Call for Proposals

This Group invites proposals from across a range of anthropological theories and methods, exploring diverse traditions, regions, periods, and cultural formations. In particular, we welcome individual paper, papers session, and roundtable submissions on:

• The study of religion across anthropology’s four subfields — physical, archeology, cultural, and linguistic anthropology


• Matters of method and reflexivity in fieldwork — the dynamics surrounding religious identity in the field, limits of participant-observation, the role of the anthropologist in evangelizing contexts, and exceptional and/or anomalous field experiences


• Historical anthropology — oral histories, marginalized narratives, archival work, and movement across colonial, postcolonial, and neocolonial spaces


• Ethnographic studies of tolerance, pluralism, multiculturalism, and inter- or multifaith/religious projects


• Class in the study of religion (e.g., potentials and dilemmas in studying “kitsch,” popular religion, or religious ephemera)


• Materiality — objects used to instantiate or make porous boundaries between and across traditions, communities, and bodies

Mission

This Group draws together scholars who utilize the methodological tools and theoretical perspectives of anthropology in the study of religion as a social and cultural phenomenon. Given the increasing importance of anthropology and ethnography for the academic study of religion, we serve the academy as an important forum for sustained discussion and critique of anthropological approaches that can connect scholars working on diverse traditions, regions, and eras who otherwise might not have the opportunity to learn from each other.

Anonymity of Review Process

Proposer names are visible to Chairs but anonymous to Steering Committee members.

Questions?

Margarita M. W. Suárez
Meredith College
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Laurel Zwissler
Central Michigan University
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Method of Submission