The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of

scholars A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

in the field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association, serving as a professional and learned society for scholars involved in the academic study of religion. It has some 10,000 members worldwide, with the largest concentration being in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. AAR members are university and college professors, independent scholars, secondary teachers, clergy, seminarians, students, and interested lay-people.

History

AAR was founded in 1909 as the Association of Biblical Instructors in American Colleges and Secondary Schools. The name was changed to National Association of Biblical Instructors (NABI) in 1933. The American Academy of Religion was adopted as the organization name in 1963 to reflect its broader, inclusive mission to foster the academic study of all religions. Over its long history, AAR has broadened its scope to reflect contemporary values of its membership, such as responding to feminist scholarship and women in religion, increased attention to religions beyond Christianity, differentiation between theology and/or religious reflection within the academic study of religion as a cultural/historical/political phenomenon, and engagement with the public understanding of religion. Stausberg suggested that "Probably because of its more encompassing and open policy and its strategy to position itself as the default home for Religious Studies in the United States, the AAR has been a success story." Presidents of the AAR have included well-known scholars such as Judith Plaskow, Mark Juergensmeyer, Wendy Doniger, Emilie Townes, Peter J. Paris, Rebecca Chopp, Elizabeth A. Clark and Ann Taves.

Publications

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

publishes '' Journal of the American Academy of Religion'' on behalf of the AAR. ''Religious Studies News'' is the quarterly newspaper of record for the organization; it transitioned from a print to online-only publication in 2010. AAR published the online book review Reading Religion. AAR publishes five book series through

: Academy; Reflection and Theory in the Study of Religion; Religion, Culture, and Theory; Religion in Translation; and Teaching Religious Studies. AAR presents awards each year to notable books in the study of religion. It offers three categories of Awards for Excellence: Analytical-Descriptive Studies, Historical Studies, and Constructive-Reflective Studies.

Annual meeting

AAR hosts an Annual Meeting each year in November. The AAR Annual Meeting is the world's largest meeting for religious studies scholars. Over 400 events, including meetings, receptions, and academic sessions, occur on the AAR program alone; hundreds more, hosted by affiliated societies and institutions, occur over the course of the meeting. The location of the meeting changes each year. The annual meetings of the AAR are attended by about half their membership "(some 4,500 in 2014), which make these meetings by far the most important social arena for academic interaction" in comparison with meetings of other North American academic societies for the study of religion.The AAR Annual Meeting program is developed entirely by volunteers involved in program units representing disciplines and sub-disciplines within the field.

Other activities

AAR offers activities on a regional level for its members. Professional development resources such as research grants, career services, and scholarships are some of the member benefits. AAR also advocates the importance of the critical study of religion on institutional and national levels.

Presidents

The President is part of the Board of Directors, which is elected by AAR members each September and takes up their post at the close of each annual meeting. * 1910–1925:

Charles Foster Kent Charles Foster Kent (August 13, 1867 - May 2, 1925) was an American Old Testament scholar. Biography He was born at Palmyra (town), New York, Palmyra, New York, and educated at Yale College, Yale (A.B., 1889; Ph.D., 1891). He studied at the Humbol ...

* 1926: Irving Francis Wood * 1927: Eliza H. Kendrick * 1928: Walter W. Haviland * 1929: Ralph K. Hickok * 1930: Irwin R. Beiler * 1931: Laura H. Wild * 1932: Chester Warren Quimby * 1933: James Muilenburg * 1934: Elmer W. K. Mould * 1935: Florence M. Fitch * 1936: S. Ralph Harlow * 1937: Frank G. Lankard * 1938: Mary E. Andrews * 1939: William Scott * 1940: Harvie Branscomb * 1941: Katherine H. Paton * 1942–1943:

Edgar S. Brightman Edgar Sheffield Brightman (September 20, 1884 – February 25, 1953) was an American philosopher and Christian theologian in the Methodist tradition, associated with Boston University and liberal theology, and promulgated the philosophy know ...

* 1944: Floyd V. Filson * 1945:

Mary Ely Lyman Mary Ely Lyman (1887 – 1975) was an American professor of religion. Life Her education was notable because of the discrimination she suffered due to her gender. She attended Mount Holyoke College which she found empowering and she briefly went i ...

* 1946: J. Paul Williams * 1947: Rolland E. Wolfe * 1948: * 1949:

Vernon McCasland Selby Vernon McCasland (September 27, 1896 – November 15, 1970) was an American scholar of religion and was president of the American Academy of Religion in 1949. Earlier in life, he was a coach of American football and basketball at Abilene Chr ...

