American Academy of Religion
Midwest Regional Conference
April 1-3, 2011
Augustana College
Rock Island, Illinois
Conference Theme: TEACHING RELIGION
Lunch Time Plenary Address by:
Dr. Edward E. Curtis IV
"Teaching Religion after 9/11:
On Religious Violence, Public Scholarship, and My Cameo in the 'Ground Zero Mosque' Controversy"
Dr. Edward E. Curtis IV is the Millennium Chair of the Liberal Arts and
Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies at Indiana University-Purdue Indianapolis.
All panel presentations are scheduled in Evald Hall.
Lunch, business meeting, plenary address and reception are in the College Center Loft (see map)
Schedule:
Session 1 Fri – April 1 / 4:30-6:15 / Evald HallSession 2 Sat – April 2 / 8:30-10:15 / Evald Hall
Saturday Breakfast
Session 3 Sat – April 2 / 7:30-8:30
10:30-12:15 / Evald Hall
Lunch / 12:30-1:00 / College Center Loft
Business Meeting / 1:00-1:30 / College Center Loft
Plenary Address / 1:30-2:30 / College Center Loft
Session 4 Sat – April 21 / 2:45-4:30 / Evald Hall
Reception Sat – April 2 / 4:30-6:00 / College Center Loft
SESSION 1 – FRIDAY, APRIL 1 – 4:30-6:15
Session 1:1Room 017 / Session 1:2
Room 018 / Session 1:3
Room 021 / Session 1:4
Room 113 / Session 1:5
Room 212 / Session 1:6
Room 313 / Session 1:7
Room 315
Study of Judaism
Constructing Jewish Bodies and Minds
Presiding and Respondent: Sarah Imhoff, Indiana University
Aaron R. Katz, University of Chicago Law School
Autopsy and Sacredness of the Human Body: Rabbinic Discourse and Controversy
Chana Tannenbaum, Bar Ilan University
Perceived Role of Teachers’ Influence of Students Religiosity in Yeshiva High Schools
Paul Shrell-Fox, Schechter Institute for Judaic Studies
Bottom of Form
Judaism: A Biological-Psychological Understanding / Religion, Ecology & Culture
ANIMALS, LANDSCAPES, AND TREES: RELIGION AND ECOLOGY IN THE FIELD
Presiding and Responding:
Amanda Baugh
Northwestern University
Daniel Boscaljon, University of Iowa
Enframing American Landscapes and the Employment of Human Dominion
Ted Chertok, Independent Scholar
When the Bough Breaks, the Cradle will Fall: Of Trees and Men in the Biblical Mindset
Hayley Rose Glaholt, Northwestern University
To Whom or What is Nonviolence Applied?: Victorian Friends and Anti-Vivisection Protest / Arts, Literature, and Religion
GOLEM LEGENDS, AMERICAN INDIAN TALES, AND DISCWORLD: EVERYDAY THEOLOGIES IN FANTASY, FOLKLORE, AND MYTH
Presiding:
Kristin Schwain,
University of Missouri – ColumbiaAmy DeRogatis, Michigan State University
Jeremy Miselbrook, Loyola University, Chicago
‘Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No! It’s a golem!’
