Friday, November 21
THATCamp
9 a.m.–4 p.m., HCC 209 (second level)
This hands-on humanities and technology workshop aims to build skills for utilizing AI, digital research methods, and new technologies that could impact teaching and research. Moderating are Illinois College professor of religion Adam Porter and Appalachian State University religious studies professor Randall Reed (a coauthor of Understanding Religion and Artificial Intelligence: Meaning-Making in the Digital Age).
Difficult Texts in the Old Testament: A Workshop Approach
9–11 a.m., Westin Copley Place, Essex Center (third floor)
Every year the Institute for Biblical Research offers a roundtable panel with audience participation that looks at “difficult” biblical passages in their literary context and in relation to other Old Testament passages. This year’s text is Malachai 2:13-16, which condemns divorce. Moderating the panel is Traci Birge, an assistant professor of biblical studies at Azusa Pacific University specializing in reading Hebrew Bible texts from a literary, historical, and feminist perspective.
Media and Religion: Counter-Media and Resistance
11 a.m.–1 p.m., HCC 203 (second level)
This roundtable discussion explores how religious and spiritual communities can engage with media to speak against injustice and oppression in religious institutions and society. Moderating the discussion is Kristin Peterson, Boston College associate professor of communication and author of Unruly Souls: The Digital Activism of Muslim and Christian Feminists.
Compassion as a Path to Freedom
2–3:30 p.m., Hilton Back Bay, Maverick A (second floor)
Four scholars in the Dharma traditions of Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Hinduism will present papers exploring the central role of compassion, as a virtue, a transformative practice, and a path to spiritual freedom and social harmony. The discussion will be moderated by Christopher Miller, the cofounder and VP of the Arihanta Institute and author of Embodying Transnational Yoga: Eating, Singing, and Breathing in Transformation.
Creating Public Scholarship Through Podcasting and Other Media
3–5 p.m., HCC 308 (third level)
Three popular podcasters will offer production skills and content insights for religion scholars who want to add audio to their curricula or professional platforms. Moderating are the hosts of the Straight, White, American Jesus podcast: associate professors of religion Bradley Onishi (University of San Francisco) and Daniel Miller (Landmark College). They are joined by panelist Leah Payne, a professor of American religious history at Portland Seminary, author of God Gave Rock & Roll to You, and host of the podcasts The Rock That Doesn’t Roll, focused on Christian music, and Spirit and Power: Charismatics and Politics in American Public Life.
Saturday, November 22
Between Liberation and Discord: How Freedom Fractures Expertise and Authority in North American Religious and Spiritual Contexts
9–11 a.m., HCC 105 (plaza level)
A panel of scholars will examine provocative religious and existential questions through a variety of lenses, including astrology, environmental regulation, and minority religious communities. Moderating will be Omri Elisha, associate professor of anthropology at Queens College at City University of New York.
Honoring Jonathan Shay: A Performance by Theater of War
11:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m., HCC Ballroom A (third level)
Theater of War, a theater and discussion project founded in 2009 and inspired by Jonathan Shay’s work interpreting the experience of war veterans through the ancient poetry of Homer, will offer performances of poetry, prose, and plays to draw connections between war, combat trauma, moral injury, and the power of art to give “profound expression to moral harm and woundedness,” according to the program.
Scripture, Hermeneutics, and the Middle East: Contemporary Palestinian Christian Theologies
9–11 a.m., Westin Copley Place, Essex North (third floor)
Three theologians will present papers on Palestinian Christian theology both historically and in the context of today’s fast-changing circumstances in Gaza and the West Bank. An open roundtable will follow to discuss whether the Christian west is complicit in Gaza’s destruction, with Mitri Raheb, president of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem; Gary Burge, adjunct professor of New Testament at Calvin Seminary; and Princeton Theological Seminary doctoral student Marah Sarji, who is Palestinian.
Review of James Barker’s Writing and Rewriting the Gospels: John and the Synoptics and Mark Goodacre’s The Fourth Synoptic Gospel: John’s Knowledge of Matthew, Mark, and Luke
4–6 p.m., HCC 210 (second level)
Barker’s and Goodacre’s books bring a new perspective to the literary sources of the Bible, particularly the relationship between John and the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). According to Eerdmans, the publisher, “This may be the biggest single session at SBL this year” because both authors upend the view held by many scholars that John and the Synoptics relied on different literary sources.
