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American Academy of Religion

Learned society for scholars in religious studies

Summary

Learned society for scholars in religious studies

Field	Value
image	American Academy of Religion (logo).png
formation
type	Professional association
tax_id	20-5478525
status	501(c)(3)
purpose	The American Academy of Religion's mission is to foster excellence in the academic study of religion and enhance the public understanding of religion.
headquarters	825 Houston Mill Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
leader_title	Executive Director
leader_name	Claudia Schippert, Ph.D.
leader_title2	President
leader_name2	Leela Prasad, Ph.D.
leader_title3	President-Elect
leader_name3	Laurel Schneider, Ph.D.
name	American Academy of Religion
region_served	United States
website

The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of scholars in the field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association, serving as a professional and learned society for scholars involved in the academic study of religion. It has some 10,000 members worldwide, with the largest concentration being in the United States and Canada. AAR members are university and college professors, independent scholars, secondary teachers, clergy, seminarians, students, and interested lay-people.

History

AAR was founded in 1909 as the Association of Biblical Instructors in American Colleges and Secondary Schools. The name was changed to National Association of Biblical Instructors (NABI) in 1933. The American Academy of Religion was adopted as the organization name in 1963 to reflect its broader, inclusive mission to foster the academic study of all religions. |access-date=2008-12-18 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081228235153/http://www.aarweb.org/About_AAR/History/default.asp| archive-date= 28 December 2008 |url-status = live}} Over its long history, AAR has broadened its scope to reflect contemporary values of its membership, such as responding to feminist scholarship and women in religion, increased attention to religions beyond Christianity, differentiation between theology and/or religious reflection within the academic study of religion as a cultural/historical/political phenomenon, and engagement with the public understanding of religion. Stausberg suggested that "Probably because of its more encompassing and open policy and its strategy to position itself as the default home for Religious Studies in the United States, the AAR has been a success story." Presidents of the AAR have included well-known scholars such as Judith Plaskow, Mark Juergensmeyer, Wendy Doniger, Emilie Townes, Peter J. Paris, Rebecca Chopp, Elizabeth A. Clark and Ann Taves.

Publications

Oxford University Press publishes Journal of the American Academy of Religion on behalf of the AAR.{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050706014119/http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2005-07-06 |access-date=2011-04-09

Annual meeting

AAR hosts an annual meeting each year in November. The AAR annual meeting is the world's largest meeting for religious studies scholars. Over 400 events, including meetings, receptions, and academic sessions, occur on the AAR program alone; hundreds more, hosted by affiliated societies and institutions, occur over the course of the meeting. The location of the meeting changes each year. The annual meetings of the AAR are attended by about half their membership "(some 4,500 in 2014), which make these meetings by far the most important social arena for academic interaction" in comparison with meetings of other North American academic societies for the study of religion. The AAR annual meeting program is developed entirely by volunteers involved in program units representing disciplines and sub-disciplines within the field.

Other activities

AAR offers activities on a regional level for its members. Professional development resources such as research grants, career services, and scholarships are some of the member benefits. AAR also advocates the importance of the critical study of religion on institutional and national levels.

Presidents

The president is part of the board of directors, which is elected by AAR members each September and takes up their post at the close of each annual meeting.

1910–1925: Charles Foster Kent
1926: Irving Francis Wood
1927: Eliza H. Kendrick
1928: Walter W. Haviland
1929: Ralph K. Hickok
1930: Irwin R. Beiler
1931: Laura H. Wild
1932: Chester Warren Quimby
1933: James Muilenburg
1934: Elmer W. K. Mould
1935: Florence M. Fitch
1936: S. Ralph Harlow
1937: Frank G. Lankard
1938: Mary E. Andrews
1939: William Scott
1940: Harvie Branscomb
1941: Katherine H. Paton
1942–1943: Edgar S. Brightman
1944: Floyd V. Filson
1945: Mary Ely Lyman
1946: J. Paul Williams
1947: Rolland E. Wolfe
1948:
1949: Vernon McCasland
1950: Virginia Corwin
1951: Mary Francis Thelen
1952: Charles S. Braden
1953: Carl E. Purinton
1954: W. Gordon Ross
1955: Arthur C. Wickenden
1956: A. Roy Eckardt
1957: Robert M. Montgomery
1958: H. Neil Richardson
1959: Lauren Brubaker Jr.
1960: Lionel Whiston Jr.
1961: Robert V. Smith
1962: Fred D. Geally
1963: Clyde A. Holbrook
1964: Ira Martin
1965: James Price
1966: William Hordern
1967: John Priest
1968: J. Wesley Robb
1969: Jacob Neusner
1970: Claude Welch
1971: James Tunstead Burtchaell
1972: Robert Michaelson
1973: Charles Long
1974: Christine Downing
1975: William F. May
1976: Preston Williams
1977: Schubert M. Ogden
1978: John Meagher
1979: Langdon Gilkey
1980: William Clebsch
1981: Jill Raitt
1982: Gordon D. Kaufman
1983: Wilfred Cantwell Smith
1984: Ray Hart
1985: Wendy Doniger
1986: Nathan A. Scott Jr.
1987: John Dillenberger
1988: Martin E. Marty
1989: Robert Wilken
1990: Elizabeth A. Clark
1991: Judith Berling
1992: Robert Cummings Neville
1993: Edith Wyschogrod
1994: Catherine Albanese
1995: Peter Paris
1996: Lawrence Sullivan
1997: Robert Detweiler
1998: Judith Plaskow
1999: Margaret R. Miles
2000: Ninian Smart
2001: Rebecca Chopp
2002: Vasudha Narayanan
2003: Robert Orsi
2004: Jane Dammen McAuliffe
2005: Hans J. Hillerbrand
2006: Diana L. Eck
2007: Jeffrey Stout
2008: Emilie Townes
2009: Mark Juergensmeyer
2010: Ann Taves
2011: Kwok Pui-lan
2012: Otto Maduro
2013: John Esposito
2014: Laurie Zoloth
2015: Thomas Tweed
2016: Serene Jones
2017: Eddie Glaude
2018: David P. Gushee
2019: Laurie L. Patton
2020: José I. Cabezón
2021: Marla F. Frederick
2022: Mayra Rivera
2023: Amir Hussain
2024: Jin Y. Park
2025: Leela Prasad

References

"AAR Mission and Values".
"Claudia Schippert".
"AAR Presidents".
"Board of Directors".
(2013). "MasterClass in Religious Education: Transforming Teaching and Learning". [[Bloomsbury Publishing.
(2011). "Founding the Fathers". [[University of Pennsylvania Press]].
(2016). "The Oxford Handbook of the Study of Religion". Oxford University Press.
"Reading Religion: About". American Academy of Religion.
"Help Shape AAR Leadership". American Academy of Religion.
"AAR Presidents". American Academy of Religion.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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