R ELIGIOUS ELIGIOUS S S TUDIES TUDIES N N EWS EWS Published by the American Academy of Religion Vol. 24, No. 3 May 2009 FEATURES In the Public Interest ..................19 Exhibiting Religion Research Briefing .....................20 Making a Homeland: Imagining Sacred Spaces in the Nineteenth Century African Methodist Episcopal Church From the Student Desk ................21 “I Study Physics”: Denying My Identity as a Religion Scholar Call for From the Student Desk Submissions .........................21 AAR President Mark Juergensmeyer discusses his thoughts on his journey and his goals for the Academy as its president. See his interview on page 9. From the Editor ........................................................2 Conversation with the President ............................9 Mark Juergensmeyer Leadership Summit Synopsis ........................10–11 The Success behind AAR’s First Leadership Summit Statement of Best Practices for Academic Job Offers ..............................................................12 New Statement Approved by Board Impacts AAR Career Services Teaching Is an Aspiration Not an Encumbrance..............................................13–14 A Conversation with Spotlight on Teaching Editor Tazim Kassam Executive Committee Establishes Support for Sustainability Research Efforts ............................15 Three-pronged Initiative Announced Journalists Name Top Religion Stories of 2008 ....15 U.S. Presidential Election Tops the List for Second Year JAAR Call for Papers ............................................16 Three Calls Announced — The AAR at 100: A Centennial Reflection; The Return of Religion after “Religion”: Consequences for Theology and Religious Studies; and Religion and Reasons: Justification, Argument, and Cultural Difference Luce Summer Seminars Cohort One Fellows Announced ............................................................17 25 Fellows Announced for the 2009–2010 Year Upcoming Summer Seminar ................................17 Theologies of Religious Pluralism and Comparative Theology Call for AAR Series Book Editor ..........................18 Teaching Religious Studies Series Briefs ......................................................................18 News from Around the Academy Membership Corner ..............................................24 Important Information for Our Members 2009 Annual Meeting News Plenary Addresses ......................3 This Year’s Featured Speakers Visa Requirements Reminder .............3 Future Annual Meeting Dates and Sites .....3 Special Invited Guests ..................4 Improved Annual Meeting Publications .....4 Program Planner and Program Book Tours in Montréal .....................5 Several on Offer at Annual Meeting International Focus ....................5 Globalization of Religion in North America Sustainability Workshop .................6 Religious Studies in an Age of Global Warming: Transforming Ourselves, Our Students, and Our Universities Leadership Workshop ...................7 Three Religion Majors Meet in a Café: What Do They Have in Common? Focus on Montréal .....................8 Québec’s Quiet Revolution: From Catholic Hegemony to a Modern State Address area leave blank
Transcript
RRELIGIOUSELIGIOUS S STUDIESTUDIES N NEWSEWSPublished by the American Academy of Religion Vol. 24, No. 3May 2009
AAR President Mark Juergensmeyer discusses his thoughts on hisjourney and his goals for the Academy as its president. See hisinterview on page 9.
From the Editor........................................................2Conversation with the President............................9
Mark Juergensmeyer
Leadership Summit Synopsis ........................10–11The Success behind AAR’s First Leadership Summit
Statement of Best Practices for AcademicJob Offers..............................................................12
New Statement Approved by Board Impacts AAR Career Services
Teaching Is an Aspiration Notan Encumbrance..............................................13–14
A Conversation with Spotlight on Teaching Editor Tazim Kassam
Executive Committee Establishes Support forSustainability Research Efforts ............................15
Three-pronged Initiative Announced
Journalists Name Top Religion Stories of 2008 ....15U.S. Presidential Election Tops the List for Second Year
JAAR Call for Papers ............................................16Three Calls Announced — The AAR at 100: A Centennial Reflection;The Return of Religion after “Religion”: Consequences for Theology andReligious Studies; and Religion and Reasons: Justification, Argument, andCultural Difference
Luce Summer Seminars Cohort One FellowsAnnounced ............................................................17
25 Fellows Announced for the 2009–2010 Year
Upcoming Summer Seminar ................................17Theologies of Religious Pluralism and Comparative Theology
Call for AAR Series Book Editor ..........................18Teaching Religious Studies Series
Briefs......................................................................18News from Around the Academy
Membership Corner..............................................24Important Information for Our Members
Deborah MinorDirector of Finance and AdministrationE-MAIL: [email protected]: 404-727-7954
Robert PuckettDirector of MeetingsE-MAIL: [email protected]: 404-727-1461
Susan SniderAssociate Director of External RelationsE-MAIL: [email protected]: 404-727-4725
Religious Studies News (USPS 841-720) is pub-lished quarterly by the American Academy ofReligion in January, March, May, and October.Letters to the editor and features examining profes-sional issues in the field are welcome from all read-ers. Please send editorial pieces in electronic uncom-pressed file format only (MSWord is preferred) to:[email protected].
Subscriptions for individuals and institutions areavailable. See www.aarweb.org/publications/rsn formore information.
Deadlines for submissions:January October 15March December 15
May February 15October June 15
AdvertisingFor information on advertising, please seewww.aarweb.org/publications/rsn.
Publisher:American Academy of Religion825 Houston Mill Road NE, Suite 300Atlanta, GA 30329 USA
POSTMASTER:Send address changes to Religious Studies News
825 Houston Mill Road, Suite 300Atlanta, GA 30329
Periodicals postage paid at Atlanta, GA.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion Juneissue.
June 15.Membership renewal deadline for2009 Annual Meeting participants.
June 15. Annual Meeting registration deadlinefor 2009 Annual Meeting participants.
June 15. Submission deadline for the Octoberissue of Religious Studies News. For more infor-mation, seewww.aarweb.org/Publications/RSN.
JulyJuly 1. Annual Meeting program goes online.
July 1.New fiscal year begins.
July 31.Deadline for participants to requestaudiovisual equipment at the Annual Meeting.
AugustAugust 1. Research grant applications due. Formore information, seewww.aarweb.org/Programs/Grants.
August 1. Regional development grant applica-tions due to Regionally Elected Directors.
August 15.Membership renewal period for2010 begins.
SeptemberJournal of the American Academy of ReligionSeptember issue.
TBD. Program Committee meeting, SantaBarbara, CA.
TBD. Executive Committee meeting, SantaBarbara, CA.
September 1. Deadline for submissions ofnominations for AAR Series Book Editor.See this issue, page 18, for more information.
September 29. Finance Committee meeting,Atlanta, GA.
September 28–October 28. AAR officer elec-tion period. Candidate profiles will be publishedin the October RSN.
OctoberReligious Studies NewsOctober issue.
Spotlight on Teaching Fall issue.
October 1.Deadline for Additional Meetingsinclusion into the Annual Meeting Program Book.
October 12. Annual Meeting Job Center pre-registration closes.
October 15. Submissions for the January 2010issue of Religious Studies News due. For moreinformation, seewww.aarweb.org/Publications/RSN.
October 15. Regional development grantawards announced.
NovemberNovember 1. Research grant awards announced.
November 5. Regionally Elected Directorsmeeting, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
November 5. Executive Committee meeting,Montréal, Québec, Canada.
November 6. Fall Board of Directors meeting,Montréal, Québec, Canada.
November 6. LeadershipWorkshop at theAnnual Meeting, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
November 6. SustainabilityWorkshop at theAnnual Meeting, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
November 7. Annual Meeting registration andhousing opens for 2010 meeting.
November 7–10. Annual Meeting, Montréal,Québec, Canada.The AAR Annual Meeting,the world’s largest gathering of scholars of reli-
gion, anticipates some 5,500 registrants, 200publishers, and 125 hiring departments.
TBD. Annual Business Meeting at the AnnualMeeting. See the Program Book for day and time.
November 20.New program unit proposalsdue.
DecemberJournal of the American Academy of ReligionDecember issue.
TBD. Program Committee meeting,Atlanta, GA.
December 15. Submissions for theMarch 2010issue of Religious Studies News due. For moreinformation, seewww.aarweb.org/Publications/RSN.
December 31.Membership renewal for 2010due. Renew online atwww.aarweb.org/Members/Dues.
And keep in mindthroughout the year…Regional organizations have various deadlinesthroughout the fall for theCalls for Papers. Seewww.aarweb.org/Meetings/regions.asp.
In the Field.News of events and opportunitiesfor scholars of religion. In the Field is a members-only publication that accepts brief announce-ments, including calls for papers, grant news,conference announcements, and other opportu-nities appropriate for scholars of religion. Submittext online atwww.aarweb.org/Publications/In_the_Field/submit1.asp.
Job Postings. Amembers-only publication, JobPostings lists job announcements in areas of inter-est to members. Issues are available online fromthe first through the last day of the month.Submit announcements online, and review poli-cies and pricing, atwww.aarweb.org/Publications/Openings/submitad1.asp.
Dear Readers:
This issue of Religious Studies News will be the last printed issue of this member newsletter, a publication which has served themembership of the American Academy of Religion since 1986. The Academy is facing extraordinary financial times, times in whichwe are called to continue producing the benefits our members expect of us, while at the same time having to face a substantialconstriction in our annual income. RSN has been a multiple message publication (news, announcements, marketing, solicitations,and education), and will continue to be this — but in a different communication medium. Later this year, RSN will go online. Bornof economic necessity, this move will help the Academy achieve an important environmental goal — sustainability. By this move toan electronic format, we will eliminate the need for and cost of paper and ink and the waste/recycling of the print edition once it isread and disposed of.
With this new online version, we can also move the timing of each “issue” to correspond with events in the field and within theAcademy. With the printed RSN we had been constrained to publish it based on the cyclical and seasonal nature of our members’academic calendar. With an online publication our members will be able to view each issue anywhere in the world, at any time.
Many of us in the Executive Office have worked on RSN in one capacity or another over the last decade. We always liked to thinkthat putting together the issues each year gave us a good grasp of the life of the Academy.
We hope you will enjoy the new look of RSN.
Carey J. GiffordExecutive Editor
FROM THE EDITOR
Religious Studies News is the newspaper of record for the field especially designed to serve the professional needs ofpersons involved in teaching and scholarship in religion (broadly construed to include religious studies, theology, andsacred texts). Published quarterly by the American Academy of Religion, RSN is received by some 11,000 scholarsand by libraries at colleges and universities across North America and abroad. Religious Studies News communicatesthe important events of the field and related areas. It provides a forum for members and others to examine critical issuesin education, pedagogy (especially through the biannual Spotlight on Teaching), theological education (through theannual Spotlight on Theological Education), research, publishing, and the public understanding of religion. It alsopublishes news about the services and programs of the AAR and other organizations, including employment servicesand registration information for the AAR Annual Meeting.
For writing and advertising guidelines, please see www.aarweb.org/publications/rsn.RRE
LIG
IOU
SE
LIG
IOU
SS S
TU
DIE
ST
UD
IES
N NE
WS
EW
S
June
May 2009 RSN • 3
ANNUAL MEETING NEWS
2009 Plenary Addresses2009PresidentialAddressBeyond Words andWar: The GlobalFuture of Religion
Saturday7:30 PM–8:30 PM
Mark Juergensmeyer, University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara
Mark Juergensmeyer is director of theOrfalea Center for Global andInternational Studies, professor of sociol-ogy, and affiliate professor of religiousstudies at the University of California,Santa Barbara. He is an expert on reli-gious violence, conflict resolution, andSouth Asian religion and politics. He haspublished more than two hundred arti-cles and twenty books, including therecently released Global Rebellion:Religious Challenges to the Secular State(University of California Press 2008).His widely read Terror in the Mind ofGod: The Global Rise of Religious Violence(University of California Press, revisededition 2003), is based on interviewswith religious activists around the world— including individuals convicted of the1993 World Trade Center bombing,leaders of Hamas, and abortion clinicbombers in the United States. A previousbook, The New Cold War? ReligiousNationalism Confronts the Secular State(University of California Press, 1993),covers the rise of religious activism andits confrontation with secular modernity.Jurgensmeyer has edited the OxfordHandbook of Global Religion (OxfordUniversity Press 2006), Religion in GlobalCivil Society (Oxford University Press2005), and is coediting The Encyclopediaof Global Religions (Sage Publications2008) and The Encyclopedia of GlobalStudies (Sage Publications 2009). His2006 Stafford Little Lectures atPrinceton University, “God and War,”will be published by Princeton UniversityPress. Juergensmeyer chairs the workinggroup on Religion and InternationalAffairs for the national Social ScienceResearch Council. Since the events ofSeptember 11, he has been a frequentcommentator in the news media.
Named by Time magazine as one of theone hundred most important innovatorsof the twenty-first century, TariqRamadan occupies a unique place amongleading Islamic thinkers. Representing anew generation of Islamic reformers,Ramadan advocates the exploration andapplication of Islamic traditions and val-ues within a modern pluralistic context,calling on Western Muslims to embraceWestern culture rather than reject it. ASwiss national, he is a well-respected pro-fessor of theology at the University ofOxford. Ramadan has written more thantwenty books exploring the difficultissues of reinterpretation and reformwithin Islam itself and between theIslamic world and its neighbors aroundthe globe. His books include WesternMuslims and the Future of Islam (OxfordUniversity Press, 2003), Islam, the West,and the Challenges of Modernity (TheIslamic Foundation, 2000), To Be aEuropean Muslim (The IslamicFoundation, 1998), and Jihad, Violence,War, and Peace in Islam (in French only,Tawhid, 2002). Ramadan serves as anexpert in various commissions linked tothe Brussels Parliament, and is a memberof several working parties concerned withIslam in the world and on the continent.
Because we are meeting in Canada thisyear, Ramadan will be able to speak liveto AAR attendees, unlike 2004 and2006, when the United States StateDepartment would not issue him a visato attend the Annual Meetings.
Islamic thinkers and activists are facing thegreat social changes associated with moder-nity that other religious traditions havefaced and are facing. Cultural diaspora, thecontext of pluralism, the breakdown of tra-ditional family and social patterns, chang-ing cultural values (including shifting gen-der roles and sexual attitudes), and theintersection of political and spiritual ideas— all these are elements of modernity thathave confronted all religious traditions. AreIslamic responses any different? Are theydiverse and changing? Are there internaldisputes as well as external pressures? Andwhat is the future of Islamic ideas and cul-ture in a postmodern world? These andsimilar questions will be addressed by a dis-tinguished panel of observers of the con-temporary Islamic world, exploring thechanging character of Islamic modernity inall of its geographic and cultural diversity.
Panelists:
Tariq Ramadan, University of OxfordNilüfer Göle, L’École des Hautes Études enSciences Sociales
Robin Wright, Washington Post
RethinkingSecularismSunday9:00 AM–11:30 AMMark Juergensmeyer,University of California,Santa Barbara,Presiding
The emergence of strident new forms ofreligion in the twenty-first century chal-lenges the domain of secular ideas andinstitutions in the public sphere — andencourages a rethinking of what secularismis, as an ideology and as a way of life. Thispanel brings together some of the mostarticulate social theorists writing on thesubject — scholars associated with a majorproject on rethinking secularism sponsoredby the Social Science Research Council, athink tank supported by the professionalacademic associations of the social sciences.They explore the roots of the secular idealin eighteenth century EuropeanEnlightenment thought, the way it isdiversely reconceived in the present dayaround the world, and how the concept ischanging. They raise the question ofwhether we are moving into a newmoment of history marked by resurgentreligion in public life — a post-secular age.
Panelists:
Charles Taylor, McGill UniversityJosé Casanova, Georgetown UniversityCraig Calhoun, New York UniversitySaba Mahmood, University of California,Berkeley
GlobalPerspectives onReligious StudiesMonday
Vasudha Narayanan,University of Florida,Presiding
The modern field of religious studies isarguably a European and American inven-tion and yet it flourishes around the world.Are there differences between the Europeanand American paradigms of religious stud-ies, and is the field of religious studies con-ceived differently in India, Indonesia,Mexico, and elsewhere? Is there resentmentover what may be regarded as the intellec-tual colonialism of transported analyticframeworks from the West around theworld, and are there new currents of intel-lectual creativity in disparate parts of theworld that may be appropriated by Westernscholars? This panel of distinguished inter-national scholars of religious studies willdescribe how religious studies as a fieldfares within their own regions, how it ischanging and becoming innovative, andhow it interacts with the scholarship fromthe European and American academiccommunity.
Panelists:
Azyumardi Azra, Syarif Hidayatullah StateIslamic University, Indonesia
Shrivatsa Goswami, Vrindavan, IndiaKoichi Mori, Doshisha University, JapanSylvia Marcos, Universidad Autonoma delEstado de Morelos, Mexico
Kim Knott, University of Leeds, UnitedKingdom
For times and locations, see the online ProgramBook at www.aarweb.org in July.
Centennial Plenary PanelsIn addition to the regular plenary lectures, the AAR is pleased to offer three Centennial PlenaryPanels on the theme of the Globalization of Religion:
Visa RequirementsIT IS NECESSARY for those entering Canada to clear customsand immigration. Visitors from the United States, Mexico, andthe European Union must present a passport in order to enterCanada. Please be prepared. Non-North American andEuropean Union citizens should inquire about possible visarequirements. Please see www.cic.gc.ca for details.Official letters of invitation to the AnnualMeeting to support visa applications areavailable. E-mail [email protected] your name, address, and the full contactinformation of the Canadian consulate ofyour country.
