CONFERENCE PROGRAM
2024 in-person MEETING
FEBRUARY 29-March 2
NOTE: ALL PROGRAM TIMES are listed for the CENTRAL TIME ZONE
Click on the session time banners to see section panels and presenters. Session room numbers will be provided on-site.
Google Map showing hotel, conference, and food and entertainment locations available here.
MSU Shuttle route and schedule available here.
Paper Prizes
The Midwest AAR is delighted to recognize outstanding scholarship in three categories:
Undergraduate Research
Graduate Research
Marion McFarland Award for Best Research in the Area of Religion, Ecology, and Sustainability
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 29
HOTEL CHECK-IN at TRU by HILTON IS AT 3 PM.
Please check your hotel's policy if you have different accommodations.
session 1: 3:30 PM - 5 PM CST
Snacks and Info in Strong Hall 205
THEOLOGY, ETHICS, and PHILOSOPHY
Science and Technology (Strong 203)
Chair: Daniel Jones
Nga Nguyey (Missouri State University), “Buddhist Ethics in Environmental Crisis”
Paulo Araujo (Missouri State University), “Techno-Scientific Immortality: Eschatology and Soteriology of the Trans/Posthumanist Project”
Isaac Hedstrom (Saint Louis University), “Gregory of Nyssa's Ontological Contribution of the Person: Person and Substance as Concurrent Metaphysics”
Session 2: 5:15 PM - 6:45 Pm CST
Snacks and Info in Strong Hall 205
STUDY OF ISLAM
Studies in Islamic Scripture and Law (Strong 204)
Chair: Matthew Kuiper (Hope College)
Amad Salem (Zayed University), “Integrity of Quranic Legislations: A Critical Review of the Debate on Abrogation”
Kashaf Zaman (Zaytuna College), “Beyond Equity and Arbitrariness: Fakhr al-Islam al-Bazdawi's Conception of Istihsan”
Opening reception: 7 - 9 pm CST
Strong Hall Atrium
ALL REGISTERED ATTENDEES ARE INVITED
FRIDAY, March 1
Session 3: 9 - 10:30 AM CST
Snacks and Info in Strong Hall 250
UNDERGRADUATE SHOWCASE
Religion, Culture, and Art (Strong 401)
Chair: Phillippa Koch (Missouri State University)
Ellison Kochensparger (Wittenberg University), "The Good Place: An Afterlife Concept"
Naomi St. Andre (Ball State University), "Brio Magazine: Material Culture, Media, and Power"
Ellie Lasher, "Ringing Redemption: A Musicological Study of Sacred Carillon Repertoire"
RELIGIONS OF ASIA
Exploring Buddhist Realities (Strong 400)
Chair: Gwendolyn Gillson (Illinois College)
Kevin Poe (The University of Chicago Divinity School), "Memory, Karma, and Narrative"
Nga Nguyen (Missouri State University), "Educational Spirit of Buddhism in the Trimsika-vijnaptimatrata"
Session 4: 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM CST
Snacks and Info in Strong Hall 250
WILDCARD SESSION
Politics and Prose (Strong 400)
Chair: Rachel McBride Lindsey (Saint Louis University)
Clarence W. Davis (University of Denver/Illif School of Theology), “Black Political Theology”
Christopher Simonson (University of Missouri), “Gods of Hymnic Past, Present, and Future: Analytical Approaches to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes”
Grant Showalter-Swanson (Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary), "But the Fruit of the Spirit is Love: A Decolonial Approach to Galatians 5:22-23"
SCRIPTURE AND SACRED LITERATURE
Resituating Scripture (Strong 401)
Chair: Matthew Hotham (Ball State University)
Joel Heald (Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary), “A Dramatic Flourish: John's Prologue as a Christological Lens”
Travis Proctor (Wittenberg University), “Scribes, Slavery, and Early Christian Scriptural Practice in the Shepherd of Hermas”
Mark Minster (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology), “Creation and Excess in Psalms 148, 104, and 65”
RELIGION AND AMERICAN CULTURE
Religion and National Belonging (Strong 407)
Chair: Elena Kravchenko (Washington University in St. Louis)
Will O'Brien (University of Notre Dame), "Departure and Development: The Dissolution of the American Presbyterian Mission to Egypt"
Zoe Olesker (Ball State University), "Paddy in the Press: Thomas Nast's Nativist Illustrations of the un-American Irish"
Michael McLaughlin (University of Missouri), "The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Teaches: Secularity and Religiosity in the Rhetoric of Malcom X"
Camille Engle (Ball State University), "Strategies of Hindu and Christian Nationalists in the United States"
lunch: 12:30 PM CST
Strong Hall Atrium
Convened by Rachel McBride Lindsey, PhD
President of the Midwest AAR
OPEN TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE MIDWEST AAR
Please join for important updates and announcements from leadership and members, including annual paper prizes. Regional elections are also held during business meetings when there are vacancies to fill.
