2022 Annual Conference of the American Academy of Religion, Western Region
March 18-20, 2022
University of Nevada, Las Vegas 

Religions of Asia 

Promoting inclusivity and excellence in scholarship, this section invites individual papers from a variety of religious and cultural traditions that explore all aspects of Religions of Asia. This year, we are especially interested in papers related to the conference’s 2022 theme: “Grace, Mercy, and Atonement: Exploring Artistic, Ritual and Social Action through Forgiveness.” https://www.aarwr.com/conference-themes.html. For example, how have religions/religious people/religious leaders responded or how are they responding to the tumultuous social and political circumstances of their own times and ours? How have religions of Asia addressed issues of social and economic justice in the past and fostered forgiveness and reconciliation and how might they fruitfully do so in our time?  In what ways do religions of Asia and marginalization (whether based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability or other characteristics) intersect, both positively and negatively? How do religions of Asia employ notions related to forgiveness, grace, mercy, and/or atonement and their relationship to social action? What is or might be the role of religions of Asia in addressing social and/or economic inequality and mutual flourishing? We encourage the submission of papers that utilize interdisciplinary and nontraditional approaches to research. Other topics and themes of interest to the Religions of Asia group include: ways in which Asian religions interacts with art, music, material culture, and ideology; the nature of religious experience; gender and religion; climate change and sustainability; and storytelling and oral tradition. The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2021. Please send 250 word abstracts as email attachments to Nancy Martin nmartin@PROTECTED and Adam Tyson atyso001@PROTECTED along with completed program participant forms, available at https://www.aarwr.com/call-for-papers.html  Participants at AARWR must be members of the AAR. AAR membership information can be found here: https://www.aarweb.org/membership/join-or-renew. We look forward to receiving your proposals.