The 2027 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion – Southeast Region will be held March 5-7, 2027 at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.
View the Full CFP here: AAR SE CFP 2027
Deadline for Submissions: October 1, 2026. Note that each proposal should indicate first and second choice for possible units.
Conference Theme: Religion, Health, and Wellness
In 1966, at a press conference for the Medical Committee for Human Rights, Martin Luther King, Jr. stated: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” 60 years later, more than half of humanity lacks access to health care resources and are subject to social, economic, and environmental conditions that result in undue suffering and premature death. The accelerating degradation of the environment, state sponsored violence, racism, sexism, poverty, and colonial domination all contribute to health care injustices and compromise the health and wellness of individuals, communities, and entire populations. We invite research that explores the intersection of religious traditions, ideas, practices, and organizations and the health and wellness of individuals and society. We understand health and wellness in the broadest sense to include mental, physical, emotional, intellectual, social, environmental, and spiritual dimensions.
We invite research that addresses topics such as:
- The relationship between religion, the environment and health
- Religious practices that promote individual and collective health and wellbeing. – yoga, meditation, psychedelics, music, dance, art, rituals.
- Religious epistemologies and practices that orient us toward care for self and all our relations.
- Decolonizing religious studies to consider other modalities for being and living as human beings.
- Religion, war, genocide, and ecocide
- Climate heating (plastic saturated ecosystems and humans) and human health
- Health as a moral-religious-spiritual problem and solution
- Health as a spiritual-material reality – what do religions offer?
- Religion, racism, heterosexism, nationalism, ethnosupremacism, commodification as obstacles to health.
- Visions of a healthy society and global community – what do religions offer – community, purpose, meaning.
Regional Undergraduate Student Award
All undergraduate papers emailed to RELSERegion@gmail.com by the December 15, 2026 deadline are eligible for the undergraduate award. See full instructions below.
Registration and more information will be available closer to the conference dates.
Commitment to Biblical Studies
For several years, the America Academy of Religion (AAR) had met and partnered with Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) for a southeast regional conference. The partnership of the two groups created a dynamic exchange of scholarship and a community of support in the region. The leadership of this regional meeting was constituted by shared responsibility between the two groups in an executive committee.
In the summer of 2022, SBL ceased their support of the formal regional meetings. For those involved in the southeast region, this was seen as a great loss to the network of local scholarship in the region. In response to this decision, the Southeast regional gathering of the AAR has committed to providing a space for biblical scholars in their regional meeting. The inclusion of biblical scholars in this regional meeting will continue to create a rich academic exchange and mark the Southeast regional gathering as hub of creative scholarship, professional development, and academic fellowship.
To this end, the Southeast Region of the AAR has made the following commitments to the inclusion of biblical scholarship in the region:
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- the continuation of groups on biblical studies including Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament, and Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha;
- the incorporation of biblical studies leadership into the formal structure of the AAR regional meeting;
- the on-going support and encouragement of scholars in biblical studies throughout the Southeast region.
We believe our academic community is stronger with the inclusion of biblical scholars and we look forward to many more years of mutual support and exchange in the future.
RELSE.org is the website for the meeting of the AAR Southeast Region. We are operating as a committee of the AAR/SE LLC.