2020 Regional Meeting: Call For Papers
2020 Annual Conference of the New England & Canadian Maritimes Region of the American Academy of Religion (NEMAAR) | Saturday, April 4, 2020, Boston University
The NEMAAR Conference is open to all individuals, though those with accepted proposals must be current members of the AAR by March 3, 2020. AAR members from regions other than NEMAAR are invited to participate, though the Graduate Student Essay Competition is limited to graduate students of institutions within the geographical boundaries of NEMAAR.
Proposal Submission Deadline and Other Details
By Sunday, January 19 Saturday, February 15 please e-mail a one-page, double-spaced Proposal (c.250 words; doc., docx., or pdf) named with your own surname to NEMAAR Regional Coordinator, Ronald R. Bernier at bernierr1@wit.edu with “NEMAAR Paper Proposal” in the Subject Line. Include within the proposal itself your name, institutional affiliation (if any), and contact information, including email address. Please indicate your current AAR membership status, as only current members may present. As we plan on including the email information in the Conference Program, if you wish not to have such information included, please state this clearly in your Proposal Information. We do, however, still require an email address for internal communication with all those submitting a proposal.
The theme of this year’s national AAR Conference in San Diego, CA (November 23-26) is “Scholarly Workers in Public Spaces,” which intends, as AAR President Laurie L. Patton notes, to “create, redefine, and expand spheres of public discourse” for religion. While the 2020 NEMAAR regional conference is not bound to this theme, we wish to draw from it with the related theme of “Religion, Education, and Public Life.” Plenary sessions will focus on this topic. We welcome paper proposals that address the role of education and the public engagement of religion, but will accept proposals from a range of subject areas (e.g., Ethics, Historical Theology, Gender & Sexuality, Theology & Art, Islam, Comparative Religions, Spirituality, etc.). In your proposal, please indicate the general subject or interest area. Also, please indicate if you will need any AV equipment or have other special needs.
Panel proposals are also welcome. If submitting a panel, please include all the information requested above of individual papers.
Abstract: Also include a 75-word Abstract of your paper, which will be used in the Conference Program should your paper be accepted for presentation.
Conference Format
Individual, concurrent Conference Sessions will be 75-80 minutes in length. Single papers accepted will be grouped with another paper in the same general area, so presenters would each be asked to limit their individual presentation to about 25 minutes (about 12-13 double-spaced pages, 12 point font). This format will allow time for reasonable follow-up discussion and questions. Full panel proposals accepted will have the entire session at their disposal.
Notification of Paper Proposal Acceptance
Authors of proposals will be notified by the second week in February and at that time all accepted paper presenters must be active members of the AAR, and will also be expected to complete paid registration for the NEMAAR conference.
Conference Registration and Fees
The Conference Registration itself will be managed by AAR, and the modest registration fee will include lunch and light snacks and beverages.
All those whose proposals have been accepted are expected to present their own papers at the regional conference.
Annual Regional Business Meeting
In addition to the Conference presentations there will be the annual NEMAAR Business Meeting convened by the outgoing NEMAAR President, Eva Pascal, assisted by the NEMAAR Regional Coordinator, Ronald R. Bernier. Elections for a new NEMAAR Vice-President and new NEMAAR Student Director will be held at this annual Business Meeting.
Graduate Student Paper Competition
Graduate student presenters who are currently enrolled in a degree program in an institution within the geographical boundaries of NEMAAR (New England and Maritime States) are eligible to enter the competition for best graduate student paper, which comes with a small monetary award. Papers considered for this competition should be 5,000-7,000 words, 12-point font and double-spaced, and must be submitted no later than March 4, 2020 to Bernierr1@wit.edu.
Winners will be announced, and must be physically present at the Conference Business Meeting on April 4, 2020.
Any Conference related questions not answered in this CFP should be directed to NEMAAR Regional Coordinator, Ronald R. Bernier, at Bernierr1@wit.edu.
Transportation
TBA
When complete, the full conference program will be posted on the NEMAAR website https://nemaarweb.org and on the AAR site https://www.aarweb.org