, traditions, oral sayings, or other teachings to encourage or prohibit disabled participation? This call for papers seeks submissions that consider these questions and more for the upcoming regional conference.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Elizabeth Staszak elizabeth.staszak@gmail.com by October 31, 2025.
**Disabilities Studies and****Graduate Student Professional Development and****Joint CFP**
Hyper-normalization, the process of normalizing an unprecedented phenomenon to such a point where one can recognize its dysfunction yet unable to develop alternatives, has been an ongoing reality for many graduate students. During the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning and teaching suddenly became a new norm. Needing to quickly adapt their curriculum to an online environment, many graduate students met their unique challenges with short-sighted solutions. With professionalism as a guiding principle to academia, this expectation often places a heavy burden on marginalized graduate students, such as those who are low-income and/or neurodivergent. Without the resources and/or intuition to develop professionally, these students do not struggle intellectually, but rather how to properly navigate professionalism as a culture to a specific industry.
Various scholars and creatives have been tracing hypernormalization within particular socio-historical contexts, reorienting its liminal space between the un/known towards strategy of self-preservation and community building. In 2005, anthropologist Alexei Yurchak originally coined the term hyper-normalization in his scholarly work, _Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More_ , in which he investigates the internal paradoxes of life under the last Soviet generation. “A peculiar paradox became apparent in those years: although the system’s collapse had been unimaginable before it began, it appeared unsurprising when it happened.” (1) But, how can hypernormalization go beyond mere “diagnosis” or “identification”?
This call for proposals (CFP) seeks submissions that engage with hypernormalization in relation to academia, especially as it relates to graduate student experiences in religious studies, theology, humanities and the social sciences. As prospects in the academic job market become ever so bleak, how should graduate students be supported in ways that properly navigate and/or go beyond normative constructs of professional development? In what ways are and/or should the connections between religion and disability studies be at the heart of movements that attempt to critically engage and/or go beyond hypernormalization?
The Graduate Student Professional Development Unit and Disabilities Studies Unit invites scholars to submit proposals that (in-)directly relate to the aforementioned topics/questions or propose a new theme. The deadline for proposals and participant forms to unit chairs is October 31. Proposals should be no more than 300 words. Presenters must be members in good standing of the American Academy of Religion and register for the conference prior to their presentation. Please submit abstracts to the attention of the chairs, Kimberly Diaz (kdiaz038@ucr.edu) and Elizabeth Staszak (elizabeth.staszak@gmail.com).
**Ecology and Religion** Avalon Jade Theisenatheise2@asu.edu Matthew SwitzerMSwitzer@mymail.ciis.edu
How does the formalization of religious environmentalism through organizations and institutions impact their work? In what ways can environmental advocacy, when done within nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations shape the way it is approached? Do religious messages on sustainability vastly change when conducted through an NGO? What is the role of universities, academia, and professional organizations within the ecosystem of sacred ecologies? This session will approach these questions and similar queries. Submissions on both single-religion environmental organizations and multi-religion environmental organizations are welcome. We seek papers that address the sociological elements of religious environmental activism, whether on federally-recognized nonprofit organizations or less-formally-organized organizations. Please submit your 250-word proposal to Ecology And Religion Unit Co-Chairs Avalon Jade Theisen at atheise2@asu.edu and Matthew Switzer at mattiswitz@gmail.com.
**See Queer Studies Unit CFP for a Joint Ecology and Religion and Queer Studies CFP.**
**Goddess Studies** Kali (Meera) Tanikella, Graduate Theological Union, mtanikella@ses.gtu.edu
Religion is often seen as a conservative force in the face of rapidly-developing technologies. Yet, as both scholars of religion and practitioners know, religious thought and practice are necessarily in dialogue with the world and can also serve as catalysts for transformation or reference points for negotiating the intersections of tradition and innovation. We are especially interested in papers/presentations that address the ethical and social implications of these issues, including how they intersect with cultural and socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, race, and differing ability. We welcome all perspectives, including those not yet represented in our ongoing conversation.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Kali (Meera) Tanikella by October 31, 2025. **Graduate Student Professional Development** Kimberly Diaz, University of California, Riverside, kdiaz038@ucr.edu
Religion is often seen as a conservative force in the face of rapidly-developing technologies. Yet, as both scholars of religion and practitioners know, religious thought and practice are necessarily in dialogue with the world and can also serve as catalysts for transformation or reference points for negotiating the intersections of tradition and innovation. We are especially interested in papers/presentations that address the ethical and social implications of these issues, including how they intersect with cultural and socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, race, and differing ability. We welcome all perspectives, including those not yet represented in our ongoing conversation.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Kimberly Diaz by October 31, 2025.
