The Religion in the American West Group will be kicking off
its first AAR (American Academy of Religion) meeting as an official, permanent program unit with a selection
of excellent papers by Rebecca Tatum, Sarah Koenig, Brennan Keegan, and Jason
Allen Redden.
The theme for our session, which meets Sunday, November 23,
from 9:00 to 11:30am, is “Western Borderlands: Families and Congregations.”
The session’s description is:
In the North American West, there are
numerous sites of contact at geopolitical borders as well as at boundaries of
race, class, ethnicity, gender, and religion. This session’s papers examine
these points of contact and negotiation from two broad vantage points. The
first has to do with the birth and care of children and religious understandings
of bodies; papers consider the role of Native American wet nurses and New
Mexican midwives. The second has to do with the spread of evangelical
Christianity in unique Western settings; papers explore missions to indigenous
groups in British Columbia and to mining towns in Montana. These papers show
that domestic, commercial, and Christian spaces have intersected in the North
American West in complex and creative ways.
Following our tradition, the papers are pre-circulated and
are available now for you to read carefully. Presenters will give only short
introductions to their papers so as to leave ample time for comment and
discussion. The official respondent this time around is Professor Colleen
McDannell of the University of Utah.
To access the papers, follow these steps:
1.
Join the AAR if you have not done so already. Access
to the papers is limited to AAR members.
2.
Go to this website: https://www.aarweb.org/aar-full-paper-submission-pilot-program
and scroll done to our session.
3.
Click on the paper titles to read the papers.
4.
Come on Sunday, November 23, with your questions
and comments!
We look forward to seeing everyone in San Diego!