4 • May 2009 RSN
Religious Studies News
Thomas AltizerThomas Altizergraduated from theUniversity of Chicagowith BA, MA, andPhD degrees. He thenbecame professor ofEnglish at EmoryUniversity, where hetaught from 1956 to
1968. While teaching at Emory, Altizer andhis religious views were featured in thefamous 1966 Time magazine article, “IsGod Dead?” The Time article dealt withAltizer’s religious proclamation of a secular-ization thesis; that, on a pure level, viewedGod’s death (really self-extinction) as aprocess that began at the world’s creationand came to an end through Jesus Christ —whose crucifixion in reality poured outGod’s full spirit into this world. In develop-ing his position, Altizer drew upon thedialectical thought of Hegel, the visionarywritings of William Blake, the anthropo-sophical thought of Owen Barfield, andadapted aspects of Mircea Eliade’s view ofthe sacred and the profane. In the mid-1960s, Altizer was drawn into discussionsabout his views with other radical Christiantheologians, such as Gabriel Vahanian,William Hamilton, and Paul Van Buren,and also with the Jewish rabbi RichardRubenstein. Each of these thinkers appearedto form a loose network of other thinkerswho held to different versions of the deathof God. Altizer is currently professor emeri-tus of religious studies at the StateUniversity of New York, Stony Brook. Hismemoir is entitled Living the Death of God.
Slavoj ZizekSlavoj Zizek is aLacanian Marxist soci-ologist, psychoanalyst,and cultural critic. Hereceived a Doctor ofArts in philosophyfrom the University ofLjubljana in Sloveniaand studied psycho-
analysis at the University of Paris VIII withJacques-Alain Miller and François Regnault.Zizek is a senior researcher at the Instituteof Sociology, University of Ljubljana,Slovenia, and a professor at the EuropeanGraduate School. He is currently theInternational Director of the BirkbeckInstitute for the Humanities at Birkbeck,University of London, and president of theSociety for Theoretical Psychoanalysis,Ljubljana. Zizek’s work is infamously idio-syncratic. It features striking dialecticalreversals of received common sense, a ubiq-uitous sense of humor, a patented disrespecttowards the modern distinction betweenhigh and low culture, and the examinationof examples taken from the most diversecultural and political fields. Zizek challengesmany of the founding assumptions oftoday’s left-liberal academy, including theelevation of difference or otherness as endsin themselves, the reading of the WesternEnlightenment as implicitly totalitarian,and the pervasive skepticism towards anycontext-transcendent notions of truth orgood. Zizek has reinvigorated JacquesLacan’s challenging psychoanalytic theory,controversially reading him as a thinkerwho carries forward founding modernistcommitments to the Cartesian subject andthe liberating potential of self-reflectiveagency, if not self-transparency. Zizek’sworks since 1997 have become more andmore explicitly political, contesting thewidespread consensus that we live in a post-ideological or postpolitical world.
Gérard BouchardGérard Bouchard is ahistorian and sociolo-gist from Québec affil-iated with theUniversité du Québecà Chicoutimi. Heobtained his PhD inhistory from theUniversity of Paris in
1971. Trained in sociology and history, helaunched a huge social history project onthe Saguenay region, located in northeast-ern Québec and opened to settlement in the1830s. One of the major goals ofBouchard’s project was to build a computer-ized population register (called BALSAC) ofthis regional population between 1838 and1971. Over the years, the project has gener-ated numerous articles and collections ofessays, culminating in 1996 in the publica-tion of a synthesis book, Quelques arpentsd’Amérique: Population, économie, famille auSaguenay, 1838–1971 (Montréal, Boréal).BALSAC also gave birth to various researchprograms in the field of social history, his-torical demography, cultural studies, andhuman genetics. The various collaborationsestablished through these research projectsled to the creation of the InteruniversityInstitute for Population Research (IREP),which Gérard Bouchard headed until 1998.Since leaving IREP, he has remained respon-sible for the BALSAC Project, whose mainobjective is to cover the whole of theQuébec population since the beginning ofthe settlement in the seventeenth centuryup to recent years. Bouchard is the youngerbrother of Lucien Bouchard, Premier ofQuébec from 1996 to 2001. Like his broth-er, he is a supporter of the Québec sover-eignty movement. In 2007, he was appoint-ed, along with Charles Taylor, to chair aprovincial government inquiry into“Reasonable Accommodation.”
Abdul Karim SoroushAbdul Karim Soroushis an Iranian thinker,philosopher, reformer,Rumi scholar, and for-mer professor at theUniversity of Tehran.He is a well-knownfigure in the religiousintellectual movement
in Iran. After the Revolution, Soroushreturned to Iran and published his book,Knowledge and Value — the writing ofwhich he had completed in England. Hethen went to Tehran’s Teacher TrainingCollege, where he was appointed director ofthe newly established Islamic CultureGroup. While in Tehran, Soroush estab-lished studies in both history and the phi-losophy of science. During the 1990s,Soroush gradually became more critical ofthe political role played by the Iranian cler-gy. The monthly magazine that he cofound-ed, Kiyan, soon became the most visibleforum ever for religious intellectualism. Inthis magazine, he published his most con-troversial articles on religious pluralism,hermeneutics, tolerance, and clericalism.Kiyan was clamped down upon in 1998, aswell as many other magazines and newspa-pers, by the direct order of the supremeleader of the Islamic Republic. Over thenext year, Soroush lost his three senior aca-demic appointments, including a deanship.Public appearances were banned and he wasforbidden to publish new articles. Since2000, Soroush has lived in the UnitedStates and Europe, and has taught atHarvard University, Princeton University,and Georgetown University.
Improvements to Annual Meeting Publications
UPDATE YOUR mailing address nowto receive a copy of the new AnnualMeeting Program Planner, mailed in
early June to all members of the AAR.Please allow 3–4 weeks for delivery. ProgramPlanners will be mailed to new and renewingmembers in September. You can updateyour mailing address by going to www.aar-web.org/ Members/My_AAR and clicking on“Change Contact Information.”
The Program Planner contains a listing of theday, time, theme, participant names, andpaper titles for all AAR sessions and a listingof the day, time, and theme for all AdditionalMeetings sessions. It is a great way to beginyour Annual Meeting planning.
The format for the 2009 Program Planner isimproved from the 2008 format; it will listthe participant names and paper titles forevery AAR session, as well as contain a par-ticipant index. However, it will not includesession abstracts for highlighted sessions.
A complete listing of all AAR andAdditional Meetings session information,including participant names, paper titles,room locations, and abstracts, will be avail-able in the online Program Book on the AARwebsite at www.aarweb.org by July 1. Thekeyword, date/time, and other search fea-tures will allow you to find the sessions youare most interested in attending. The onlineProgram Book includes a utility in which youcan select the individual sessions you wantto print to make your own custom program.
The Annual Meeting Program Book will bedistributed to all Annual Meeting attendeesonsite in Montréal. This is the familiar pub-lication that includes complete session list-ings of AAR and Additional Meetings withup-to-date times, room locations, sessionand participant indices, hotel maps, andadvertising about discounts in the AnnualMeeting exhibit hall.
Special Invited Guests
May 2009 RSN • 5
ANNUAL MEETING NEWS
2009 Annual Meeting International Focus: Globalization ofReligion in North America
A S PART OF the American Academyof Religion’s centennial celebration,the International Connections
Committee’s international focus at the AnnualMeeting in Montréal is “Globalization ofReligion in North America.” In the one hun-dred years that the AAR has been in existence,the religious landscape has changed alongsidedemographic shifts in North America. Thechanging culture has influenced the Academydramatically as scholars and teachers — espe-cially in individual research and teaching —and all others present and practice religion.
The International Connections Committeewill not be sponsoring any North Americanscholars for this focus, as North Americanscholars will already attend the meeting. In thepast, the Committee would sponsor severalscholars from the featured region to attendand address the Annual Meeting. Instead, theCommittee encouraged all program units toformulate sessions to address how globaliza-tion has influenced the study of, teaching of,and practice of religion.
There are three Special Topics Forums that theCommittee is sponsoring for the Montréalmeeting, and we encourage you to make aspecial effort to attend:
• Global Economies of the Sacred—GilyaGerda Schmidt, University of Tennessee,Knoxville, presiding; with panelists AndreaSmith, University of California, Riverside;Amos Yong, Regent University; DavidChidester, University of Cape Town;Ginette Ishimatsu, University of Denver;and Amir Hussain, Loyola MarymountUniversity.
• Diasporas of Religion and Religions ofDiaspora—Manuel Vasquez, Universityof Florida, presiding; with panelists CynthiaM. Baker, Bates College; Jacob Olupona,Harvard University; Khyati Joshi, FairleighDickinson University; Thomas Tweed,University of Texas, Austin; and VasudhaNarayanan, University of Florida.
• Transnationalism and Pedagogy:Teaching and Learning beyond Borders(cosponsored with the Teaching andLearning Committee) —Teresia MbariHinga, Santa Clara University, presiding;with panelists Edward Phillip Antonio, IliffSchool of Theology; Richard Foltz,Concordia University; Gemma Cruz,DePaul University; and Arvind Sharma,McGill University.
Additionally, AAR President MarkJuergensmeyer has organized three CentennialPlenary Panels on the following themes:
• Islam and Modernity—Reza Aslan,University of California, Riverside, presid-ing; with panelists Tariq Ramadan,University of Oxford; Nilüfer Göle, L’Écoledes Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales; andRobinWright,Washington Post.
• Global Perspectives on ReligiousStudies—Vasudha Narayanan, Universityof Florida, presiding; with panelistsAzyumardi Azra, Syarif Hidayatullah StateIslamic University, Indonesia; ShrivatsaGoswami, Vrindavan, India; Koichi Mori,Doshisha University, Japan; Sylvia Marcos,Universidad Autónoma del Estado deMorelos; and Kim Knott, University ofLeeds.
• Rethinking Secularism—MarkJuergensmeyer, University of California,Santa Barbara, presiding; with panelistsCharles Taylor, McGill University; JoséCasanova, Georgetown University; CraigCalhoun, New York University; and SabaMahmood, University of California,Berkeley.
Tariq Ramadan will address the AAR in a ple-nary address. It will be his first time to addressthe AAR in person, though he has participatedvia satellite linkup during past AAR meetings.
The International Connections Committeeencourages all to attend its sessions and thosesessions that Program Units have created cele-brating and investigating the Globalizationtheme. It also wishes to thank the ProgramUnits and President Mark Juergensmeyer forhelping make this Montréal meeting a trulyinternational event.
The International Connections Committee ischaired by Tat-siong Benny Liew, with mem-bers Teresia Mbari Hinga, Santa ClaraUniversity; Gilya Gerda Schmidt, University ofTennessee; Edward Phillip Antonio, IliffSchool of Theology; Manuel A. Vasquez,University of Florida; Xiaofei Kang, CarnegieMellon University; and Kyle Cole, AARDirector of Professional Programs, staffliaison.
Religious Sites Tours of MontréalRegistration for tours is available in theonline Annual Meeting registrationprocess or by faxing or mailing the formin the registration brochure (sent in theMarch RSN issue). Space is limited onall tours, so please register early.
INMONTRÉAL, religion dominates thelandscape. Initially it is the Christian sym-bols that draw one’s attention. From the
spires of the Notre Dame Basilica to thedome of St. Joseph’s Oratory to the three-story illuminated cross on the mountain, onecan find Christian symbolism on churches,in parks, schools, street names, and privatehomes. However, on closer inspection, it isobvious that the religions of the world areactive in this city. The Montréal VenueCommittee invites you to join us for twodistinct guided tours of religious sites inMontréal, or to explore the city’s diversereligious sites on your own.
Sacred and Religious Sites ofMontréal Tour: Tradition inTransitionMonday, 1:00 PM–5:00 PM
This religious sites tour will explore severalencounters between the old and the new.Beginning with a stop at St. Joseph’sOratory, we will have the opportunity toexplore the world’s largest Catholic sitededicated to Saint Joseph. This ten-storybuilding, with an impressive footprint onthe Montréal landscape, attracts millions ofpilgrims (and tourists) the world over.Recently the site has embraced its status asa pilgrimage site for non-Christians too.For more information, see www.saint-joseph.org/en_1007_index.asp.
The second stop will highlight the ongoingtransformation of religious sites in the citycenter with tour guides from Mile EndMemories leading us on a forty-five-minutewalk that explores the impressive architec-tural and religious diversity of a dozenplaces of worship. Collectively, the sitesoffer testimony to the passage of several dif-ferent cultural communities through themulticultural neighborhood of Mile End.This part of the tour will be outdoors, soplease dress warmly.
The final stop will provide the opportunityto visit a brand new religious site, theDurkai Amman Temple Kovil, a Sri LankanTamil Saivite Temple that serves a small butgrowing community of practitioners.Currently under renovation, the site offersaccess to a ritual space that from the insidecould be anywhere on the south Asian con-tinent. For more information, visit www.mtldurkai.com.
Tour Leaders:
Laurie Lamoureux Scholes, ConcordiaUniversity
Laurence Nixon, Dawson College,Montréal
Susan Bronson, Mile End Memories
In cooperation with:Paula M. Kane, University of PittsburghJeanne Halgren Kilde, University ofMinnesota
Peter W. Williams, Miami University, Ohio
Tour fee: USD$20
Eastern Religious Sites ofMontréal: Putting Down RootsSunday, 3:30 PM–7:30 PM
This bus tour will take us to the west islandsuburbs of Montréal, where several Easternreligious communities have taken root.
The tour will include stops at the TibetanBuddhist Temple Gaden Chang ChubChöling. This temple, like many sites usedby “new” non-Christian traditions inCanada, has converted a bank building into atemple space. Founded in 1980 and estab-lished in 1986, the center offers a range ofreligious ritual practices and cultural develop-ment activities. For more information, visitwww.khenrab.org.
The second stop will take us to the “mostbeautiful Gurdwara in Montréal.” Follow-ing the trend of other religious communi-ties, this Gurdwara is built in a semi-indus-trial neighborhood in a suburb twiceremoved from the city center, where landand zoning bylaws are easier to negotiate.The space includes an impressive exampleof traditional Gurdwara construction witha community that is ready to answer ourquestions.
The last stop on the tour will take us fur-ther down the island of Montréal into thesuburb of Dollard Des Ameaux where wewill visit the Thiru Murugan Temple, a SriLankan Tamil Saivite Temple constructedin the traditional style of South Indianarchitecture, clearly the most beautifulexample of its kind in the region. Our tim-ing should coincide with a puja service, giv-ing us the opportunity to share an experi-ence with this most welcoming community.For more information, visit www.montrealmurugantemple.faithweb.com.
Tour Leaders:
Mark Bradley, Université de Québec áMontréal
Laurie Lamoureux Scholes, ConcordiaUniversity
Tour fee: USD$30
Striking Out on Your Own:Montréal Religious Sites on FootIf you are looking for an opportunity forsome fresh air between sessions, there areseveral religious sites within walking dis-tance from the Palais des Congrès.
A five-minute walk to the south will takeyou to the edge of Old Montréal, whereyou can visit the Notre Dame Basilica, areplica of the original in Paris. The Basilicais open daily. Paid tours are available, butthere is no fee to enter the church.Donations are appreciated. For more infor-mation, visit www.basiliquenddm.org/en.
Just outside the doors of the Palais desCongrès on the north side, in just a fewsteps, you enter Montréal’s Chinatownwhere you can visit several temples, includ-ing one supported by the Montréal ChineseBuddhist Society. For more informationabout this and other sites in Montréal’sChinatown, check out the Montréal AsianReligious Sites Project reports atwww.mrsp.mcgill.ca/folk/htm.
Two blocks north of the Palais des Congrès,you will find the newly built and opened AlOumma al Islamaya Mosque located at 1245St. Dominique. These and many other reli-gious sites await you in Montréal. We hopeyou will join us in November!
Discover Old Longueuil and theArchives of the Sisters of the HolyNames of Jesus and MaryMonday, 8:30 AM–1:00 PM.
Details to come in the Annual MeetingProgram Planner.
TO REGISTERComplete the information below, arrange payment, and send via fax or surface mail. You can also register onlineas a part of the Annual Meeting registration process: www.aarweb.org/meeting/annual_meeting/current_meeting.
Name
Department
Institution
Registration is limited to the first 75 participants.Send your registration form and payment of $50.00 before October 20, 2009 ($75.00 after and onsite).
PAYMENT INFORMATION
Credit Card (Check one):❒ Visa ❒ Mastercard ❒ American Express ❒ Discover
Credit Card Number Expiration Date
CID*
Cardholder Signature
Name on Card (Please Print)
❒ Check: (payable to “AAR Annual Meeting,” memo“Sustainability Workshop”)
For more information, contact Kyle Cole, Director ofProfessional Programs, at [email protected], or by phoneat 404-727-1489.
The Sustainability Workshop is arranged by theSustainability Task Force of the American Academy ofReligion: Sarah McFarland Taylor, chair, Roger S. Gottlieb,Laurel D. Kearns, Isabel Mukonyora, John J. O’Keefe,Barbara A. B. Patterson, and Kyle Cole, staff liaison.
� Register online (as part of Annual Meetingregistration): www.aarweb.org/meetings/annual_meeting/current_meeting
� Register by Fax: 301-694-5124
* Card Identification Number: 4 digits on front of American Express; 3 digits on back of othercards
SustainabilityWORKSHOP
Religious Studies in An Age ofGlobal Warming: Transforming Ourselves,
Our Students, and Our Universities
Friday, November 6, 2009,1:30–5:30 PMMontréal, QC
AT THE ANNUAL Meeting inMontréal, the AAR’s SustainabilityTask Force will host a half-day
workshop addressing the roles and methodsof religion and theology teachers wantingto infuse sustainability topics into the cur-riculum. The workshop, “Religious StudiesIn an Age of Global Warming: Transform-ing Ourselves, Our Students, and OurUniversities” will be from 1:00 PM to 5:00PM on Friday, November 6, and will be ledby Roger S. Gottlieb, WorcesterPolytechnic Institute and task force mem-ber, and Stephanie Kaza, University ofVermont. Task Force members SarahMcFarland Taylor (chair), NorthwesternUniversity; Isabel Mukonyora, WesternKentucky University; Laurel D. Kearns,Drew University and Drew TheologicalSchool; and Barbara A. B. Patterson,Emory University, will serve as breakoutgroup facilitators at the workshop.