**Graduate Student Professional Development and Disabilities Studies Joint CFP**
Hyper-normalization, the process of normalizing an unprecedented phenomenon to such a point where one can recognize its dysfunction yet unable to develop alternatives, has been an ongoing reality for many graduate students. During the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning and teaching suddenly became a new norm. Needing to quickly adapt their curriculum to an online environment, many graduate students met their unique challenges with short-sighted solutions. With professionalism as a guiding principle to academia, this expectation often places a heavy burden on marginalized graduate students, such as those who are low-income and/or neurodivergent. Without the resources and/or intuition to develop professionally, these students do not struggle intellectually, but rather how to properly navigate professionalism as a culture to a specific industry.
Various scholars and creatives have been tracing hypernormalization within particular socio-historical contexts, reorienting its liminal space between the un/known towards strategy of self-preservation and community building. In 2005, anthropologist Alexei Yurchak originally coined the term hyper-normalization in his scholarly work, _Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More_ , in which he investigates the internal paradoxes of life under the last Soviet generation. “A peculiar paradox became apparent in those years: although the system’s collapse had been unimaginable before it began, it appeared unsurprising when it happened.” (1) But, how can hypernormalization go beyond mere “diagnosis” or “identification”?
This call for proposals (CFP) seeks submissions that engage with hypernormalization in relation to academia, especially as it relates to graduate student experiences in religious studies, theology, humanities and the social sciences. As prospects in the academic job market become ever so bleak, how should graduate students be supported in ways that properly navigate and/or go beyond normative constructs of professional development? In what ways are and/or should the connections between religion and disability studies be at the heart of movements that attempt to critically engage and/or go beyond hypernormalization?
The Graduate Student Professional Development Unit and Disabilities Studies Unit invites scholars to submit proposals that (in-)directly relate to the aforementioned topics/questions or propose a new theme. The deadline for proposals and participant forms to unit chairs is October 31. Proposals should be no more than 300 words. Presenters must be members in good standing of the American Academy of Religion and register for the conference prior to their presentation. Please submit abstracts to the attention of the chairs, Kimberly Diaz (kdiaz038@ucr.edu) and Elizabeth Staszak (elizabeth.staszak@gmail.com).
**Indigenous Religions** Delores (Lola) Mondragón, UC Santa Barbara, mondragon@ucsb.edu
Religion is often seen as a conservative force in the face of rapidly-developing technologies. Yet, as both scholars of religion and practitioners know, religious thought and practice are necessarily in dialogue with the world and can also serve as catalysts for transformation or reference points for negotiating the intersections of tradition and innovation. We are especially interested in papers/presentations that address the ethical and social implications of these issues, including how they intersect with cultural and socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, race, and differing ability. We welcome all perspectives, including those not yet represented in our ongoing conversation.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Lola Mondragón by October 31, 2025. Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Chair any of the unit chairs of any of the three units by October 31, 2025.
**Islamic Studies** Souad Ali, Arizona State University, Tempe, souad.ali@asu.edu
Religion is often seen as a conservative force in the face of rapidly-developing technologies. Yet, as both scholars of religion and practitioners know, religious thought and practice are necessarily in dialogue with the world and can also serve as catalysts for transformation or reference points for negotiating the intersections of tradition and innovation. We are especially interested in papers/presentations that address the ethical and social implications of these issues, including how they intersect with cultural and socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, race, and differing ability. We welcome all perspectives, including those not yet represented in our ongoing conversation.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Souad Ali by October 31, 2025.
**Jewish Studies** Roberta Sabbath, University of Nevada, roberta.sabbath@unlv.edu Alexander Warren Marcus, University of Pennsylvania, awmarcus@ualberta.ca
Religion is often seen as a conservative force in the face of rapidly-developing technologies. Yet, as both scholars of religion and practitioners know, religious thought and practice are necessarily in dialogue with the world and can also serve as catalysts for transformation or reference points for negotiating the intersections of tradition and innovation. We are especially interested in papers/presentations that address the ethical and social implications of these issues, including how they intersect with cultural and socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, race, and differing ability. We welcome all perspectives, including those not yet represented in our ongoing conversation.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Roberta Sabbath, Alexander Warren Marcus, and Emily Silverman by October 31, 2025.