Dennis Kelley, University of Missouri
‘Coyote was going there…’: Sacred Humor in Indian Country
Linn Tonstad, Valparaiso University
A Lived Theology of Quotidian Flourishing: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld / Religions of Asia
CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL BUDDHIST HERMENEUTICS
Presiding:
Michael Nichols, Ripon College
Zhu Caifang, Harvard University
The Hermeneutics of Chan Buddhism: Reading Koans from the Blue Cliff Record
Young Woon Ku, Lorain County Community College
Teaching the Non-Hierarchical Order of Alaya Consciousness in Yogacara Buddhism
Shatha Almutawa, University of Chicago
The Buddha in Tenth Century Iraq / Ethics and Philosophy of Religion
HUMAN NATURE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS
Presiding: Scott Paeth, DePaul University
Joshua Duffy, University of Detroit, Mercy
The Complexity of Selflessness and Self-Preservation: A Discussion in Christian Ethics
Herbie Miller, University of Dayton
Jeffrey Stout on Following Rules
Ilana Maymind, The Ohio State University
Two Paths to One Aim: Religion and Ethics Through the Eyes of Maimonides and Shinran / Special Topics
CREATIVE PEDAGOGIES IN PRACTICE
Presiding:
Jacqueline Bussie,
Capital University
Sue Rodelius Dickson, Ashland University
Christian-Muslim Dialogue Online: Using Technology to Connect Students Internationally and Interreligiously
Ian Curran, Emory University
Spiritual Guidance and Contemplative Pedagogy: A Reflection on the Work of John Miller
Debra Baron, Loyola University, Chicago
Social Emotional Learning Provides New Opportunities for Teaching About Religion
C. Hannah Schell, Monmouth College
Religious Studies and the Challenges of the New General Education / History of Christianity
TEACHING CHRISTIAN POVERTY AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF READING
Presiding:
William E. Smith III,
Indiana University
Lydia Walker, Western Michigan University
Workers Unite? Spiritual Work and Physical Work in Durand of Huesca’s Liber Antiheresis
Andrew Stelling, University of Missouri
‘What’s in a Name’: Prophets, Teachers, and Redeemed Humanity in Eriugena’s Practical Theology
Juliana Vazquez, Marquette University
Interpreting the Old Testament on Either Side of Trent: Thomas De Vio, Sixtus of Siena, and the Jews
Kurt Buhring, St. Mary’s College
Religious Responses to the Great Depression: Dorothy Day and Reinhold Niebuhr
SESSION 2 – SATURDAY, APRIL 2 – 8:30-10:15
Session 2:1Room 017 / Session 2:2
Room 018 / Session 2:3
Room 021 / Session 2:4
Room 113 / Session 2:5
Room 212 / Session 2:6
Room 313 / Session 2:7
Room 315
Religion and American Culture
EVANGELICALISM, THE BODY, AND POPULAR CULTURE
Presiding:
John Schmalzbauer, Missouri State University
Hilde Lovdal, University of Oslo
Sex and the Civilization from the Cold War to the Culture Wars
Travis Cooper, Missouri State University
Weak, Vulnerable, Pleasurable Bodies: An Investigation of Evangelical Discourses on Sexuality Through the Popular Every Man Series on Sexual Integrity
Jessica Westphal, University of Chicago
Theatre Culture: McVicker’s Theatre in Chicago and Transformation Through the Arts
Stephanie Wolfe, Northwestern University
From Adjective to Noun: The Study of American Evangelicalism, Past and Present / Ethics and Philosophy of Religion
PHILOSOPHY, NEGATIVITY, AND RECONSTRUCTION
Presiding:
Scott Paeth, DePaul University
Dustin Byrd, Olivet College
On the Centrality of ‘Bilderverbot’ (Ban on Images) in Adorno’s Negative Dialectices: Social and Political Ramifications
Erin Krzewina, St. Norbert College
Spirituality Redeemed and Lost: An Examination of Faith in the Holocaust Through the Eyes of Etty Hillesum and Elie Wiesel
Devon O’Rourke, University of Chicago
Retheologizing De-Theologization: The Future of Theology in the Wake of De-Theologization / Undergraduate Students
ADAPTATION AND IDENTITY
Presiding:
Ellen Posman,
Baldwin Wallace University
Aaron Erin O’Connor, Michigan State University
A Call for Change: Listening and Responding to American Pluralism
Zachary Johnson, Michigan State University
Life as Teacher: Zen Practice and Instruction in the Midwest
Marah Baldwin, Missouri State University
A Man’s Place is in the Imagination: The Role of Men in American Neo-Paganism
Robert Wedow, University of Notre Dame
In the Wake of Hate: A Comparative Study for Understanding the Current Negotiation Between Religious and Homosexual Identity on a Catholic Campus / Theology
RESPONSE TO PETER LEITHART’S DEFENDING CONSTANTINE
Presiding:
Amy Carr,
Western Illinois University
Alex Sider, Bluffton University
Constantine and Myths of the Fall of the Church: An Anabaptist View
Jason Fout, Bexley Hall
An Anglican View of Ecclesiastical Establishment (or ‘Constantianism’)
Craig Hovey, Ashland University
Is There a Christian Ethic for Emperors?