Gottlieb teaches in the Department ofHumanities and Arts at WorcesterPolytechnic Institute and is one of theworld’s leading voices of religious environ-mentalism. His works in this area includeThis Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature,Environment (the first comprehensive text-book in the field); A Greener Faith: ReligiousEnvironmentalism and Our Planet’s Future
(the first book-length analysis of religiousenvironmentalism); The Oxford Handbookof Religion and Ecology; Joining Hands:Politics and Religion Together for SocialChange ; and A Spirituality of Resistance:Finding a Peaceful Heart and Protecting theEarth.
Kaza is Director of the EnvironmentalProgram at the University of Vermont,where she teaches environmental humani-ties. She is best known for her work inBuddhist environmental thought andBuddhist–Christian dialogue. Her booksinclude Dharma Rain: Sources of BuddhistEnvironmentalism; Hooked: Buddhist Writingson Greed, Desire, and the Urge to Consume;and Mindfully Green. At the University ofVermont, Kaza works closely with theOffice of Sustainability on campus greeningand socially responsible investing.
Teaching the environmental crisis posesunique challenges and opportunities forhigher education. The scope and extent ofthe threat demands that faculty informthemselves about a host of practical, theo-logical, moral, historical, and political con-cerns that probably were not part of theiroriginal scholarly field. At the same time,the encompassing nature of the threattouches all of our lives.
Faculty, like students, experience fear, grief,and despair as we witness the vanishingspecies, changed weather, and pollutedwaters of our planet. Yet the very universal-ity and severity of the environmental crisisalso provide a unique opportunity to makeour teaching intensely relevant to the worldoutside the classroom, and to experiencethe deep satisfaction of offering teachingthat is personally, morally, and politicallyimportant.
This workshop will explore these challengesand opportunities, giving participants thechance to examine their own responses tothe environmental crisis, to engage withfaculty concerning teaching resources, sam-ple syllabi, course modules, and instruc-tional themes, and ways to connect withother academic departments and the widercampus sustainability movement. Materialwill be provided to support the develop-ment of “Religion and Environment”courses, and integration of environmentalthemes into courses such as “Introductionto Religious Studies,” “Social Ethics,”“Religion and Politics,” or studies of partic-ular religions.
The workshop will take up relevant theo-logical issues (e.g., ecological interpretationsof scripture), moral problems (e.g., stew-
ardship versus biocentric ethical models),the role of religious environmentalism inrelation to other social movements (e.g.,feminism, racial justice), and engagedteaching techniques designed to (re)connectstudents to these crucial moral issues andtheir meaning for life on earth.
“This workshop crosses a multitude of sub-field boundaries and appeals broadly toscholars across the curriculum who wish toaddress the most critical issues facing theAcademy — and the world — today,” saidSarah McFarland Taylor, chair of the TaskForce. “If you attend one workshop inMontréal this year, make it this one!”
You may register for the workshop whenyou register for the Annual Meeting, or byusing the form on this page and faxing it to301-694-5124. The registration fee for theworkshop is $50 until October 20, 2009.After that, registration is $75 onsite only.You are encouraged to register early as theworkshop is limited to the first seventy-fiveparticipants.
AAR Sustainability Task Force to Host Annual MeetingHalf-day Workshop
May 2009 RSN • 7
ANNUAL MEETING NEWS
THE ACADEMIC Relations Committee will begin athree-year sequence of workshops exploring the implicationsof the Teagle/AARWhite Paper “The Religion Major and
Liberal Education” at the Annual Meeting in Montréal on Friday,November 6.
This year’s daylong workshop, “Three Religion Majors Meet in aCafé: What DoThey Have in Common?”, will address five com-mon characteristics theWhite Paper identified of a religious studiesmajor: intercultural and comparative, multidisciplinary, critical,integrative, and creative and constructive. In this interactive work-shop, participants will have an opportunity to discover and discussthis constellation of characteristics.
Participants will then explore the presence of these characteristics inthe design of majors in different institutional contexts (small pub-lic, large public, private, and theological). The workshop will con-clude with presentations and discussions about how we addressthese in ways attentive both to our responsibilities as educators andto the students and the reasons they are in our programs.
“In light of the findings of the AAR/Teagle Working Group andfrom our own conversations with department chairs over the pastfew years, sustained discussion about the shape of the major in reli-gious studies and its relation to liberal education in the twenty-firstcentury is more important than ever,” said Fred Glennon, chair ofthe Academic Relations Committee.
The interactive workshop will feature several speakers,panelists, and breakout sessions. Eugene V. Gallagherwill open the workshop with a discussion titled “TheConvergent Characteristics of the Religious StudiesMajor: Findings of the Teagle Working Group.”Gallagher, the Rosemary Park Professor of ReligiousStudies at Connecticut College and founding directorof the Mankoff Center for Teaching and Learning, wasa member of that working group.
A panel will follow addressing how the five characteris-tics play out in different institutional contexts. Abreakout session led by members of the AcademicRelations Committee immediately follows, which willallow participants to discuss these issues in depth.
Following lunch, which is provided, will be a sessionon student dynamics, their motives for study, and howstudents can be targeted with the characteristics inmind. Another breakout session will allow for partici-pation from attendees.
The workshop will conclude with a plenary addressfrom Gallagher.
“Our hope is that this workshop will not only con-tinue the conversation begun by the AAR/TeagleWorking Group but also extend it to illuminate somebest practices for curriculum and program develop-ment,” Glennon said.
Colleagues in your institution, such as chairs, other fac-ulty members, faculty being developed to assume lead-ership responsibilities, and deans, may be interested inattending this workshop. Chairs may want to bring ateam of faculty or send a designated faculty person.
Registration is limited to the first 75 participants. Thecost for the workshop is $100, which includes theentire day of sessions, lunch, and a book on the topic.
The topics for past chairs workshops have been:
2008 Annual MeetingLeadership Workshop— Taking Religion(s)Seriously: What Students Need to Know
2007 Annual MeetingChairsWorkshop— Best Practices: Diversifying YourFaculty — Honest ConversationsLeadershipWorkshop— The Religion Major andLiberal Education
2006 Annual MeetingChairsWorkshop— Personnel Issues: The Good, theBad, and the Ugly
2005 Annual MeetingChairsWorkshop— Enlarging the Pie: Strategies forManaging and Growing Departmental Resources
2004 Annual MeetingChairsWorkshop— Being a Chair in Today’s ConsumerCulture: Navigating in the Knowledge Factory
2003 Annual MeetingChairsWorkshop— Scholarship, Service, and Stress:The Tensions of Being a Chair
Summer 2003ChairsWorkshop— The Entrepreneurial Chair:Building and Sustaining Your Department in an Era ofShrinking Resources and Increasing Demands
2002 Annual MeetingChairsWorkshop— Running a Successful FacultySearch in the Religious Studies Department
2001 Annual MeetingChairsWorkshop— Evaluating and AdvancingTeaching in the Religious Studies Department
2000 Annual MeetingChairsWorkshop— Assessing and Advancing theReligious Studies Department
We look forward to seeing you in Montréal!
The Academic Relations Committee: FredGlennon, chair, Chester Gillis, L. DeAneLagerquist, Steve Young, Rosetta Ross, EdwinDavid Aponte, and Kyle Cole, staff liaison.
PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
TO REGISTERComplete the information below, arrange payment, and send via fax or surface mail. You can also register onlineas a part of the Annual Meeting registration process: www.aarweb.org/meeting/annual_meeting/current_meeting.
Name
Department
Institution Serving as Chair since Number of faculty in department
Registration is limited to the first 75 participants.Send your registration form and payment of $100.00 before October 20, 2009 ($125.00 after and onsite).
PAYMENT INFORMATION
Credit Card (Check one):❒ Visa ❒ Mastercard ❒ American Express ❒ Discover
Credit Card Number Expiration Date
CID*
Cardholder Signature
Name on Card (Please Print)
❒ Check: (payable to “AAR Annual Meeting,” memo“Leadership Workshop”)
For more information, contact Kyle Cole, Director ofProfessional Programs, at [email protected], or by phoneat 404-727-1489.
The Leadership Workshop is arranged by the AcademicRelations Committee of the American Academy ofReligion: Fred Glennon, chair, Chester Gillis, L.DeAne Lagerquist, Steve Young, Rosetta Ross, EdwinDavid Aponte, and Kyle Cole, staff liaison.
� Register online (as part of Annual Meetingregistration): www.aarweb.org/meetings/annual_meeting/current_meeting
9:00–9:15 Introduction9:15–10:00 The convergent characteristics
of the religious studies major:Findings of the Teagle WorkingGroup (Eugene V. Gallagher,Connecticut College)
10:00–10:45 Institutional Perspectives: Howthese characteristics play out indifferent institutional contexts• Theological schools• Large public universities• Small public universities/colleges
2:00–2:45 Breakout session (random smallgroups with ARCmembers as Facilitators)
3:00–3:45 Plenary wrap-up: What have welearned? (Eugene V. Gallagher)
* Card Identification Number: 4 digits on front of American Express; 3 digits on back of othercards
The Teagle/AAR working group, which produced theWhitePaper “The Religion Major and Liberal Education,” identified fivecommon characteristics that suggest the religious studies major isby its very nature intercultural and comparative, multidisciplinary,critical, integrative, and creative and constructive. In this interac-tive workshop, participants will have an opportunity to discoverand discuss this constellation of characteristics. They will thenexplore the presence of these characteristics in the design of majors
in different institutional contexts (small public, large public, pri-vate, and theological). The workshop will conclude with presenta-tions and discussions about how we address these characteristics inways attentive both to our responsibilities as educators and to thestudents and the reasons they are in our programs. This is the firstin a three-year sequence of workshops that will explore the impli-cations of the Teagle White Paper.
LeadershipW O R K SHOP
THREE RELIGION MAJORS MEET IN A CAFÉ:WHAT DOTHEY HAVE IN COMMON?
Friday, November 6, 2009,Montréal, QC
Annual Meeting Leadership WorkshopThree Religion Majors Meet in a Café: What Do They Have in Common?
Religious Studies News
8 • May 2009 RSN
Donald L. Boisvert is Senior Lecturer in theDepartment of Religion at ConcordiaUniversity, Montréal. His areas are religionin Canada, religion, gender and sexuality,and Catholic culture. He has published twobooks with Pilgrim Press, Out on HolyGround: Meditations on Gay Men’sSpirituality (2000) and Sanctity and MaleDesire: A Gay Reading of Saints (2004).
THE EXPRESSION “Quiet Revolu-tion” may seem a bit strange to thoseunfamiliar with the histories of
Canada and of Québec. How can any revolu-tion be quiet? Is a revolution not boisterous byits very nature? Yes, usually. But the case ofQuébec is different. The province underwentradical and significant social change in the1950s and 1960s; it was, however, a rathernoiseless and placid affair.
For nearly four centuries, the Catholic Churchhad been the dominant social, cultural, andpolitical force in Québec. The Church waswidely perceived— and it certainly saw itself— as the guardian of the Catholic faith, theFrench language, and the traditional rurallifestyle. After the fall of New France to theBritish in 1759, and especially following theabortive liberal Rebellions of 1837–1838,Catholicism became the prevailing ideologicaldiscourse, and its influence was felt in everycorner of Québec society. This reached its apexin the period from the mid-nineteenth to theearly twentieth centuries (and, it can beargued, even later) when clerical ultramon-
tanism became the dominant worldview. Theprovince’s entire network of social service agen-cies and institutions — schools, hospitals, andorphanages — was under the direct control ofa large number of Catholic religious orders,many of them homegrown. An estimate of thenumber of nuns, brothers, and priests workingin this vast network ranges anywhere from45,000–50,000. It is also interesting to notethat, per capita, Québec was the largest“exporter,” in the Catholic world, of missionar-ies to other countries. Québec was a veryCatholic place, and publicly and defiantly so.
For several decades, there had been an ultra-conservative political party in power with closelinks to the clergy, headed by MauriceDuplessis. This period is often called, rathersimplistically, la Grande Noirceur (the GreatDarkness). All that was to change in 1960. Theyear is a useful marker, because it was then thatthe Québec Liberal Party, headed by JeanLesage, won an election and formed theprovincial government. Their platform calledfor a significant modernization of the Stateapparatus in Québec, and this would necessari-ly imply a major shift in the role and presenceof the Catholic Church in many facets of pub-lic life. The impetus for change had comedecades before, however, as Québec, like otherpostwar societies in theWest, found itselfincreasingly subject to the vicissitudes ofincreased urbanization, economic prosperity, arising middle class, labor unrest, and genera-tional tensions. In some important ways, theelection of Lesage and the “revolution” he initi-ated had their roots in broader and almost irre-
versible social forces. The Quiet Revolutioncan also be seen as one example among many(the 1960s in the United States; May 1968 inFrance) of a general loosening of traditionalmores inWestern societies.
The Catholic Church itself was also changing.With the election of John XXIII to the papacyin 1958 and the convening of the SecondVatican Council from 1962 to 1965, RomanCatholicism began a difficult period of intensesoul-searching in an attempt to make itselfmore relevant to the modern world. Part of thefallout from this was not only a sharp and sud-den decrease in Church personnel, but anacknowledgment that the Church no longerhad to occupy a dominant position in society;rather, it should seek to serve and support. Thiswould be especially relevant in the case ofQuébec. It has been suggested that the QuébecCatholic Church was instrumental in pavingthe way for the changes heralded by the QuietRevolution, and some historians have arguedthat the source of these changes can be foundwithin the social activism of the Church itself(Gauvreau, 2005).
So “revolution” because the change was sud-den, profound, lasting, and irreversible; “quiet”because it took place in an atmosphere of rela-tive calm, with little or no serious social orpolitical conflict. After their election in 1960,Lesage’s Liberals put in place an active processof modernization of the State apparatus inQuébec — everything from the nationalizationof hydroelectric power, to the creation of anumber of State-controlled economic agencies,to the establishment of a Ministry of Cultural
Affairs (in 1961) and a Ministry of Education(in 1964). In the case of the latter, power andjurisdiction passed from religious orders togovernment-sanctioned confessional schoolboards (much later, in 1998, to be convertedto linguistic school boards). Moral authoritytherefore shifted from the Catholic Church tothe government of Québec, which became themajor and sole arbiter of the common good.Culture also flourished, whether in literature,cinema, or the visual and performing arts.
Simultaneously, the years of the QuietRevolution saw a significant growth in thenationalist feeling in Québec, finding its ulti-mate expression in the 1968 founding of thesocial-democratic Party Québécois (PQ),which advocates sovereignty for Québec. (ThePQ was founded by René Lévesque, one ofJean Lesage’s foremost cabinet ministers, wholed the battle to nationalize hydroelectricpower. Lévesque served as Premier of theProvince from 1976 to 1985.) No longer wasit the traditional themes of family and faiththat served as the loci of collective identity, butrather those of language and State. The peopleof Québec moved from identifying themselvesas French Canadians to the more defiantQuébécois. The bridge had been crossed. TheCatholic Church entered a period of decline,something with which it continues to grapple.
BibliographyMichael Gauvreau, The Catholic Origins ofQuebec’s Quiet Revolution (Montréal andKingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press,2005).
Québec’s Quiet Revolution: From Catholic Hegemonyto a Modern StateDonald L. Boisvert, Concordia University
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGIONWe look forward to welcoming you to our city. As you get together with colleagues, take some time to explore Montréal and sample its downtown vibe, eclectic architecture and superb cuisine.
.. To register for the Annual Meeting and to book a hotel room visit www.aarweb.org
May 2009 RSN • 9
NEWS
A Conversation with the PresidentMark Juergensmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara
Mark Juergensmeyer is professor of sociologyand global studies, and affiliate professor ofreligious studies, at the University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara, where he alsoserves as the director of the Orfalea Centerfor Global and International Studies.Previously, he served as dean of the School ofHawai’ian, Asian, and Pacific Studies at theUniversity of Hawai’i, the coordinator forthe religious studies program at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, and thedirector of the Office of Programs inComparative Religion at the GraduateTheological Union. He received a PhD inpolitical science from the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, a MDiv from UnionTheological Seminary, New York, and a BAin philosophy from the University of Illinois.He is author or editor of more than twentybooks, including the recent GlobalRebellion: Religious Challenges to theSecular State, and Terror in the Mind ofGod: The Global Rise of ReligiousViolence, for which he received theGrawemeyer Award in 2004. He has alsoreceived the Silver Medal from Spain’sQueen Sofia Center for the Study ofViolence, and an honorary doctorate fromLehigh University. Among his edited booksare The Oxford Handbook of GlobalReligion; Religion in Global Civil Society;and the forthcoming coedited Encyclopediaof Global Religion and Society.
RSN:How did your parents and extendedfamily influence your early career and edu-cation?
Juergensmeyer: Religion and poli-tics were in my family’s veins. My mothercame from a line of preachers and mission-aries and my dad was a small-town politi-cian, both from a German immigrant com-munity that had settled in central Missouriand then moved across the river to Illinois.
My family was quite pious but were con-vinced that faith was nothing without goodworks, and this meant social responsibilityand attempts to reach out to the widerworld. One of my earliest memories was avisit from an uncle who had taught in amissionary school in China, and was favor-ably disposed toward Mao Tse Tung. So ina curious way, I have always associated reli-gion with progressive social attitudes and aglobal view of the world.
RSN: At what point did you decide youwanted to become a scholar of sociologyand religion?
