The AAR is here in San Francisco this year. It has been difficult to weed out my schedule this weekend, since there are very few weeds! There are at least 5 events I’d like to attend in every time slot. But here is what I’ve been able to single out:
Friday at 4pm
Theme: Homo Symbolicus as Homo Religiosus: Symbolization in the Study of Religion
Randal Cummings, California State University, Northridge, Presiding
Eric Lane, California State University, Los Angeles
What Darwin and Science Owe to Religion
Kay Read, DePaul University
Homo-Who? Quetzalcoatl and Reading Aztec Visual Symbols
Greg Alles, McDaniel College
The Mountain as Symbol: On Difficulties and Possibilities in Studying Religious Symbolization
Jes Hollenback, University of Wisconsin
What Makes Symbols and Symbolization Such Powerful Agents of Transformation?
Responding:
Rick Talbott, California State University, Northridge
Friday at 7pm
Theme: Raimundo Panikkar’s Christological Contribution
Xavier Gravend-Tirole, University of Lausanne and Montreal, Presiding
Christopher Denny, St. John’s University
Purusha Sukta / Nirvana / Holy Saturday: Alternative Paths to Spiritual Kenosis
Erik Ranstrom, Boston College
I Discovered Myself a Hindu: The Promise and Problem of Raimon Panikkar as a Source of Hindu Self-Understanding
Bob Robinson, Laidlaw College
An Evangelical Protestant Appreciation of Panikkar
J. Jayakiran Sebastian, Lutheran Theological Seminary
Fragmented Selves, Fragments of the New Story: Panikkar and Dalit Christology
Responding: Catherine Cornille, Boston College
Join us for a special session exploring the transdisciplinary options for balanced and integrative approaches to Western Esotericism, while drawing attention to issues relating to the focus on disinterested empiricism as the sole acceptable method for the study of these topics. Integrative models and approaches combining scholarly rigor with imaginative and sympathetic engagement have been long established in many areas of the humanities and social sciences. Yet the question of scholarly overengagement with their topic continues to be a point of contention, while voices calling for channels of dialogue and mutual understanding between scholars and practitioners in order to better explore the application and potentials of such epistemologies are frequently met with suspicion in academic circles. In this session we seek to explore ways to build bridges of fruitful communication and mutual understanding between seemingly disparate voices and perspectives.
Topics include:
- Legitimate ways of knowing: experiential knowledge and/or symbolic perception.
- How can we learn from each other? Bridging the practitioner- scholar divide
- Is history and discourse analysis enough?
- Paradigms for integration and applied transdisciplinary methodology
Saturday at 4pm
Laura Hobgood-Oster, Southwestern University, Presiding
Theme: Animality, Hybridity, Divinity: Donna Haraway’s Technoscientific Revisioning of the Religious Subject
Jennifer Thweatt-Bates, Newark, NJ
Donna Cyborgs, Dogs, and Jesus: The Worldly and Religious Figures Haraway of Donna Haraway
Sam Mickey, California Institute of Integral Studies
Farfetchings for Respecting Species: Postsecular Posthumanities and the SF Mode
Amy Brown, University of Florida
Donna Haraway’s Philosophy as a Challenge to Individualism in Evolutionarily-derived Environmental Ethics
Marti Kheel, University of California, Berkeley
Donna Haraway’s “Species Encounter”: Reciprocity or Dominion?
Responding:
Donna Haraway, University of California, Santa Cruz
Sunday at 9am
Theme: Elemental Theology and Feminist Earth Practices
Whitney Bauman, Florida International University, Presiding
Panelists:
Rosemary R. Ruether, Claremont Graduate University
Starhawk, Earth Activist Training
Responding:
Marion S. Grau, Graduate Theological Union
Jone Salomonsen, University of Oslo Heather Eaton, Saint Paul University
Sunday 10:30am
Theme: Rethinking Secularism
Jonathan VanAntwerpen, Social Science Research Council, Presiding
A discussion of Rethinking Secularism, a recently published volume co-edited by Craig Calhoun, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Jonathan VanAntwerpen. The so-called “resurgence” of religion in the public sphere has forced scholars to reconsider both classical theories of secularization and a range of contemporary secular assumptions. Presenting groundbreaking work from an interdisciplinary group of leading scholars, Rethinking Secularism surveys these efforts and helps to reframe discussions of religion in the social sciences by drawing attention to the central issue of how “the secular” is constituted and understood.
