RELS Faculty at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature

Many of our core and affiliate faculty are presenting new and exciting research at the annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature later this month in San Diego. If you are attending, make sure to check out these panels!

Review of Roberta Mazza, Stolen Fragments: Black Markets, Bad Faith, and the Illicit Trade in Ancient Artefacts (Stanford University Press), November 23rd, 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM, 10 (Upper Level West) - Convention Center

Brent Nongbri, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Presiding

Panelists

• Michael Holmes, Museum of the Bible, Panelist (20 min)
• Melissa Sellew, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Panelist (20 min)
• Sofia Torallas Tovar, University of Chicago, Panelist (20 min)
• Liv Ingeborg Lied, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Panelist (20 min)
• Roberta Mazza, University of Bologna, Respondent (30 min)
• Discussion (40 min)

New Books in Hindu Studies, November 24th, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM, Hilton Bayfront-Indigo H (Second Level)

Jack Hawley, Barnard College, Columbia University, Presiding

This roundtable features four first monographs that offer new theoretical interventions in Hindu studies. The authors are grouped in pairs to respond to each other's books and to discuss how these new works may be incorporated into their own scholarship and pedagogy. The first pair features literary studies of figures and texts central to any idea of Hinduism: the Upanishadic figure of Yajnavalkya on one hand, and the multitude of regional language tellings of the Mahabharata on the other. The second pair turns to the social and cultural history of Hinduism in the early modern period. One book traces the emergence of the "Hindu" in a northwestern Indian kingdom; the other develops a new approach to the study of south Indian temple murals. Spanning diverse locations from Rajasthan to Tamil Nadu and a variety of methodologies, the panel displays the breadth and diversity of Hindu studies.

Panelists

• Sohini Pillai, Kalamazoo College

• Steven Lindquist, Southern Methodist University

• Anna Seastrand, University of Minnesota

• Divya Cherian, Princeton University

Business Meeting

• Varun Khanna, Swarthmore College, Presiding 

Book Review Session: The Nordic Bible: Bible Reception in Contemporary Nordic Societies. Edited by Marianne Bjelland Kartzow, Kasper Bro Larsen, and Outi Lehtipuu. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023. November 24th, 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM, Grand D (Fourth Floor) - Omni

Panelists

• Hanne Levinson, University of Minnesota, Introduction (10 min)
• Kristofer Coffman, Luther Seminary, Panelist (25 min)
• Ingunn Aadland, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society, Panelist (25 min)
• Break (10 min)
• Dan Clanton, Doane University, Panelist (25 min)
• Outi Lehtipuu, University of Helsinki, Respondent (25 min)
• Discussion (30 min)

Status of Racial and Ethnic Minoritized People in the Professions Committee and Status of Women and Gender Minoritized Persons in the Professions Committee Mentoring Lunch for Women and Gender-Minoritized People, November 24th, 11:15 AM - 12:30 PM, Convention Center-20D (Upper Level East)

K. Christine Pae, Denison University, Presiding

The Status of Women and Gender Minoritized Persons in the Professions Committee and the Status of Racial and Ethnic Minoritized People in the Professions Committee will co-sponsor a mentoring lunch for women and gender-minoritized people. The luncheon is open to female-identified and gender minoritized members of AAR at any stage of their professional journey and offers space for candid conversations about the challenging issues which the participants are facing. This AAR member luncheon requires an advance purchase. Add this to your registration by MODIFYING your AAR Annual Meeting registration. Tickets not available after October 31.

Panelists

• K. Christine Pae, Denison University

• Andrea Jain, Indiana University - Purdue University, Indianapolis

• S Brent Rodriguez-plate,

• Elyse Ambrose, University of California, Riverside

• Sahin Acikgoz, University of California, Riverside

• Mitzi Smith, Columbia Theological Seminary

• Caroline T. Schroeder, University of Oklahoma

• Melissa Harl Sellew, University of Minnesota

• SueJeanne Koh, University of California, Irvine

• Sarah Imhoff, Indiana University, Bloomington

• Ann Gleig, University of Central Florida

• C. Libby, Pennsylvania State University

• Cristian De La Rosa, Boston University

• Juliane Hammer, University of North Carolina At Chapel Hill

• Melanie Johnson-DeBaufre, Drew Theological School

• Denise Buell, Williams College

• Linn Tonstad, Yale University

• Jennifer Harvey, Drake University

• Elaine Padilla, University of La Verne

• Pamela Lightsey, Meadville Lombard Theological School

Book Panel Discussion: Seductive Spirits: Deliverance, Demons, and Sexual Worldmaking in Ghanaian Pentecostalism (Stanford University Press, 2024), November 24th, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM, Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire 402 (Fourth Level)