Juergensmeyer: Someone stole mymotorcycle. That was a critical turningpoint in my professional career — but Isuppose I should explain.
I went to seminary after college — UnionTheological in New York City — where Ifell under the influence of ReinholdNiebuhr and his way of thinking about theinteraction of religion and public life. Butthen I roamed around Southeast Asia andIndia for a couple of years before coming toBerkeley in a graduate program in politicalscience, hoping to continue the religiopolit-ical interests I had developed underNiebuhr at Union.
I hadn’t a clue as to what I was going to doafter that, but this was the 1960s and I hadgotten deeply involved in the antiwarmovement. The unjust war at that time wasthe one in Vietnam, and I soon decided toabandon graduate school and return to theregion as a freelance journalist, since I hadfiled some radio interviews from Saigon onmy earlier trip to Vietnam and they seemedto have been well received. I was going tosell my motorcycle to make enough moneyfor the airfare, but the week before I was toleave my motorcycle was stolen. So Icouldn’t go.
As a result, I ended up not becoming ajournalist, but finishing my PhD, combin-ing my interests in religion, politics, andIndia in a thesis on the role of religion inthe social aspirations of the people in Indiaknown as Untouchables. And this launchedmy academic career in the comparativestudy of religion and politics. All because ofthat darned motorcycle.
RSN:What has compelled you toresearch, publish, and lecture in the area ofreligiously motivated violence?
Juergensmeyer:My interest in reli-gious violence began with the Sikhs — alively and welcoming people among whomI had lived for several years in the Punjabregion of North India. So it was personallydisturbing to see so many young Sikhscaught up in a militant movement duringthe 1980s. Having worked with Gandhiansin India and written about nonviolentapproaches to conflict, I expected religionto champion nonviolence, and was per-plexed to see the role that religion was play-ing in this militant movement and in otherviolent social movements around the world.
I wanted to know why — why this violencewas happening now, and what religion hadto do with it. Eventually I went from Indiato Sri Lanka to the Middle East, and thento Tokyo and Belfast and Oklahoma City— wherever there was a religious dimen-sion to violent social conflict, to interviewthe participants and supporters of theactivism, and to understand their view ofthe world. Invariably it was a view of aworld at war, where their understanding ofa decent social order and a meaningful lifewas challenged by the social and politicalconditions of our contemporary age.
Out of these interviews and case studiescame a series of articles and several books,most recently Global Rebellion, whichreviews thirty years of religious activismaround the world and shows that in mostcases it is a response to the perceived defi-ciencies of the secular notion of the nation-state. An earlier book, Terror in the Mind ofGod, explores recent cases of what are oftenseen as religious terrorism and shows thatthey are public performances of violenceintended to bring to reality a sense of theworld embroiled in a cosmic war of goodand evil. I am currently finishing a book
based on a series of lectures given atPrinceton University under the title “Godand War,” which probes the dark attractionbetween religion and violence and tries toexplain why our understanding of eachseems to need the other.
RSN: Can you tell us about your currentacademic life at the Orfalea Center forGlobal and International Studies at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara?
Juergensmeyer: Santa Barbara is awonderful environment, and I don’t meanonly the surf and the sun and the SantaYnez mountains, though I do mean that.But it is also a good place to think andmake intellectual connections among aremarkable group of scholars.
I have been fortunate throughout my life tobe associated with institutions that havebeen generous and supportive in my work.For years, I was a part of the comparativereligion programs at the GraduateTheological Union and the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, that supported myown work and a project that I codirected,the Berkeley–Harvard program in compara-tive religion, in which I first began mystudy of religious violence. During my fouryears as the dean of the School ofHawai’ian, Asian, and Pacific Studies at theUniversity of Hawai’i, I was able to com-plete a book on the recent rise of religiousnationalism, The New Cold War.
And at Santa Barbara I have been privilegedto join with an inspiring group of col-leagues to create one of the first academicprograms in global studies in the world,and this has been a significant element inmy intellectual and research developmentin recent years. Our concern is with theway that global forces — economic, tech-nological, political, social, and cultural —are interacting in a dynamic way to createnew ways of thinking and acting in publiclife. We have created graduate as well asundergraduate academic degree programs,and a research center, which I currentlydirect.
Our Orfalea Center is now launching anew project, supported by the LuceFoundation, that explores the role of reli-gion in global civil society. By “global civilsociety,” we mean the movements of citizenactivism and nongovernmental organiza-tions that have arisen to challenge andshape public life in a global era. The role ofreligion in this new world is vital, butambivalent — it plays both destructive andcreative roles, as we all have seen. The chal-lenge is to imagine how these religiousforces can be redirected and reconceived ina positive way in a postsecular world.
RSN:What is your greatest joy in teaching?Juergensmeyer:The fun of teachingis to learn from your students and fromwhat you are teaching. I teach more coursesthan I am supposed to, in part to help ourfledgling new global studies program, andin part because I enjoy it.
Our students are terrific. They are bright,socially concerned, intellectually curious,and only somewhat academically lazy, buteven that changes when they get excitedabout a subject or challenged by a problemthey want to understand. If you like yourstudents and like what you teach, how canyou go wrong?
When I first began to teach, I was underthe illusion that my job was to impartknowledge, but I abandoned that miscon-ception long ago. Students can go toWikipedia for that. Instead I think our jobas teachers is to share our love of learningand of critical thought. If we can light thatfire of intellectual excitement, we willinspire the flames of knowledge that willlast a lifetime.
Several years ago I won a distinguishedteaching award on campus, and the studentwho nominated me was a conservative,pro-Bush, anti-Muslim, right-wing Israeliactivist. I asked him why he nominated me,since we seemed to disagree on almost allpolitical issues. “I know,” he said, “but Ithink you respect me.” And it’s true — Idid respect him. He was a very thoughtfulguy who I would frequently ask to stand upin class and give a counter-perspective to anopinion I had advanced, since I wanted theclass to know that intellectual life is allabout questioning and challenging ideas —including one’s own.
RSN: What do you think of the newUnited States administration?
Juergensmeyer: I am tentativelyhopeful.
One of my greatest criticisms of the previ-ous Bush administration was its inventionof the “war on terror” — a war that wasnot just a metaphor but a real war. Itbecame the Cold War of the twenty-firstcentury, for behind the “war on terror”phrase was an ideological position on worldpolitics, the idea that the secular West waslocked in a hopeless spiral of conflict withIslamic militancy.
The problem with this “clash of civiliza-tions” view of the world was that it wasrigid, a caricature, it vastly exaggerated thethreat, and it became a self-fulfillingprophecy. It not only scared the Muslimworld by characterizing it as the enemy —or the potential enemy — but also angeredit by America’s militant invasion and occu-pation of two Muslim countries. America’smilitant actions were perceived by many inthe Muslim world as terrorism. And theyproduced terrorism in response.
There is no question in my mind that theattitude and actions of the United Statesgovernment following 9/11 helped to fosterthe conditions for the very terrorism thatthey were intended to diminish. This wasthe great irony of the Bush foreign policy;that it created the enemy it was trying tocombat.
Now that Bush is gone, the Obama admin-istration’s outlook is quite different, muchmore realistic, and less ideological. Gone isthe rhetoric of “the war on terrorism,”“destroying the evil-doers,” and “if you’renot with us you’re against us.” This is notjust a shift in rhetoric, it is a paradigmaticchange of policy, one based on negotiationwith those regarded as potential friendsrather than combat with those dismissed asperennial foes. Though the Obama admin-istration’s policies are not perfect, it under-stands that the Muslim world is diverse andreasonable, and that there, as elsewhere, reli-gion can play a positive role in public life.
See JUERGENSMEYER, page 22
10 • May 2009 RSN
Religious Studies News
�e Association for Jewish Studies is pleased to announce the recipients of the
2008 Jordan Schnitzer Book Awards
�e AJS is now accepting submissions for the
2009 Jordan Schnitzer Book Awards
Further information can be found at: www.ajsnet.org/ajsawards.html.DEADLINE: JUNE 26, 2009
AJS • 15 West 16th Street • New York, NY 10011 • Tel: 917.606.8249, Fax: 917.606.8222 • Email: [email protected] • www.ajsnet.org
In the Category of Gender Studies:
ELISHEVA BAUMGARTENMothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe
(Princeton University Press)
In the Category of Philosophy and Jewish � ought:MARTIN KAVKA
Jewish Messianism and the History of Philosophy(Cambridge University Press)
IN FEBRUARY 2009, AAR held its first ever LeadershipSummit. The Summit comprised more than sixty com-mittee and task force members. The President,
President-Elect, and Vice President were also in attendance.Groups present included:
• Academic Relations Committee
• Executive Committee
• Graduate Student Committee
• International Connections Committee
• Job Placement Task Force
• Nominations Committee
• Public Understanding of Religion Committee
• Religion in the Schools Task Force
• Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession Task Force
• Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the ProfessionCommittee
• Status of Women in the Profession Committee
• Teaching and Learning Committee
• Theological Education Steering Committee
Each group held their own biannual meeting to discusstheir plans for future events and work. What made theLeadership Summit so unique was that the groups werealso able to meet with each other to discuss plans to worktogether on future projects. Some of the exciting develop-ments of the cross-partnerships include a mentoring lunchat the Montréal Annual Meeting cosponsored by the Statusof Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the ProfessionCommittee, the Status of Women in the ProfessionCommittee, and the Status of LGBTIQ Persons in theProfession Task Force; several cosponsored Special TopicsForums planned over the next two years at upcoming
Annual Meetings; and a future topic for Spotlight onTeaching highlighting issues of race, gender, and sexual ori-entation in the classroom.
A reception was held on Saturday night in which theseventy-seven volunteers and AAR staff gathered to hearJack Fitzmier, AAR Executive Director, speak about thefuture direction of the AAR. The Academy will give atten-tion to the following objectives in the coming months:
• Increasing attention to membership development;
• Adding innovative new components to the AnnualMeeting;
• Building global connections and positioning the AAR tobe an international partner and resource;
• Reimagining governance structures;
• Celebrating our centennial, beginning with the 2009Montréal Annual Meeting and ending a year later inAtlanta;
• Enhancing the public understanding of religion;
• Experimenting with more forms of technology for schol-arly communication; and
• Enhancing the work of the AAR’s ten regions.
Fitzmier then invited the volunteers to think beyond thenear term. Once we meet our near-term goals, what shouldwe focus on next? What will the Academy look like in2020? Given the dynamic and radical changes taking placein the economy, technology, higher education, and in thelarger framework of humanistic inquiry, it is foolish tothink that the AAR’s business model, Annual Meetingmodel, and larger goals will remain unchanged. The volun-teers were split into small focus groups to discuss some ofthe things the AAR should think about now to set theAcademy up for a successful model in 2020.
The volunteers returned to present the top three pointsfrom their focus groups. The most popular points madeinclude developing vital regional meetings; promoting theacademic study of religion in terms of jobs and healthyundergraduate departments; expanding further into videoand web media; expanding membership diversity acrossgeographical and international lines; and using differenttechnologies to build relationships among members andacross networks and cultures.
The energy and dynamic interactions amongst the variouscommittees and task forces was invaluable. A follow-up sur-vey to members who attended the Summit indicated a keeninterest in this format and a desire to find more ways to haveAAR working groups collaborate on common projects.
Leadership Summit Synopsis
The Teaching and Learning Committee discusses futureSpotlight on Teaching topics and cosponsored Special TopicsForums with the Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the ProfessionTask Force.
May 2009 RSN • 11
NEWS
In partnership with the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, The Fund for Theological Education will host workshops for students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups who are considering the pursuit of a Ph.D. or Th.D. in religion, theology or biblical studies. Faculty nominations and student applications will be required.
American Academy of Religion Annual MeetingNovember 6, 2009 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Society of Biblical Literature Annual MeetingNovember 20, 2009 New Orleans, Louisiana
Join us in identifying a new generation of talented scholars and educators. For more information, e-mail [email protected] to receive updates and nomination/application materials as they become available.
Save the Date
Nurturing the Next Generation of Scholars
Doctoral Programs
The Fund for Theological Education825 Houston Mill Road NESuite 250Atlanta, Georgia 30329
404-727-1450www.thefund.org
“Reading Scriptures, Reading America:
Interruptions, Orientation, and Mimicry among
U.S. Communities of Color”
October 15-17, 2009
Institute for Signifying ScripturesClaremont Graduate University
Claremont, CA
For further information contact: Vincent L. Wimbush, Convener
Keynote address by award-winning journalist,Richard Rodriguez
The Graduate Student Committee and Status of LGBTIQ Personsin the Profession Task Force meet to discuss future cosponsoredprojects.
Committee and task force members at the Leadership Summitreception.
12 • May 2009 RSN
Religious Studies News
Contact: Paul Myhre - 800-655 7117 - [email protected] for Proposals
The Pedagogy of Transnational Education
What are the pedagogical challenges and opportunities posed by the presence of students from a variety of countries in your North American classrooms and at your institution?
What project, activity, or faculty conversation can help you address these challenges and opportunities in ways that strengthen teaching and learning at your institution?
The Wabash Center invites proposals for projects up to $20,000 and three years in length from faculty teaching theology and religion in seminaries, divinity schools, colleges or universities in the United States or Canada.
Deadline: September 1, 2009
Application procedures are the same as for our general grants programs. Read instructions and procedures:http://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/grants/how-toapply.aspx
We encourage you to discuss your ideas and questions with us.
Statement of Best Practices for Academic Job OffersThe American Academy of Religion acknowledges that the search for faculty positions in the field of religion is a complex and sensitive process for candidates and employers. At its October 2008meeting, the Board of Directors approved the following Statement of Best Practices for Academic Job Offers. The statement, composed and submitted by the Job Placement Task Force, providessome guidelines by which prospective employers and employees might navigate the job placement process. The Statement of Best Practices will be available on AAR’s website, and all departmentsand programs who seek to use AAR’s Career Services, including Job Postings and the Annual Meeting Job Center, will be asked to indicate whether they abide by these best practices. We encourageyou to discuss these best practices with faculty in your department. To add your institution to the list of those supporting this statement, contact Tim Renick at [email protected].
THE AMERICAN Academy ofReligion recognizes that the process ofselecting new colleagues is one of the
most important undertakings in the life of adepartment. The hiring process also represents acrucial and challenging moment in the lives ofthe candidates being considered for facultypositions. In order to balance the interests ofboth groups, the American Academy ofReligion supports the following best practicesconcerning academic job offers.
Competing Concerns:The circumstancesunder which job offers are made are so variousthat no rule will cover all cases, but norms ofprofessional courtesy suggest some helpfuladvice. The employer and the prospectiveemployee should be respectful of one another’slegitimate concerns. Prospective employees areproperly concerned to make important careerdecisions in light of information about whichoffers they are actually going to receive.Employers are properly concerned about plan-ning for the contingency of making anotheroffer in a timely fashion if one is turned down.All parties should be concerned about the inter-ests of other applicants for the position whomay be awaiting timely information about thestatus of the opening so that they, in turn, maymake informed decisions about their options.
These considerations are further complicated bythe fact that different employers, often due tobudgetary and administrative factors beyondtheir control, can be on very different timeschedules with regard to extending job offers. Insome cases, these competing concerns may setemployer and prospective employee at cross-purposes unless professional courtesy is exer-cised by both parties. Ideally, at the time anoffer is made, if not earlier, employer andprospective employee should discuss their par-ticular concerns with the aim of arriving at amutually agreeable deadline for response.
Guidelines for Employers: In normal cir-cumstances, offers for appointments for thesubsequent Fall should be made by employersno earlier than the closing day of the AnnualMeeting of the American Academy ofReligion. Typically, a prospective employeeshould have at least two weeks for considera-tion of a written offer from a properly author-ized administrative officer. When an employeris unable to honor any of these conditions,the prospective employee should be given awritten explanation of the special circum-stances that warrant a deviation. At all timesin the process, all applicants for the positionhave a right to frank and honest informationabout the status of their candidacies.
Guidelines for Job Candidates: Prospectiveemployees should not delay unnecessarily inresponding to an offer once it has been madeand should recognize that it simply may not bepossible to have information about all job possi-bilities before a decision about a particular offermust be rendered.When a prospective employ-ee requests more time to consider an offer thanthe employer is inclined to give, a candid state-ment of the reasons for the request is in order.Whether positive or negative, the final responseof the prospective employee to the job offershould be in writing (though an accompanyingphone conversation is highly recommendedand is considered a professional courtesy).
Oral Offers and Acceptances: There are atleast two distinct types of situation that causedifficulties with oral offers and acceptances. Theideals of professional courtesy suggest advice fordealing with these circumstances.
One is the case in which a prospective employ-ee orally receives what appears to be a job offerand subsequently learns that the offer does notin fact exist; for instance, because ultimatebudgetary or administrative approval for theposition is denied. In order to prevent misun-derstandings of this sort, the prospectiveemployer should make it absolutely clear to the
prospective employee whether a formal offer isbeing extended or not. If a prospective employ-er is only in a position to say that a formal offerwill be forthcoming provided that the depart-mental recommendation receives administrativeapproval, the prospective employee should betold explicitly that this is the situation. It is theresponsibility of the employer to represent thecircumstances fully and accurately to theprospective employee.
Another kind of difficulty arises when a formaloffer is orally made and accepted and theprospective employee later receives and acceptsanother offer or declines the position for otherreasons. Such cases can present both legal andmoral problems. It is worth bearing in mindthat there are circumstances in which oral con-tracts are legally binding. Oral acceptance of aformal offer by a prospective employee gener-ates a strong obligation to take the job; highlyextenuating reasons are needed to justify notdoing so.
Note: Portions of this Statement of Best Practicesare based on the American PhilosophicalAssociation’s statement “Offers of Employment”and the American Historical Association’s state-ments “Best Practices for Interviewers” andGuidelines for Job Offers in History.
