Biography
Dr. Brennan Keegan is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston, where her research focuses on Native American religious traditions in the American South. Dr. Keegan grew up in Oregon and Montana but moved to the southeast in 2013 where she completed her PhD at Duke University in 2018. Her publications appear in leading journals in the field, including the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Religion & American Culture, and Indigenous Religious Traditions, alongside a chapter in Crisis of Care: Religion and Empire in the American West Since 1848 (UNC Press, 2026). Dr. Keegan served in regional leadership for four years, including President of the American Academy of Religion’s Southeast Region from 2025-26. Her teaching, scholarship, and service reflect her broader commitment to connecting academic life with the communities it serves.
Candidate Statement
My first time presenting at a professional conference was at the AAR Southeast Regional Meeting. I remember what it meant to be in that room — smaller, less intimidating than the national meeting, full of people willing to ask a first-year grad student what she was working on and actually listen. That experience shaped how I understand what the regions are for. They aren’t a scaled-down version of the national meeting. They’re often the first and most sustaining point of contact many people have with this field — the place where graduate students find their footing, where undergraduates get their first taste of presenting research, and where faculty at smaller or under-resourced institutions, stay connected to a scholarly community at all.
I’ve spent the last four years in regional leadership with the AAR Southeast Region, including this past year as President, and that work has taught me how much effort goes into keeping a region running well. I’ve worked to streamline systems the regional meeting relies on, including registration, scheduling, and communication. I co-hosted a regional meeting at the College of Charleston, which meant learning firsthand everything that goes into pulling off a meeting: logistics, budgets, volunteer coordination, the hundred small decisions no one sees unless something goes wrong. I understand this work because I’ve done it, not just observed it.
That experience is what I’d bring to this role. I know what it takes to keep a region functioning well with an all-volunteer staff and a limited budget, and I know how much regions vary in the resources they have to do that work. I also know they vary in what they need — a region spread across greater distances or built around a different mix of institutions may need a different meeting format, a different kind of support, than what works in the Southeast. As AAR Regions Director, I want to make sure the systems and tools that have helped one region are available to all but adapted to fit what each region actually needs. I have a love for service to the field, a healthy streak of bossiness, and an almost extreme attachment to organizational systems — the kind of person who shows up with a color-coded spreadsheet nobody asked for.
The regions are where this field renews itself, one first presentation, one small conference room, one person willing to listen at a time. I’d be honored to help make sure that keeps happening across all our regions.