In this book, Nathanael Homewood (University of Minnesota) examines the frequent and varied experiences of spirit possession and sex with demons that constitute a vital part of Pentecostal deliverance ministries, offering insight into these practices assembled from long-term ethnographic engagement with four churches in Accra, the capital of Ghana. Relying on the uniqueness of the Pentecostal sensorium, this book unravels how spirits and sexuality intimately combine to expand the definition of the body beyond its fleshy boundaries. Ultimately, Homewood argues for a distinction between colonial demonization and decolonial demons, charting another path to understanding being, the body, and sexualities. Panelists on this panel will engage Homewood’s text, methodology, and findings in a wide-ranging conversation with the author.

AAR Awards Ceremony and Member Reception, November 24th, 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM, Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire AEI (Fourth Level)

Join the American Academy of Religion to celebrate the 2024 award winners, acknowledge the important contributions our members have made to the academic study and public understanding of religion, and celebrate volunteer leaders and everyone who has been supporting the work and enduring relevance of the AAR. Come see friends and colleagues, have a drink on us, and celebrate! All AAR members are welcome to attend!

Religion and the Arts Book Award, Sinem Arcak Casale, University of Minnesota, "Gifts in the Age of Empire: Ottoman-Safavid Cultural Exchange, 1500–1639" (The University of Chicago Press)

Arts and/as Chinese Religious Repertoires, November 25th, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM, Convention Center-11B (Upper Level West)

Yong Cho, University of California, Riverside, Presiding

This panel presents a topically and historically diverse array of papers for the sake of bringing a methodological point into focus. We examine how literary, cinematic, visual, and ritual arts have not merely transmitted but creatively engaged and reshaped Confucian, Buddhist, Daoist, and so-called popular-religious thought in China from the medieval period to the present. In each case, we consider how the formal and conceptual affordances of artistic media respond to the needs of their respective practitioners. By engaging these affordances, practitioners have synthesized concepts from disparate traditions; redefined or reinterpreted pre-existing concepts; and illuminated ideas in ways that are uniquely accessible through certain art forms. To make sense of such artistic adaptations of religious thought, it does not suffice to have a grasp of the religious traditions at play. Instead, arts should be understood as actively intervening in and contributing to the repertoires of Chinese religions.

Panelists

• Ronghu Zhu, University of Chicago, Cao Yanlu’s Dwelling-Securing (Zhenzai) Ritual in the Context of Medieval Chinese Household Religion, Abstract
• Zhuolun Xie, Princeton University, Clearing Mountains, Quelling Waters: The Visual Narrative of a Soushan tu Painting and Its Textual Afterlife, Abstract
• Alia Goehr, University of Minnesota, The Moral Mind’s Outrage in Zhang Nai’s “Must-Read Classical Literature” 必讀古文, Abstract
• Justin R. Ritzinger, University of Miami, Bodhisattva Noir: Agency, Theodicy, and Genre in "Running on Karma", Abstract

Responding

• Yong Cho, University of California, Riverside

Agency and the Nonhuman 2, November 25th, 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM, 25C (Upper Level East) - Convention Center

Sébastien Doane, Université Laval, Presiding

Continuing the exploration of the meaning of the terms agency or actancy when applied to the non-human members of creation.