Don’t Let TimeGet Away from You!Register for the AAR Annual Meeting Job Center byOctober 12. The Job Center is an efficient way for can-didates and employers to communicate and participatein job interviews. Those who register by the deadline
will receive full benefits of the Center.
EMPLOYERS:Unlimited use of the interview hall
�Placement of job advertisement in theAnnual Meeting edition of Job Postings
�Seven months of online access to candidate
CVs organized by specialization�
Ability to use the message center tocommunicate with registered candidates
CANDIDATES:Opportunity to place CV online for employer review
�Personal copy of registered job advertisements and
employers’ interview plans�
Ability to use the message center tocommunicate with employers
For more information about the Job Center, and to register,see www.aarweb.org/jump/jobcenter.
May 2009 RSN • 13
NEWS
Tazim R. Kassam is associate professor ofreligion at Syracuse University. A historianof religions, she specializes in Islamic culturesand South Asian religions. Her book, Songsof Wisdom and Circles of Dance: Hymnsof the Satpanth Ismaili Muslim Saint, PirShams, focuses on the performance anddevotional songs of Ismailis. Kassam has for-merly chaired the Department of Religionand directed its Graduate Studies Program.Currently, she is a principal coinvestigator ofthe LUCE-funded program on Religion,Media, and International Relations and thefounding Director of Syracuse University’sinterdisciplinary Muslim Cultures programin London.
RSN: The first issue of Spotlight onTeaching was published in 1992. In his edi-torial, W. Lee Humphrey stated that thepurpose of this new section in RSN was “toencourage creative and sustained reflection,research, and innovation in the teaching ofreligion and religions in many contexts.”How would you assess Spotlight’s success?
Kassam: Since its inception seventeenyears ago, the publication has grown fromfour pages to an insert of eight to twelvepages. Many members have told me thatthey pull out the inserts and keep them. I’dsay the success of Spotlight on Teachingdemonstrates that teaching has won recog-nition as being a fundamental dimension ofscholarly life; that teaching is a legitimate,if not essential, focus of the Academy.Spotlight is part of a broader set of initia-tives that were undertaken by the AAR,very forward looking for that time, toaddress issues of pedagogy in practice andtheory, and to do so in a sustained, institu-tional manner; for instance, by constitutingthe Committee on Teaching and Learning.Spotlight’s editor is an ex officio member onthat committee.
RSN: When you say forward looking,what do you mean? Why was it necessaryto pay attention to teaching when advance-ment of one’s scholarly career dependedprimarily on research and publications?Two decades later, promotion and tenure isstill largely decided on that basis.
Kassam:Well, isn’t that the perennialquestion? It has come up repeatedly inAAR workshops and panels on teaching.There are the nuts-and-bolts aspects ofteaching, such as designing course syllabi,learning teaching skills, grading assign-ments, and so forth. But, inevitably, discus-sions about the how of teaching go on tothe why: Why do we teach? What are thelarger issues at stake? What cultural con-structions of teaching and research bearupon how and what we teach? What power
dynamics are obtained in the classroom?How do you strike a balance betweenresearch and teaching? So putting the spot-light on teaching brings into focus howteaching is conditioned by the stages ofone’s academic career. Pedagogy cannot beaddressed in a vacuum.
As for tenure and promotion, do we haveto accept the premise that research andteaching are mutually exclusive? Ernest L.Boyer’s 1990 report for the CarnegieFoundation, Scholarship Reconsidered:Priorities for the Professoriate, deservesrenewed attention. His parsing of scholar-ship into four areas — discovery, integra-tion, application, and teaching — offers amore generous and inclusive appreciationof how we actually function in our academ-ic lives. It takes time for ingrained practicesof peer reviews, criteria for tenure, and pro-motion decisions to change. Scholarship, Ifeel, must continue to be the critical factor,but perhaps these other facets should begiven some importance. I think practicesare evolving.
RSN: Speaking of the various initiativeson teaching, since the early nineties, theAAR has sponsored a series of teachingworkshops funded in part by the Lilly andLuce Foundations. You were among thefirst cohort of Lilly–AAR TeachingScholars. What led to your interest inteaching?
Kassam: The same reasons that newlyminted graduates have when they enter theprofessoriate. I had to learn how to teachbefore I could teach my students how tolearn. It’s a simple fact — an academic liferequires one to learn the nuts and bolts ofpedagogy. That training was not an integralpart of graduate education when I was adoctoral candidate around the late eighties.I was lucky I got to teach an existingcourse.
At that time, there was a fairly establishedview that research was the be-all and end-all of academic life, and teaching the priceyou had to pay for living it. In reality, thiswasn’t really true. I had fantastic teachers,and they clearly thought a lot about whatand how they taught. Mainly, you wantedto be like them — experts, reputable, andpublished scholars in their fields. Everyone’sdream was to land a job at a research uni-versity with a strong graduate program inreligion or theology.
The AAR’s newsletter, Openings, was a god-send, as was the Employment Center —undeniably important then as it is now —the job fair where ABDs and PhDs in reli-gion and theology waited nervously fortheir interviews. Those booths still makeme tremble! To test the waters, I put myselfthrough the wringer as an ABD and madea few shortlists. And the first question after“So why is your dissertation important andwhen will you be done with it?” was “Whatwill you teach and explain how you devel-oped this syllabus?” It didn’t matter if itwas a public university, liberal arts college,or research university, most campus inter-views required a class lecture. You had toshow you could teach your research andmake sense. Now surely this calls into ques-tion the research-versus-teaching divide.
RSN: Before your appointment atSyracuse University, you had tenure-trackpositions at Central Michigan University,
Middlebury College, and ColoradoCollege. These are quite different contexts.How has this influenced your reflections onteaching?
Kassam:Well, that’s a good question.Obviously, it is difficult to move from oneinstitution to another, but I really countmyself fortunate because of the exposure itgave me to disparate academic environ-ments and practices. I have had the privi-lege of working closely with faculty in eachdepartment on such things as revising thereligion major, designing senior capstoneprojects, making cross-disciplinary connec-tions, organizing faculty colloquia, integrat-ing new learning technologies, etc. It isquite amazing to see that no matter whereyou are, many questions come up consis-tently, and there can be many differentvalid responses. When you move from oneplace to another, you also realize that acareer is shaped not only by one’s depart-ment but also the overall character, struc-ture, and leadership of institutions. Thisexposure has helped me think about teach-ing and academic life within a much broad-er, comparative framework.
RSN: Your career spans a long period oftime, but could you offer some examples?Are there particular moments or experi-ences at each of these places that left animpact on your teaching and development?
Kassam:Well, yes, in every environ-ment there is so much to learn, especiallyfrom colleagues. As you know, the first full-time teaching job is formative in one’s atti-tudes to teaching and research. Depart-ments may not realize how vitally impor-tant it is to support and socialize theirnewly hired junior colleagues. I went toCentral Michigan University as an ABDand faced head-on the challenge of teach-ing — actually it was more like learning toteach — and at the same time, wrote mydissertation. Public universities often haveheavy teaching loads. The religion depart-ment had a load of three, rather than four,courses a semester.
As I watched my colleagues work in a con-text of higher class enrollments, variablestudent abilities, and modest institutionalresources, I developed a tremendous appre-ciation, from their example, of teaching asa vocation, as an aspiration and not anencumbrance. At the same time, within thisenvironment, they had fostered a livelyintellectual ethos. We regularly read eachother’s works-in-progress, and met everymonth for dinner to discuss, debate, andoffer comments. For a struggling ABD, Icouldn’t have asked for a more enablingenvironment.
RSN: From Central Michigan University,you went on to teach at Middlebury andColorado College, both liberal arts colleges.What differences did you find in teachingpedagogy?
Kassam: Both are liberal arts colleges,but they are quite different. I’ll talk aboutColorado College because of its idiosyn-cratic structure called the block plan. Theacademic calendar is divided into eightblocks. Students take one course at a time,and faculty teach one course at a time.Imagine the initial challenge of trying toteach a semester course in a concentratedeighteen-day segment! One figures outquickly that covering material isn’t the pri-mary goal; writing, discovery, and criticalthinking are. You can really get into sus-tained analysis of a single text when youmeet students every day for three hours!This intensive format is not everyone’s cupof tea, but I loved it. I could assign sixty toseventy pages a day and students wereexpected to complete the readings andassignments. They had no excuses becausethey had the rest of the day to themselvesand no other courses.
When you have a format like that with anaverage of twenty students, all sorts of cre-ative, nontraditional pedagogical possibili-ties open up — extended field trips, in-class writing and peer reviews, focused tex-tual analysis, team teaching with colleaguesin other departments, study trips abroad,etc. This goes back to the point of an insti-tution’s structure and curriculum and howthey shape teaching and research. Also atColorado College, I developed a vivid senseof how one might approach knowledge as awhole, wide-open, inclusive universe, not asdiscrete and compartmentalized bodies ofknowledge with the humanities on one sideand sciences on the other. The type of stu-dents that Colorado College attracted alsodemanded this of us. They wanted a well-rounded liberal arts education.
(continued on next page)
Teaching Is an Aspiration Not an EncumbranceA Conversation with Spotlight on Teaching Editor Tazim Kassam
• Diversifying Knowledge Production:The Other Within Christianity
• News, Media, and Teaching Religion
• Teaching Difficult Subjects
• Reflections on a Teaching Career inReligion
• Embracing Disability in TeachingReligion
• Teaching with Site Visits
• Teaching about Religions, Medicine,and Healing
• Teaching about Religion and Violence
• Teaching about Material Culture inReligious Studies
• Teaching Religion and Music
(continued from previous page)
RSN: You did your doctoral degree atthe Department of Religious Studies atMcGill University and then taught inundergraduate programs. At SyracuseUniversity, you have come full circle.What observations do you have in termsof the goals and pedagogy at the under-graduate and graduate level?
Kassam: Earlier I mentioned that Iwas struck by the fact that there are basicquestions that come up in every under-graduate department: What is religion?Why teach it? What should be therequirements of a religion major? What isthe position of the religion department inthe college or university?
The AAR has sponsored several studies onundergraduate programs in religion,bringing together faculty from differentdepartments to discuss how they tacklesuch questions. I was amazed to learnfrom a 2007 report on the “ReligionMajor and Liberal Education,” funded bythe Teagle Foundation, that in just the lastdecade, religion majors have increased by22 percent to an estimated 47,000 stu-dents. We aren’t talking about how manystudents take religion courses but howmany major in religion!
It isn’t hard to account for this exponen-tial interest. From politics to internationalrelations, religious pluralism to creation-ism, the war on terror to human rights,it’s impossible to make sense of the worldtoday without knowing something aboutreligion. Many college students know that.They also have personal reasons; i.e., theirown quest. If this trend continues, wemay have an uptick of undergraduate stu-dents with religion majors applying todoctoral programs.
RSN: What about graduate students?What reasons and expectations do youthink they have when applying for admis-sion to graduate programs in religion?
Kassam: My impression is that theyare acutely aware of contemporary eventsand many have fairly skeptical readings ofreligion, its uses and abuses in society, pol-itics, media, etc. It’s hard to generalizewhy students want to specialize in religionor why they favor one graduate programover another. That would be an interestingconversation to have with other programs.Obviously there are many factors thatinfluence them, such as faculty specializa-tion, available funding, program require-ments, national reputation, etc. I thinkfunding is often the trump card.
How one responds to funding issues goesback to the point I made earlier about thestanding of a department in a college oruniversity. In my roles as former directorof Syracuse University’s graduate programin religion and then as department chair,it was crucial to discuss these challengeswith other chairs, to bolster the depart-ment’s profile, and to work with deans
and upper administration to attractresources. Undergraduate programs facefunding challenges in terms of facultylines; but, in addition to hiring new facul-ty, graduate programs simply must havefunding to attract the best students. In aresearch university, this means competinghard for TA lines and scholarships.
RSN: It seems that graduate students aremuch more aware of and anxious aboutthe job market, and preparing for it. Hasthis had any influence on your graduateprogram in terms of its curriculum anddoctoral requirements?
Kassam: It is apparent from themoment they enter the program that grad-uate students also have their eyes on theprize, a tenure-track appointment in areligion department. An important stepwe took to respond to this was to inte-grate teaching courses as a key componentin the requirements of their four-year pro-gram of study. Doctoral students developone upper-level course, usually in theirsubject area, and one introductory-levelcourse, both under the mentorship of afaculty member. The class enrollments arecapped. I have found that students areeager to teach, and more often than not,love it.
Graduate students in our program are alsorepresented on the Graduate Committee,and have substantial input on a variety ofissues pertaining to the graduate program,including admission and faculty searches.It is clear that preparing for the professori-ate is an important part of their goals, andthey participate in a Future ProfessoriateProgram that exposes them to the gamutof career issues. Such training and oppor-tunities were unheard of two decades ago.
RSN: As Spotlight’s editor, you have pro-duced eleven issues of Spotlight on a rangeof topics [see accompanying table]. Howdid you go about selecting topics and con-tributors? Were there some fundamentalguidelines? How did you work with theguest editors?
Kassam: I worked closely with guesteditors both at the early stages to focus thetheme, set the overall framework, identifycontributors, and decide on the format;then I kept track of, reviewed, and editedthe submissions from contributors. Interms of substance, I encouraged a balancebetween pedagogy and theory. That is,contributors describe actual realities andinnovations in the classroom, and provideresources for teachers. At the same time,they discuss theoretical and critical issuesthey are grappling with in their fields orteaching environments.
The guest editors took up themes thatwere often marginal at the edge, bringingup sticky issues in the classroom or theirfield; for instance, our ignorance of dis-ability issues in the classroom, or teachingcontroversial subjects that “offend” stu-dents who are Muslims, Hindus, etc. Ithink you will find in almost all the issues
that contributors were pushing, blurring,or upsetting boundaries in their field andrethinking pedagogy.
Another guiding principle for me — andthis really comes out of my experienceteaching in different contexts and partici-pation in various sections at the AAR —was that the selection of contributors bediverse in as many ways as possible: spe-cialization, viewpoints, pedagogies, insti-tutions, gender, race, junior versus seniormembers, and so forth. This was of coursean ideal, but I think having it clearly stat-ed worked well.
RSN: What topics and themes wouldyou like to see addressed in future issuesof Spotlight? What new challenges do youanticipate faculty will face in light ofbroader trends in the academy and theglobal age?
Kassam: That’s a big question. I havefound that themes dealt with in previousyears reappear because of altered contexts,changes in society, developments in ourfields, and of course, the student popula-tion. Take for example the introductorysurvey course in religion. Should this be aworld religions course? Is it theoreticallyjustifiable to teach such a course? If so,how does one go about it in the context ofthe explosion and instantaneous access tothe virtual jungle of information? I thinkgraduate students — who form a bridgebetween generations, whose ways ofaccessing and thinking about informationand knowledge are very different — couldteach us about this in a Spotlight issue.
Another older theme currently resurfacingis the question of teaching and activism. Isthere a place for activism in the Academy?What is meant by transformative peda-gogy, pedagogies of resistance, and con-sciousness raising? Have new insights andlines of scholarship emerged from theseteaching practices? How do scholars navi-gate the potential minefield of introducingpolitics and personal identity in the class-room? In “The New Climate of Timidityon Campuses,” A. Lee Fritschler arguesthat risk-averse pedagogy shortchangesstudents (The Chronicle of HigherEducation, February 13, 2009). Thistimidity isn’t altogether unfounded. Hementions a religion colleague who wascalled to the carpet by a dean because astudent complained he had criticized hisfaith.
Another topic worth attention is howscholars in other disciplines teach courseson religion since such courses on offer inthe social sciences, law, medicine, andeven business schools have also increased.I would like to see a cross-section of col-leagues in other disciplines give their viewsand discuss their experiences. Conversely,
what do those scholars trained in anthro-pology, sociology, and feminist studieswho end up in religion departments haveto say about their experience and chal-lenges teaching religion? This would cometo the question of “What does interdisci-plinary mean in practice?” in a differentway.
A third topic is the way that faculty useblogs, vlogs, social networking websites,etc. We are vastly at an advantage today interms of accessing research materials elec-tronically. That’s the upside. What aboutthe downsides? A 2007 NEA report, “ToRead or Not to Read,” says that seven-teen-year-old nonreaders doubled from 9percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.The modus operandi for learning nowa-days is scanning not reading. We mayneed new ideas of what constitutes knowl-edge. The question now is not what wedon’t know but how much of what weknow just isn’t so. It is plain wrong. SaraLippincott, a former editor of the NewYorker, describes the state of affairs as “anexplosion of errata” (quoted in Checkpointsby John McPhee, February 9th, 2009).
RSN: Since you became a member ofthe AAR in 1987, you’ve served almostevery year in some capacity — cochair ofthe Study of Islam and Religions of SouthAsia Sections, president of the Midwesternregion, Women and Religion’s steeringcommittee member, on the JAAR andJFSR editorial boards, and Spotlight’s edi-tor. In retrospect, would you do so again?
Kassam: Absolutely! The AAR is sim-ply a fantastic place to serve, learn, andgrow. Spotlight’s next editors have much tolook forward to, and in AAR’s true tradi-tion of renewal, will bring fresh ideas andbreak new ground.
14 • May 2009 RSN
Religious Studies News
I had to learn howto teach before I
could teach my studentshow to learn.
“”
We must develop anappreciation of teaching
as a vocation, as anaspiration and not an
encumbrance.
“”
The question now isnot what we don’t know,but how much of what
we know isn’t so.