**Latinx Religions and Spiritualities** Saul Barcelo, Loma Linda University, sbarcelo@llu.edu
The Latinx Religions and Spiritualities Unit welcomes paper proposals exploring the intersections of Latinx religions, spiritualities, and the complex world of technology and innovation. We encourage intersectional and interdisciplinary approaches as well as a broad range of methodologies and creative contributions. In alignment with this year’s theme, Religion, Technology, and Innovation, we invite proposals that consider how Latinx religions and spiritualities have both engaged with and critiqued technological change. We seek papers that explore:
* How Latinx religions and spiritualities have adapted to, embraced, or innovated with technological advancements to sustain, deepen, and expand spiritual practices and community life.Ways in which technology has been used to foster belonging, create virtual sacred spaces, and maintain connections within Latinx communities.
* How technological tools have allowed Latinx communities to preserve, access, and revitalize ancestral wisdom and indigenous spiritual traditions, enhancing identity and continuity.
* New forms of ritual, theological reflection, or communal organization emerging through digital platforms and innovations.
At the same time, we invite proposals that critically examine:
* The price of technological advancement: How have innovations led to the dehumanization of people, exploitation of the environment, and economic oppression within Latinx communities?
* The motives behind a more modern and “connected” society. Who benefits and who is harmed by these systems?
* How Latinx religions and spiritualities discern, challenge, and resist technologies that perpetuate racial surveillance, border control, or algorithmic bias, particularly targeting immigrants and working-class communities.
* Whether there are ways to work within or outside existing technological systems to achieve liberative outcomes rooted in justice, dignity, and life-affirming values.
* How Latinx spiritualities and religions can help us imagine different ways of being that are not bound to extractive, commodifying, or dehumanizing technological models.
The deadline for submitting paper abstracts to unit chairs is October 31, 2025. All participants must also complete a Program Participant Form, which is available on the AAR/WR website. Please note that all participants at AARWR must be members of the AAR; membership information can be found here: https://aarweb.org/membership/. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words in length.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Saul Barcelo sbarcelo@llu.edu by October 31, 2025.
**Pagan Studies** Polly Springhorn, polly.moller@gmail.com Candace Kant, candace.kant@gmail.com Kahana Viale, sacreddancer2@gmail.com
The Pagan Studies Unit invites submissions addressing any dimension of Religion, Technology, and Innovation for presentation at the AAR Western Region annual meeting in March 2026 (dates and venue to be confirmed). The Pagan Studies field offers many avenues of exploration – from the BBSes of the 1980s, to the alt.pagan and related UseNet groups and the birth of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s; to cyber-rituals on IRC channels and Skype, to the Zoom rituals of COVID pandemic quarantine. In the 21st century we find #WitchTok and pop culture witches transforming fundamental aspects of Paganism. In material culture, we find matches replaced with electric igniters, and continuing differences of opinion about photographing altars, videos of rituals, and music playback devices, computers, and mobile phones in ritual spaces. We look forward to gathering and continuing our tradition of critical inquiry, creative expression, and communal learning. On behalf of the AAR-WR leadership, we invite you to join us in exploring the rich and complex terrain where religion, technology, and innovation meet. Please note that applicants need not be AAR members, but must become AAR members before presenting at the Annual Meeting. Chosen presenters will also have the opportunity to share their papers at the Spirit Northwest conference in Portland, OR on April 23-26, 2026. Download the proposal form here (Word version or PDF version), and submit to the co-chairs below by October 31, 2025. Sincerely, Candace Kant (candacekant@gmail.com) and Polly Springhorn (polly.springhorn@gmail.com), Co-Chairs, AARWR Pagan Studies Unit
Submit your Proposal Form (Word version or PDF version) to Polly Springhorn olly.springhorn@gmail.com and Candace Kant by October 31, 2025.
**Philosophy of Religion** Mitch Hickman, University of California, Santa Barbara, mitchelehickman@ucsb.edu Shakir Stephen, University of California, Santa Barbara, shakirstephen@ucsb.edu
Religion is often seen as a conservative force in the face of rapidly-developing technologies. Yet, as both scholars of religion and practitioners know, religious thought and practice are necessarily in dialogue with the world and can also serve as catalysts for transformation or reference points for negotiating the intersections of tradition and innovation. We are especially interested in papers/presentations that address the ethical and social implications of these issues, including how they intersect with cultural and socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, race, and differing ability. We welcome all perspectives, including those not yet represented in our ongoing conversation.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Mitch Hickman and Shakir Stephen by October 31, 2025.