Panelists:
Robert N. Bellah, University of California, Berkeley
Saba Mahmood, University of California, Berkeley
Respondents:
Craig Calhoun, Social Science Research Council and New York University
Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara
Sunday at 1pm
Theme: A Conversation with Robert Bellah on Religion in Human Evolution (Harvard University Press, 2011)
Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara, Presiding
The distinguished sociologist of religion, Robert Bellah, will respond to comments on his massive new book Religion in Human Evolution (Harvard University Press, 2011), which traces the development of human culture from the Paleolithic period to the Axial Age and offers a new theory on the origins of religion.
Panelists:
Jonathan Z. Smith, University of Chicago
Luke Timothy Johnson, Emory University
Wendy Doniger, University of Chicago
Responding:
Robert N. Bellah, University of California
Sunday at 7pm
Theme: Our Final Hour: Can Our Species Determine the Fate of the Earth?
Martin J. Rees, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge and Astronomer Royal, is one of the world’s leading theoretical astrophysicists. His contributions to our understanding of cosmic phenomena have been exceptionally broad-based, and his pioneering research has engaged with the origin of cosmic structures and the long-term future. He has also speculated about concepts of multiverse, complexity, apparent “fine tuning,” and other fundamental questions where science interfaces with philosophy and theology. Rees has spent much of his career as professor of astrophysics and cosmology in Cambridge, and served as president of the Royal Society from 2005 to 2010. He has been an eloquent presenter of scientific ideas to general audiences, with numerous articles, books, and broadcasts to his credit, and has increasingly engaged with issues of science policy. Most recently he delivered the 2010 Reith Lectures for the BBC, a series of talks exploring the ethical challenges facing science in the 21st century.
Monday at 9am
Theme: Plotinus and Islamic Platonism
Douglas Hedley, University of Cambridge, Presiding
John Bussanich, University of New Mexico
Plotinus on Karma and Rebirth
Shatha Almutawa, University of Chicago
Religiophilosophical Narratives: Plato in Rasa’il Ikhwan Al-Safa
Samir Mahmoud, University of Cambridge
The Problem of the One and the Many: Ibn ‘Arabi’s Divine Names and Proclus’s Henads
Martyn Smith, Lawrence University
Ibn Khaldun and Neoplatonic Views of the Soul
Monday at 1pm
Theme: Ritual, Time, and Magic Wheels: Studies in Indian and Tibetan Tantra
Richard K. Payne, Graduate Theological Union, Presiding
Ronald M. Davidson, Fairfield University
Early Buddhist Tantras and the Smārta Quotidian Manuals
Lewis Doney, University of London
Buddhist Time and Tantra in Early Tibetan Historiography
Manuel Lopez, University of Virginia
The Light at the End of the Tunnel: Buddhism During Tibet’s Dark Age
Eric Fry-Miller, Indiana University
Dreaming of Magic Wheels, Flames, and Bliss: Understanding the Transformation of Candali Practice in the Drigung Kagyu
Monday at 4pm
Theme: Western Esotericism and Material Culture
Cathy Gutierrez, Sweet Briar College, Presiding
Egil Asprem, University of Amsterdam
Technofetishism, Instrumentation, and the Materiality of Esoteric Knowledge
Shawn Eyer, John F. Kennedy University
The Use of Tracing Boards and Other Art Objects as Physical Aids of Symbolic Communication in the Rituals and Practices of Freemasonry
Stephen Wehmeyer, Champlain College
Conjurational Contraptions: “Techno-gnosis,” Mechanical Wizardry, and the Material Culture of African American Folk Magic
Henrik Bogdan, University of Gothenburg
“Objets d’Art Noir”, Magical Engines, and Gateways to Other Dimensions: Understanding Hierophanies in Contemporary Occultism
Joseph Christian Greer, Harvard University
Storming the Citadel for Knowledge, Aesthetics, and Profit: The Dreamachine in Twentieth Century Esotericism
Monday at 6:45pm
Theme: New Horizons in Religion and Ecology
At this reception hosted by the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS, San Francisco), meet with others interested in the study of religion and ecology. Four CIIS faculty—Elizabeth Allison, Robert McDermott, Jacob Sherman, and Brian Swimme—will briefly introduce a new CIIS MA and Ph.D. level program of study in Religion and Ecology.
Tuesday at 9am
Theme: The Viability of Metaphysical Realism
Stephen Bush, Brown University, Presiding
Rose Ann Christian, Towson University
The Ethics of Belief and Belief About Ethics: William Kingdon Clifford at the Metaphysical Society
Laura Weed, College of Saint Rose
Metaphysical Realism after Quantum Field Theory: a New Look at No-thingness
William Lane Craig, Biola University
The Viability of Metaphysical Realism about Abstract Objects
Michael Slater, Georgetown University
Pragmatism, Theism, and the Viability of Metaphysical Realism
Footnotes2Plato 
What do you think?