Respondent:
Peter Leithart, New St. Andrews College / Special Topics
TEACHING RELIGION AT SMALL LIBERAL ARTS SCHOOLS
Presiding:
Brian Smith,
Ripon College
Brian Smith, Ripon College
Challenging Students with a Faith Commitment to Examine Religion from an Academic Perspective
Mathew Bolwerk, Ripon College
Learning the Language of Religion from a Student’s Perspective
Jeffrey Kirch, St. Joseph’s College
Teaching Religion in the Core Curriculum of a Catholic College
Michael Nichols, Ripon College
The Advantages of the Liberal Arts in Teaching Asian Religions / Religion and Sacred Texts
MAKING TEXTS MATTER/MAKING MATTER IN TEXTS: READING, TEACHING, AND MAKING SACRED TEXTS
Presiding:
Steve Young,
McHenry County College
Mathew Gallion, Missouri State University
Eating God to Death: A Materialist Reading of the Eucharistic Imagery in John 6
Darryl Schafer, Missouri State University
Dining with Foucault: The Docile, Discipline, and Discerned Body in 1 Corinthians 11:29-34
Scott Celsor, Carroll University
Doctrine, Hermeneutics, and Pedagogy: Instruction in Critical Reflection Upon the Application of the New Testament Text to Contemporary Concerns
Steve Young, McHenry County College
‘Not Your Grandma’s Bible’: Canon as Meme Pool / History of Religions
TRANS-PACIFIC RELIGIONS AND EDUCATIONAL ENCOUNTERS SINCE THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Presiding: Brian Clites, Northwestern University
Sarah Haynes, Western Illinois University
Religious Pioneers of the West: Jodo Shinsu Communities in Utah and Alberta, 19th-21st Centuries
Febe Pamanag, Western Illinois University
Religion and the American Scholarship for Japanese Women, 1890’s-1920’s
Betsy Perabo, Western Illinois University
The Mission of War: Russian Seminary Journals on the Russo-Japanese War and the Mission in Japan
Respondent: Hayley Glaholt, Northwestern University
SESSION 3 – SATURDAY, APRIL 2 – 10:30-12:15
Session 3:1Room 017 / Session 3:2
Room 018 / Session 3:3
Room 021 / Session 3:4
Room 113 / Session 3:5
Room 212 / Session 3:6
Room 313 / Session 3:7
Room 315
Study of Judaism
OBSERVANCE AND SPIRIT: NEGOTIATING JEWISH FAITH AND PRACTICE
Presiding:
Sarah Imhoff, Indiana University
Joan Friedman, College of Wooster
Solomon Freehof and the Reform Shabbat
Lilah Shapiro, University of Chicago
Driven to Orthodoxy: Achievement Pressure as a Motivation for Teshuvah
Jessica Carr, Indiana University Refracted through the Holy Land: The National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods’ Jewish Art Calendars, 1913-1949 / Ethics and Philosophy of Religion
PEDAGOGY, KNOWLEDGE AND DISCOURSE IN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
Presiding:
Scott Paeth, DePaul University
C. Hannah Schell, Monmouth College
The Art of Conversation and the Philosophy of Religion Course: Some Humean Lessons
Eric Biddy, Chicago Theological Seminary
Toward a Hagiographical Pedagogy in Christian Social Ethics
Hu Hsiao-Lan, University of Detroit, Mercy
Co-Arising Complicity and Conscientization / Religion & American Culture
TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN AMERICAN RELIGION
Presiding:
John Schmalzbauer,
Missouri State University
Nathaniel Marx, University of Notre Dame
The Latin Mass in Contemporary American Catholicism: Transformative or Tribal?