**Psychology, Culture, and Religion** Casey Crosbie, Scripps College, caseygcrosbie@gmail.com Katherine Kunz, Center for Religion and Cities, katherine@katherinekunz.com
Religion is often seen as a conservative force in the face of rapidly-developing technologies. Yet, as both scholars of religion and practitioners know, religious thought and practice are necessarily in dialogue with the world and can also serve as catalysts for transformation or reference points for negotiating the intersections of tradition and innovation. This is especially true when considering the interplay of psychology and culture with technological innovations. This coming year at AAR-WR, PCR is looking for papers that explore these issues by asking questions such as:
- How have religious communities historically responded to technological and social change – sometimes resisting, sometimes adapting, sometimes embracing? - What roles do apocalyptic or utopian narratives play in believers’ interpretations of AI or other emerging technologies? - How do religious teachings grapple with challenges to traditional views of the human being (such as ground-breaking and increasingly pervasive forms of artificial intelligence)? - How do faith organizations navigate platform dependence (social media, YouTube) and algorithmic equations to carry on religious practices? - Do the above technologies transform embodiment, affect, and belonging in worship? - How do culture and religion shape these technologies and how do technologies shape emerging culture and religious practice?
We are especially interested in papers/presentations that address the ethical, social, and psychological implications of these issues, including how they intersect with cultural and socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, race, and differing ability. We seek contributions that explore both historical and emerging forms of religiosity as they engage with societal innovation, including those that challenge conventional boundaries or arise from unexpected contexts.
Please send a 250-word abstract and your Program Participant Form to unit chairs. Presenters must be members in good standing of the American Academy of Religion and register for the conference prior to their presentation. Submit abstracts to the attention of the section co-chairs, Katherine Kunz (katherine@katherinekunz.com), and Casey Crosbie (caseygcrosbie@gmail.com).
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Casey Crosbie and Katherine Kunz by October 31, 2025.
**Queer Studies in Religion, Joint CFP with Ecology and Religion** Marie Cartier, California State University, Northridge, ezmerelda@earthlink.net John Erickson, Independent Scholar, jerickson85@gmail.com Queering Sacred Technologies and Ecological Techniques: The Queer Studies in Religion and Religion and Ecology Units welcomes topical presentations, papers, fully formed panels, and presentations inside and outside of the academy which explore the intersections of queerness, technology, ecology, and the sacred. Specifically, how queer ecological approaches challenge normative relationships with nature, examining outdoor spaces and their interactions with queer identity and the environment, the impacts of queering ecology in a time of anti-environmentalism, endeavoring to understand nature, biology, and sexuality in the light of queer theory, and rejecting that heterosexuality is the standard. We are also interested in emphasizing how queer communities create alternative spiritual technologies, digital sanctuaries, and transformative practices that resist oppression. Nature doesn’t exist in a standard state, nor does identity. Possible contributions might:
* Examine how queer ecological techniques and institutions facilitate imaginative breaks and disruptions with standard logics and normative orders in traditional landscapes
* Investigate the relationship between religious violence and ecological violence, particularly how both rely on nonreciprocal relational modes that can be challenged through queer approaches to nature
* Explore how wild freedoms offer diverse approaches to reciprocal relationship
* Analyze how traditional ecological knowledge and queer practices create new forms of resistance
* Consider how queer approaches to ecology and technology might prefigure sites of sanctuary against profit, extraction, and assimilation
* Investigate how technology mediates, enhances, or complicates queer relationships with nature and the sacred
The session would also welcome an ecology walk, facilitated by an organization or individual with expertise in the area, as well as presentations on queer challenges to dominant frameworks. Please submit your 250-word proposal to Queer Studies Co-Chairs Marie Cartier, Ph.D. at ezmerelda@earthlink.net and John Erickson, Ph.D. at jerickson85@gmail.com and Ecology and Ecology Co-Chairs Avalon Jade Theisen at atheise2@asu.edu and Matthew Switzer at mattiswitz@gmail.com.
**Religion, Science, and Technology** Greg Cootsona, CSU Chico, gcootsona@csuchico.edu Reed Metcalf, Fuller Theological Seminary, reedmetcalf@fuller.edu
Religion is often seen as a conservative force in the face of rapidly-developing technologies. Yet, as both scholars of religion and practitioners know, religious thought and practice are necessarily in dialogue with the world and can also serve as catalysts for transformation or reference points for negotiating the intersections of tradition and innovation. We are especially interested in papers/presentations that address the ethical and social implications of these issues, including how they intersect with cultural and socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, race, and differing ability. We welcome all perspectives, including those not yet represented in our ongoing conversation.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Greg Cootsona and Reed Metcalf by October 31, 2025.
