Opportunities Calendar

Competition for the AAR Best First Book in Religious Studies.

Award the best book-length work (from any period) that engages materials through textual or historical analysis, including manuscripts, and archival sources.

Award recognizes the best book-length work (from any period) that examines religion as conceptualized, enacted, or experienced within specific social, cultural, or political settings. Such works may integrate sociological, ethnographic or other field-based inquiry with interpretation and critical reflection grounded in lived realities.

Award recognizes the best book-length or comparable work that translates religious studies scholarship into applied, pedagogical, or public forms. This includes textbooks, anthologies on particular issues, or trade books that make religious studies insights accessible and relevant to broader or non-specialist audiences.

Award recognizes the best book-length work (from any period) that advances interpretation, constructive critique or reflection on religion, emphasizing conceptual, ethical, political, or aesthetic questions. Works in this category may engage textual, historical, or empirical materials but are distinguished by their primarily theoretical or reflexive orientation.