American Academy of Religion

Elizabeth O'Brien, associate professor of history at UCLA and winner of the 2024 AAR Best First Book in the History of Religions Award, speaks to Kristian Petersen about her book,  ⁠ ⁠ Surgery and Salvation: The Roots of Reproductive Injustice in Mexico, 1770–1940 (The University of North Carolina Press, 2023).

A recording of one of Leela Prasad's presidential plenaries, held at the 2025 AAR Annual Meeting in Boston. Leela Prasad, Brown University, presiding Speakers (in order of appearance): James Bowley Larissa Carneiro Koritha Mitchell, Boston University Laurie Louise Patton Summary In an era of faculty precarity, ideological polarization, and institutional histories of injustice, what does it mea...

“Jesus saves” banners at the January 6th insurrection. Evangelical elevation of President Trump as God’s elect. Claims of religious freedom used to justify discrimination. Scriptural “prooftexts” wielded to strip individuals of civil rights. Growing affection in religious communities for authoritarian models of government. Religion is playing significant roles in contemporary crises of democracy....

Max K. Strassfeld, associate professor of religion at the University of Southern California and winner of the ⁠2023 AAR Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Textual Studies⁠, speaks to Kristian Petersen about their book, ⁠ Trans Talmud: Androgynes and Eunuchs in Rabbinic Literature (University of California Press, 2023).

Karen V. Guth, associate professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross and winner of th e ⁠2023 AAR Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Constructive-Reflective Studies , speaks to Kristian Petersen about her book, ⁠ The Ethics of Tainted Legacies: Human Flourishing after Traumatic Pasts  (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

William Robert, professor of religion at Syracuse University and winner of the 2023 AAR Book Award in Religion and the Arts , speaks to Kristian Petersen about his book, Unbridled: Studying Religion in Performance (The University of Chicago Press, 2022).

William Calvo-Quirós, associate professor of American culture at the University of Michigan and winner of the 2023 Best First Book in the History of Religions Award from AAR speaks to Kristian Petersen about his book, Undocumented Saints: The Politics of Migrating Devotions (Oxford University Press, 2022).

Mary Dunn — professor of Modern Christianity in the department of theological studies at Saint Louis University, director of the Center for Research on Global Catholicism, and winner of the 2023 AAR Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Historical Studies — discusses her book Where Paralytics Walk and the Blind See with Kristian Petersen.

American Secularism and Its Believers with Charles McCrary by American Academy of Religion

The Role of Western Universities in Modern Islamic Thought with Megan Brankley Abbas by American Academy of Religion

A Comparative Study of the Cántico Espiritual and the Rāsa Līlā with Gloria Maité Hernández by American Academy of Religion

Religious Cultures of Enslaved Women in the Lower South with Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh by American Academy of Religion

Metamodernism and the Future of Theory with Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm by American Academy of Religion

Art as Embodied Experience with Kathryn R. Barush by American Academy of Religion

2023 AAR Presidential Address - Amir Hussain by American Academy of Religion

Adam Lyons joins Kristian Petersen to discuss his award-winning book "Karma and Punishment: Prison Chaplaincy in Japan" (Harvard University Press).

Rhiannon Graybill joins Kristian Petersen to discuss her award-winning book, Texts after Terror: Rape, Sexual Violence, and the Hebrew Bible (Oxford University Press, 2021).

AAR 2022 Presidential Address - Mayra Rivera by American Academy of Religion

AAR Presidents Address - Mayra Rivera by American Academy of Religion

Women, Prayer, and Poetry in Iran with Niloofar Haeri by American Academy of Religion

Sam Gill joins Kristian Petersen to discuss his award-winning 2021 book, The Proper Study of Religion: Building on Jonathan Z. Smith (OUP, 2020).

Yuhang Li joins Kristian Petersen to discuss her award-winning book, Becoming Guanyin: Artistic Devotion of Buddhist Women in Late Imperial China (Columbia University Press, 2021).

Maria E. Doerfler joins Kristian Petersen to discuss her award-winning book, "Jephthah’s Daughter, Sarah’s Son: The Death of Children in Late Antiquity"(University of California Press, 2020). Through the book, Doerfler plumbs the fragmentary historical record for evidence of how members of Christian communities in Late Antiquity responded to the deaths of children.

Aztec Religion and Art of Writing with Isabel Laack by American Academy of Religion

Kathryn Tanner joins Kristian Petersen to discuss her award-winning 2020 book, "Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism." Through the book, Tanner suggests Christianity can challenge the culture of finance capitalism that permeates our lives by guiding us to reflect on social inequalities and identity-building—concepts which she argues are at the core of Christian faith and practice. In the...