Panelists

• Mary Dance Berry, Duke University, “Therefore the Land Mourns": Land and Water’s Agency in Prophetic Imagery (25 min)

• Dorothea Erbele-Kuester, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, “O Land Be Glad and Rejoice” (Joel 2:21): Hope through Agency of Nature (25 min)

• Joby Joy, Graduate Theological Union, Green Voices of Prophecy: The Enigma of a Disobedient Prophet among a Subservient Nature and Humanity (25 min)

• Michael J. Rhodes, Carey Baptist College, Leave God’s Sea Dragons Alone! Biblical Chaos Creatures and the Limits of Gen 1:26–28 (25 min)

• Kristi Lee, University of Minnesota, Animality, Femininity, and the Divine in the Acts of Thecla (25 min)

• Christine Trotter, Georgetown University, The Agency of Creation in Matthew’s Story of Jesus (25 min)

Pentateuch and Pedagogy, November 25th, 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM, 1A (Upper Level West) - Convention Center

Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, College of the Holy Cross, Presiding

This invited panel will address three related issues. (1) The first concerns best practice for teaching the composition of the Pentateuch: does it matter if the Pentateuchal models we promote in our research are effectively too complicated to be taught? (2) The second concerns the place of the history of ancient Israel when teaching Pentateuch: should we expect students to situate the Pentateuch within its historical context(s) and to bring it into dialogue with other ancient Near Eastern materials? (3) The third issue concerns our responsibility to attend to the social location of pentateuchal interpreters both past and present: how can we teach Pentateuch in a way that acknowledges the problems of racism, Eurocentrism, and antisemitism that have shaped the history of the field and continue to plague the historical-critical method?

Panelists

• Sara Milstein, University of British Columbia, Panelist (15 min)
• Bernard Levinson, University of Minnesota, Panelist (15 min)
• Philip Yoo, University of British Columbia, Panelist (15 min)
• Justin Reed, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Panelist (15 min)
• Liane Feldman, Princeton University, Panelist (15 min)
• Konrad Schmid, Universität Zürich, Panelist (15 min)
• Discussion (55 min)

The Bible in the Arts, November 25th, 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM, 30D (Upper Level East) - Convention Center

Rebecca Esterson, Graduate Theological Union, Presiding

Panelists

• Hanne Loeland Levinson, University of Minnesota, Subverting Eden: Eden Motifs in Dystopian Literature (30 min)

• Kelsey Spinnato, Texas Lutheran University, Novels and the Explicit Religious Nature of Esther (30 min)

• Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher, Catholic Private University of Linz, “My nepeš Is Always in My Hands” (Ps 119:109) (30 min)

• Tobias Ålöw, University of Gothenburg, Sitcom and Scripture: The Repurposing of 1 Kings 3:16–28 in Seinfeld’s “The Seven” (30 min)

• Amy Lindeman Allen, Christian Theological Seminary, (Re)presenting Evil: Demons, Angels, and the Supposed "Curse of Ham" in Contemporary Children's Bibles (30 min)

Teaching Women in Chinese Religions: Roundtable on a New Sourcebook of Translated Texts, November 25th, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Convention Center-33A (Upper Level East)

Katherine Alexander, University of Colorado, Presiding

In this roundtable, a group of scholars who have collaboratively compiled a sourcebook of new critical translations of works relating to women in Chinese religions will speak about their forthcoming work, its contribution to the field, and its applications in the university classroom. Tentatively titled Teaching Women in Chinese Religions, the work focuses on women’s life-stages and how religious practices and rituals shaped norms around female identity and bodies. With chapters on roles like daughter, wife, mother and non-mother (nuns and shamans), and life-stages like girlhood, marriage, and widowhood, the book contributes to filling a critical gap in the diversity of teachable texts about women’s religious lives in Chinese history and culture. The panel aims to introduce the themes of this work, give audience members practical approaches to using its contents in the classroom, and create a forum for open discussion of best practices for teaching religion, gender, and literature.

Panelists

• Ann Waltner, University of Minnesota

• Xu Ma, Lafayette College

• Rongdao Lai, McGill University

• Hsiao-wen Cheng, University of Pennsylv ania

• Natasha Heller, University of Virginia

• Megan Bryson, University of Tennessee

New Work in Greco-Roman Religions, November 26th, 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM, Indigo 206 (Second Level) - Hilton Bayfront

Maria Doerfler, Yale University, Presiding

Panelists

• Stephen P. Ahearne-Kroll, University of Minnesota
  Worship of Small Groups of Gods and the Reception of Paul’s God(s) (20 min)

• Joseph Kimmel, Boston College
  Ancient Mediterranean Materialism: Onomastic Agency from Tertullian to Jane Bennett (20 min)

• Discussion (10 min)

• Break (5 min)

• Business Meeting (45 min)