Laurel C. Schneider, Ph.D. is currently a research faculty member of the Boston University School of Theology. Trained as a constructive theologian, her research, writing, and teaching has focused on feminist, queer, decolonial and liberation possibilities for Christian and post-Christian theologies. A long interest in Indigenous traditions of eastern North America that started in undergraduate studies at Dartmouth College and carried through her career has influenced her work and teaching in both theology and philosophy.
About Laurel Schneider, in her own words:
I was born outside of Boston and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts by parents who were dedicated to social justice action, the arts, and, during my youth at least, progressive Christianity. My career after college took me in different geographical directions, starting with nuclear disarmament work in Sweden, then graduate studies in religion at Harvard and Vanderbilt, which led to teaching in small colleges (Colby, North Central) and divinity schools (Chicago Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt, Boston University). I am glad to be back in Massachusetts nearer to my family. My current position, Research Professor at BU School of Theology, is contingent, while my spouse Emilie Townes serves as the Martin Luther King Jr. Chair in the university. It affords me a balance of writing, teaching, and para-academic work, like my volunteer labor on the AAR Board of Directors. I live between Boston and our home in Oak Bluffs Massachusetts with Emilie and our four-legged CEO Winnie the dog.
What is your position on the AAR Board of Directors and Program Committee? What exactly do you do in your role?
I serve as President of the AAR Board of Directors. It is a one-year position, following two years in the presidential line (Vice President, then President-Elect). Prior to that I served in the elected position of Secretary to the Board for a three-year term.
What do you think AAR members would find surprising about your work on the board and committee?
This is a Board made up of volunteers from across our disciplines and in my experience, it has been a place to cement old and develop new, strong friendships. So perhaps it should not be surprising that, when we can afford to meet in person, we have a rollicking good time in between the seriousness of our meetings. Everyone on the board is aware of the many challenges that we face in our institutions and cares deeply about them. We don’t always agree with each other, but we pull together.
Another surprise might be that we discover that there is no wizard behind a curtain – it is just us. There is no monolithic machine or central power structure – it is just us. We work by policies developed by our members and open to revision – by our members. Finally, in this difficult time, it is frankly surprising to work among colleagues in an organization that answers only to itself, only to its members. There is no government oversight intent on taking down higher education and no upper administrators buckling to political pressures. Given this freedom, my fellow members across the AAR, what shall we do with it?
What is the best book you read this past year?
There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness: And Other Thoughts On Physics, Philosophy and the World by the theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli.
How do you explain to others that “religious studies matters”?
There are so many reasons that others may question the importance of religious studies, that I must find out first what lies behind the question. Depending on what the term “religion” refers to for the inquirer, my explanation for why the study of it matters may need to differ. If it refers to the world’s dominant faith traditions and their cultures and histories, then it matters at every level of understanding the motivations and political forces that animate the dramas therein. Every level of human interaction, culture, food, celebration, meaning making, dissent, and science can be traced to some horizon of understanding that is rooted in that sense of “religion.” But, if “religion” is not the correct term, as it is not in many cases, then we may need to talk about practices, sciences, and spiritualities of healing, rebalancing, and passage. And so on.
I try to find out what the assumptions are first; are they based in rejection of certain forms of modernity and a limiting category of “religion”? Are they based in ignorance of the ways that spiritual practices and beliefs function in contemporary life? And so on.
Because these dynamics are so prevalent in human life, I always end up asking the question, “why would this study not matter to our students’ success in life regardless of the career choices they make?”
Tell us something about yourself that people might find surprising.
In 2024 I was elected to the public-school board in my town of Oak Bluffs, and that has been a challenging and rewarding counterpoint to my graduate teaching in Boston. The challenges of public-school education in this climate, and the world that faces immigrant children and their families in our vibrant town, temper and inform my work with students and my work in the AAR.
Leadership Portraits is a monthly Religious Studies News (RSN) series that introduces readers get to some of the leaders within the American Academy of Religion.
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