Western AAR Regional Meeting

Across academic disciplines, religious communities, and generations, we find ourselves separated by walls of assumed difference, entrenched institutional structures, and the echo chambers of siloed discourse. And yet there is a growing hunger, among scholars and seekers alike, for approaches that build connections rather than reinforce divisions, that illuminate what we share across traditions and fields of inquiry, and that honor the wisdom present at every stage of life. Too often, it has to be said, scholars work in their separated worlds of scholarship that often reinforce divisions. But AARWR is, by its nature, created to move toward connection and integration.

Co-hosting the conference at the Graduate Theological Union and the Pacific School of Religion embodies the theme, since the GTU is a consortium of theological schools, centers, and institutes spanning Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, and other traditions that share faculty, library resources, and cross-registration. GTU’s design dissolves the kind of religious and disciplinary silos this call critiques, making it an appropriate setting to ask how scholars and communities can engage difference generously rather than retreat into separate worlds of discourse. In gathering at a place built on inter-religious and interdisciplinary collaboration, AARWR situates its conversation about interconnection in an institution that has long modeled exactly the aspiration of this call.

In sum, this conference calls us to ask: What does it mean to move beyond the silos that confine our scholarship, our religious communities, our relationships across generations, and other boundaries that we can name? How do we cultivate genuine interconnection—not by erasing difference, but by engaging it more honestly, generously, and creatively?