North Carolina Religious Studies Association
Annual Meeting November 1, 2025
Program

All sessions will be held in Carolina Hall on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill. Return to this page for updates.

8:00-8:30 Check-In and Onsite Registration

8:30-9:15: Biblical Studies

• Magic or Miracle? Examining the Conflicting Rhetoric Around Object Presentation and Early Christian Iconography from Ancient Rome, Bryce Settlemier (UNC Wilmington)

• Breaking Luke's Heart: Examining Alternative Interpretations of Kardía in the Gospel of Luke, Isaac Watkins (UNC Chapel Hill)

8:30-9:15: Native American Religions

• Christianity in the Lumbee Community, Shelby Harrell (Fayetteville State University)

• Land Grabbing VS. Land Sharing, Emma Claire Thompson (High Point University)

8:30-9:15: Religion and Popular Culture

• Hope in Hogwarts: The Myth, Magic, and Christian Ethos of Harry Potter, William Godwin (UNC Pembroke)

• Narnia's Mythos on Screen and Stage: C.S. Lewis and American Popular Culture, Nick Petrov (UNC Pembroke)

9:30–11:15: Religion and Culture

• Appraising the Student-Athlete: An Analysis of the Reformed Tradition and the 'Ethos of Reductive Consumer Capitalism,' MaryKate Berg (Davidson College)

• Jesus Christ, or Jim Crow?: The Episcopal Society for Cultural & Racial Unity, Incarnational Ethics, and the Anglican Social Tradition, Joshua Lewis (Moravian Theological Seminary)

• A hypothesis-testing approach to the geography of biblical giants, Philip Senter (Fayetteville State University)

• The Art of Madness: Cosmic Chaos in the Works of Vincent van Gogh and Robert E. Howard, Ray Sutherland (UNC Pembroke)

9:30-11:15: Religions of Africa

• Sacred Healing: The Spiritual Roots of Health and Wellness in Akan Traditional Religion, Paul Boaheng (Fayetteville State University)

• From the Perspective of non-Igbo: The Concept of Chi, Kofi Johnson and Adegoke Ademiluyi (Fayetteville State University)

• Superstitious Beliefs Among the Igbos of Southeastern Nigeria, Ngozi Kamalu (Fayetteville State University)

11:30-12:00: Business Meeting/Award Presentations

12:00-1:00: Lunch (on your own)

1:00-2:15: Panafricanism 

• Religion and Panafricanism Panel, Mary Nyangwesa (East Carolina University)

1:00-2:15: Religion and AI

• Algorithmic Beauty and the Crisis of the Self: Eastern Aesthetics in the Age of AI, Han Lheem (Fayetteville State University)

• Thinking about Thinking: Religion and the Next Generation of AIs, Randy Reed (Appalachian State University)

• AI v. The Divine: Art, Artificial Intelligence and Religious Art, Lucas White (Appalachian State University)

2:30-4:30: Religion in the Americas

• Home Funerals and Reimagining Grief, Nathaniel Goenaga (Appalachian State University)

• The War in Gaza's Impact on American Christians: A Study of Public Opinion about Jews, anti-Semitism, Israel & the War, Motti Inbari (UNC Pembroke)

• The Modernism Controversy Among the Mormons: The Tragedy of William Henry Chamberlin, James McLachlan (Western Carolina University)

• Alters Without Judgement, Isaiah Peters (UNC Charlotte)

• Nomadic Ritual: Pilgrimage and Potentiality, Sierra Sarver (Appalachian State University)

• America's Foundational Documents: Scripting the Sacred, Conrad Ostwalt (Appalachian State University)

2:30-4:30: Theology and Ethics

• Sacred Transition and Medical Intervention: Buddhist Approaches to End-of-Life Ethics, Sydney Hudson (Appalachian State University)

• Multiple Animistic Worlds Versus Science?, David Nikkel (UNC Pembroke)

• Prayer and Divine Hiddenness in Modern Jewish Thought, Karl Plank (Davidson College)

• An Adaptation Study of the Cross-cultural Love Ethics Perception Scale: The Case of Turkiye and the USA, Fatma Zehra Savi (Karabuk University)

• How a religious personalism ran afoul of Nazism – Diedrich von Hildebrand and Hitler, Paul Wilson (Shaw University)