“”
In the Next Issue ofSpotlight on Teaching:A Decade of the AAR Excellence
in Teaching Award: New Teaching Statementsand Resources from the Awardees
May 2009 RSN • 15
NEWS
Executive Committee Establishes Support for SustainabilityResearch Efforts: Three-pronged Initiative Announced
Religion Newswriters Identify Year’sTop Ten Religion Stories
IN DECEMBER, the ReligionNewswriters Association conducted itsannual poll of nearly 300 active mem-
bers. More than 100 journalists respondedand identified the following as the top tenreligion news stories of 2008.
1. Controversial sermons delivered inrecent years by the Reverend JeremiahWright surface, resulting in pressureon Barack Obama, who eventuallywithdraws his membership in hischurch, Trinity UCC, Chicago.Meanwhile, John McCain rejects theendorsements of evangelists JohnHagee, a critic of Catholicism, andRod Parsley.
2. Democrats, especially Barack Obama,make a conscious effort to woo faith-based voters. Obama participates in afaith-based debate with John McCainmoderated by California megachurchpastor Rick Warren. Unusual attentionis paid to evangelicals at theDemocratic National Convention.
3. Sarah Palin’s nomination as Republicanvice president leads many evangelicals,who had planned to sit out the elec-tion, to support the GOP ticket. Thechoice causes a dilemma for some reli-gious conservatives who opposewomen in leadership roles.
4. The California Supreme Court rulesgay marriage is legal, but voters inNovember approve a constitutionalamendment overturning the decision.Gay marriage also fails at the polls inArizona and Florida.
5. In his first visit to the United States,Pope Benedict XVI brings a message ofhope during stops in Washington,D.C., and New York. During the trip,he meets with victims of clergy mis-conduct.
6. United States conservatives alienatedfrom the Episcopal Church say theywill ask Anglican Communion leadersfor permission to create the AnglicanChurch in North America, allowing
dioceses unhappy in the EpiscopalChurch to operate under the authorityof a North American bishop instead ofAnglican bishops in Africa and LatinAmerica, as is now done. The move isconsidered the most significant threatto the Episcopal Church’s unity since agay clergyman was ordained bishopfive years ago.
7. Terrorism believed motivated at leastin part by religious fervor results in thedeaths of almost 200 people in a three-day siege in Mumbai, India; one of themajor targets is a Jewish center, wherean American rabbi and his wife arekilled. Meanwhile, attacks onChristians in the eastern India state ofOrissa and its neighbors, which beganin late 2007, continue during 2008.
8. China cracks down on Buddhists seek-ing Tibetan independence in a preludeto producing a peaceful Olympicsgames; demonstrations mar some ofthe torch passages.
9. The crumbling economy and subse-quent drop in contributions forcemany faith-based organizations to cutback on expenses, at the same time asthe need for social services increases.
10. Violence continues in Iraq as Sunnisand Shiites attack each other andChristians are also targeted; ChaldeanArchbishop Paulos Rahho is kid-napped and murdered in Mosul.However, some progress toward peaceis apparently made.
The Religion Newswriters Association,founded in 1949, strives to help journalistscover religion in an accurate and balancedway by providing free tools and training.RNA members have been selecting the topten religion stories of the year for nearlythirty years.
Editor’s Note:Information for this article was provided by RNA Extra Online, the
newsletter of the Religion Newswriters Association (www.rna.org).
INFLUENCED by the SustainabilityTask Force request to encourage moreresearch in the area of Religion and
Sustainability, the Executive Committeehas announced a comprehensive plan thatwill put sustainability issues at the fore-front of the Academy.
The Committee set forth three initiativesthat will showcase the AAR’s commitmentto infuse sustainability throughout theAcademy:
• The Committee has asked the Journal ofthe American Academy of Religion (JAAR )to put out a call for a special issue onsustainability and religion;
• During the next three years, the AARAnnual Meeting Program will highlightpapers that deal with sustainability inone form or another; and
• During the next three years, the AARwill dedicate up to three of its researchgrants for proposals that address sus-tainability, with the recipients of thesegrants, and others, recognized at theawards ceremony at the AnnualMeeting. To facilitate adjudication ofthese grants, an expert on sustainabilitywill be added to the research grantscommittee, with nominations for thisappointment welcomed from theSustainability Task Force.
The Executive Committee enthusiasticallysupports the work of the SustainabilityTask Force, and its goal to stimulate moreresearch on religion and sustainability,”the Committee’s motion said. ExecutiveDirector Jack Fitzmier added, “I am verypleased with this outcome and think thatthis decision puts the sustainability issuemore clearly on our institutional map.”
“We are thrilled with the strategic shiftsthat have been made in such a short periodof time,” said Sarah McFarland Taylor,chair of the Sustainability Task Force.“With the adoption of these and other sus-tainability measures, the AAR moves to thevanguard of academic societies and leadsthe way in setting the frame for scholarlyfocus in the twenty-first century.”
Fitzmier said that the ExecutiveCommittee believed it was imperative todedicate an issue of JAAR to the topic.“We will schedule this as soon as seemsfeasible, given the needs, schedules, andcommitments of the JAAR publishingcalendar,” he said.
Fitzmier also said that the ExecutiveCommittee action does not guarantee thatsuch research will appear in a special issue.“Religion and sustainability submissionswill have to meet the same criteria andstandards of excellence set by the JAAReditorial board, which is charged withaccepting, rejecting, or calling for revisionsof articles for JAAR. A special issue ofJAAR will also require that a sufficientnumber of quality articles are submittedand accepted. It is our hope, of course,that a direct result of the AAR encourag-ing research in this area will be an increasein excellent scholarship worthy of appear-ing in JAAR.”
The announcement of the AnnualMeeting program highlights follows anestablished pattern. The AAR often high-lights, in one way or another, specialthemes or topics that are featured at agiven Annual Meeting. This can occur inthe Program Planner, the online version ofthe Program Book, or in the printedProgram Book. As a relatively straightfor-
ward administrative task, the AAR aimsfor this to occur in advance of the 2009Annual Meeting in Montréal.
The Executive Committee is directing itsmost expansive support to the AAR’sresearch grants program. Each year theAAR devotes approximately $35,000–$40,000 to its research grants program,which typically garners from forty tosixty-five grant applications. There areabout a dozen that are funded, rangingfrom awards of $500 to $5,000. TheCommittee’s plan would allow up to threeof these awards to be given to sustainabili-ty research projects for the next threeyears.
To help the jury assess sustainability pro-posals, the Executive Committee will askthe President to appoint an additionaljuror, with specific expertise in sustainabil-ity matters, to join the research grantsjury. Like all other appointments to AARcommittees, juries, and task forces, thisfalls to presidential appointment.
Fitzmier again said that the initiative doesnot guarantee that any AAR research grantmonies will go to sustainability proposals.Rather, it stipulates that if sustainabilityproposals are deemed worthy of fundingby the jury, up to three of those worthysustainability proposals can be funded in agiven year.
“I believe that if we make announcementssoon, we might alert AAR members ofthis opportunity in time for them to sub-mit sustainability proposals for selectionin the fall of 2009 round of awards,” hesaid.
The Executive Committee is placing athree-year limit on this package of sup-
port. “Hopefully, this support package willresult in an increased awareness of theimportance of sustainability and that sucha happy outcome will reduce the need forextraordinary efforts,” Fitzmier said.
Fitzmier praised the work of theSustainability Task Force. “I think it isentirely reasonable to interpret the eager-ness of the (Executive) Committee toestablish this program as evidence of thepositive impact your Task Force has madeon the Board and on the AAR member-ship. I am sure that I speak for the entireBoard and Executive Committee when Iextend to you my thanks for your passionand hard work.”
Taylor in turn expressed the Task Force’sgratitude for the Committee’s swift actionand Fitzmier’s leadership commitment tothe area of sustainability. “This places theAAR at the forefront of institutions shap-ing the future of academic research in thiscritical area,” she said. “We will look backon the decisions our AAR executives havemade today and will no doubt regard thisas among their greatest legacies to theAcademy and to the planet.”
16 • May 2009 RSN
Religious Studies News
JAAR Call for Papers
The Return of Religion after“Religion”: Consequences for Theologyand Religious Studies
Religion and Reasons: Justification,Argument, and Cultural Difference
TALK ABOUT “the return of reli-gion” continues to be omnipresentin public conversation and within
a variety of academic fields. Along withthis talk about religion’s return hascome a new attention to theology.Indeed, the centrality of theology is evi-dent in the work of scholars who arenot themselves theologians (the work ofAgamben, Badiou, and Zizek on politi-cal theology; Eric Santner’s notion of“psychotheology”; the attention to the-ology in recent American political phi-losophy in William Connolly’s Why IAm Not a Secularist and Jeffrey Stout’sDemocracy and Tradition).
However, public talk about the returnof religion is taking place at preciselythe same time as we see within the aca-demic study of religion a sharpgenealogical critique of the category“religion” from both theologians(Milbank) and scholars of religion(Asad, Balagangadhara, Dubuisson,King, and Masuzawa). The category isnow under fire as essentialist, provin-cially Western, imbricated in colonialprojects and the like.
What are we to make of this juxtaposi-tion? How are we to think about theprominence of public discourse about“religion” precisely when the category isunder fire within the academic study ofreligion? JAAR invites proposals for aspecial issue that critically examines the
return of religion after “religion” and itsconsequences for both theology andreligious studies.
What is the meaning of the “return ofreligion” for theology and religiousstudies more broadly? How mightgenealogical interrogations of the cate-gory “religion” by theologians and reli-gious studies scholars reconfigure bothfields? How do we think these twoquestions together? How will the grow-ing prominence of religious voices inthe public sphere reshape our ideasabout theological reflection and thework of religious studies more broadly?What obligations fall to theologians andreligious studies scholars in an era inwhich religion is an integral if contestedaspect of public discourse? How doboth scholarly communities take up thisnexus of issues in a context marked byrobust religious diversity?
Deadline for submission is Monday,June 1, 2009.
Please submit papers to:
Journal of the American Academy ofReligionDepartment of Religious StudiesPO Box 400126University of VirginiaCharlottesville, VA 22904-4126
ARE RELIGIOUS reasons simi-lar to or fundamentally differ-ent from scientific and scholar-
ly reasons? The JAAR invites papersthat explore the features of reason, jus-tification, and legitimation in religiouscontexts. Religions provide many kindsof reasons for belief and action. Muchattention, for example, has been givento the forms of reasoning embedded incultural forms labeled as “magic” and“divination,” and similar issues arise fora host of other practices, including tex-tual exegesis.
Do particular examples of religious rea-soning bring fundamental problems forunderstanding across cultures or con-ceptual schemes? How are reasons,whether religious or scientific, impli-cated in contestations for influence orpower? Does consideration of religiousreasoning challenge contemporary aca-demic understandings of what countsas reason or rationality?
Topics may include but are not limitedto:
• The forms of reasoning embeddedin interpretative activities such asdivination, dream interpretation,and textual exegesis;
• The roles of extraordinary states
(such as mysticism, shamanism,possession, and paranormal phe-nomena) in discovering and legiti-mating both knowledge andnorms for practice;
• The persuasive dimensions of per-formative practices, includingdance and theater;
• The philosophical grounds forargumentation, rhetoric, andcross-cultural interpretation; and
• The complexities in accounts ofWestern, scientific, or scholarlyreasoning that are contrasted withreligious reasoning. We particular-ly encourage papers that offer bothspecific case studies and theoreticalreflection.
Deadline for submission is Monday,August 3, 2009.
Please submit papers to:
Journal of the American Academy ofReligionDepartment of Religious StudiesPO Box 400126University of VirginiaCharlottesville, VA 22904-4126
JAAR CALL FOR PAPERSTHE AAR AT 100: A CENTENNIAL REFLECTIONThe American Academy of Religion has been in existence for one hundred years. Howhas our understanding of religion changed in that time, and what can the past teach usabout the future? We invite considerations of the implications of the trajectory of theAAR over the past one hundred years for future scholarship in the study of religion.
We are particularly interested in papers that address changes in the field of religiousstudies over the last twenty-five (or even one hundred) years. Possible topics mightinclude, but are not limited to, the following:
• The effect of the rise of academic interest in religion outside of religious studies;
• The resurgence of religion in the world and its implications for understanding thereligions;
• The increasing internationalization of the field;
• New subfields that have emerged in the last twenty-five years;
• The increasing interdisciplinary nature of scholarship;
• Islam’s influence on the study of religion, or, the study of religion and its influenceon Islam;
• The continual shift of the academic study of religion from theological schools tocolleges/universities;
• The influence of social science methodologies (especially anthropology) on thestudy of religion;
• The flourishing of the science and religion dialogue, especially the nascent field ofthe cognitive neuroscience of religion; and
• The effect of philanthropic institutions on the study of religion.
JAAR invites proposals for a focus issue that explores what the AAR’s past can teachus about what will be, or should be, its future.
Deadline for submission is December 1, 2009. Please submit papers to:
Journal of the American Academy of ReligionDepartment of Religious StudiesPO Box 400126University of VirginiaCharlottesville, VA 22904-4126
The American Academy of Religionis pleased to announce the formation of
Cohort Two of our Luce Summer Seminars
THESE WEEKLONG SEMINARS will providetraining to theological education faculty who oftenprepare students for future religious leadership and
ministry. The Theological Education Steering Committeeinvites applications from theological educators interested inpursuing questions about the meaning of religious diversity.The seminars will help address the question of religiousdiversity as a properly theological question: What is themeaning of my neighbor’s faith for mine? While we expectthat the bulk of applicants will come from seminaries anddivinity schools, we also welcome theological educators whoteach in theology and religious studies departments.
The seminars, composed of twenty-five participants andeight instructors, are designed for those relatively new tothe theologies of religious pluralism and comparative theol-ogy, allowing them to learn from expert scholars andadvance their understanding. The result of the summerseminars will be to increase the number of theological edu-cators who can teach in the areas of theologies of religiouspluralism and comparative theology in a variety of institu-tions in which theological education takes place. All accept-ed applicants will be awarded a cash stipend of $1,000, plusthe grant will cover their expenses incurred during theirparticipation in the seminars.
Cohort Two will meet June 13–20, 2010, at UnionTheological Seminary, New York City, then on October 29,2010, at the Annual Meeting, Atlanta, and, finally May29–June 5, 2011, at the University of Chicago DivinitySchool, Chicago.
The application deadline for Cohort Two is January 15,2010. All accepted applicants will be notified by lateFebruary or early March 2010.
Further information on the seminars can be found atwww.aarweb.org/Programs/Summer_Seminars or by contactingthe Project Director, John J. Thatamanil, VanderbiltDivinity School, [email protected].
Luce Summer SeminarsCohort One
Fellows Announced
Michel AndraosCATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL UNION
Edward Phillip AntonioILIFF SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
Loye AshtonTOUGALOO COLLEGE
Julia Watts BelserMISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY
Sharon BetcherVANCOUVER SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
Clifton ClarkeREGENT UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Marion GrauCHURCH DIVINITY SCHOOL OF THE PACIFIC/
GRADUATE THEOLOGICAL UNION
Kathleen GreiderCLAREMONT SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
Ravi M. GuptaCOLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY
Lisa M. HessUNITED THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Mary E. HessLUTHER SEMINARY
Emily HolmesCHRISTIAN BROTHERS UNIVERSITY
Tat-siong Benny LiewPACIFIC SCHOOL OF RELIGION/GRADUATE THEOLOGICAL UNION
The American Academy of Religion is pleasedto announce Cohort One of the Luce Summer Seminarsin Theologies of Religious Pluralism and Comparative
Theology: American Academy of Religion/Henry Luce Foundation Summer Seminar Fellows.
�
18 • May 2009 RSN
Religious Studies News
Center for the Studyof World ChristianRevitalizationMovementsOn October 15–16, 2009, the Center forthe Study of World Christian Revitaliz-ation Movements will assemble scholarsand practitioners from across the globe toexplore the historical and contemporaryexpressions of revitalization within theworld Christian community. This event,to be held on the campus of AsburyTheological Seminary in Wilmore,Kentucky, is one of three consultationsdesigned to take the pulse of currentChristian revitalization now occurringinternationally. Designed to provideChristian leaders with beneficial resourcesfor their work around the world, thisevent is funded by a strategic grant fromthe Henry Luce Foundation. For moreinformation, visit http://revitalizationmovements.net/.
Theologos BookAwardsThe Association of TheologicalBooksellers recently announced the 2008winners of the Theologos Awards. Theawards represent the unique, professionalevaluations of people who sell academic
religious books. The Association ofTheological Booksellers is a collaborativeorganization of diverse theological book-stores and publishers working together toenhance the quality and ensure the futureof theological bookselling. Only thebookseller members of the association areeligible to vote.
Best General Interest BookThe Reason for God: Belief in an Age ofSkepticismTimothy KellerDutton Books
Best Academic BookCommentary on the New Testament Use ofthe Old TestamentG. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, EditorsBaker Academic
Best Children’s BookPsalms for Young ChildrenMarie-Helene DelvalIllustrated by ArnoWm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Book of the YearThe Reason for God: Belief in an Age ofSkepticismTimothy KellerDutton Books
Publisher of the YearBaker Publishing Group
B R I E F SCall for AAR SeriesBook Editor
THE AAR Publications Committee seeksa book editor for the Teaching ReligiousStudies series, which is published in
cooperation with Oxford University Press.
The Teaching Religious Studies series locatesitself at the intersection of pedagogical con-cerns and the substantive content of religiousstudies. Each volume provides scholarly andpedagogic discussion about a key topic (e.g., atext, theme, or thinker) of significance forteaching and scholarship in religious studies.Volumes typically comprise essays setting thetopic within its historical context and locatingthe work within the traditions of religiousstudies, and an array of brief essays that discusspedagogical and theoretical problems relevantto teaching the topic in a range of contexts.Volumes may also include primary sources andguides to reference tools. Taken together, thepieces collected in each volume place the topicfirmly within the religious studies context andraise challenging questions about its role inteaching and in the field more generally. Theseries is designed to be useful and of interest toseveral groups, including new teachers, thosewho are teaching a subject for the first time orin a new context, teacher-scholars, and stu-dents interested in the specific topic. TheTeaching Religious Studies series seeks creativeideas that represent the best of our work asteachers and scholars.