SBL President Ehud Ben Zvi’s Presidential Address: Open the Gates! Exploring Futures for Us as Scholars, for Our Field, and for Our Society of Biblical Literature
7–8 p.m., Sheraton, Constitution Ballroom
When PW asked about his aim for this speech, Ben Zvi said he did not want to impose his own narrative for the future but rather to inspire people to bring their own visions forward. “I want people from different backgrounds, from the different places in the world, working in different social circumstances, to talk to each other,” he explained. “Then we have a basis of conversation. That’s how we move forward.”
AAR President Leela Prasad’s Presidential Address: Freedom and the Ethics of Vigilance in a Time of Endangerment
7–8 p.m., HCC Ballroom A (third level)
Prasad says “an atmosphere of repercussion, inhumanity, and inscrutability prevails” in U.S. politics today. According to the program, she will call on scholars to consider what it means to “be vigilant for justice, vigilant for the smallest acts of dignity, vigilant for freedom in the ordinary and the everyday.”
Sunday, November 23
23 Years After Spotlight: Trust, Justice, and Healing for the Life of the Christian Church
9–11 a.m., Sheraton, Gardner (third floor)
Spotlight is the name of the Boston Globe investigative team that in 2002 exposed rampant sexual abuse of children by priests and sparked a worldwide crisis for the Catholic Church that still reverberates today. A panel of scholars, educators, and religion practitioners will reflect on efforts to deal with the past and prevent future abuse. Moderating will be Brooke Petersen, chair of pastoral ministry at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago and the author of Religious Trauma: Queer Stories in Estrangement and Return.
Presidential Plenary: The Sovereignty of Hope: Scholarship, Precarity, and the Future of Academic Freedom
11:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m., HCC Ballroom A (third level)
AAR president Leela Prasad leads a panel looking at optimism as a form of sovereignty—a declaration of intellectual and ethical autonomy as well as accountability—in the face of everyday structural constraints, hierarchies, censorship, surveillance, and professional vulnerability.
In God’s Presence: A Jewish Theology for Jews and Christians
11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., Westin Copley Place, Essex South (third floor)
Theologians Jon Levenson, assistant professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard Divinity School, and David Ford, emeritus professor of divinity at Cambridge University, will discuss In God’s Presence: A Theological Reintroduction to Judaism by Alon Goshen-Gottstein as a novel theological reading of Judaism’s history and spirituality that can “shed new light and inspire mutual understanding for Jews and Christians,” according to the program.
Review Session: Judeophobia and the New Testament: Texts and Contexts
1–3:30 p.m., Marriott Copley Place, Vermont (fifth floor)
According to Eerdmans, the 30 scholars contributing to Judeophobia and the New Testament examine how “Christian scripture has been used—both in the past and the present—in service of anti-Semitism.” Graduate Theological Union professor Rebecca Estersen will introduce four panelists to discuss the book, which is edited by Sarah E. Rollens, Eric M. Vanden Eykel (who will respond to the review), and Meredith J.C. Warren.
Academic Freedom, Community Engagement, and Contemporary Challenges to the Academy
3–4:30 p.m., Sheraton, Gardner (third floor)
Scholars who go beyond the academy walls to work with communities and causes are facing intensifying social and political
pressures and increased scrutiny, according to the program. This workshop brings together representatives from the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom with other faculty and researchers to consider these ongoing challenges. Joseph Witt, an associate professor in religious studies with a special interest in environmental issues at University of Tennessee, will moderate, with contributions from panelist Victoria Machado, an assistant professor in environmental studies with a focus on spirituality and environmental activism at Rollins College.
Oct. 7th and the Question of Genocide in Gaza: A Panel Discussion with Omer Bartov
5–6:30 p.m., Sheraton, Independence East (second floor)
The International Court of Justice has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Omer Bartov, professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University and a former member of the Israeli military, will join a range of respondents in discussing whether the genocide label is valid, its implications, and its potential impact. Bartov is the author of the forthcoming Israel: What Went Wrong.