**Religion and the Arts** Anna Hennessey, Graduate Theological Union, dr.amhennessey@gmail.com In line with AAR/WR’s 2026 Conference Theme, Religion, Technology, and Innovation, the Religion and the Arts unit this year explores technology and the arts, as well as religion and artistic expression more broadly. We will also consider papers related to art, technology, religion, and politics taking place in the United States and abroad, including cases such as those of a US funded genocide in Palestine and ICE raids wreaking havoc across cities and towns in the United States. In these cases, we are interested in how artists use technology both as forms of resistance against human atrocity and as a means of artistic innovation to raise awareness. Topics of possible interest include: ∙ Social media projects through platforms such as Tik Tok that bring about awareness to marginalized art, artists, and political events (e.g. coverage of Palestine artwork in Bow East London) ∙ The use of light and technology in the works of Neo-Indigenous artists such as Victor Quiñonez, including his I.C.E. Scream sculptures. ∙ Digital art created solely for a digital platform related to Afrofuturism or Transhumanism ∙ How technology and innovation are being used to bring back Indigenous artistic practices (which also raises the question of how something that has never left could be brought back). We are always open to coverage of all other topics on art and religion that are unrelated to this year’s unit CFP or to the general conference theme. We encourage the submission of papers that utilize interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and nontraditional approaches to research, as well as a traditional format for paper delivery. Please send a 250 word abstract and your Program Participant Form (downloadable through this page near the top of page under “Program Participant Form”) by October 15, 2026 as an email attachment to Anna Hennessey dr.amhennessey@gmail.com. We look forward to receiving your proposals.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Anna Hennessey and Tamisha Tyler by October 31, 2025. **Religions of Asia** Fadime Apaydin, University of California, Riverside, fapay002@ucr.eduİhsan Çapcıoğlu, Ankara University, Turkey, ihsancapcioglu@yahoo.com
The Religions of Asia Unit will prioritize unpublished works, as it intends to propose an edited volume—based on selected papers presented at the connference—to a reputable academic publisher.
Under the theme of “Religion, Technology, and Innovation,” the Religions of Asia Unit warmly invites scholars to explore how religious traditions across Asia have engaged with technological developments, adapted to innovation, and redefined spiritual authority, rituals, and ethical reflections in light of emerging possibilities. Topics may include, but are not limited to (with a focus on Asian religions and traditions):
* Algorithmic authority and legitimacy in emerging movements
* Digital mediation and transmission of sacred texts and rituals
* Digital pedagogy and innovations in religious education
* Indigenous technologies and decolonial cosmologies
* Responses to artificial intelligence and biotechnology in Asian religious thought
* Sensory technologies in meditation, trance, and healing
* Technoscientific religion in Asian contexts
* Techno-utopias and eschatological imaginaries
* Transnational and diasporic spiritualities in digital spaces
We also welcome proposals that align with the broader conference theme. Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Fadime Apaydin by October 31, 2025.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Fadime Apaydin fapay002@ucr.edu by October 31, 2025.
**Womanist/Pan-African** Valerie Miles-Tribble, GTU / Berkeley School of Theology, vmiles-tribble@bst.edu Sakena Young-Scaggs, Stanford University, revsystah@gmail.com
Religion is often seen as a conservative force in the face of rapidly-developing technologies. Yet, as both scholars of religion and practitioners know, religious thought and practice are necessarily in dialogue with the world and can also serve as catalysts for transformation or reference points for negotiating the intersections of tradition and innovation. We are especially interested in papers/presentations that address the ethical and social implications of these issues, including how they intersect with cultural and socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, race, and differing ability. We welcome all perspectives, including those not yet represented in our ongoing conversation.
Please submit your 250-word proposal using Proposal Form (Word or PDF) by October 31, 2024. to Rev. Dr. Valerie Miles-Tribble (vmiles-tribble@bst.edu) and to Rev. Dr. Sakena Young Scaggs (revdrsys@stanford.edu). Questions? Contact either Co-Chair.
**Women and Religion** Emily Silverman (Interim), Graduate Theological Union, ebinah@gmail.com
Religion is often seen as a conservative force in the face of rapidly-developing technologies. Yet, as both scholars of religion and practitioners know, religious thought and practice are necessarily in dialogue with the world and can also serve as catalysts for transformation or reference points for negotiating the intersections of tradition and innovation. We are especially interested in papers/presentations that address the ethical and social implications of these issues, including how they intersect with cultural and socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, race, and differing ability. We welcome all perspectives, including those not yet represented in our ongoing conversation.
Submit your Proposal Form (Word or PDF) to Emily Silverman by October 31, 2025.
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