Further information on books published inthis series can be found at www.aarweb.org/Publications/Books/teachingreligousstudies.asp.
AAR series editors help set editorial policy,acquire manuscripts, and work with OxfordUniversity Press in seeing manuscripts throughto publication. Further information on theentire Oxford/AAR book series can be foundat www.aarweb.org/Publications/Books. Therequired finalist interviews for the position willtake place at the Publications Committeemeeting on Saturday, November 7, 2009, atthe 2009 Annual Meeting in Montréal,Canada. Further information on thePublications Committee can be found atwww.aarweb.org/About_AAR/Committees/Publications.
The new editor will assume office on January1, 2010, for a five-year (renewable once) term,and is expected to attend the two meetings ofthe Publications Committee: on the Saturdaymorning of the Annual Meeting and at theoffices of Oxford University Press in New YorkCity, usually in mid-March.
This is a volunteer position. All applicantsmust be members of the American Academyof Religion. Please e-mail inquires, nomina-tions (self-nominations are also encouraged),and applications (a letter describing interestsand qualifications, plus a current curriculumvita) byWord or PDF attachment to: CherylKirk-Duggan, Publications Committee Chair,[email protected]. The application deadlineis September 1, 2009.
THE COMMITTEE ONTEACHING AND LEARNINGSEEKS NOMINATIONS FORTHE AAR AWARD FOR
EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING.
Nominations of winners ofcampus awards, or any otherawards, are encouraged.
Procedures for the nominationprocess are outlined on the
AAR website at www.aarweb.org/programs/awards/teaching_awards.
�e Association for Jewish Studies is pleased toannounce the recipients of the
2008 Cahnman Publication Subvention Grants
Mara H. Benjamin, St. Olaf CollegeRosenzweig’s Bible: Reinventing Scripture for Jewish Modernity(to be published by Cambridge University Press)
Rebecca Kobrin, Columbia UniversityJewish Bialystok and Its Diaspora: Between Exile and Empire(to be published by Indiana University Press)
James Loeffl er, University of Virginia�e Most Musical Nation: Jews, Culture, and Modernity in the LateRussian Empire(to be published by Yale University Press)
Avinoam Patt, University of HartfordFinding Home and Homeland: Jewish Youth and Zionism in theA�ermath of the Holocaust(to be published by Wayne State University Press)
�e AJS is now accepting applications for the 2009 Cahnman Publication Subvention Grants
Further information can be found at: www.ajsnet.org/ajsawards.html.
IN SUPPORT OF FIRST BOOKS
DEADLINE: JUNE 26, 2009
AJS • 15 West 16th Street • New York, NY 10011 • Tel: 917.606.8249,Email: [email protected] • www.ajsnet.org
May 2009 RSN • 19
FEATURES
In the Public InterestExhibiting ReligionSally M. Promey, Yale University
Sally M. Promey is professor of Americanstudies in the faculty of Arts and Sciencesand professor of religion and visual culturein the Institute of Sacred Music at YaleUniversity, where she directs the YaleInitiative for the Study of Material andVisual Cultures of Religion. Currentresearch projects include book manuscriptstitled Religion in Plain View: The PublicAesthetics of American Belief andWritten on the Heart: Protestant VisualCulture in the United States.
THIS ESSAY considers the complex sit-uation of religion on display in historyand art museums. This exchange got
its start in response to the set of provocativepapers on this subject delivered at the AARmeetings in Chicago in November 2008.Convened and chaired by ColleenMcDannell, panelists included ElizabethPope (Art Institute of Chicago), JillGrannan (Chicago History Museum), andGretchen Buggeln (Valparaiso University).Each of the three speakers provided a set ofreflections on a specific exhibition or, inBuggeln’s case, a cluster of exhibitions. Popedescribed and analyzed “Hero, Hawk, andOpen Hand: American Indian Art of theAncient Midwest and South” (Art Instituteof Chicago, November 2004– January2005); Grannan summarized the process ofcurating “Catholic Chicago” (ChicagoHistory Museum, March 2008–January2009); and Buggeln presented case studiesfrom the Vesterheim Norwegian-AmericanMuseum (Decorah, IA), the Museum ofEarly Southern Decorative Arts (Old Salem,NC), and Colonial Williamsburg (VA).
A common assumption hovered, for themost part, just below the threshold of thepanel’s spoken conversations: contributorsstood at varying degrees of proximity to ashared notion of the ideal “neutrality” ofmuseum spaces. As attractive as this idealmay appear, however, it not only fails todescribe contemporary museum practice, butalso obscures the historical shape and culturaltechnologies of these institutions. Museumspace is anything but neutral. Any givenexhibition, in any given museum, representsmultiple constellations of constituents (e.g.,curators, educators, patrons, donors, and arange of publics) with diverse and often com-peting interests, needs, and demands.Looking beyond this array of individuals andgroups, many other aspects of museum prac-tice complicate claims to neutrality. It is per-haps not surprising that scholars of religionshould wonder where and how religion “fits”in museum display, for the “neutrality” ofmuseum space is especially suspect when itcomes to this subject of inquiry.
The culture of enlightenment that pro-duced museums in their current formsframed these institutions as quintessentiallymodern entities [seeMuseum Frictions:Public Cultures/Global Transformations(Duke University Press, 2007) for a usefulrecent account of the situation]. An enlight-enment crucible projected museums into aprogressively secular culture of modernity,and one ultimately predicated on religion’sdisappearance. In this redaction, as numer-ous scholars have suggested for well over adecade, religion became a vestigial organ orappendage, a relic of the past, or a token of“less advanced” civilizations. Emptied ofcontemporary “religious” content, museumsinstead elevated and sacralized art and cul-ture and traced civilizing trajectories thatreplicated this kind of ascent [about which,see Carol Duncan’s persuasive argument inCivilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums(Routledge, 1995)]. Especially when itcomes to religion, then, museums representan inherently political enterprise, havingassumed their present shape, in large part,by locating religion securely in the past andreplacing it with an elevation of its pre-sumed modern aestheticized counterparts.
Striking gaps open occasionally between thisset of strategies in museum origins and thecontemporary human material lives theyseek to represent to the museum-going pub-lic. Sometimes objects resist the sorts of cul-tural elevations “secular” museums seek toenforce; sometimes they implement theirown variations. In 1963, for example,Chester Dale gave Salvador Dali’s Sacramentof the Last Supper (1955) to the NationalGallery of Art (NGA). In this case, and inthis context, “art” should have trumped thereligious subject matter — but art statusfailed to “protect” the object from religiouspractice. Stories (some perhaps apocryphal)have circulated for years about museum vis-itors praying in front of the image, and evenleaving offerings beneath it. For a numberof reasons, including its apparently oxy-moronic pairing of “religion” and “modernart,” this painting does not fit the narrativeof modernity that the National Gallery oth-erwise presents. Museum-goers complain,however, if they cannot find the paintingand this Dali, in reproductions of varioussorts, sells very well in the museum giftshop. The NGA’s solution has been to dis-play the Dali, but to hang it in an out-of-the-way, lower-level service space, also hous-ing the elevator, “between” the West andEast Buildings. Sacrament of the Last Supperthus does not compete for more valuablereal estate in the proper galleries where itwould also disrupt the narrative flow sug-gested in the arrangement of modern worksof art — and where the occasional piousdevotee might disrupt other museum fic-tions as well.
Slippage between museum exhibition andreligious practice occurs with some frequen-cy; this is often most emphatically apparentwhen display moves outdoors, as happened,for example, in the spaces reserved forshowcasing Tibetan Buddhism at theSmithsonian Folklife Festival in 2000. Heremonks (as practitioners of “art” and reli-gion) demonstrated the making of a man-dala and an observant local woman leftofferings and engaged in ritual performance
at a stupa constructed for the festival on theNational Mall in Washington, D.C.
The sensory abundance of this woman’spractice (lighting candles, inhaling incenseand the scent of flowers, seeing the sacredshape of the structure, hearing the soundsof adjacent prayer wheels and musical per-formances as well as the noise of the festivalcrowds) calls to attention, by contrast, thedegree to which the customary culture ofmuseum spaces is heavily informed by aWestern enlightenment investment in visu-ality as the premier sensory experience,most exalted among the senses, the primarymode of the production of knowledge. Inrelegating religion to an “other” present(here Tibetan Buddhism) or a premodernpast, academics have long granted it greateraccess to senses deemed more “primitive”(smell, touch, taste) than the highest sense(sight) or its penultimate (sound) [seeConstance Classen’s Color of Angels:Cosmology, Gender, and the AestheticImagination (Routledge Press, 1998) for anilluminating history of Western sensoryhierarchy]. As the academy renegotiatesunderstandings of the relation of seculariza-tion to modernity, as it acknowledges thesignificant presence of religion in contem-porary local and global cultures, it has alsobegun to reevaluate vision’s domination ofthe enlightenment sensory landscape and toattend to the multisensory situation ofhuman experience.
The challenge to conventional museumpractice here is enormous. We have learnedin art and history museums how to look atobjects, and how to value “looking” in con-texts that assert its neutrality and ubiquity.In Gretchen Buggeln’s discussion of theVesterheim Norwegian-American Museum,she remarked on its emphasis on visuality,describing the museum’s aims and impact inthese terms, “the primary draw is what thereis to see there.” Despite clichéd claims thatseeing is believing, the difficulty is that sightalone doesn’t always reveal everything wewant and need to know. Religious practicesare embedded in a multisensory world andsimply looking at things, from a Westernocularcentric perspective, is a distinctly par-tial avenue of engagement. What are audi-ences to make, for example, of an altar inthe exhibition “Catholic Chicago”; an altarthat, while situated in a niche that reiteratesits “original” location in a church or chapel,offers exclusively visual display of an objectwhose meaningful use requires multi–sensory ritual performance (gesture, move-ment; the heat and scent of lighted candles;the fragrance of flowers and incense; pic-tures and statues to be clothed and kissed).The recent “sensory turn” in material andvisual culture studies, as well as museumstudies, seeks to address a related set of issues.
If seeing is but one important sense amongothers, it is also “partial” in still anotherway. In the calculus of enlightenment “neu-trality,” looking registered as a most disin-terested sense. As James Elkins argues inThe Object Stares Back (Houghton MifflinHarcourt, 1997), however, “there is nolooking that is not also directed at some-thing, aimed at some purpose” (21); look-ing is “tangled with living and acting” (31);and “looking is hoping, desiring, never just
taking in light, never merely collecting pat-terns and data” (22). Beyond the valuationsassigned in individual acts of looking, sen-sory experience of every sort is, as DavidHowes (ed.) suggests in Empire of the Senses(Berg Publishers, 2005), “permeated withsocial values” (3). Perception “has a historyand a politics that can only be comprehend-ed within its cultural setting” (5).
While it may appear that museums presentobjects as evidence from which visitors areinvited to draw their own conclusions,knowledge is heavily mediated in museums,mediated by the sorts of institutions theyare (and have been), the kinds of spacesthey construct, the materials of displaythose spaces accommodate and those theydo not accommodate, the selections ofobjects in their collections, the people whohave made these selections, the categoriesthese selections are presumed to occupy, theconditions of encounter over time and inany given moment, and so on.
An exhibition, like “Hero, Hawk, and OpenHand,” that set out to establish “cultural con-tinuities” over great spans of time, for exam-ple, likely obscured equally significant “dis-continuities.” This is particularly troubling inthe context of understanding NativeAmerican cultures where proximity to “tradi-tion” has long been a dominant culturalmeasure of legitimate claims to authority andidentity. What might have happened had theexhibition’s organizers wished to explore,instead, degrees of cultural continuity and dis-continuity? Even then, however, the focus stillwould have been trained on the politics of“like” and “unlike” rather than on the spacesbetween— or on surviving monuments andartifacts and best understandings of their useand interpretation over time.
In art and history museums, visitors havelearned not just how to look at objects, buthow to value objects — and how to mosthighly value some kinds of objects, especial-ly those objects called “art.” Museum collec-tions have taken shape around inclinationsand imperatives to collect and display cer-tain kinds of things — and not others. Thishas meant that especially attractive “other”objects often get misplaced into historicallymore highly valued categories for purposesof display. For example, past habits of col-lecting and categorization relegated NativeAmerican artifacts to natural history muse-ums or to “museums of man.” Recognizingthe imperialist inadequacies of this practice,curators today have worked to address thissituation — and art museums have mount-ed major displays of Native Americanobjects. Because the category “art” is most“sacred” within the Western museologicalcultural/institutional context, denying “art”status is frequently understood as somethingakin to a moral affront. By this valuation, ifan object is “good,” if it deserves our atten-tion, it must be “art.” Thus, one of the mostpeculiar things about Elizabeth Pope’s illu-minating analysis of the AIC exhibition,“Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand,” is theinsistence with which the Art Institute of
See PROMEY, page 21
Julius H. Bailey is an associate professor ofreligious studies at the University ofRedlands. He received his PhD inAmerican religious history from theUniversity of North Carolina. His firstbook, Around the Family Altar:Domesticity in the African MethodistEpiscopal Church, 1865–1900(University Press of Florida, 2005) exam-ined African-American familial religiouslife in the home. He has also written onAfrican-American new religious move-ments, such as in his article, “The FinalFrontier: Secrecy, Identity, and the Mediain the Rise and Fall of the UnitedNuwaubian Nation of Moors,” (Journal ofthe American Academy of Religion, vol.74, no. 2 [June 2006]: 302–323).
WHAT MIGHT a map ofLiberia produced by theAmerican Colonization Society,
an organization formed to resettle free
black Americans in West Africa, the jour-nal entry of an African-American emigranton the voyage across the Atlantic, oradvertisements promising black southern-ers cheap fares to Africa if only they soldtheir possessions and made their way toNew York for departure tell us aboutimagined sacred space in the nineteenthcentury? These are the kinds of questionsand disparate sources that the AAR grantallowed me to explore as I analyzeddescriptive and visual representations ofZions that were offered by AfricanAmericans as alternatives to a return toAfrica in the nineteenth century. Mysearch led me to the Library of Congresswhere I examined the African AmericanPamphlet Collection, 1822–1909, and theMaps of Liberia Collection, 1830–1870.These cartographic depictions of Africa,images, public orations, personal accounts,advertisements, diaries of ministers, andthe portrayal of Africans in sermons andmissionary tracts all reveal the ways nine-teenth century African Americans con-structed varied imagery to reconcile anAfrican past, American present, and anevolving Christian identity. In addition,the Christian Recorder, the official denomi-national newspaper of the AfricanMethodist Episcopal (AME) Church, alsoreflected the changing understandings ofAfrica. In 1870, the masthead was trans-formed, heralding the denomination’s mis-sionary efforts with the words “EthiopiaShall Soon Stretch Out Her Hands UntoGod,” wrapped around a globe depictingthe continent of Africa. Similarly, AMESunday School literature, such as theChild’s Recorder, presented children withdrawings of African “heathens” before and
after receiving the Christian Gospel. Thisresearch constitutes a significant portionof the African-American material cultureand visual representations of Africa thatare interwoven throughout my currentbook project, Race Patriotism: TheMeanings of Africa in the NineteenthCentury African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Chapters address the ascension of thedenominational press as a central discur-sive site in which AME congregantsengaged one another on the most pressingissues of the day, providing a distinctivearena for African Americans to enter intosustained conversations about the futureof the race and, in so doing, reshaping thepublic discourse of the broader Americanpublic sphere. Taking seriously the impor-tance of spatial location and the position-ality of the historical narrator, there is achapter on “Western Zions,” that beginsto chart the religious map of AfricanMethodism in the American West bysketching the multiple visions of theregion. The chapter entitled “Reckoningwith Darwin” examines the ways socialDarwinian thought complicated notionsof racial origin and biblical authority andthe efforts of African Americans, throughsermons, speeches, and writings, torespond to theories that they felt threat-ened to shake the foundations of theirfaith and reframe their relationship withAfrica. One chapter investigates the paral-lels that AME leaders and laity drewbetween the history and experiences of theancient Israelites and the relationship ofAfrican Americans to Africa. Even further,many black ministers understood theprogress of contemporary Jews around the
world as a framework for their own Pan-African efforts, a measure of potentialAfrican-American achievement, and theprognostication of the future advancementof the race. The final chapter analyzes thearguments surrounding Back-to-Africamovements as those on each side of thedebate not only read the evidence putforth through the lens that supportedtheir own position, but sought to discredittheir opposition by challenging their cul-tural authority to speak for the race.Material culture provides me with a con-stant reminder that this was not solely anintellectual exercise and debate; real menand women uprooted their lives to settlein Liberia in the hopes of finding a betterlife and many southerners lost all that theyowned as they journeyed to the East Coastonly to find that the emigration companythat they had put their trust in had swin-dled them of their money. Placing visionsof sacred spaces, Zions, and sites ofredemption in concert with other forms ofhistorical imaginings such as cartography,sketches, illustrations, letters, orations,articles, personal accounts, editorials, andnews reporting in the black press revealsnew voices and perspectives inherent inthe diversity of black communities andopens up whole new areas of inquiry intothe importance of place and homeland inAfrican-American religious history. Iwould like to express my appreciation tothe American Academy of Religion for thegrant that allowed me to complete keypieces of my research that would have oth-erwise likely been long delayed absent thesupport of the financial award.