Monday, November 24
God’s Stories as Told by God’s Children: Making Biblical Scholarship Accessible for Kids
9–11:30 a.m., HCC 107 (plaza level)
This panel discusses God’s Stories as Told by God’s Children, from the team behind the Christian podcast The Bible for Normal People. Participants include seven scholars and theologians such as Steed Vernyl Davidson, executive director of the SBL, who contributed chapters to the book. Panelists will discuss how they sought to share Biblical scholarship concepts in a storybook format.
Drawing Religion: Approaches to Comics and Graphic Novels in Research, Reviewing, and Scholarship
9–11 a.m., HCC 103 (plaza level)
This roundtable panel on the future of comics and graphic novels in academic studies includes scholars and artists working at the intersection of comics and religion on topics such as sacred texts and translation, Black religions, Catholicism and social justice, and art-making practices. Moderating will be Spencer Dew, an associate teaching professor in comparative studies at Ohio State University.
Critical and Activist Perspectives on Academic Freedom
11:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m., HCC 203 (second level)
The Trump administration’s demands that higher education institutions dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives
are, according to the program, leading to profound professional, personal, and academic pressures on faculty—particularly among members of marginalized racial groups, women, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
This session will offer strategies for resistance, resilience, and advocacy. Nick Shrubsole, a lecturer in philosophy with an interest in the rights of Indigenous peoples at University of Central Florida, will moderate a panel that includes Mary Jo Iozzio, a professor of moral theology at Boston College and author of Radical Dependence: Anthropology, Ethics, and Disability.
Church, State, and Project 2025
12:30–2:30 p.m., Sheraton, Berkeley (third floor)
This panel session explores freedom of religion and the relationship between church and state in the light of the Trump administration’s enactment of policies developed by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. Henry Kuo, associate professor of church histories and historical theology at Eden Theological Seminary, will moderate.
Archives and Abuse: Boston’s Bishop Accountability as a Case Study in Digital Public Access
12:30–2:30 p.m., Sheraton, Independence East (second floor)
After the clergy sex abuse scandal exploded in Boston in 2002, a group of Boston Catholics established BishopAccountability.org, which created a massive digital archive of religious abuse worldwide. Participants in this panel discussion include scholars, survivors, attorneys, and activists. They will be considering uses of open-access archives and digital systems for survivors and religious studies researchers going forward. Historian Kathryn Lofton, a professor of religious studies at Yale, will moderate.
Pop Culture Potpourri
4–6:30 p.m., HCC (second level)
SBL organizers invited six scholars who see biblical parallels in television programs, fantasy novels, video games, and more to submit papers for presentation. A sampling of those papers includes University of Sheffield doctoral student Clair Hutchings-Budd’s “Otherworldly Journeys in the Testament of Abraham and Terry Pratchett’s Reaper Man” and Hope International University chair of biblical studies Kelly D. Dagley’s “The Prophetic Vocation of Late-Night Hosts and the Hebrew Prophets.”
Tuesday, November 25
Author Meets Critics: Revisiting Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination After 20 Years
9–11 a.m., Sheraton, Berkeley (third floor)
Author Ebrahim Moosa will respond to a panel of scholars considering the impact his book Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination had on “reenergizing the Islamic intellectual tradition,” according to the program. The book won the 2006 AAR Award for Best First Book in the History of Religions. It centers on 12th-century Muslim jurist and theologian Abu Hamidi al-Ghazali, who, according to the publisher, emphasized creativity, imagination, and freedom of thought.
Paul and Politics Within the Westminster Study Bible
9–11:30 a.m., Sheraton, Commonwealth (third floor)
Five scholars who contributed commentary on Paul for the updated edition of the Bible published last year by Westminster John Knox will discuss 2 Corinthians, Romans, Philemon, and Ephesians. They will offer “feminist and gender analysis, imperial and postcolonial interpretation, and identity analysis,” according to the program. Anna Miller, an associate professor of New Testament and early Christianity at Xavier University, will moderate.
