The pandemic has caused countless events to be reconfigured in the name of safety, and the 2020 American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meetings are no exception.
The conference, which was set to take place this month in Boston, is now being held virtually over an extended period of time—taking place from November 29 to December 10—and several Harvard Divinity School faculty members will present during the virtual conference.
The online conference “is not intended to replicate our typical in-person meeting but will provide registrants with venues for scholarly engagement and networking. We are excited about the opportunities this meeting may open for members who would not have been able to attend the Boston meeting and look forward to learning from the experience,” said José Cabezón, AAR President, and Alice Hunt, AAR Executive Director, in a statement.
The conference typically brings thousands of professors and students, authors and publishers, religious leaders and interested laypersons together each year. It is the largest event of the year in the fields of religious studies and theology.
Below is a list of HDS faculty members who will be presenting at the Annual Meetings. For details on the many other Harvard University students, faculty, and affiliates presenting, search the online AAR conference program and SBL conference program.
Giovanni Bazzana
- Panelist: “SBL Religious Experience in Antiquity Section”; December 2, 5–6:30 pm
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Panel Presider: “SBL Q Section”; December 10, 5–7 pm
Ann D. Braude
- Panel Respondent: “Women Shaping Theology and Religion in the Nineteenth Century: II”; December 2, 1:45–3:15 pm
Catherine Brekus
- Panel Presider: “Religious Liberty Incorporated”; December 3, 4–6 pm
Francis X. Clooney, S.J.
- Panelist: “Lives and Afterlives of Texts: Translation and Reception of the Tiruvāymoḻi — Round Table Discussion of Endless Song: Tiruvāymoḻi by Archana Venkatesan”; November 30, 4–6:30 pm
- Panelist Respondent: “The Whence, Whither, and Wherefore of Comparative Theology: A Conversation Across Generations, Schools, Traditions, and Continents”; December 2, 1:45–3:15 pm
- Plenary Panelist: “The AAR as a Crucible for New Fields”; December 6, 2–3 pm
- Book Review Panelist: “Author-Meets-Critics: Oliver Freiberger, Considering Comparison: A Method for Religious Studies (Oxford University Press, 2019)”; December 8, 11 am–1 pm
Francis Schüssler Fiorenza
- Book Review Panelist: “Faith, Knowledge, and Rational Freedom: A Roundtable on Jürgen Habermas’ Also a History of Philosophy (Suhrkamp, 2019)”; December 1, 11 am–1 pm
Charles Hallisey
- Book Review Panelist: “The South Asian Roots of Modern Japanese Buddhism: Seeking Śākyamuni by Richard Jaffe (University of Chicago Press, 2019)”; December 8, 1–3:15 pm
Dan McKanan
- Panel Respondent: “New England, Thanksgiving, and the American Context”; November 30, 1:45–3:15 pm
- Panel Presider: “What Is Democracy Now”; December 1, 4–5:30 pm
Diane L. Moore
- Panelist: “Religious Literacy and K-12 Education: Opportunities for Successful Partnerships”; December 2, 11 am–1 pm
- Panelist: “Religion & Cultural Activism: Disrupting Peace and Pursuing Justice in Palestine/ Israel”; December 10, 11 am–1 pm
Kimberley C. Patton
- Book Review Panelist: “The Concept of Zhen 真 (True, Real) and Its Potential Contributions to Ritual Theory: A Roundtable on Poul Andersen’s The Paradox of Being: Truth, Identity and Images in Daoism (Harvard University Press, 2019)”; December 1, 9–11 am
- Panel Presider: “Indigenous Ecologies: Trees, Temples, Texts, and Sacred Territory in an Era of Climate Change”; December 10, 11 am–1 pm
Stephanie Paulsell
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Paper: “Virginia Woolf, the Long Nineteenth Century, and the Ministry of Women”; November 30, 1:45–3:15 pm
Mayra Rivera
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Panelist: Program Committee Meeting; December 9, 1:45-3:15 pm
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
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Paper: “Kyriarchy and Intersectionality”; November 29, 4:30–6:30 pm