20 • May 2009 RSN
Religious Studies News
Research BriefingMaking a Homeland: Imagining Sacred Spaces in the Nineteenth Century AfricanMethodist Episcopal ChurchJulius H. Bailey, University of Redlands
AAR Career ServicesVisit the AAR’s Career Services webpage at
www.aarweb.org/jump/careers for these services:
Job Postings
Annual Meeting Job Center
Candidate CVs
Workshop Information
Employment Statistics
Articles Discussing Career Issues
May 2009 RSN • 21
FEATURES
Kathryn Carriere is a PhD candidate atthe University of Ottawa, specializing inmigrant religion in Canada. Her BA inreligious and cultural studies is fromWilfrid Laurier University, and herMaster’s degree in Christian ethics/theologyand ecology is from St. Michael’s College atthe University of Toronto.
NO MATTER how much someassert that religion is a privatematter, as scholars of religion and
global citizens we can no longer deny thatreligion is everywhere. It reveals itself inthe most unlikely places: in professionalsports, in hit-song lyrics, on fashion run-ways in Milan, and in Inauguration Dayceremonies. People love to talk about reli-gion — whether the question is gay mar-riage, hijabs at school, or capital punish-ment. The supposed relegation of religionto the personal realm has left a colossal
void in people’s daily discussions, and peo-ple are yearning to be given the greenlight to discuss faith and its place in socie-ty. But during a recent taxi ride, I discov-ered just how expensive a proposition giv-ing that green light can be.
A few weeks ago I was heading off to theairport to go to a conference. Typically, acab ride to the airport runs me fourteendollars, including a very generous tip. Itwas just after dawn, and my extra-longshower had cost me my morning cup ofbrew. The driver pulled up to my apart-ment punctually and swiftly loaded myluggage into the trunk. After a few kilo-meters of silent driving, he casually askedme what I do. “I’m a graduate student,” Iresponded without any notable enthusi-asm. He asked what I study and looked atme inquisitively through the rear-viewmirror. “Religious studies . . .” I began,before I could catch myself.
I should have known I was in troublewhen I saw his posture straighten enoughto make any chiropractor proud. “Do youknow about the Ethiopian Church?” heasked me. Before I could answer that, yes,I have in fact studied that tradition, thetaxi driver embarked on a lengthy historylesson. I recognized his tone of voice: itreminded me of my father’s when I wasabout to be the lucky recipient of one ofhis parental “life lessons.” Beginning withhis faith’s origins, winding through theMiddle Ages, and continuing to present-day Ethiopia, he talked about his faith’srituals and beliefs — even its eighty-one-book canon.
Immediately, if unintentionally, I jumpedinto “fact-checking” mode, my brainstruggling to edit the accuracy of hiswords. Was it the Council of Chalcedon, orthe Council of Rome? Were the Jesuits reallyexpelled or was it the Franciscans? Oh, I don’tknow . . . I’m too tired. Leaning back on myseat, I realized it was impossible to be acritical graduate student prior to 8:00 AM.Maybe I’ll just sit back and listen, I thought,as I allowed the driver to continue unin-terrupted. I’ll be a Good Samaritan today, Idecided, struggling to keep my heavy eyesopen.
After quite some time, I noticed that wewere no closer to the airport. It seemedthat my Ethiopian church history instruc-tor was taking me on the scenic route inorder to prolong the one-sided conversa-tion that he was enjoying so much.Glancing over at the meter, I panicked. Italready read forty-five dollars, and we stillhad quite a distance left. Rememberingthat I only had sixty dollars cash on hand,I began to wonder how much my gooddeed was going to cost me. I franticallyinterrupted his discussion of Ethiopian
millennium celebrations to implore himto hurry. “Look at me!” he responded,laughing. “I can spend all day talkingabout religion with you!” He smiled com-passionately and stepped on the pedal.“Don’t worry. There is no traffic; I will getyou there on time.” Gradually, I began toappreciate his wisdom more. “When wasthe Ethiopian millennium, again?” Iasked.
The trip to the airport ended up costingfifty-six dollars. The driver accepted myfour-dollar tip as though it was four hun-dred and humbly told me that it was apleasure driving me. Placing my bags onthe sidewalk, he handed me his card andasked me to call should I ever requireanother ride. I realized then how muchour conversation had meant to him. Byidentifying myself as a student of religion,I’d given him the opportunity to talkabout what mattered most to him. I’vedone well, I thought to myself. My Mumwould be proud. “But from now on,” I saidout loud as I realized I had no money leftfor coffee, “I study physics.”
From the Student Desk“I Study Physics”: Denying My Identity as a Religion ScholarKathryn Carriere, PhD Candidate, University of Ottawa
From the Student Desk is currently seeking submissions for upcoming issues ofRSN. Articles should address the challenges and perspectives unique to graduatestudent members of the AAR; a wide diversity of topics is encouraged. Issues ofparticular interest right now are the admissions experiences of recent applicantsto doctoral programs, and the effects of university budget cutbacks on graduatestudent life and job searches. Submissions should not exceed 800 words andshould be e-mailed to [email protected].
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
PROMEY, from page 19
Chicago (AIC) presented ancient NativeAmerican ritual objects as “masterpieces” of“art.” As Pope recounted, the AIC wished toforeground the “sacred beliefs and ritualactivities” illuminated by “earthworks andcity layouts” and the “works of art” on dis-play. Perhaps categorization of the works as“art” was deemed a necessary first step toexhibition in an art museum — but it was astep that limited the objects in the contextof their early production and use (thoughadmittedly it also revealed something conse-quential about twenty-first century recep-tion). As part of the educational initiative ofthis exhibition, curators and museum pro-fessionals selected fifteen objects to be repro-duced on flashcards for circulation to publicschools. What were the criteria in relation towhich “masterpiece” status was establishedfor the objects selected? By whose estimationwas masterpiece status assigned? Also, in thisregard, was there concern about canonizingas “masterpieces” of “art” the chosen fifteen
objects, especially given their appearance onthe education cards to be used in the publicschools?
Practices of selection, moreover, raise ques-tions not just about what to do with objectsthat survive, but also how to account forand reimagine those that did not. Manyobjects are rendered invisible in the kinds ofmuseum displays to which Western audi-ences have grown accustomed. Things inmotion or performance, for example, pres-ent special challenges, as do the kinds ofthings that have disappeared because collec-tors did not consider them attractive. Thereare also many instances in which objectsremain, but do so below museum radar.While museums make some things visible,they also consign others to invisibility —and these, historically, have often concernedreligious belief and practice.
Especially in instances likely to produce dis-agreement or controversy, curators andpublics may be disinclined to fully engagethe problematic object. In 1999 and 2000,
for example, Chris Ofili’s Holy Virgin Mary,on display at the Brooklyn Museum, wassubject to accusations of blasphemy for itsinclusion of feet and a breast made of ele-phant dung. Here mediation by the pressuntethered display (disconnected it from itsoriginal materiality and offered it a new dis-embodied, mostly verbal reality). In themedia circus surrounding the BrooklynMuseum’s “Sensation” exhibition, virtuallyno one called attention to the explicitlypornographic cut-outs of female genitaliapasted to the surface of the image.Protestants and Catholics representing theconservative side of the controversy failed tomention the cut-outs because they had notseen them: they boycotted the exhibition andso knew the painting only in its postage-stamp-size reproductions in which the sub-ject matter of the cut-outs was impossible toidentify. Liberal religious groups and theNew York art critics largely declined to talkabout the little bits of pictures, apparentlysnipped from magazines like Hustler andPenthouse, because they did not wish to add
fuel to the fire: “as pure as a ByzantineMadonna” was one art critic’s description ofOfili’s work. How ironic that Ofili does notaim to produce art that is neutral or evennecessarily benign; he would be among thefirst to admit that, among other things, hisart engages a market fed by notoriety.
Scholars have long recognized the absence ofneutrality in museums and collecting institu-tions, in objects, in collections, and collectingpractice, in categories and their relatedgenealogies, in looking, and in sensory cul-tures. This recognition has had insufficientimpact on the ways museums display religion.In the wake of the new critique of seculariza-tion theory, as we recalibrate (intellectually,categorically, and institutionally) estimationsof religion’s longevity and consequence, and aswe acknowledge the critical importance ofmaterial and sensory practices of religion, therepresentation of religion in museum exhibi-tions, and the very notion of exhibition itself,will require serious intellectual, categorical,and institutional attention.
22 • May 2009 RSN
Religious Studies News
AARRESEARCHGRANT
PROGRAM
DID YOUKNOW THATyou could receiveup to $5,000 inresearch assistancefrom the AAR?Since 1992, theAcademy hasawarded over$540,000 tomembers forindividual andcollaborative
research projects.The applicationdeadline isAugust 1st ofeach year. Forapplication
information andeligibility
requirements, seewww.aarweb.org/
grants.
2008-2009RESEARCH GRANT WINNERS
COLLABORATIVE
Whitney Bauman, Florida International UniversityInherited Land: The Changing Grounds of Religionand EcologyCollaborators: Rick Bohannon, St. John’s University;
Kevin O’Brien, Pacific Lutheran University
Gereon Kopf, Luther CollegeEthics of Memory and Politics and Commemoration:The Case of the Nanjing MassacreCollaborator: Yuki Miyamoto, DePaul University
Winnifred SullivanRe-Describing the Sacred/Secular Divide: The Legal Story IICollaborator: Robert A. Yelle, University of Memphis
INDIVIDUAL
Thia Cooper, Gustavus Adolphus CollegeTheologies of Immigration: Faith and Practice inBrazilian-American Community
Margaret Cormack, College of CharlestonSaints in Icelandic Placenames and Folklore
Susan Ross, Loyola University ChicagoExploring Global Feminist Theologies in aPostcolonial Space: A Learning and ResearchImmersion Project for Feminist Graduate Studentsand Post-Graduates from Africa to the U.S.
A.Whitney Sanford, University of FloridaGandhi’s Environmental Legacy: Food Democracyand Social Movements
Caroline Schroeder, University of the PacificFrom Ascetic Ingenue to Jephthah’s Daughter:Children and the Representation of Children inEarly Christian Monasticism
Laura Stivers, Pfeiffer UniversityMaking a Home for All in God’s CompassionateCommunity: A Feminist Liberation Assessment ofChristian Response to Homelessness and Housing
LizWilson, Miami UniversityBuddhist Gender Matters: The Sexed Lives ofCelibate South Asian Buddhist Saints
JUERGENSMEYER, from page 9
RSN: What are your goals as the Academy’sPresident in 2009?
Juergensmeyer: The terrific thingabout the AAR is that its leadership is diverseand decentralized. There are a lot of leadersin the Academy, and some of the most cre-ative of its new directions are being forged inthe program units — the sections, groups,and consultations — and in the regionalmeetings.
I am impressed, for instance, with the inter-nationalization of virtually all units of theAAR in the last several years, and this hascome about almost spontaneously, simplybecause the AAR members want to reach outto colleagues and ideas around the world.Similarly, most units are realizing that theenormous public interest in religion thesedays requires scholars to be interpreters oftheir scholarship to the wider public, andthey have sought ways to aid in the publicunderstanding of religion.
The job that we have in the Board and thestaff of the AAR is to help facilitate andencourage these trends and this creativity, tohelp good things happen. This means find-ing ways to support individual research andinstitutional growth, but it also means waysof nourishing our intellectual conversation.
One of the main ways that we will help tofacilitate our members’ interactions witheach other and the public is through theInternet. The AAR staff and Board are work-ing on some exciting new ideas about a vast-ly expanded Internet site that will allow forextraordinary opportunities. I hope thatsome of these changes will be initiated soon,and that the web interaction will continue toevolve with the newest technology that isavailable.
You know, I think that the future of theAAR is in cyberspace. My guess is that a fewyears from now we will think of the AARnot just as a journal in the mail and anAnnual Meeting with a physical interaction,but as a streaming source of information anda social network with a vibrant ongoingInternet interaction. Increasingly this willallow the AAR to play a more useful role inour intellectual development and in our col-legial relations with kindred scholars. Andisn’t this precisely what we want our profes-sional association to be? It is exciting to be apart of the AAR in this historical moment oftransformation, and humbling to share in itsleadership with such creative and interestingcolleagues.
In order to create public awareness about Sikh Religion in the world,the Sikh Missionary Center has published “SIKH RELIGION” (Revised 2005)
and also “Pearls of Sikhism” (May 2008), which have been sent to various libraries.The books give the History and Fundamentals of Sikhism.
A complimentary copy will be sent to AAR Members if you provide your address.Please send your address for a free copy to:
Our Multiple Language website is at:http://www.sikhmissionary.net
SIKH RELIGIONGod is One but One
Sikh Missionary CenterP.O. Box 62521
Phoenix, Arizona 85082 USA
May 2009 RSN • 23
Providing information to help younavigate your membership!
✓ Connect with scholars in the field by attending the Annual andRegional Meetings at deep discounts.
✓ Search for fellow members by using the Membership Database online.
✓ Attend professional development workshops specially designed to assistyou at every level of your career.
✓ Help to shape the AAR by volunteering to serve on committees, task forces, and otherleadership groups.
✓ Answer the urgent call from journalists, public policy makers, and your fellow citizens whorely on our community to foster the public understanding of religion.
✓Gain access to AAR print and online publications like the Journal of the American Academyof Religion (JAAR), Religious Studies News (RSN ) , and the monthly E-bulletins for the latestscholarship and news.
Spec
trum
ofO
ppor
tuni
ties
Membership in the AAR provides you with aspectrum of opportunities to both enrich yourprofessional life and contribute to the field.
CONTACT INFORMATION: ENTER CONTACT INFORMATION. COMPLETE ALL SECTIONS TO AVOID ERRORS.
Dr. Prof. Name: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ms. Mr. Other _______ Mailing Address:______________________________________________________________________________________________
City:________________________________ State/Province:_________________________________ Postal Code:_______________________________ Country: ________________________________ Office Phone:_________________________________ Home Phone:____________________________ Cell Phone:_______________________________ E-mail:_____________________________________________________________________________ Privacy Preferences: Members-only database online: Omit All (only name/inst. printed) Omit address Omit home # Omit office # Omit E-mail Membership List: AAR rents the membership list (excluding e-mail) to respected publishers and exhibitors under strict guidelines. Exclude me from this list.
PROFESSIONAL/EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION DONATE TO THE ACADEMY FUND
Please consider a gift to the Academy Fund. We depend on your support to continue to provide a high level of programs and services.
AMOUNT: $250 $150 $100 $50 $_____
All gifts to the Academy Fund are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
Job Title: ________________________________________________ Employer or Enrollment: ____________________________________ Number years employed/enrolled there: _________________________ Degrees held: BA MA MDiv PhD ThD DMinInstitution where highest degree attained: ________________________ Major field of study for highest degree: __________________________
Annual Income Professional Professional w/SBL Discount*
CHOOSE DUES RATE AND APPLICABLE DISCOUNT. PLEASE FOLLOW DIRECTIONS BELOW TO AVOID ERRORS.
Annual Income Professional Professional w/SBL Discount*
Retired
$40,000 - $50,000 $80 $64 $64 $30,000 - $40,000 $60 $48 $48 $20,000 -$30,000 $45 $36 $36 Under $20,000 $40 $32 $32 Under $15,000 and living outside the United States. $15**Must make under $15,000 and live outside the U.S.
Student $30 Directions: Find your annual income. Mark the dues under the category you chose in section . Only one box should be checked. *This discount available to current SBL members only.
PAYMENT DUE
Enter the appropriate amount and total below. All those with a non-U.S. mailing addresses should add $10.00. Calendar Year (Jan 1 – Dec 31) 2009 only Membership Dues $
International Postage (add $10) $
Academy Fund Donation $
TOTAL DUE $
METHOD OF PAYMENT
Payment must be in full and in U.S. dollars from a U.S. or Canadian bank. Check or Money Order (payable to American Academy of Religion) VISA, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express
Card Number___________________________________________ Exp. Date (mm/yy) __ __/__ __ CID #*: _____________ Cardholder Name (Printed) ____________________________________ Cardholder Signature_________________________________________ * Card Identification # required for all cards: 4 digits on front of AMEX; 3 digits on back of other cards. SC: PB08
CHOOSE YOUR MEMBERSHIP STATUS
Renewal Member ID # _________________
CHOOSE YOUR MEMBERSHIP CATEGORY
Joining as a new member
Professional Student** Retired dues based on annual income flat fee of $30 dues based on annual income
minus a 20% discount ** You must attach a copy of your current student ID card the first time you join. Student membership can be renewed for up to 10 years.
ManageYour AARMembershipYou can take care ofmany membershipactivities using theMy Account feature
RECEIPTSDid you know that you can generate a receipt for your membership dues from yourmembership account? Simply log in to “My Account” (www.aarweb.org/Members/My_Account) on the AAR website using your last name and membership ID number.Select “Your Renewal History” or “Your Giving History” to generate receipts for thedesired year.
Annual Meeting Housing and Registration receipts are mailed to members withname badges, or generated immediately if you register onsite. Since Annual MeetingHousing and Registration is managed by Experient, you should contact them forduplicate receipts. They can be reached at:
![RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY NEW …oralhistory.rutgers.edu/images/PDFs/levine_bernard.pdf · He became a[n] apprentice floor layer and his job was nailing. All day](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/5ed006a02797e43e3a2f7a20/rutgers-the-state-university-of-new-jersey-new-he-became-an-apprentice-floor.jpg)
![1 Introduction - MITweb.mit.edu/profit/PDFS/AlfredMutiso.pdfreduction module (rest of CAD system) IMAGES Figure 1: Overview of front-end data reduction module with images[34]. Images:](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/603f634c21867013f96bb310/1-introduction-reduction-module-rest-of-cad-system-images-figure-1-overview.jpg)