* 1950:

Virginia Corwin Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

* 1951: Mary Francis Thelen * 1952: Charles S. Braden * 1953: Carl E. Purinton * 1954: W. Gordon Ross * 1955: Arthur C. Wickenden * 1956: A. Roy Eckardt * 1957: Robert M. Montgomery * 1958: H. Neil Richardson * 1959: Lauren Brubaker Jr. * 1960: Lionel Whiston Jr. * 1961: Robert V. Smith * 1962: Fred D. Geally * 1963: Clyde A. Holbrook * 1964: Ira Martin * 1965: James Price * 1966: William Hordern * 1967: John Priest * 1968: J. Wesley Robb * 1969: Jacob Neusner * 1970: Claude Welch * 1971: James Burtchaell * 1972: Robert Michaelson * 1973: Charles Long * 1974:

Christine Downing Christine Downing (born March 21, 1931) is a scholar, educator, and author in the fields of mythology, religion, depth psychology, and feminist studies. Early life and education Christine Downing was born in 1931 in Leipzig, Germany. Her mother, ...

* 1975:

William E. May William E. May (May 27, 1928 – December 13, 2014) was an American theologian who was the Michael J. McGivney Emeritus Professor of Moral Theology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic Univer ...

* 1976: Preston Williams * 1977:

Schubert M. Ogden Schubert Miles Ogden (March 2, 1928 – June 6, 2019) was an American Protestant theologian who proposed an interpretation of the Christian faith that he believes is both appropriate to the earliest apostolic witness found in the New Testament a ...

* 1978: John Meagher * 1979: Langdon Gilkey * 1980: William Clebsch * 1981: Jill Raitt * 1982: Gordon D. Kaufman * 1983: Wilfred Cantwell Smith * 1984: Ray Hart * 1985: Wendy Doniger * 1986:

Nathan A. Scott Jr. Nathan A. Scott Jr. (24 April 1925 – December 2006) was an American scholar who helped establish the modern field of theology and literature and who helped found the well-known Ph.D. program in that field at the University of Chicago. Scott also p ...

* 1987: John Dillenberger * 1988:

Martin E. Marty Martin Emil Marty (born on February 5, 1928) is an American Lutheran religious scholar who has written extensively on religion in the United States. Early life and education Marty was born on February 5, 1928, in West Point, Nebraska, and raised i ...

* 1989: Robert Wilken * 1990: Elizabeth A. Clark * 1991: Judith Berling * 1992:

Robert Cummings Neville Robert Cummings Neville (born May 1, 1939, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.) is an American systematic philosopher and theologian, author of numerous books and papers, and ex-Dean of the Boston University School of Theology. J. Harley Chapman and Nanc ...

* 1993:

Edith Wyschogrod Edith Wyschogrod (June 8, 1930"Edith Wyschogrod." ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Accessed via ''Biography in Context'' database, 2016-10-04. – July 16, 2009) was an American philosopher. She received her A.B. from Hunter Co ...

* 1994: Catherine Albanese * 1995: Peter Paris * 1996: Lawrence Sullivan * 1997: Robert Detweiler * 1998: Judith Plaskow * 1999: Margaret R. Miles * 2000: Ninian Smart * 2001: Rebecca Chopp * 2002:

Vasudha Narayanan Vasudha Narayanan is an American scholar of Hinduism at University of Florida and former President of the American Academy of Religion The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of scholars in the field of religio ...

* 2003: Robert Orsi * 2004: Jane Dammen McAuliffe * 2005:

Hans J. Hillerbrand Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi a ...

* 2006:

Diana L. Eck Diana L. Eck (born 1945 in Bozeman, Montana) is a scholar of religious studies who is Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University, as well as a former faculty dean of Lowell House and the Director of The Pluralism ...

* 2007: Jeffrey Stout * 2008: Emilie Townes * 2009: Mark Juergensmeyer * 2010: Ann Taves * 2011:

Kwok Pui-lan Kwok Pui-lan (, born 1952) is a Hong Kong-born feminist theologian known for her work on Asian feminist theology and postcolonial theology. Academic life and career Kwok was born in Hong Kong to Chinese parents who practiced Chinese folk religio ...

* 2012: Otto Maduro * 2013:

John Esposito John Louis Esposito (born May 19, 1940) is an Italian-American academic, professor of Middle Eastern and religious studies, and scholar of Islamic studies, who serves as Professor of Religion, International Affairs, and Islamic Studies at Ge ...

* 2014: Laurie Zoloth * 2015: Thomas Tweed * 2016: Serene Jones * 2017:

Eddie Glaude Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (born September 4, 1968) is an American academic. He is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, where he is also the Chair of the Center for African Amer ...

* 2018: David P. Gushee * 2019: Laurie L. Patton * 2020: José I. Cabezón * 2021: Marla F. Frederick * 2022: Mayra Rivera

References

External links

* {{authority control 1909 establishments in the United States Learned societies of the United States Professional associations based in the United States Religious studies conferences Theological societies