http://www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Current_Meeting/workshops.asp
Workshops at the 2012 Annual Meeting in Chicago
Workshop Reservation Form (PDF)
Analytical Workshop – The Academic Study of Religion as an Analytic Discipline
Friday, November 16
2:00-6:00 PM
Analysis of academic norms for studying religion means to take up the problematic of scholars’ own norms and the studied religionists’ norms. It does not mean advocacy of interfaith dialogues or god-sharing. We wish to get beyond the paralysis-inducing guilt about what colonialism and "the West" have perpetrated, and seek to remain optimistic about our theory-and-method conscious studies of texts, traditions, and living/dead people. We need to explore how ideologies continue to inhabit academic norms, to identify effective ones. In the interest of relentless self-scrutiny in the study of religion, we aim to discuss how non-narcissistic work can be done in our field.
Leadership Workshop – More Time, Less Budget: The Role of the Department Chair in a New Economic Context
Friday, November 16
12:00-5:00 PM
There are few times in the history of the United States in which the study of religion has been more important than it is today. But this is also a time in which the study of religion faces much-discussed challenges. Increasingly, departmental leaders are pressured (for example) to rely more heavily on part-time faculty, to reduce their budgets, to become more efficient by increasing class sizes or numbers of majors, and to present purely utilitarian arguments on behalf of the importance of studying religion.
Designed for both novice and seasoned department leaders, the 2012 Leadership Workshop brings together seasoned experts who will highlight some of the most successful responses to the pressures faced by the leaders of Religious Studies (along with humanities and social science) departments. In plenaries, panels, and breakout sections, participants in this workshop will identify practical skills and learn more about the best ways for departments to create situations in which the study of religion can survive and flourish.
Religion and Media Workshop – Feeling Political: Religion, Media, and the Politics of Emotion
Friday, November 16
9:30 AM-4:30 PM
The Religion and Media Workshop, one of the most popular sessions at the AAR annually, was a resounding success in 2011, inspiring new conversations and collaborations in the study of religion and media. The 2012 Religion and Media Workshop will build on this success, but with a new format: the master class. The seminar-style workshop will survey the emerging critical scholarship on emotion, sentiment, and “affect” and try to think through the value of this rich body of scholarly work for religious studies. It is our hope that the day’s conversation will lay the groundwork for new approaches to the study of religion, media, and culture by calling greater attention to the affective and emotional dimensions of public religion.
The AAR/SBL returns to Chicago in 2012 at the end of an election cycle in which emotion and enthusiasm will likely be deciding factors. How are such political emotions produced? How do structures of political emotion accommodate, enable, or disavow religion? This year's Religion and Media Workshop will explore how religious and media technologies generate, regulate, and structure feeling. Drawing on a long history of thought on religion, emotion, and enthusiasm, as well as recent developments in affect theory, workshop participants will combine their multidisciplinary perspectives to map public, religious, and political affect in the U.S. and beyond.
This year, we are working with an entirely new format that will make use of our day-long structure and the rich potential of a sustained conversation with diverse scholars and media makers. Rather than traditional paper sessions, the day will be structured as a master class in affect for religious studies, with a particular focus on religion, media, and politics in America. Three to five readings will be circulated to participants before the event. In the morning, scholars in the field will lead three successive seminars that consider the interrelations of affect, religion, and political movements. Lunch will feature small group conversation on these themes. After lunch, media practitioners and political campaign strategists will lead a hands-on practicum to address concrete applications of emotion and affect in media and social movements. A moderated afternoon roundtable discussion will build on the critical vocabularies developed during the day.
Because of the nature of this year’s workshop, it is essential that all participants commit to doing the readings ahead of time and prepare to participate in seminar-style conversation.
This master class will be led by:
- Jason Bivins, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, North Carolina State University
- Matthew Day, Department of Religion, Florida State University
- Christian Lundberg, Department of Communication Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Ann Pellegrini, Departments of Performance Studies and Religious Studies, New York University
- Robert Pérez, Fenton
- Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Department of Religion and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Wesleyan University
- Amy Simon, Goodwin Simon Strategic Research
- Bonnie Turner, Writer and Producer
Rethinking Islamic Studies Workshop – Performance and Practice in Muslim Experience
Friday, November 16
1:00-5:00 PM
Scholarship in Islamic Studies has traditionally shown a preference for reliance on written sources and textual analysis. Such a textual approach has often failed to address sufficiently what Muslims actually do or did. Recent trends in Islamic studies, employing anthropological, sociological, and new philological methods, are extending how we approach Muslim religiosity as a lived reality both in the modern and historical periods.
This workshop will explore how Muslims live their religion as witnessed through contemporary observations as well as in textual reports, extending from the Qur'an to YouTube. The workshop will consider creative methodological and theoretical approaches in order to challenge and expand readings of Muslims practices and performance. Participants will be encouraged to bring their own examples from all regions and periods to enrich the interactive conversations in the workshop.
Sustainability Workshop – Global Perspectives on (In)equality and Ethics in Ecological Issues
Friday, November 16
1:45-5:00 PM
Religion and theology increasingly are called upon to contribute their resources to the task of reversing humankind’s current path toward ecological disaster. Ecological degradation is linked insidiously with various forms of social injustice based on race/ethnicity, class, gender, nationality, and caste. Those links often are ignored in the mainstream environmental discourse. A religiously-grounded commitment to dismantle oppression, however, calls for holding social justice and ecological well-being as inseparable in the quest for sustainable Earth-human relations. The pedagogical challenges arising from this commitment are profound. This workshop will explore the pedagogical problems and possibilities arising from a commitment -- within theology and religious studies -- to confront the issues of privilege, power and difference inherent in ecological issues.
The intent is to provide a supportive and stimulating context for practical and visionary collaborative reflection on such questions as: “How do we teach about climate imperialism, ecological debt, or environmental racism in ways that foster a sense of hope and moral agency rather than despair or powerlessness?” What are epistemological keys to understanding the exploitation of Earth as also exploitation of people on the margins of privilege and power? What forms of teaching unlock power for confronting systemic domination? How do we prepare students to construct worlds that we have not yet imagined? One panel will uncover and explore key issues concerning the nexus of equity and ecology on local and global scales, highlighting both problems and constructive proposals. A second will identify key pedagogical questions and offer pedagogical tools and approaches. Guided discussion will enable participants to delve more deeply into the issues raised, share pedagogical resources, and build collegial networks of support.