Lunch is provided for all registered conference attendees.
keynote lecture: 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM CST
Karls Hall
“Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California”
Dr. Lloyd Barba
Amherst College
Q&A Moderated by Rachel Lindsey, President of the Midwest AAR
Session 5: 3:30 pM - 5 PM CST
Snacks and Info in Strong Hall 250
UNDERGRADUATE SHOWCASE
Theology and Thought (Strong 400)
Chair: Vincent Evener (Missouri State University)
Carter Ford (Olivet Nazarene University), “A Stifthung of Christ's Being: Ecclesiology at the Intersection of Christ, Spirit, and Culture”
Frank Maldonado (Valpraiso University), “Secularism vs. Theocracy”
Ellison Kochensprarger (Wittenberg University), “Hades and Satan”
GENDER
Bodies, Bodies, Bodies: Conflicts and Corporealities (Strong 401)
Chair: John Schmalzbauer (Missouri State University)
Elliot Barnhill (United Theological Seminar), “The Guglielmite Heresy: Constructing a Theology of Embodied Gender Equality”
Anna Lucken (Western Illinois University), “Resonant Legacies: Tracing the Divine Amidst Relics of Mortality”
Jacob Clark (Missouri State University), “Come into Your Garden: Corporeality and Desire in the Devotional Music of Misty Edwards”
STUDY OF CHRISTIANITY
Christian Cultures in Context (Strong 407)
Chair: Travis Proctor (Wittenberg University)
Clayton Killion (St. Louis University) “Sensory Language in Prudentius' Cathemerinon”
Kefas Lemak (University of Iowa), “Negotiating Religion from the Top: Hegemony and Anonymity of African Kings in Encounters of Church Missionary Society and Niger Missionaries in the Middle Belt of Nigeria, 1841-1930"
Emily Knoppe (Missouri State University), “The Roots of Transubstantiation: Ancient Tradition or a 13th-Century Creation?”
Session 6: 5:15 PM - 6:45 pm CST
Snacks and Info in Strong Hall 250
ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY
Media, Technology, and the Transformation of Religion (Strong 401)
Chair: Yasmine Singh (Missouri State University)
Rachel McBride Lindsey (Saint Louis University), “Confronting Lived Religion in the Digital Age: Building the "Where's Religion?” Research and Teaching App"
Mark Minster (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology), “Roleplaying the Rise of the Religious Right”
Carista Davis (Missouri State University)
“Thoughts About the Afterlife: Effects of Personal Experiences”
WILDCARD SESSION
Dis/Embodiment (Strong 400)
Chair: Vincent Evener (Missouri State University)
Joel Heald (Garrett-Evangelical Theological University), “’The Form and Factor of Faith in a Wesleyan Spirituality: The Experience of Trust”
Stephanie Teasley (Missouri State University), “Traveling the Path of Names: The Brain and Abraham Abulafia's Meditation”
SECTION CHAIR DINNER: 7:30 PM CST
Location TBD. All current section chairs please plan to attend. Dinner provided by the Midwest AAR.
Saturday, march 2
HOTEL CHECK-OUT at TRU by HILTON IS AT 11AM.
Please check your hotel's policy if you have different accommodations.
session 7: 9 AM - 10:30 AM CST
Snacks and Info in Strong Hall 205
UNDERGRADUATE SHOWCASE
Facts and Figures (Strong 400)
Chair: Amy Artman (Missouri State University)
Blake Brown (Ball State University), “Ignorando la Verita, Signore?: John Toland's Tokenization of Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Mi-Modena”
Hamzah Hanif (Knox College), “Ali Shariati, Liberation, and a Dialectical Rearticulation of Religion”
Camille Engle (Ball State University), “Teaching in Monastir wth Mary L. Matthews: Gender, Space, and Religion for Female Missionaries”
WILDCARD SESSION
Purity, Politics, and Food (Strong 401)
Chair: Matthew Kuiper (Hope College)
Caleb Sanders (Missouri State University), “Purity in the Prairie, God in the Glyphosate: Finding Religion in Conservation and Chemicals”
Ossama Abdelgawwad (Valparaiso University), “Halal and Tayyib: Exploring the Dimensions of Permissible and Pure Food in Islam”
Matthew Hotham (Ball State University), “Pig's Blood and Pork Fat: Animal Products as Weapon Enhancements in Islamophobic Discourse”
RELIGION AND AMERICAN CULTURE
Spirituality and Consumerism (Strong 407)
Chair: Elena Kravchenko (Washington University in St. Louis)
Zoe Olesker (Ball State University), “Exporting Yoga: A Communal Good in the Wrong Community, Yoga in America”
Kristen Balzer (Duke Divinity School), “Shut Up, I'm Manifesting: The Rise of 'Manifestation' as a Spiritual Practice Among Adolescents in Post-COVID America and the Enduring Appeal of New Thought”
Anjeanette LeBoeuf (Saint Louis University), "Karma is Not a Cat, Thank You Taylor Swift: Combating Religious and Cultural Appropriation One Pop Icon at a Time"
session 8: 10:45 AM - 12:15 pM CST
Snacks and Info in Strong Hall 205
GENDER
Gender and Sexuality Studies (Strong 400)
Chair: Amy Artman (Missouri State University)
Katherine Pollock (Missouri State University), "Homosexuality and the Assemblies of God: Short Stories on Changing Position Papers, the AIDS Epidemic, Church/State Issues, and the Ex-Gay Movement"
Samanaeh Oladi (Virginia Commonwealth University), “Reclaiming Gender Justice: Women's Faith-Based Activism”
Umar Sharif (Georgetown University), “Taqyid al-Mubah: Restricting Divorce and Polygamy in Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Egypt”
ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY
Tradition and Innovation in Self and Society (Strong 401)
Chair: Yasmine Singh (Missouri State University)
Sacelia Strong-Sangster (Western Michigan University), “From Spirit to Flesh: The Evolution of the Wendigo in Modern Narratives”
Amy Slagle (University of Southern Mississippi), “Homegrown Southern Paganism: The Case of Lady Epona and her Faerie Faith”
PAST CONFERENCES
2023 MEETING ARCHIVE
2022 Meeting ARCHIVE
Check back soon for archived materials from the 2022 virtual Regional Meeting.
2021 Meeting ARCHIVE
Please note that this page contains archived information about the 2021 virtual Regional Meeting.
Copy of 2021 Midwest AAR Schedule_no links.pdf