Religion, Affect, and Emotion Group Call for Papers: AAR Annual Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 22-25, 2014

This Group provides space for  theoretically-informed discussion of the relationship between religion, affect, and emotion. The Group serves as a meeting point for  conversations on the affective, noncognitive, and passional dimensions of religion coming from diverse fields, including anthropology, comparative religion, psychology, decolonial theory, gender and  sexuality studies, cultural studies, philosophy, and theology. Proposals drawing on these theoretical resources to examine specific religious traditions, shifting historical understandings of religion and affect/emotion, comparative work that looks at affective forms across traditions, and broader theoretical reflections are all welcome.

We welcome proposals for individual papers or paper sessions on emerging topics and thinkers in religion, affect, and emotion, including proposals that foreground theory and method of affect/emotion or that engage in comparative or inter-religious perspectives. We especially welcome paper or panel proposals on the  following themes:

•   For the 2014 annual theme of climate change, approaches from affect theory, Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory, or other New Materialisms (Jane Bennett, Timothy Morton, et al.) thinking through religious/theoretical implications of global warming and other features of climate change in the “anthropocene.” (Possible cosponsored session with Religion, Media, and Culture)

•   Material religion and contemporary theories of affect: how do religious objects feel?

•   What are the implications of an affective approach to religion for consciousness, will, and agency?

•   What does it mean for religion to locate affect/emotion inside or outside of language?

•   Typologies and typographies of affect: putting religious/traditional theories of affect/emotion in conversation with contemporary approaches

•   Affect/emotion in the production of religious norms; religious performativity, especially death and aging rituals; the  political/digital fragmentation of the body (for a possible joint session with Body and Religion Group)

•   Reflections on José Muñoz’s contributions to religious studies