Past as Present: APA Religions, Renewal, and Collective Care
The Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI) is the largest and longest running interdisciplinary conference series in the United States addressing issues of religion and race in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. Since 1999, APARRI gatherings have provided opportunities for scholars and community leaders involved in work on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander religions to share research, exchange ideas, and build collaborative relationships.
As we gather in this year of historic instability and uncertainty, we invite participants to reflect on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander pasts and presents and to consider how scholars and practitioners of APA religions can promote collective renewal and care during these troubled times. How might Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander scholars and religious communities draw upon our histories to work together toward these goals, not simply as individuals but as collectives and communities?
Particular topics of interest include:
- Religion as a source of hope, rejuvenation, and renewal, especially for collective or communal care
- Religion and the rebuilding of broken institutions, norms, and communities
- Religious institutions and communities as champions of illiberal goals and policies
- The role of art and storytelling in religious communities
- Practices and rituals of grieving
- Connecting haunted pasts and unsettled presents
- Reflections on how religion might support or interact with authoritarianism, martial law, and other abuses of state power
- How religious diversity and pluralism can counter white Christian nationalism
- Ancestors and “spirits/ghosts” of those never found and buried
- The role of collective memory and guardianship
- Histories and contemporary social movements in which AA, NH, and PI groups have established solidarity efforts
- How religious communities envision the future, collective vision work, renewal or liberation
While APARRI does not require an exclusive focus on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander religious communities, proposals that center and prioritize these are preferred.