Matt Gallion, Missouri State University
Deconstructing Evangelicalism: Pentecostalism, the Emerging Church, and the Postmodern Turn in the Ozarks
Ezra Plank, University of Iowa
Exorcizing the Demons: Medieval Influences on the Conception of New Religious Movements in America / Theology
GOD AND THE BODY OF GOD IN CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION
Presiding:
Amy Carr,
Western Illinois University
Heather Morgan Dethloff, Garret Evangelical Theological Seminary
The Divine Life as a Model for Humanity, Theology, and the Academy
Stephanie Rumpza, Marquette University
The Image of the Invisible: Icons and Iconoclasm in Jean-Luc Marion
Daniel Schultz, University of Chicago
God with Exception: A Critical Assessment of Marion’s Trinitarian Thought
Linn Tonstad, Valparaiso University
Queer Apocalyptic: Temporality, Futurity and the Reproduction of God’s Body / Special Topics
TALES FROM THE CLASSROOM: INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGIES
Presiding:
Jacqueline Bussie,
Capital University
Robert James McKim, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Teaching Religion at a Secular Public State University and the Nature of Academic Freedom
Todd Walatka, University of Notre Dame
Seeking Critical Reflection and Dialogue: Blogging in the Classroom
Dennis Kelley, University of Missouri
Teaching About Indigenous Religions: A Practical Model
Gregory D. Loving, University of Cincinnati, Clermont College
The Religious Experience Project: Teaching World Religions Through Experiential Learning / Arts, Literature and Religion
BODY OF KNOWLEDGE: ABSENCE, DEATH, AND DEVIANCE IN LITERARY IMAGINATION
Presiding:
Kristin Schwain,
University of Missouri
Lisa Powell, St. Ambrose University
Sor Juana’s First Dream: The Night Poem as Theological Expression
Tara Flanagan, Loyola University Chicago
The Otherness of the Dying Body: Simone de Beauvoir’s Account of Her Mother’s Death
Devin O’Rourke, University of Chicago
Evil and Modernity: The Persistence of Evil as Symbol In the Wake of Medicalized Deviance
Respondent:
John Howell, University of Chicago / History of Religions
ISLAM, POWER, AND LEGITIMACY
Presiding, Brian Clites, Northwestern University
Tahir Abdullah, University of Chicago,
The Origins of Mahdism
Justine Howe, Northwestern University
Allal al-Fasi’s al-Naqd al-Dhati: Islamic Reform and Family Law in Colonial Morocco
Nathaniel Mathews, Northwestern University
Re-imagining Communities: Sheikh al-Amin Mazrui and Islamic Reform in East Africa
Ambreen Pirbhai, ITREB for Pakistan
Teacher’s Perception and Interpretation of Women’s Roles in Religious textbooks of Ta’lim: A Case
Alex Thurston, Northwestern University
Northern Nigeria and the Hajj: Pilgrims’ Experiences and Government Policy
Lunch / 12:30-1:00 / Great Hall
Business Meeting / 1:00-1:30 / Great Hall
Plenary Address / 1:30-2:30 / Great Hall
SESSION 4 – SATURDAY, APRIL 2 – 2:45-4:30
Session 4:1Room 017 / Session 4:2
Room 018 / Session 4:3
Room 021 / Session 4:4
Room 113 / Session 4:5
Room 212
Theology
AT THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN PEDAGOGY AND CONSTRUCTIVE THEOLOGY
Presiding:
Amy Carr, Western Illinois University
Joshua Daniel, University of Chicago
Patience as Enduring Novelty: Using Robert Jenson on Temporality and Language
Julia Feder, University of Notre Dame
Teaching From Experience: Autobiography as a Vehicle for Doctrine
George Faithful, St. Louis University
Putting John on Trial: Teaching Christology by Using the Classroom as a Courtroom
David L. Johns, Earlham College
Theology on the Road: Out of the Classroom, Into Reality / Undergraduate
THE INTERPLAY OF SECULAR AND SACRED
Presiding:
Forest Clingerman, Ohio Northern University
Erika Blair, Missouri State University
Them’s Fightin’ Words: A Brief Look at New Atheism in America
Stephanie Rickel, Ashland University
Liturgy, Time, and Secularism’s Imitation
Sher Tareen, Macalester College
Controversy, Neutrality, and the Promise of Secular Sacredness: Harper’s Ferry National Historic Park and the Making of John Brown’s Official Memory
Lindsey Kutchner, Augustana College
Getting Real with Harvest Bible Chapel Regarding Finances / History of Christianity
TEACHING SPIRITUALITY: THEORY AND PRACTICE
Presiding:
William E. Smith III, Indiana University
James Thrall, Knox College
Teaching Peace: Hiroshima’s Mary McMillan
Erick Moser, St. Louis University
Pedagogy and La Nouvelle Theology: The Controversy Over Auguste Valensin, SJ
Nancy Bunge, Michigan State University
Following the Heart: Harriet Wood Wheeler, Missionary Wife
Kevin Patrick Considine, Loyola University Chicago
The Human Person as ‘Mystical-Political’?: An Interpretation of the Concept of ‘Spirituality’ from the Work of Edward Schillebeeck / Religion, Ecology & Culture
CHRISTIAN-BASED CARE FOR THE EARTH: THREE PERSPECTIVES
Presiding and Responding:
Hayley Rose Glaholt,
Northwestern University
Remington Tonar, Loyola University Chicago
Bernard Lonergan and Ecological Education: The Role of Faith Communities in Guiding Environmentally Conscious Economic Behavior
Christopher Porter, Loyola University Chicago
Fostering an Environmental Ethic for Evangelical Christianity Through a Natural Law Theory
Tara Flanagan, Loyola University Chicago